The Advanced ScoutWe got some work to do. This is the Advanced Scout with Tom Opperman and Mac Williamson.
Steelers. There's a tough one against the Philadelphia Eagles last week. They dropped to ten and four. Now they go to Baltimore to face the nine and five Ravens. If the Steelers win, they get the AFC North and Matt before we get to the Ravens matchup, the second Ravens matchup of the season. The return trip for the Pittsburgh Steelers down to Baltimore, and he thoughts about the Eagles game, where is that one you kind of just you know, crumple up and throw away and just say we win this week, we win the North, and that's our main goal.
I mean, I definitely think that's the approach. And I'm not trying to make light of it. But like when I did the pregame show with Tim Benz, he always does a we opened the pre game pre pregame show with globally speaking, you know, kind of a tomlinism, you know, right, and what you're globally speaking going into this game, and my globally speaking going to the Eagles game was beat the Ravens. I like it, you know, what I mean, Like, I'm not saying nobody cares about the Eagles game or you're punting, But I'm also not one hundred percent certain if that's the super Bowl that elliot og and Joby and Pickens don't play. You know, like the goal has to be to win the super Bowl, and your best chance of doing that is winning the division, and your best chance of doing that is beating the Ravens this week. And if you happen to lose an NFC game and it's not pretty, it really is a blip on the radar. Yeah, Now, there's certainly things that happened that game that I don't love and don't paint the Steelers in a great light. I mean, hardly snapping the ball in the second half isn't wonderful, you know, I mean they were the inferior team. But I do think the organization, Tomlin, they'll never admit this should and would and I would beat the Ravens.
I think I think that should be the mindset too, right, because someone might play Devil's Advocate to both of us because we share the same mindset and say, oh, I mean you're just giving up on the two seed? What about the two seed. What about the two seed? Bill's beating Detroit in Detroit pretty much side sealed and delivered that thing for that now, not losing to the Patriots or the Jets, which is all they have left on their schedules. So right, you're stuck in the three seed. You're not moving up to two or one.
And too much difference between three and two when it depends.
On if you're going to Buffalo or Buffalo's coming here, and.
Someone can knock both you true too, I mean, I don't know that I'm putting hamstring, George Pickens hamstring in the way.
Of that a fleeting chance to get the number two seeds exactly all right, Well, the rain making light of that loss, I mean, it was not pretty. The Ravens now welcome the Steelers to town, and they need to get a win or else the AFC North is out of their grass this year. The Steelers take it. Here's a stat that you have that really puts into perspective on how great the Ravens are. They have produce fifteen more touchdowns, one hundred and fifteen more rush attempts, three and sixty eight more rushing yards. That's insane.
That's insane.
Sixty seven more rushing first downs, also insane, two point two more yards per rush attempts, one point four more yards per pass attempt ten more passing touchdowns, and their defense is twenty two more sacks than they have allowed.
Like it would be understandable if it was boy, this is the best running team in the league and they stopped the run really well and that's all they do. But then all that passing stuff on top and sacks and it's like, wow.
Your stat pack is full of statistics that make the Ravens out to be an elite team in the NFL. Yeah, they are. They are legitimate Super Bowl contender, should be in the class with Buffalo, maybe Philadelphia, Detroit, Like their numbers are right there. I think it's hard for the Steelers but.
The Raiders, Yes, But it's also hard.
For I think us Steelers fans to kind of wrap our head around that because we own them so much. We just dominate the Ravens like they can't beat that good.
They can't beat us, right, I mean I understand, like in power ranks, who should be ahead of each other? Steven Steelers are the Ravens. I'm sure people outside of Pittsford like, Baltimore's definitely a better team, and I think Baltimore on their best day against Joe neutral team is better. It's better than maybe anyone in the league. I don't want to get too nerdy, but Dvoa that used to be football outsiders, they have Baltimore number one by their metric in the whole league, and I kind of understand it. But they find ways to lose games. Their kickers aren't very good. They lead the league in penalties. You can see some things that you know, cause losses.
I was just going to bring the penalty thing up too. A lot of Steelers Nation is upset about how the game was officiated in Philadelphia. It was rather one sided. Let's just put it that way.
There were a couple of players that were really poor, yes, But.
The Ravens, on the other hand, you know, you might get a little karma back in your direction Steelers Nation this week, because they're just an incredibly undisciplined football team over in Baltimore. In Week eleven against the Steelers, twelve penalties for eighty yards. They were big penalties too. Yeah, last week they committed twelve penalties for one hundred and twelve yards. They were playing the Giant. Why are you committing penalties like that against the Absolutely it is in their DNA to commit these penalties. It's not something that they fleshed out of their system at the bye week. They I'm sure they spent a lot of time focusing on it, but for whatever reason, they can't get it out of them.
I know. And it's Steelers are so good at winning in the margins, you know, turnover, differential penalty, Yeah, special teams, your kicker. The Ravens have been the options are missing all of that.
It might be their undoing. This is the set that we have said before about the rest that the Ravens have, But really it really rings true when you're in the eleven day stretch of three games, because.
It doesn't have played apply to these couple weeks. Four teams are on the.
Savens are in the same track. Eleven games are sorry, three days in three three games in eleven days. But for the entire schedule, the Ravens have sixteen more days of rest than their opponents. That is the greatest rest advantage in the NFL since nineteen ninety that's when they began to track this stuff.
So it's likely the most ever since, the.
Biggest rest advantage since the Super Bowl era, and furthermore mat on top of that. I know we just said that it's equal now, but it's really not equal because the Chiefs and the Steelers and I might be speaking ignorant here, but I don't think the Texans had bye weeks before this stretch.
Run hit that Houston had the same week.
Okay, so they're coming off rather fresh. Yeah, yeah, you know, they're looking rather fresh for the stretch of three games, whereas Pittsburgh Kansas City is not.
No, no, it's not.
That's pretty wonky that the NFL did that.
Yeah, and again that's un necessarious Steeler thing. But it makes me mad that any team, I don't care if it's the Ravens, but especially the Ravens, it gets such a huge rest advantage over their opponents. That's something that they need to address. Next schedule comes around.
A quick refresher on the series history between these two teams. This rivalry started in ninety six nineteen ninety six, when the Ravens joined the NFL. Since then, Pittsburgh leads the series thirty six to twenty five, including four playoff matchups in the playoffs. The Steelers have lost just once against the Baltimore Ravens. Pittsburgh won six of the first seven meetings. They've also won eight of the last nine. Steelers have swept Baltimore in three of the past four seasons and look to do so again after winning at home earlier this season. Mike Tomlin is twenty two and sixteen against the Ravens. John Harbaugh is fifteen and twenty one against the Steelers. Those records were really close to each other until these past nine games, where every one has just been running it up on him. You know, that's so lopsided in a rivalry like this. Matt I keep I said the lassination. I said this in week eleven too. It's due the Bills do They're gonna beat the Steelers. They have to beat the Steelers. It's coming. It's coming. It didn't and now I feel the same way about this one, like the pendulum has to swing back in that direction eventually. The Ravens are too good for it not to. This isn't Packers Bears. Where the Bears are so miserable right where the other team is so miserable they have no check. The Ravens are good to great during this entire stretch.
And I even want to take a step further, Like, Okay, I give the Steelers all the credit in the world for being Lamar's kryptonite, but is that going to keep up for the next ten years?
I can't imagine, you know what I mean? Like, this guy's too good, way too good.
Some of his numbers are bulgers, like all time stuff for a twenty seven year old.
Yeah, let's skip ahead to the Baltimore offense since you brought that up, Because Lamar Jackson really is impressive, and I think Josh Allen's running away with the MVP. Yeah, but you look at the stats. Jackson's playing better than Alan and a lot of statistical categories.
Put this way, man, Jackson's playing better than you read last year when he won it.
Yes, better. He has two less touchdown passes than Joe Burrow, who's waking for touchdown passes every game, and he has three interceptions. That's it. On the entire bad play one twenty passer rating for Jackson the best in football by like ten to fifteen points.
Yes, it's insane.
Uh so the Ravens offense. Speaking of insane, six point nine yards per play. That's the best in the NFL by point six yards.
That's a massive discression.
Huge. Last week they put up seven point five yards per play against the horrendous Right, that's still impressed.
Every team plays bad teams.
In Week eleven against the Steelers, they produce six point one yards per play. They could move the ball against the Steelers in.
Week nice junk every time he snapped the ball.
Pittsburgh's defense gives up five point three yards per play. They're third in points per game. The Ravens offense to twenty nine point nine, and they are first in yards per game at four hundred and twenty four point one. Only the lines and Bills have scored more than the fifty one touchdowns that the Ravens have scored. And the Ravens turn a set of downs into a new set of downs or a touchdown at a seventy eight percent clip. Gee, only the Bills and the lines are better. So that's what I was saying, Like they.
Are in the catch so many sentences. Only one thing better best in the league, you know, right.
Right, But it's always the big three in the like.
It doesn't matter what it is, it's not like just the running game or rushing quarterbacks. I mean, it doesn't matter what category it is, they're at the top.
Is the difference this year obviously what we illustrated with Lamar passing the football but then pushing the ball down the field to eight point one yards per pass attempt. I think are the only offense in the league that's over eight yards on a passage.
Which is crazy. I also think they're just one year more comfortable in Todd Monkins offense too, and they have really good weapons. And people don't like to give Lamar credit, but he gets better every year. I mean as a passer, remember when he would only throw in the middle of the field, or he's not that good from the pocket. All those things are long.
Titans destroyed him in his first ever playoff game because he just took the middle of the field away. He couldn't do anything.
Against best of luck doing that.
He only had four incomplete passes on twenty five attempts against the Giants. Last week, Lamar Jackson did. He threw for five touchdown passes. Due the math at home runs pretty good. That's more touchdown passes than incompletions. That was Jackson's fifth career game with at least five touchdown passes in five four is insane. It's gonna be my Matt stats.
Yeah.
Yeah, No one else has more than three of those games. Fifth career game with at least five touchdowns and five or fewer incompletions. No one else more than three. This was also Jackson's sixth career five touchdowns, zero interception game. Tom Brady and Drew Brees are the only two quarterbacks with more such games. And we've played those are running backs right like classic you know, all typical running back quarterbacks like Lamar Jackson gets the stigma.
Of Yeah, and I think Brady and Breeze played a few more games of.
Them, maybe a little bit. This might be the most impressive online.
Yeah.
This was also Jackson's fourth career game with five or more passing touchdowns and fifty plus rushing yards. The rest of the NFL in the history of the league, no Super Bowl era, none of that in the history of the league also has four combined. So Jackson has tied the rest of the NFL with games with five or more passing touchdowns and fifty plus rushing yards. And he's only twenty seven years old. It's like two years older than Canny Pickett.
Yeah, he's two MVPs. Right, it's a remarkable career.
Now let me ask you this, does he get maybe the MVP swung back in his direction if they do win the AFC North.
He's deserving. I mean, I would vote for Allan.
Feels like it's his year, he's due. They like to spread that around.
It don't lose the Raiders and things like that, and he's having every bit as good a year. Maybe it's not as pretty statistically, but I.
Think they get a little fatigueish when it comes to like Lamar again.
Yeah, I don't know. I think there's definitely some of that.
Although Lamar did smoke Josh Allen in their one meeting this year, so he's got that going for him.
We're right too, right.
Jackson leads the league in yards per drop back as well as passer rating. He's a league high twenty two touchdowns thrown on past his ten or more yards down the field. So this isn't just drop it off to Zay Flowers and he takes it to the house. He's throwing the ball down the field and he's doing it efficiently and effectively.
And it's not even like they're awesome after the catch. It's not like Perty's hitting Samuel and Ayuk for all these big gains. I mean's him throwing the ball down the field. It's almost monotonous to his stats.
What do you think about Bateman last week? Kind of breaking out with the two touchdowns yea twenty plus yards each.
Yeah, I played.
Better since they traded for Deontay Johnson and Deantay hasn't got on the field, but like Bateman almost took that as like a wake up call and he delivered big time and good for the Ravens because Johnson is tad he's ever So I.
Think Bateman's a high quality number two. I liked him coming out of school. His first round pick. Had some injuries and stuff, but he's a quality player.
Mark Andrews received just eight point three percent target share against the Giants. That's his lowest in this week four. However, this was the first game of the season in which Andrews eclipse to seventy five percent route participation seventy nine percent when Isaiah Likely was active, So.
That's a little misleading because they were winning so much too.
And Andrews has been a huge part of the offense. Yeah, he had a little bit of a slow start to the season, but he's a touchdown merchant now, like he just gets in the end zone.
You're too old or too young. But I always used the mister mom reference. It's his wooby.
I know Michael Keaton was in that movie.
He was in that movie, but his kid had this blanky that he always his wooby would never let go of. And Adam or Andrews and Jackson have grown up in the NFL together, and I think the Steelers one of the reasons they have a lot of success against Jackson is they'll put Menka on Andrews. They'll they take me away a little bit, you know, and Andrews. It might be their most import important pass catcher.
The Ravens three point one four seconds of average time to throw is the highest in the NFL.
Yeah, this is a little disheartening too.
Still, only the Bills, Broncos and Packers have taken fewer sacks than Baltimore twenty two and the Ravens are being blitzed at the league's highest rate thirty four point two percent, tied with Carolina. I get that stat though he's Lamar Jackson.
He's mar Jackson.
He creates three point one four seconds of times in yes the ball because he just this escapability is unbelievable.
So I just finished recording the Drive with Dale and he had Lamar blitz versus not blitz. He destroys the blitz. But for whatever reason, the league is blitzing him at the highest rate and use the Steelers won't.
Well, I was just gonna say, you'd think they'd be watching some film on how the Steelers play him and realize that never blitz Lamar Jackson. It's all about contained, contain you most.
You over front four like Cam. That's true, you know, And.
You got to give credit to Watt here. You have done this so much. Matt to the unselfishness that he plays with when he plays Lamar Jackson. It's astounding. Not a lot of pass rushers will be wired that way. I'm getting my sacks right, I'm going to get my pressure like I'm not going to I'm not going to take a game off where I kind of just you know, play cat and mouse.
With Rosen and keep. Yeah, that's an organizational strength of the Steelers that really works in their favorite against Lamar.
Now you still have to stop Derrick Henry even though you did it the first time against them, or did you, Matt He had sixty five yards on thirteen carries in that first game. That's a pretty good take, right, No, I'm saying for Henry, like thirteen carries to get to sixty five yards is good. Like He's right, They just stop giving him the football for whatever reason a game, in a game that was within a touchdown the entire time. It wasn't like they were losing by a lot and they needed to pass.
I do think Harbaugh can outsmart himself a little bit in Steeler games.
I think that is the biggest thing when it comes to this game. It's Harball going to get down into Tomlin's level, because you know Tom was going to try to bring him down into that. Especially Pick is limited or not playing like it's going to be another eighteen to sixteen game. It's honestly on Harbaugh to either say, okay, we'll we'll do what you want Pittsburgh and play that game and see if we can grind it out this time. And I've got a kicker that's missing a lot of field goals, which doesn't bode well in games like that, or I'm just gonna throw for five touchdown passes with my quarterback and you're gonna have to beat us like you beat Cincinnati earlier this year.
Yeah. I have two notes on that is. First off, I do believe Harbaugh overthinks or really gets in his own head. When he plays Burrow, he knows it's a race, opens it up right. When he plays the Steelers, he plays like it's a race to thirteen.
I feel like he plays like it's a race to thirty five against everybody else in the NF maybe. I mean, like even in the Giants game. I mean, yeah, they stink, but he was still throwing the ball a ton during the football game. I don't know something about this Steelers matchup, and now that it's gaining more and more momentum, another one where the Steelers want gets in your head. I think it's in the Ravens head big time.
Like I don't know, horriball, but I have great respect for him as a coach. But like he was the guy that had to go undefeated in the in the preseason, you know, like that kind of stuff matters to him. Like he's very aware of this stuff, no doubt in the last note on Henry, it's a lot like Barkley, like, just don't let him bust the eighty yarder, you know what I mean.
Well, Henry only needs twenty six more rushing yards. He's going to get that to reach his fourth career season with fifteen hundred plus on the ground. Barry Sanders with five is the only one who has more, and his fourth such season with Tye Henry, with Walter Payton, Eric Dickerson, and Edrin James pretty good. Henry also needs just twenty four rushing guards to hit one eleven thousand for his career and one rushing yard to tie John Riggins with the seventh most in NFL history. Henry's going to the Hall of Fame. I mean, it's he's just a lot of game. Yes, he's at that point in his career now.
Yeah, he's.
Rising up the rushing charts.
Ye, yep, easy, Hall of Famer.
Now, this Ravens defense, Matt switching our attention to that side of the ball. I think that's again we said this in the first meeting and it didn't turn out to be because it was eighteen to sixteen. This is where you attack them, This is where you have an advantage against them. Pickens be damned. We don't know what his status is going to be while we record this on Tuesday.
I'm betting you see him.
You think he's gonna play.
I think everybody play.
It's just a weak defense, to be honest with you. Aside from the running defense, it's a great running defense. They can make you one dimensional, but you should allow them to make you one dimensional because they're so bad against that dimension. And I'm of course talking about a pass defense that gives up more passing yards per game or excuse me, Jacksonville is the only defense that gives up more passing yards per game than this. Ravens passing tams to give up tw hundred and fifty nine yards per game through the air.
Yeah, and some of its teams coming back in garbage time, of course. And the one counter I will say, borrow.
Rose that hint had avertises time with those two games.
So the one thing they have gotten better at I don't know if you caught this or not, is they allowed so many big plays the first ten weeks or so over the season, and it's gotten much much better. But the teams they play have been like the Giants a bye week. The Eagles who are just running, I mean they that has something to do with it. But at least they're not allowing the breakdowns. And I also think that was a lot of their penalty stuff was these corners are all highly penalized because they were blowing coverages and dragging guys down. That's that's a little bit.
Well, that's why Pickens is such a big deal. Absolutely, you saw it in the first They couldn't handle them right. Absolutely, he can draws the but hey, what's going on with Marcus Williams. Marcus Williams for the Ravens, the safety.
Oh, he's gotten healthy, scratch, he's getting bench. Yeah, that's crazy. They're middle of the field, Minka and I think.
They traded for him just two years ago and he was a huge addition to that second great player out.
So now they're playing Washington there it was like five eight or Hamilton plays there some No, it screwed him up a little bit. They counted on them.
They're extremely healthy though, Baltimore like, there's no injury that you really have to deal with when it comes to this game, whereas stee Whats are dealing with a lot. But as you said, it seems like the momentum is going at least on Tuesday, that everybody's going to be playing for the Pittsburgh That Baltimore was giving up thirty six touchdowns this season, only seven teams have allowed more. So they're giving up touchdowns. You can throw the ball on them. None of this translated the first time the Steelers met them, though, because they didn't score a damn touchdown and they couldn't throw the ball at all. They scored eighteen points.
And maybe none of the stuff we're talking about translates at all because of Steelers Ravens period.
You know what I mean, how this game goes.
There's some amazing stats and every time I dig into it, I find more and maybe none of it matters at all.
Last week, with Pickens on the sidelines, Austin led the Steelers receivers with five catches for sixty five yards. It's a pretty solid game for mister Calvin Austin.
Yeah, real quick. I hope that he's established himself now that a very high percentage of snaps with two receivers on the field is Austin and Pickens. I like that. Yeah, there are your two, you know, like, let's.
Russ likes him rust thros and ball, He's on that asset, he's getting open.
Yes, yes, yes, No.
Other pass catcher had more than twenty two receiving yards though the spike cal Austin emerging throughout this season and even a little bit last week. That's just the offense was a non threat for those Philadelphia Eagles.
I mean they did, that's true, like forty three snaps.
Huh, you're right, and Russ has shown an ability to get better as the game went on. I've kind of over seen that. I gotta say this, though, Matt, I just popped into my head. We're talking about Austin. We're talking about Russ. The flea flicker play. If that's better arm strength, if that's throat, if that's a younger Russell Wilson, that's that's six points. I mean he was open. It was way open. I mean I see Ben Roethlisberger's deep bomb just like Austin could have run for twenty more yards yeap and just falling right under it. So great, great play that they needed in the moment, and I give Austin a lot of credit for adjusting back to it. But it was left on the table and Nause fumbles fast forward a couple of plays later. Agreed of the Ravens had forty four sacks this year. That is only behind the Broncos and the Texans. But the Ravens only blitz on twenty point eight percent of opposing drop backs, the seventh lowest in the league. So how are they doing it?
Well?
Forty four of their sacks excuse me, twenty two of their forty four sacks are by Kyle van Noy who has nine, Odefe Oway who has eight, and Mattabuque has five from the interior. So those are your big three when it comes to getting sacks, and there's a lot of balance there when it comes to those three. And I remember doing this week eleven, there wasn't that much balance, And that's kind of Van Noy doing a lot of the heavy lifting there. But he's found some partners.
In that always growing up. Yeah, if you remember, he came out of Penn State with zero sacks. He's a combine freak and pause player.
Yeah, five is really good for him. He'll probably he'll seven something like that at the end of the season, which is solid for his position.
Real quick on Van Neyd, Like if he was a Steeler, so many of you listening would have van Neyd jerseys, Like he is a do it all Belichick, you know, vrable type player.
But dude was on his couch last year halfway through the season.
But he's not her Big or high Smith or wat like. I don't even know how many snaps you'd play here. And I really respect him as a player, but he's not a twitchy pass rusher. Yeah, Like he's smart, he's technically sound. He's a really good player, but he's not Von Miller come off the edge or something.
You know, there's a reason why he was on his couch staring at retirement at some point last year. And that comes on the Ravens does good at the end of the last season. This year, his career has been extended. But yeah, it's not like he was an easy side for everybody. No Philadelphia, how about this blitzed Wilson just once in fifteen. They were all over him too. So that's that's very discouraging to hear.
Don't love that, No, I do not.
Naji Harris one last note before we get to our matchups. Harris just hasn't been very effective the running game in general just hasn't been very effective at all.
Three nine is not going to cut it.
He played sixteen snaps in week fifteen, Harris did. That is a career low. But they had no snaps in the second half.
They were coming back and Warren so healthy.
Let me ask you this. You think he was benched for the entire game or just a series? Sure, hope, not just the series, you think, and it just came back to bite him where they didn't have another series after that.
I think so. I assume that's what happened.
I believe you're right. I want you to be right. I even don't like him being benched for that one series. In a game like that, he never fumbled.
I would never be critical of him. I wouldn't mention it all week, you know I would. It was a bad play.
It's such a fluke fumble too. He didn't get the ball peanut punched out of his nose. Did like I get off the ball for a second. It was a brain.
Fart punter fumbling a snap or something. Yeah.
Since Week ten, Harris has a fifty one percent rush share and a thirty one percent route participation, So it's like a pretty good fifty fifty split between him and Warren. Ever since we got.
Help frinkling little Patterson and all of a sudden, Harris.
That's not sprinkling.
Done that.
Yeah, I've been about done with that, but it was overkill last week. He was out there for that series. Yeah, he looks like he just got off playing at the YMCA or something like that.
He looks too heavy and maybe too old.
All right, let's get to the key matchups here, the biggest key matchup.
I mean, they're like some of them are just so obvious, but.
Well, this is a matchup that the Steelers have been amazing at. Yeah, and that's Lamar Jackson versus the past rush plan because it's not just you know, pen your years back and get after him. It is a specific plan like we will victim. We saw in Hard Knocks before the Bengals game, Tomlin alluded to when he was meeting with the team. We have the Lamar Jackson plan and then you put on the PowerPoint. Well, let's talk about our Joe Burrow plan. Like I can't wait to see if I can't wait to see next not this week, but next week's Hard Knocks. When they're doing the Ravens stuff. That's the Lamar Jackson plan, giving a little inside look on what this team does so well against him. But that past verse discipline is a big part of it.
It's massive. That's where it starts.
And then you went with the quarterback. On the Steelers side of things too, it's it's Russell Wilson versus Roquan Smith.
I don't think they're gonna have a corner following Pickens. They don't have a Garrett versus more situations. I don't really know what to go with.
Roquan had a little trouble getting up to speed this year without Patrick Queen, and we saw Queen have trouble without Roquan Queen.
They just bend Simpson, Okay.
Queen has come on great for the Steelers. Yeah, he's been everything you want from him. Now. Roquan's starting to figure things out with himself, and.
That's one of my projects for tonight. I want to look at like the last he done or so with Roquan because last time they played wash he's not quite the four seas right right.
Right, Steelers and Ravens at four thirty pm on Saturday. It is a short week for your Pittsburgh Steelers. They go to the Baltimore Ravens Stadium to try to win the AFC North against them. We will start our local coverage at twelve thirty and that's with Matt Williamson and Tim Benz and then at two thirty Steel's Audio network picks up with Jerry Dulac, Mike Perzuda and Bob Labriola. Thanks always for giving us a listen, and this has been the Advanced Scout
