We got some work to do. This is the Advanced Scout with Tom Opferman and Matt Williams. It it's Ravens Week, Pittsburgh. Don't really need anything more than that to get you hyped up for a football game, a f C North matchup between the Steelers and the Ravens. Steelers coming off a win, Ravens coming off a win of their own within the division. The Ravens are undefeated so far. Steelers are one and two and Matt Baltimore has one five of their last six games. But they have really squeaked gout squeaked by a lot of those games. Last week was a perfect example. I mean, a hard game to watch and win by one point over we'll just say an ailing Denver team, and then you'll lose by one point the week before. Um, it's a great time to play them, I'll put it that way. I mean, not only is Lamar out, which is the obvious thing, but I was really concerned about this offense before his injury. To be very honest, before we get into everything here, one thing I want to make note of that you made note of and pointed out. Pittsburgh is oh and seven when the opposing team scores first. It's so weird. When they score they win. When they score first, they win every time. So they're undefeated and perfect based on that. If you're watching at home and you see the Steelers score first in this game, feel a little bit about yourself right now, because so far the trend is gone that they'll finish it off. Yeah, I mean it's flukey. I'm not saying that's you know, all we have to watch is the first drive and then just shut it off. But I mean it is a pretty dominant trend, you know, this far into the season and we're into December. I just wonder. I mean, I'm trying to put my finger on and I'm making things up, but he's getting that first score. Just give you early confidence, all right. I mean, I don't know, it's your young, young offense. You know I can do this. You know, serious history for you. It is a rich one between these two teams. The Steelers have won their last meeting between the two foes week eighteen of the regular season last year. Pittsburgh swept the Ravens in last season as well in twenties, so a four game winning streak against the rap Birds. Oh sorry, the Ravens. It's rare to see a winning streak of that potential split every single year, So we'll be back to back years going back to back. Pretty impressive for your Pittsburgh Steelers. The first year uh this series is now at thirty twenty four in favor of the Steelers. The first year this franchise was in Baltimore was Since then, there's been fifty five meetings between the teams, including four postseason battles. Stealers have won three of those playoff games. Stealers have won eight of the last eleven, but before that time found the Ravens had a four game winning streak of their own and one nine of twelve. The Steelers did own the series early on, winning six of the first seven matchups Mike Tomlin eighteen and fifteen against Baltimore Harbor fourteen and seventeen against the Pittsburgh Steelers. So it's about as even as it can get, right, Yeah, rich history, but the winning streaks favorable, you know, I mean, no question, since they've played lamar ball, the Steelers have played them really well. Yeah, and now you don't have to worry about playing lamar ball at least for this But it's much much less. There's a big drop up there for sure. Let's get into the Baltimore Ravens offense, and again, you gotta take these numbers with a grain of salt because up until now they've been with Lamar Jackson at the helm. But their fourteenth in total offense three and fifty yards per game twenty six passing the ball, so they're not passing the ball well, but there's always run the ball third best in the NFL. D fifty seven yards per game translates to twelve in scoring with twenty three points per game, eighteenth can giveaways with fourteen, so not terrible, but you know, it could be a lot better theirs and five fumbles. Uh, as far as E. P A Is concerned, their tenth in total offense and the Baltimore Ravens generate two point four four points per drive. That's fifth best in the NFL. So it's pretty much the season or much better the first two months or so. I mean, there's there's flaws in the offense now, especially the passing game. Yeah, I think the passing game they expected it not to be, you know, the thing carrying them their run first team. But at the same time they expected to be better than twenty six in the NFL. Yeah, I mean it's Demorcus Robinson and Devin Duverney playing some names here in the playing like every snap. I mean, dude, DeShawn Jackson's catching passes. Now he's the third receiver or whatever. You know. Right, it's crazy, and they're running backs while they run the ball. Well it's still Lamar. They're they're searching for a lead running back and curious what dobbin situation is. I mean, Andrews and Lamar had really been the whole offense. Yeah, Lamar Jackson is the Ravens leading Russia so far this year, and he's leading by three forty three yards and barely played last week exactly, So that tells you. He the reason why I think Tyler Huntley playing is so huge in this game. There isn't really a player in the NFL that carries an offense more Jackson like he is the offense. He props everything up, he does everything. Like you said, he runs the ball for them pass the probably wants so much money guaranteed, I'm not playing quarterback. I'm playing quarterbacks and I'm playing running back right right. He takes a beating. He's a better passer than people think. Um, what's stunning in their passing game is Lamar drives the ball down the field much more than what we've seen from Huntley and his five or six appearances. And you're right, I mean, including Josh Allen and My Homes and all the great ones, no one asked more from their quarterback to where the super band cape than Baltimore Huntley last week through his passes outside the numbers. Jackson attempts just thirty of his passes outside the numbers this year, So that's a very noticeable increase, but it's a little bit misleading because his A dot huntley average depth of target is ridiculously low. So a lot of those outside the numbers everything's horizon them so and and Lamar is a heavy middle of the field passer as far as targets that you're going to see Huntley go to, you know hodgepodge of receiver. You mentioned a couple of them to Sean Jackson's the third wide receiver now because Bateman's on I ran, yeah, after trading Marcus Brown. They always count too much on Mark Andrews, right, and Huntley leans on him even more so than Lamar Jackson does when he feeds him heavily. I mean it's a safety blanket. It's an easy throw, you know. But yeah, I mean Andrew's Andrews is really the second best, most productive tight end. Anyone plays fantasy football knows. If you can't Kelsey or Andrews, you're pretty happy, you know. And Friar moves not all that far behind. Actually we'll get to that side of the ball. But again, sort of like Lamar, just like you said, they asked too much of him. You mean, is he a really really good player? Yes? Is he the best tight end ever? Like Kelsey? Not quite? You know, and and they lean on him dramatically. Now, there's three teams in the NFL right now whose leading receivers are tight ends, The Chiefs, the Ravens, the Pittsburgh Steelers. About that, there you go. I did know that. Now he hasn't run it up as much as those other two. Sure noteworthy, that's still no worthy because we like to think that he's like those two, just in a little incubator state right now. He's still growing as a tight end, but that's what he could become. Yeah, he's flashing that in a big way. Uh Andrews of the Ravens leading receiver by two hundred and seventies six yards and he's missed a game, still is six hundred and fifty four receiving yards on the season. No other Ravens pass catcher has more than three hundred and seventy eight, and nine Ravens have got ten or more passes. So it's ridiculous that they just year in and year out, decided to just, you know, throw a bunch of crap at a board and hope to see something stick. When you have this young quarterback who was on his rookie deal for a while and you never used any of that money to go out and get a good wide receiver, well, yes, you're a d cent right. I don't think receivers want to go there. They don't ever throw me the ball, you know. I mean, I'm sure you could pay someone enough to to be a Baltimore Raiding receiver. Don't get me wrong, just one guy, right, But I mean they drafted Mark's Brown in the first round, the draft Bateman in the first round Mark's Brown and asked for a trade because they're not throwing the ball enough. And that's I'm glad you said draft because that's really where you needed to hit because then you have a guy kind of hot stage for four years at least, and it's like, I don't care if you don't like our offense, You're gonna be our one receiver. And they can't nail it. They just cannot draft a good number one receiver. And I like Bateman, but they were counting on him way too much. And you know, everyone praised the Ravens for this past draft class. They ate so many high picks, and then after trading Marquise there was even more and supposedly they were all in on Calvin Austin. But I don't think they drafted a receiver period, you know, Like I think that was a mistake. Now, even though Lamar is not in the game, it's, you know, the same principles as Lamar offense. One way that teams have kind of you know, carved down an advantage against him as blitz a lot against him. And the Steelers have actually been blitzing a lot this year, but it's the thirty two point two percent of dropbacks. Only four defenses blitz at a higher rate. Even though I think that trends in the right direction to stopping the Ravens offense. In years past, the Steelers haven't had too much trouble stopping the Ravens offense. I mean, I know there's been years where they've popped him for about two hundred plus yards, but they've been able to bend and not break, and the Steeler has been able to pull away those games. As we mentioned, they've been on a four game winning streak against them. So as far as the Lamar Jackson offense is concerned, this might be the team that has it beat the most in the NFL. Um One of the things that they absolutely make a priority, and we saw this against Atlanta, is if I should you know, if you're one of those edge defenders in an option situation, should I play the quarterbacks? Should play the running back? Well, they just blast a quarterback. I mean, if you can be a free shot at Lamar, they take it every time, even if it means given up a long run and it pays off in the end. I'm not here just to bash the opponent, but we know they play a different style of football than everyone, even Atlanta. I mean, if they play with a three pound fullback almost every snap, I mean, the third receiver rarely sees the field and the and I have a theory that the more you play these guys, the better. Like look in Lamar's history, when he plays an NFC team, he carves them up because they've never seen him. You can't replicate him in practice. Yeah, I know he's fast. I didn't know he was that fast. You know that type of thing. So the more you play this offense, I think it's a mass of advantage. And no one's played in more than Pittsburgh. Yeah, and it's it's like they're just running on a couple of gears slower whenever. Huntley is the one, you know, controlling everything. So as far as that's concerned, it's it's encouraging. Huntley average fifty six rushing yards per game between weeks eleven and eighteen last year, when he took over four Lamar getting injured. He had forty one rushing yards last week against the Broncos and scored a touchdown on the ground. The only touchdown, the game winner, came from Huntley running it in. So that's the biggest thread I think, honestly with him, because he's just gonna dump it off from sideline to sideline. If you can stop him running, which steals have been pretty good at this year, and they always have been against the Ravens, it's going to be a pretty good formula. Can you get the trend here is? I think the stealers can win this game, and I thought they should. Honestly, yeah, I do too. I think that Baltimore is not particularly threatening. Um, they're probably, as usual, the best team in the league on special teams. Their defense is impressive, but their offense is really searching. I mean, running back at left tackle, a wide receiver, and now a quarterback. I mean, so it's a lot and the familiarity of it all is clearly an issue. And yes, Huntley is a good runner. He's nothing like them, nothing like He's more like Mariota, you know what I mean, like a good runner. But not now as far as the other people that will be carrying the football, Gus Edwards, Kenyan Drake and maybe a little bit of Justin Hill as well. Uh can you Drake let him? Last week with thirty four snaps, Gus Edwards and Justice Hill each played seventeen snaps. Again, you wish that J. K. Dobbins could get going if you're the Ravens fan, but injuries have just not let his career get off the ground. And that's really hurt them as far as the running back rooms concerned, because two years now it's deep. So they're okay, but you need to take the workload off Lamar. And none of these guys, Edwards, Drake they can do They can't do it. They can't do it. And even two weeks ago, Edwards got every carry but three from the running backs and then this past week went nowhere and so he got very little. So they're just searching between three guys at running back. Yeah, we'll I have a feeling in ten years, we're gonna look back at this whole Lamar Ravens experience and just be like, what were they doing at their skill position players? They just got Lamar and then said we're done and you do the best point of all is on a rookie deal and that's about to dry up and spread that around right right right. I mean, you could have got more help for the guy. Hey, a wide receiver top shelf might not want to come there. I think a running back would have loved to come there. Though some shelf started kind of running back I think, yeah, switch over to the Baltimore defense side of the ball, because you mentioned they got some names on that side of the ball, and they're an impressive defense, but they're kind of underwhelming this year. Thirteenth in total defense, three in the thirty yards per game, twenty five passing defense in the NFL. That's a little bit surprising. Elite against the run though, yeah, two yards per game. That all translates to the ninth scoring defense in the NFL. They give up just a hair under twenty points per game at nineteen point seven, their fourth in the NFL. And takeaways and they sacked the quarterback three point one time times per game and that's fifth in the NFL. So they get after the quarterback. Yeah, they Yeah, they turn you over and they will not allow you to establish a run game. So that's a formula of playing some pretty good defense, especially late in the season when he gets pretty cold and you go on the road in a playoff game. Yeah, there's some depth in their in their defensive line. They play three safeties, so they keep those guys pretty fresh as well. Um adding Roquan Smith was a nice pickup shore Um Patrick Queen left on a cart last week, though, I'm not sure if he's playing or what his status is when we record this, but they were a nice tandem. Smith's the better player. Calais Campbell's kind of their Cam Hayward grandfather, tough guy leader, you know, who's on his last legs but still really plays the run well. And it is a good defense. I mean, they historically used to play a ton of man and blitz like crazy and wait Martin dew which is exactly what he's doing now with the Giants. But the reason he's with the Giants and not the y Evens anymore is he did it like crazy last year when all their corners were hurt and they got tortured. So not so may we adjust that? Yeah, maybe don't play so much man, Yeah, then then leave your fifth corner on an island every dawn Patrick Queen. By the way, Harbaugh said he only suffered a bruce thigh on game, so that's very optimistic as far as his outlook is concerned. He's listed as questionable right now on the injury important. You know, he's not the best player on the defense and Kwan Smith's about to take a whole heck of a lot away from him, But he's still really good I think athlete. Yeah, maybe a little underwhelming because you know, they thought this guys maybe our next, but he's nowhere near that. But he still has a fair amount of sacks. He leads him in tackles for loss, he has an interception on the season, He's there leading tackler by a good bid. Yes, he's a brit of an everyman right now. But again, I think Roquan is gonna start to take in and eat away from that a little bit age. I wrote an article about this not long ago, and it was not in defense of Bush, but just so many first round high pet agreed linebackers take two or three years to really get their feet under them because they just getting manipulated to no end with play action and the speed of the game and play calling. And Queen's hitting that part now where he's pretty stable. You know, earlier his career was a little bit all over the place. We're seeing it a little bit with Bush, do you know. I mean, he's better than he was a year ago. Interesting thing about their tackling leaders. Safeties and corners make a ton of tackles for the Ravens. Six of their seven leading tacklers are in the secondary and Queen is the top dog, like we just mentioned. Interesting, we saw a lot of that last year with the Steelers and Manka having to make a lot of tackles. Maybe teams are just getting into the secondary a lot on them. Although they're stout up front, they stop the run. So it's interesting that maybe that translated teams are just saying, screw the run, We're gonna pass. The corner tackles are probably more teams like no use running the football here today, right. Um, I don't have a great answer for that. But they spent big money on Marcus Williams of free safety from the Saints, and he's on IR, he's on I are and going back, I mean edred Earl Thomas. They want a true single high type safety. They don't really have that right now. Um. They do play Walker a lot, but he's the third safety, the big first round pick out of Notre Dame. But it's interesting in that historically Peter's always plays one side. He'll be to Pickets right of the snaps. Now Humphreys is the other. He's the left corner in Pickets eyes, but he used to bump to the slot they don't have a really an outside corner to allow Humphrey to bump to the slot with three corners, So they've been asking the first round safety to do that a lot, which is kind of misplaced. You know, that's something that pick it should definitely take advantage of, because I mean, even if it's Steven Sims, I mean, he's just gonna be quicker. And we mentioned all the time, you know, maybe there's a couple of guys that you look in and say I might avoid them. I think more than Humphrey might fit in that. Yeah, he might want to think twice before attacking him. He leads the way within receptions on the team with three. Uh, Marcus Williams is three himself before. Yeah, bign of shame for them that he is not able to give it a go. And Kyle Hamilton's development just hasn't you know, right, and they're making him be a slot corner, which isn't really what he is. He's six four two pounds or whatever. You never want to do that with a young player either. You want to throw him in where he's comfortable and I'll make him trying to be you know, every man right away right off the bat so they've had safeties playing nickel, which might lead to more tackles into the line of scrimmage. To your original point, another rookie that they've been playing a fair bit because of injury problems is is Travis Jones. There pick out of Yukon, and I think a lot of people around here we're a little high on him. He was coming out of the draft maybe so good fit for the Steelers. It's been okay. I think he's been to come in, but he's got a lot of help on that line and a lot of veterans to kind of help prop them up. I think the way they want to build their defensive front is eight dudes rotating in and out, and they draft a lot. You know, they always have a lot of picks and they use Day two picks on de tackles with some regularity. And Jones is a perfect example. I liked him a lot coming out of Yukon. He would be a nose here. I mean, he's a bigger body, stout guy, but he hasn't been an impact player who's a rookie. Like we mentioned, as far as their pressure is concerned, they really spread the wealth with their sacks Justin Houston leads the way with nine, but five different Ravens have at least three sacks on the season. And I mean these are all names that you remember, Justin Houston, clay Is Campbell, Jason, Pierre Paul for God's sake, so Justin Madabuka. I mean, these guys are all household names. Not surprising that they're all eaten this year pretty much. Yeah, yeah, I mean there's not a Terrell Suggs in the bunch who's you know, a phenomenal player. But they have a lot of verse little dudes and a lot of different styles of defensive lineman. And I mentioned they don't blitz like they used to, but they're good at it when they do. Like Queen has a set a couple of sacks, and the secondary guys have a couple of sacks, so it's not just the front. They were spacial pretty well. Justin Houston and nine sacks on the season too, so he's close to the one of the league leaders in that category. Before you get out of here, some key matchups to highlight. One of the thing I wanted to note is one huge problem this team has had is they've taken three ten point leads into the fourth quarter and lost, like they have given a lot of leads. Yeah, I mean, it's been a real problem because they don't have a real traditional run game. And I'm not exactly sure what the answer is, but it's not over if the Steelers are down two touchdowns going in the fourth quarter and not at all. Hopefully they don't figure out the answer this weekend. I'm glad you actually stopped me in my tracks because one more person I did want to mention too was maybe their biggest weapon for the past decade. Yeah, exactly. I mean, this game, Pittsburgh Steelers first, Baltimore Ravens comes down to people's toes a lot more than their arms and hands, and he's been one of the best and Tomlin kind of left it up in the air as far as boswell status is concerned. Maddie Wright did a good job in a couple of dome stadiums the past couple of weeks, but now he's back to kicking in that beast that gave him a little bit of trouble against Cincinnati. So no one better than exactly, And if there's anybody had a puncher's chance, it was Boswell. And you might not have them. Yeah, I mean, this is something I've been saying recently about Tucker. Is in the history of the sport. I think the greatest, you know, gap between the best player in his position in the second is Jerry Rice to whoever you think is the wide receiver, right, Well, the gap kicker is bigger. I mean, he's lay better than ever whoever number two is. I mean, I think it's ridiculously good. A couple of key matchups to highlight Ravens Fullbackpatrick or Card versus Steelers linebackers records kind of like the every man kind of like that use check in San Francisco. Yeah, I mean, he's gotta be worried about him a little bit. He's like a guard on the move that they they if you haven't played against him, it's a very unique thing they do. I mean, you're allowed for the athletic guard. Oh yeah, yeah, I mean, but in this league, you're allowed to have five skill position players. Well, they kind of choose to only have four and play him a ton, you know. I mean, it's it's an odd situation. And finally, Steelers running back Naji Harris versus Ravens and side linebacker ro Kuan Smith. This is best on best, and I feel comfortable saying about stun bess and equation that has Naji Harrison it because he's been playing really well for this team ever since the bye week. He's healthy, right. The thing that hasn't been more clear since the bye week is the Woes were a lot of injury problems at the beginning. For it was just flipped the switch, it seems, and it has to be just feeling healthier. We were all guilty of it in the moment. But week three people would ask me, as you think it's the injury. I'm like, I'm not sure, I'm worried about it. I'm like the answer should have been yes, yeah, exactly. We should have given him the benefit of the doubt. That being said, Roquan Smith is elite and one of the best off ball linebackers in the league. Coverage wise, it's going to be on lock in the middle of the field. So they gave up a lot for him just to run him for the year and it's paying off right now. Ste Wasn't Ravens at Acre Short Stadium at one pm. Hopefully the Steelers can get three straight wins and start clawing their way back to five hundred from Matt Williamson. I'm Tom Opferman and we'll talk to you next week on the Advanced Scout

We got some work to do. This is the Advanced Scout with Tom Opferman and Matt Williams. It it's Ravens Week, Pittsburgh. Don't really need anything more than that to get you hyped up for a football game, a f C North matchup between the Steelers and the Ravens. Steelers coming off a win, Ravens coming off a win of their own within the division. The Ravens are undefeated so far. Steelers are one and two and Matt Baltimore has one five of their last six games. But they have really squeaked gout squeaked by a lot of those games. Last week was a perfect example. I mean, a hard game to watch and win by one point over we'll just say an ailing Denver team, and then you'll lose by one point the week before. Um, it's a great time to play them, I'll put it that way. I mean, not only is Lamar out, which is the obvious thing, but I was really concerned about this offense before his injury. To be very honest, before we get into everything here, one thing I want to make note of that you made note of and pointed out. Pittsburgh is oh and seven when the opposing team scores first. It's so weird. When they score they win. When they score first, they win every time. So they're undefeated and perfect based on that. If you're watching at home and you see the Steelers score first in this game, feel a little bit about yourself right now, because so far the trend is gone that they'll finish it off. Yeah, I mean it's flukey. I'm not saying that's you know, all we have to watch is the first drive and then just shut it off. But I mean it is a pretty dominant trend, you know, this far into the season and we're into December. I just wonder. I mean, I'm trying to put my finger on and I'm making things up, but he's getting that first score. Just give you early confidence, all right. I mean, I don't know, it's your young, young offense. You know I can do this. You know, serious history for you. It is a rich one between these two teams. The Steelers have won their last meeting between the two foes week eighteen of the regular season last year. Pittsburgh swept the Ravens in last season as well in twenties, so a four game winning streak against the rap Birds. Oh sorry, the Ravens. It's rare to see a winning streak of that potential split every single year, So we'll be back to back years going back to back. Pretty impressive for your Pittsburgh Steelers. The first year uh this series is now at thirty twenty four in favor of the Steelers. The first year this franchise was in Baltimore was Since then, there's been fifty five meetings between the teams, including four postseason battles. Stealers have won three of those playoff games. Stealers have won eight of the last eleven, but before that time found the Ravens had a four game winning streak of their own and one nine of twelve. The Steelers did own the series early on, winning six of the first seven matchups Mike Tomlin eighteen and fifteen against Baltimore Harbor fourteen and seventeen against the Pittsburgh Steelers. So it's about as even as it can get, right, Yeah, rich history, but the winning streaks favorable, you know, I mean, no question, since they've played lamar ball, the Steelers have played them really well. Yeah, and now you don't have to worry about playing lamar ball at least for this But it's much much less. There's a big drop up there for sure. Let's get into the Baltimore Ravens offense, and again, you gotta take these numbers with a grain of salt because up until now they've been with Lamar Jackson at the helm. But their fourteenth in total offense three and fifty yards per game twenty six passing the ball, so they're not passing the ball well, but there's always run the ball third best in the NFL. D fifty seven yards per game translates to twelve in scoring with twenty three points per game, eighteenth can giveaways with fourteen, so not terrible, but you know, it could be a lot better theirs and five fumbles. Uh, as far as E. P A Is concerned, their tenth in total offense and the Baltimore Ravens generate two point four four points per drive. That's fifth best in the NFL. So it's pretty much the season or much better the first two months or so. I mean, there's there's flaws in the offense now, especially the passing game. Yeah, I think the passing game they expected it not to be, you know, the thing carrying them their run first team. But at the same time they expected to be better than twenty six in the NFL. Yeah, I mean it's Demorcus Robinson and Devin Duverney playing some names here in the playing like every snap. I mean, dude, DeShawn Jackson's catching passes. Now he's the third receiver or whatever. You know. Right, it's crazy, and they're running backs while they run the ball. Well it's still Lamar. They're they're searching for a lead running back and curious what dobbin situation is. I mean, Andrews and Lamar had really been the whole offense. Yeah, Lamar Jackson is the Ravens leading Russia so far this year, and he's leading by three forty three yards and barely played last week exactly, So that tells you. He the reason why I think Tyler Huntley playing is so huge in this game. There isn't really a player in the NFL that carries an offense more Jackson like he is the offense. He props everything up, he does everything. Like you said, he runs the ball for them pass the probably wants so much money guaranteed, I'm not playing quarterback. I'm playing quarterbacks and I'm playing running back right right. He takes a beating. He's a better passer than people think. Um, what's stunning in their passing game is Lamar drives the ball down the field much more than what we've seen from Huntley and his five or six appearances. And you're right, I mean, including Josh Allen and My Homes and all the great ones, no one asked more from their quarterback to where the super band cape than Baltimore Huntley last week through his passes outside the numbers. Jackson attempts just thirty of his passes outside the numbers this year, So that's a very noticeable increase, but it's a little bit misleading because his A dot huntley average depth of target is ridiculously low. So a lot of those outside the numbers everything's horizon them so and and Lamar is a heavy middle of the field passer as far as targets that you're going to see Huntley go to, you know hodgepodge of receiver. You mentioned a couple of them to Sean Jackson's the third wide receiver now because Bateman's on I ran, yeah, after trading Marcus Brown. They always count too much on Mark Andrews, right, and Huntley leans on him even more so than Lamar Jackson does when he feeds him heavily. I mean it's a safety blanket. It's an easy throw, you know. But yeah, I mean Andrew's Andrews is really the second best, most productive tight end. Anyone plays fantasy football knows. If you can't Kelsey or Andrews, you're pretty happy, you know. And Friar moves not all that far behind. Actually we'll get to that side of the ball. But again, sort of like Lamar, just like you said, they asked too much of him. You mean, is he a really really good player? Yes? Is he the best tight end ever? Like Kelsey? Not quite? You know, and and they lean on him dramatically. Now, there's three teams in the NFL right now whose leading receivers are tight ends, The Chiefs, the Ravens, the Pittsburgh Steelers. About that, there you go. I did know that. Now he hasn't run it up as much as those other two. Sure noteworthy, that's still no worthy because we like to think that he's like those two, just in a little incubator state right now. He's still growing as a tight end, but that's what he could become. Yeah, he's flashing that in a big way. Uh Andrews of the Ravens leading receiver by two hundred and seventies six yards and he's missed a game, still is six hundred and fifty four receiving yards on the season. No other Ravens pass catcher has more than three hundred and seventy eight, and nine Ravens have got ten or more passes. So it's ridiculous that they just year in and year out, decided to just, you know, throw a bunch of crap at a board and hope to see something stick. When you have this young quarterback who was on his rookie deal for a while and you never used any of that money to go out and get a good wide receiver, well, yes, you're a d cent right. I don't think receivers want to go there. They don't ever throw me the ball, you know. I mean, I'm sure you could pay someone enough to to be a Baltimore Raiding receiver. Don't get me wrong, just one guy, right, But I mean they drafted Mark's Brown in the first round, the draft Bateman in the first round Mark's Brown and asked for a trade because they're not throwing the ball enough. And that's I'm glad you said draft because that's really where you needed to hit because then you have a guy kind of hot stage for four years at least, and it's like, I don't care if you don't like our offense, You're gonna be our one receiver. And they can't nail it. They just cannot draft a good number one receiver. And I like Bateman, but they were counting on him way too much. And you know, everyone praised the Ravens for this past draft class. They ate so many high picks, and then after trading Marquise there was even more and supposedly they were all in on Calvin Austin. But I don't think they drafted a receiver period, you know, Like I think that was a mistake. Now, even though Lamar is not in the game, it's, you know, the same principles as Lamar offense. One way that teams have kind of you know, carved down an advantage against him as blitz a lot against him. And the Steelers have actually been blitzing a lot this year, but it's the thirty two point two percent of dropbacks. Only four defenses blitz at a higher rate. Even though I think that trends in the right direction to stopping the Ravens offense. In years past, the Steelers haven't had too much trouble stopping the Ravens offense. I mean, I know there's been years where they've popped him for about two hundred plus yards, but they've been able to bend and not break, and the Steeler has been able to pull away those games. As we mentioned, they've been on a four game winning streak against them. So as far as the Lamar Jackson offense is concerned, this might be the team that has it beat the most in the NFL. Um One of the things that they absolutely make a priority, and we saw this against Atlanta, is if I should you know, if you're one of those edge defenders in an option situation, should I play the quarterbacks? Should play the running back? Well, they just blast a quarterback. I mean, if you can be a free shot at Lamar, they take it every time, even if it means given up a long run and it pays off in the end. I'm not here just to bash the opponent, but we know they play a different style of football than everyone, even Atlanta. I mean, if they play with a three pound fullback almost every snap, I mean, the third receiver rarely sees the field and the and I have a theory that the more you play these guys, the better. Like look in Lamar's history, when he plays an NFC team, he carves them up because they've never seen him. You can't replicate him in practice. Yeah, I know he's fast. I didn't know he was that fast. You know that type of thing. So the more you play this offense, I think it's a mass of advantage. And no one's played in more than Pittsburgh. Yeah, and it's it's like they're just running on a couple of gears slower whenever. Huntley is the one, you know, controlling everything. So as far as that's concerned, it's it's encouraging. Huntley average fifty six rushing yards per game between weeks eleven and eighteen last year, when he took over four Lamar getting injured. He had forty one rushing yards last week against the Broncos and scored a touchdown on the ground. The only touchdown, the game winner, came from Huntley running it in. So that's the biggest thread I think, honestly with him, because he's just gonna dump it off from sideline to sideline. If you can stop him running, which steals have been pretty good at this year, and they always have been against the Ravens, it's going to be a pretty good formula. Can you get the trend here is? I think the stealers can win this game, and I thought they should. Honestly, yeah, I do too. I think that Baltimore is not particularly threatening. Um, they're probably, as usual, the best team in the league on special teams. Their defense is impressive, but their offense is really searching. I mean, running back at left tackle, a wide receiver, and now a quarterback. I mean, so it's a lot and the familiarity of it all is clearly an issue. And yes, Huntley is a good runner. He's nothing like them, nothing like He's more like Mariota, you know what I mean, like a good runner. But not now as far as the other people that will be carrying the football, Gus Edwards, Kenyan Drake and maybe a little bit of Justin Hill as well. Uh can you Drake let him? Last week with thirty four snaps, Gus Edwards and Justice Hill each played seventeen snaps. Again, you wish that J. K. Dobbins could get going if you're the Ravens fan, but injuries have just not let his career get off the ground. And that's really hurt them as far as the running back rooms concerned, because two years now it's deep. So they're okay, but you need to take the workload off Lamar. And none of these guys, Edwards, Drake they can do They can't do it. They can't do it. And even two weeks ago, Edwards got every carry but three from the running backs and then this past week went nowhere and so he got very little. So they're just searching between three guys at running back. Yeah, we'll I have a feeling in ten years, we're gonna look back at this whole Lamar Ravens experience and just be like, what were they doing at their skill position players? They just got Lamar and then said we're done and you do the best point of all is on a rookie deal and that's about to dry up and spread that around right right right. I mean, you could have got more help for the guy. Hey, a wide receiver top shelf might not want to come there. I think a running back would have loved to come there. Though some shelf started kind of running back I think, yeah, switch over to the Baltimore defense side of the ball, because you mentioned they got some names on that side of the ball, and they're an impressive defense, but they're kind of underwhelming this year. Thirteenth in total defense, three in the thirty yards per game, twenty five passing defense in the NFL. That's a little bit surprising. Elite against the run though, yeah, two yards per game. That all translates to the ninth scoring defense in the NFL. They give up just a hair under twenty points per game at nineteen point seven, their fourth in the NFL. And takeaways and they sacked the quarterback three point one time times per game and that's fifth in the NFL. So they get after the quarterback. Yeah, they Yeah, they turn you over and they will not allow you to establish a run game. So that's a formula of playing some pretty good defense, especially late in the season when he gets pretty cold and you go on the road in a playoff game. Yeah, there's some depth in their in their defensive line. They play three safeties, so they keep those guys pretty fresh as well. Um adding Roquan Smith was a nice pickup shore Um Patrick Queen left on a cart last week, though, I'm not sure if he's playing or what his status is when we record this, but they were a nice tandem. Smith's the better player. Calais Campbell's kind of their Cam Hayward grandfather, tough guy leader, you know, who's on his last legs but still really plays the run well. And it is a good defense. I mean, they historically used to play a ton of man and blitz like crazy and wait Martin dew which is exactly what he's doing now with the Giants. But the reason he's with the Giants and not the y Evens anymore is he did it like crazy last year when all their corners were hurt and they got tortured. So not so may we adjust that? Yeah, maybe don't play so much man, Yeah, then then leave your fifth corner on an island every dawn Patrick Queen. By the way, Harbaugh said he only suffered a bruce thigh on game, so that's very optimistic as far as his outlook is concerned. He's listed as questionable right now on the injury important. You know, he's not the best player on the defense and Kwan Smith's about to take a whole heck of a lot away from him, But he's still really good I think athlete. Yeah, maybe a little underwhelming because you know, they thought this guys maybe our next, but he's nowhere near that. But he still has a fair amount of sacks. He leads him in tackles for loss, he has an interception on the season, He's there leading tackler by a good bid. Yes, he's a brit of an everyman right now. But again, I think Roquan is gonna start to take in and eat away from that a little bit age. I wrote an article about this not long ago, and it was not in defense of Bush, but just so many first round high pet agreed linebackers take two or three years to really get their feet under them because they just getting manipulated to no end with play action and the speed of the game and play calling. And Queen's hitting that part now where he's pretty stable. You know, earlier his career was a little bit all over the place. We're seeing it a little bit with Bush, do you know. I mean, he's better than he was a year ago. Interesting thing about their tackling leaders. Safeties and corners make a ton of tackles for the Ravens. Six of their seven leading tacklers are in the secondary and Queen is the top dog, like we just mentioned. Interesting, we saw a lot of that last year with the Steelers and Manka having to make a lot of tackles. Maybe teams are just getting into the secondary a lot on them. Although they're stout up front, they stop the run. So it's interesting that maybe that translated teams are just saying, screw the run, We're gonna pass. The corner tackles are probably more teams like no use running the football here today, right. Um, I don't have a great answer for that. But they spent big money on Marcus Williams of free safety from the Saints, and he's on IR, he's on I are and going back, I mean edred Earl Thomas. They want a true single high type safety. They don't really have that right now. Um. They do play Walker a lot, but he's the third safety, the big first round pick out of Notre Dame. But it's interesting in that historically Peter's always plays one side. He'll be to Pickets right of the snaps. Now Humphreys is the other. He's the left corner in Pickets eyes, but he used to bump to the slot they don't have a really an outside corner to allow Humphrey to bump to the slot with three corners, So they've been asking the first round safety to do that a lot, which is kind of misplaced. You know, that's something that pick it should definitely take advantage of, because I mean, even if it's Steven Sims, I mean, he's just gonna be quicker. And we mentioned all the time, you know, maybe there's a couple of guys that you look in and say I might avoid them. I think more than Humphrey might fit in that. Yeah, he might want to think twice before attacking him. He leads the way within receptions on the team with three. Uh, Marcus Williams is three himself before. Yeah, bign of shame for them that he is not able to give it a go. And Kyle Hamilton's development just hasn't you know, right, and they're making him be a slot corner, which isn't really what he is. He's six four two pounds or whatever. You never want to do that with a young player either. You want to throw him in where he's comfortable and I'll make him trying to be you know, every man right away right off the bat so they've had safeties playing nickel, which might lead to more tackles into the line of scrimmage. To your original point, another rookie that they've been playing a fair bit because of injury problems is is Travis Jones. There pick out of Yukon, and I think a lot of people around here we're a little high on him. He was coming out of the draft maybe so good fit for the Steelers. It's been okay. I think he's been to come in, but he's got a lot of help on that line and a lot of veterans to kind of help prop them up. I think the way they want to build their defensive front is eight dudes rotating in and out, and they draft a lot. You know, they always have a lot of picks and they use Day two picks on de tackles with some regularity. And Jones is a perfect example. I liked him a lot coming out of Yukon. He would be a nose here. I mean, he's a bigger body, stout guy, but he hasn't been an impact player who's a rookie. Like we mentioned, as far as their pressure is concerned, they really spread the wealth with their sacks Justin Houston leads the way with nine, but five different Ravens have at least three sacks on the season. And I mean these are all names that you remember, Justin Houston, clay Is Campbell, Jason, Pierre Paul for God's sake, so Justin Madabuka. I mean, these guys are all household names. Not surprising that they're all eaten this year pretty much. Yeah, yeah, I mean there's not a Terrell Suggs in the bunch who's you know, a phenomenal player. But they have a lot of verse little dudes and a lot of different styles of defensive lineman. And I mentioned they don't blitz like they used to, but they're good at it when they do. Like Queen has a set a couple of sacks, and the secondary guys have a couple of sacks, so it's not just the front. They were spacial pretty well. Justin Houston and nine sacks on the season too, so he's close to the one of the league leaders in that category. Before you get out of here, some key matchups to highlight. One of the thing I wanted to note is one huge problem this team has had is they've taken three ten point leads into the fourth quarter and lost, like they have given a lot of leads. Yeah, I mean, it's been a real problem because they don't have a real traditional run game. And I'm not exactly sure what the answer is, but it's not over if the Steelers are down two touchdowns going in the fourth quarter and not at all. Hopefully they don't figure out the answer this weekend. I'm glad you actually stopped me in my tracks because one more person I did want to mention too was maybe their biggest weapon for the past decade. Yeah, exactly. I mean, this game, Pittsburgh Steelers first, Baltimore Ravens comes down to people's toes a lot more than their arms and hands, and he's been one of the best and Tomlin kind of left it up in the air as far as boswell status is concerned. Maddie Wright did a good job in a couple of dome stadiums the past couple of weeks, but now he's back to kicking in that beast that gave him a little bit of trouble against Cincinnati. So no one better than exactly, And if there's anybody had a puncher's chance, it was Boswell. And you might not have them. Yeah, I mean, this is something I've been saying recently about Tucker. Is in the history of the sport. I think the greatest, you know, gap between the best player in his position in the second is Jerry Rice to whoever you think is the wide receiver, right, Well, the gap kicker is bigger. I mean, he's lay better than ever whoever number two is. I mean, I think it's ridiculously good. A couple of key matchups to highlight Ravens Fullbackpatrick or Card versus Steelers linebackers records kind of like the every man kind of like that use check in San Francisco. Yeah, I mean, he's gotta be worried about him a little bit. He's like a guard on the move that they they if you haven't played against him, it's a very unique thing they do. I mean, you're allowed for the athletic guard. Oh yeah, yeah, I mean, but in this league, you're allowed to have five skill position players. Well, they kind of choose to only have four and play him a ton, you know. I mean, it's it's an odd situation. And finally, Steelers running back Naji Harris versus Ravens and side linebacker ro Kuan Smith. This is best on best, and I feel comfortable saying about stun bess and equation that has Naji Harrison it because he's been playing really well for this team ever since the bye week. He's healthy, right. The thing that hasn't been more clear since the bye week is the Woes were a lot of injury problems at the beginning. For it was just flipped the switch, it seems, and it has to be just feeling healthier. We were all guilty of it in the moment. But week three people would ask me, as you think it's the injury. I'm like, I'm not sure, I'm worried about it. I'm like the answer should have been yes, yeah, exactly. We should have given him the benefit of the doubt. That being said, Roquan Smith is elite and one of the best off ball linebackers in the league. Coverage wise, it's going to be on lock in the middle of the field. So they gave up a lot for him just to run him for the year and it's paying off right now. Ste Wasn't Ravens at Acre Short Stadium at one pm. Hopefully the Steelers can get three straight wins and start clawing their way back to five hundred from Matt Williamson. I'm Tom Opferman and we'll talk to you next week on the Advanced Scout