Drive9.15.26Hr1: Tuesday Rewind

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1:58He's on offense. They're going to go through Kenneth Walker. I adored him for fantasy. I think he's in a monster season. I heard on the way here, he had more 20 yard runs last night than they had 20 yard runs last year. I mean, they were the least explosive offense in the league. You might have known this stat. Yeah. I didn't until they flashed up on the screen in the first quarter last night. The last time the chief's had a thousand yard rusher. Oh, I had cream hunt maybe. 2017 cream hunt. Wow. It's been almost a decade. It's been basically a decade since they've had a thousand. You know how much we stress explosive play rates and things like that. Really since Tyreeg left, they've been like the least explosive offense in the whole league. It's like two or three years running now of just being, you know, people took this, you know, put a shell over top of them, but they're going to try it a different way. But that's, I still have issues with the chiefs. I didn't think their passing game was good at all. And I don't see receivers getting open. Like Kelsey had a long play, but it was a busted play. It was a busted. He broke one tackle and the right touchdown was fine. It was a well designed play and he broke a tackle again.

3:00Tackling was terrible, but I didn't see open receivers or the passing game that, you know, there is anything reminiscent of what we used to see. And they put out two really bad offensive tackles who played fine, but I don't think it's sustainable. It's like, oh, the dynasty's back. Sure. It also kind of reminded me of the Sunday night game. I mean, you walk into New York City in the first week on a prime time game, 9, 11 weekend, full place to play. I mean, Kansas City on a Monday night week one homes is back on crews and Taylor Swift are up there. And it's just, I mean, it's just a terrible place to play. No excuse for Denver. They were terrible. I mean, this was more about Denver to me, the Kansas City and Walker. Yes, without a doubt. Yeah. How over under now on week three before Sean Payton takes over off. It looks like his blood was boiling. I don't even saw even in half time. You know, like, he's sticking Mike in his face and he's like, they asked him, I, you haven't a tough time. You're like, ask me after the game. Yeah.

4:00Like, yeah, I'm having a tough time. I'm losing my mind. Yeah. Right. And it was like they had like a hundred and some yards and half time. It was like fewest Broncos, half time yard since Russell Wilson was the quarterback. Yeah. It's like, oh, man, maybe the plane ride home. He's like, okay, that was going to be every year done. Yeah, that was a good way to keep you here and keep you from leaving us this past off season. Go back to coach the quarterbacks or were taking the play calling. She gave a first round pick for it. I mean, we got one catch for seven yards. What are we doing here? We're going to be the biggest week one over reaction. The Kansas City Chiefs are going 17 and 0 and back to the Super Bowl. Yeah. Matt, we got a fun show playing today. We're going to talk to our buddy Rob King, voice of the Pittsburgh Steelers here in the first hour. We're going to get to some fantasy football conversation. We're going to have the return of our power rankings, something that we do on Tuesdays every single week. We'll also have a little Tuesday rewind, which is another in season fixture that you and I do where we kind of talk about. Talk about. We're going to have additional observations upon rewatching and re-evaluating these Steelers game from Sunday.

5:01But before we get to any and all of that, I wanted to go over snap counts week one versus the Falcons with you here. I think you learn a lot from snap counts. I think you can and particularly early on in the season. What are you trying to accomplish? Sometimes you forced into things with injuries or, you know, I mean, but at least you know the plan now. Exactly. Right. And there were one, two, three, four, five Steelers that played all 67 snaps on offense, Aaron Rodgers and four of the offensive linemen. Of course, Faltanu missed just one snap. Yeah. Yeah. Which we saw the one snap of Max Ehonature in there. But other than that, you would have had, you know, pretty much perfect attendance from the offensive line and the quarterback. And then Matt 64 of 67 snaps for DK Metcalf 96%. He's actually 100% too because the three he missed for the three Neodowns. How about that? Look at you. See, that comes into play here at the end. That's the highest we've seen for him, I think, in Pittsburgh. Yeah. I don't know if we'll talk about the, you know, the guys only played a couple snaps or

6:03not. But if you look at the bottom, there's some weird snap counts in this game because there's three Neodown snaps. I think Haydenreich played three snaps on offense and Ramsey and Ramsey. I mean, they're only out there for that reason. And then when we switched to, oh, and then there's somewhere there's defensive players out there because that was the botched field goal was not a special teams play because they tried to run a play. Gotcha. So there's like, that makes sense. A through me off because I did a podcast yesterday about it. I'm like, why is Cam Hayward on the offense or whoever it was, some big defensive lineman that are on the field goal protection team show up on offense for this game. And like Haydenreich, I think, only played three, right? I don't think he's out. Haydenreich only played three offensive snaps at the end and then 13 special team snaps. Yeah. Okay. So I mean, he was only out there for the Neodowns, but he was not part of the offense. So I thought that disclaimer was important for this game. Yeah. No doubt. Yeah. I'm glad that you met. So match have basically a perfect attendant. Mecca have basically had perfect attendance. Michael Pittman Jr.

7:03One far off. That was not because if you, like you said, if you kind of take those three Neodown snaps, he played 59 out of 64 potential snaps. Yeah. And then Matt, the tight ends Pat Farram with 49 snaps for 73% of the plays. And again, that number a little skewed by the Neodowns at the end would have been a little bit of a higher percentage, not drastic, but a little bit higher. 43 for Darnell Washington for about 65% of the snaps. And that was one of my, like we'll get into some Tuesday rewind stuff more, more specifically here. Kind of blend the two. But one of my Tuesday rewind observations was, man, it seemed like a lot of 12 personnel for the Steelers on off. There was, there was a very high percentage of it for a McCarthy lead team, which didn't shock me because they paid both these guys, you know, and they are their best five to put out there includes Washington and Friar Mooth. I do have the percentages and I, Matt stat, I told you Matt stat early in the year can be

8:08a little bit hard to come up with a lot of bulk. But I definitely dig into snap counts heavy because, you know, this is a big thing. And maybe we'll look at tomorrow or whatever, because I don't have in front of me. But there were plenty of snaps where only one tight end was on the field. And there was pretty distinct usage as Washington is kind of the early down guy, Friar Mooth is a passing down guy. But you're right. There was tons of 12 personnel with both them on the field. And the Onion never was out there hardly. I think he played like two snaps. Yeah. Yep. Same with Jeremy Bernard, only three snaps for him on offense. If you compare it to Roman Wilson, it's night and day. It's pretty obvious who the number three receiver is right now. Yes, it is. Roman Wilson played about 55% of the snaps for the Steelers offense. So a little over half, 37 for him. That tells a story. It does. And then Matt, please let this real quick. I mean, just the last two games we've seen, the last two data points, Wilson out snaps Bernard. Let me say 27 to three something like that Wilson 37 37 to three. Yep. And the last preseason game Wilson got to sit out and Bernard didn't.

9:12So clearly he's the third receiver. And I know that frustrates some listeners and frustrates me a little bit. I'm really, really high on Bernard. But one thing that I think that really works in Wilson's favor and we saw a little bit of this. We definitely saw one play of it where the passing interference came into play. In terms of explosive plays going back to the chiefs, a vertical slot like him does provide more explosive ability. Sure. You know what I mean? I think they realized they're short on explosives. They and you know what? What could have been perhaps their most explosive play of the game came from Roman Wilson when he got tackled and drew that pass. So it did the trick. Yeah, explosive in terms of the offense. I think the most explosive play of the game was certainly TJ Watts pick six. But you won't get what I'm saying from an offensive perspective. Roman Wilson, good start for him. Maybe that's something. Yeah. Maybe that's something that we should have dug into a little bit more yesterday. Matt, he finally kind of looked comfortable, looked the part, looked like a capable wide receiver.

10:13Number three. Yeah. I thought this was a really good step in the right direction. The two running backs, Matt, you can also tell a tale here. Rico Dattle 39, offensive snaps for 58% share. Jalen Warren, 25 for a 37% share. Yeah, I'm looking it up now because I retweeted it. It was a pro football focus puts a good graph out there. It was fitting the use it for. Yeah, I did see you. I'm having a hard time finding it. Yeah, but the use is the usage. Yeah, here it is. You know, so there wasn't a real distinct rhyme or reason to when they were out there. And I'm not exactly even like sold that Rico is going to out snap him every week. And short yardage, there's only two carries. They were both Warren early downs. It was 25 for Rico compared to 17 for Warren. A third downs was nine for Rico and two for Warren. That surprised me.

11:13That is surprising. And the two-minute drill was 50, 50 basically. I thought for sure Warren would be the third down back, especially in third and long situation. Because he's a better in third. And that's a lot. That one to me was keeping eye on. Something just raised your eyebrows a little bit. It's only one week. That doesn't mean that it's chiseled in stone for the rest of the year that way. But that's kind of what stood out to me from an offensive perspective. And then Matt on a defensive perspective, there were, let's see here. I really like this usage for guys who played every snap. And then Jamel Dean pretty close. He missed one play. So Jalen Ramsey, all 60 plays. Patrick Queen, all 60 plays. Briskar, all 60 plays. Samuel Jr., all 60 plays. And then Dean, like I said, played 59. So just he was like, he was like, he got done, dinged up. Went out one play. Came right back in. And so Matt, that to me pretty clearly, if you look of the guys that were perfect attendance on defense, Ramsey, Briskar, Samuel, and essentially Dean.

12:17That's kind of the core four of the secondary. Yeah. That's not uncommon for the secondary is always going to lead the defense. They don't rotate out. I mean, obviously, O lines going to in quarterbacks, going to lead the offense. But I thought that was interesting. We got the answer finally 100% that when there are four defensive backs on the field, Ramsey is one of them. So I mean, he's never leaving the field. And I think that's the plan. I would assume even when Elliot's healthy, but who knows? And even hopefully if you get Joey Porter Jr. back on it. I don't think that changes anything. I just think you insert Porter for Samuel. But the front seven's actually a little more interesting to me. It is very, very interesting. As like I mentioned, Patrick Queen played 60 snaps, all 60, 100% attendance. Peyton will, which isn't unusual. He's a green dot guy. You know, right, right. He's an every down player. And you touched on this a little bit yesterday, but here's the numbers to back it up. Peyton Wilson 57 out of 60 snaps. He played 95% of the defensive snaps. By far, his most ever is going to say I was literally about to say, I don't know this

13:18is fact, but I have to imagine that's the most we've ever seen him play. I think he hit 80% once. You'll see it in Matt stats. I kind of hit it on it. By the way, he played phenomenal. I think it's also the best game he's ever played as a stealer. A lot less read and react stuff. A lot more just attacking downhill. I forget who put it out there, but I did retweet. Someone did a cut up of all of his run defense snaps. And I have it on my Twitter feed too. And it's pretty fun to watch. Really, really active game by him. You know, just watching the all 22. So he's as good a store. I just want to give him proper credits. One game. It's one it's a new defense, but one of the brightest spots to me that came out of Sunday as Peyton Wilson. I think that's well said. And I one of the bright spots too for this defense. I think was the rest of that front seven of the two, the two, you know, off ball middle linebackers. The balance and the distribution of snaps between all of them. Alex isemith 41 snaps.

14:19Nick Herbert 39 snaps, TJ watt 38 snaps, not a lot of difference there between those three. And Sawyer played more than I thought. He was over 20. Sawyer played 23. Yeah. Defensive snaps for close to 40% of the time there. Matt, again, it's holy one week. But when you see TJ watt making the biggest play of the game in the fourth quarter, I don't think you could ignore that part of that is that is relatively 63% of the snaps TJ's played. That's probably the lowest since his rookie season. Probably. But my goodness, did he look fresh? Did he look ready to go? Did he look shot out of a cannon and did he make the play of the game in the fourth quarter? Couple notes on this fourth quarter defense, fourth quarter defense, third quarter defense. How much we thought I feel like I didn't bring up enough this off season. So there were 12 snaps with the three of them on the field together. Okay. Not sure where I got that from, but they're that's a fact. They also played quite a bit of like a base for three two defensive tackles. Highsmith watt.

15:20Herbig is an off the ball linebacker with Queen and Wilson. Is that a beijon Atlanta bad quarterback thing? Is that something they're going to do all the time? Sometimes herbig would walk down and make it more of a like a five man front or an overload situation. So again, I think it's pretty obvious. It's kind of like the Washington Friday, I'm with conversation. It's easier said than done that this coaching staff is getting their best football players on the field. I'm not taking Ramsey off just because he's not necessarily a safety by trade. I'm putting my best football players on the field and I'm not going to wear them out. Yeah. That's obviously true too. And you saw that from the defensive front as well. Keanu Benton led the way 35 snaps just 58% of the plays. 32 for Cam Hayward at 53% 24 for Derek Harman at 40%. 18 for YA Black at 30%. 18 for Sebastian Joseph Day at 30%. So maybe the biggest takeaway this entire conversation is the Cam Hayward stuff.

16:22So that's got to be along with TJ watt. That's got to be the lowest we've seen in a long. Yeah. We've said this before, but he led all defensive tackles in the league in snaps last year. He's unbelievable and he can handle it. But that's Flirt Note disaster at his age and I can't think you get the best out of him doing that at his age. Now I saw this and through to Matt stats as well of all the games he's played and finished. He didn't leave via injury. That's the fewest snaps he's played since 2013. I mean, he he is an ining eater in an absolute workhorse, but that doesn't mean you have to do it, you know, he did also play 11 snaps on special teams, but yeah, but that's kick block. And it's yeah, that's routine for him. Yeah, yeah. I you'll go and feel go block. I don't we obviously this is not going to be the case every week. And you will it's not a matter of if it's a matter of when you will have injuries that will force certain guys to pick up some slack and play more snaps here and there.

17:26But I love that distribution. I love it. Particularly, you know, with the front seven outside of those middle linebackers and it was just a little bit mixed in like I think ever it came in for a snap when Dean got hurt. You know, it was just one. Sawyer was part of the mix a little. Hulk him was only out there. I think two or three snap. I should have mentioned ratio on Jenkins to he played 30. Oh, yeah, yeah. He was a problem. For a little over 50% of the time he was on the field for the last note is I mentioned this yesterday that when you look at it just broken down, they were a nickel about 50% of time. They were in base about 50% of the time. And I did some research on it and basically that's just how many defensive backs are on the field. But a lot of their quote base snaps. There's still was only two defensive lineman out there and they were playing that four three with her big or whatever. So that not all base snaps or all nickel snaps for the same people out there. You know what I mean? Keep it. I'm guessing. Yeah. Keep them on their toes. Excited to see what this looks like when we revisit this next week after the Steelers

18:28and Patriots in Foxboro on Sunday. Matt to the last thing too. Yeah. You probably gotten this from friends or casual fans or whatever Twitter. Oh, this team looks exactly the same. I don't see any difference from coaching changes. First off, this conversation is a glaring example of one thing that's massively different. And I'm not making fun of you folks. You don't do this for a living, but you couldn't be more wrong. Yes. I'm just saying you don't know what you're looking at. You just don't certainly. Yeah. I'm with you on that. A lot of different facets. Yeah. I think the, the result of kind of leaning on your defense and holding on at the end might have looked the same. Yeah. But how you got there was completely different. No, no. I mean, the approach and the strategies are way different. And it's not going to look like that in October and November and December. No, no. It's a, it's a week one win for the Pittsburgh Steelers. And I think a lot to, to glean from that. I have some more follow ups on that for you, some numbers for you when we return on the other side for the Steelers offense, two things across the desk here from intrepid video

19:31producer, Mr. TV. The first TJ watt, 38 of the 60 defensive snaps. As we discussed, the lowest snap count of his career. And then also backing up what you said to start the show, Matt, the Denver Broncos via next gen stats missed 28 tackles. Wow. Last night. That's crazy. That's like high school level stuff there from, from Denver, not a very good start for them at Arrowhead Stadium, but a good start for the Steelers. I want to dig into just a couple more numbers and usage type things before we get to our buddy Rob King at the bottom of the hour. So a lot going on here today on the drive, West Mueller, Matt Williamson, Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers audio network. Now a word from our sponsor Bud Light. There's nothing better than the clean crisp. There's nothing better than the clean crisp. What if we just got out of here and grab some Bud lights? The man we're on air for four more hours. They'll figure it out. Sounds good to me.

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21:44Back on the drive here on this Tuesday into the phone lines. We go, the king is in the castle, Rob King, the voice of your Pittsburgh Steelers. Of course, on these Steelers Audio Network, you can also catch him in the locker room right here every single day at noon. King, what's up, man? Thanks for taking the time. How we doing on this Tuesday? Beautiful day, guys. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it. No, always good. We enjoyed chatting with you here throughout the regular season. And we're going to hopefully continue to do that throughout this year. Rob, Matt and I were just kind of, we were going over some rewatch observations. That's one of the things that we like to do on Tuesdays when you have some more time to look at some of the numbers and dissect some of the tape from the Steelers previous game. Matt and I kind of said, hey, yeah, the way that it played out happened to lean on your defense and a little bit tight and some missed opportunities for the offense. That might have looked at times or just on the surface like we saw last year, but I think when you look at the way that the defense was deployed, when you look at the way that

22:46the offense was deployed, there's some early signs that this team is going to be very different than what we've seen in the past. Yeah, there are a lot of things to like for sure. First of all, and not insignificantly, they won the game. That's the head is what you're after. I thought that the four minute offense at the end of the game to put things away. I thought that was a positive. Last year, I was talking on a different show, asked about, hey, is it important for the Steelers to start fast? I think Mike McCarthy likes his team to start fast. He puts emphasis on coming out fast, but I also wanted to see the team finish well. Last year, they lost four games they let it to have. If I'm not mistaken, they got the ball to begin every one of those losses. Get the ball to begin the second half with the lead and lose the game. That's something that, and that was 31st in the league in that category. That's something that they can't have happened. The ability to finish the game was just from a macro point of view, one big thing, but

23:52the defense deployed differently. Yes, things to like about the offense as well. Didn't necessarily manifest them on the field, but different things you saw. I think we're going to see a different team this year. As Wes mentioned, we were digging into snap counts and usage and all those type of things before you came on. The one I haven't quite figured out yet is the running back rotation or usage. If you break it down by third downs or a goal line or anything, it was pretty even, but Rico had noticeably more snaps. Do you have a grasp of how they're playing on using these guys? Or do you think it's a hot hand situation or what I'm just curious to thoughts? Well, it felt like it was every other series, Matt, almost throughout the game. Maybe it was. I didn't pay that close attention. One of the questions I had was, they alternated back and forth and then Jaylin had the fumble and you think, okay, I'm thinking to myself, is he going to come out? Is he going to next series that was going to be his?

24:54Well, he'd be out there. It was. It just felt to me like they were all three in the series. I don't know how. I mean, there was a little more. It felt like a different way they divided the labor, but Mike McCarthy has been very clear that he wants guys that running backs that can play all three downs. He wants receivers that can play all three positions. And frankly, I don't think that the Patriots travel, Christian Gonzalez. I'm not 100% sure on that. I'll be looking at. He followed Smith and Jigbo around quite a bit. Okay, he did. All right. So if that's the case, then they'll look for the match if they want because that's an intriguing, I think for me going into this week's game, you have three very good receivers, three different types of receivers. Well, they've got three different types of corners who are also very good. But you want those guys to be able to play in the slot or what have you. And so, you know, for example, in this game, Marcus Jones, he's a good slot corner matched

25:59up against Roman Wilson. He, you know, I think that the Patriots, that's the kind of receiver they want to match up against. Well, what if he's matched up against Michael Pittman? So they want these guys to be able to play in all kinds of different positions, all kinds of roles. They don't want to be subbing in and out all the time. They want to they want to get guys out there and play. And that's what it felt like to me, Matt, as they just, they said, okay, here's Jaylen Warren. This is your series, your Rico Dattles. This is your series. Just, I guess a follow up question since we're talking running backs. I was very shocked in the end. And like you said, they won the football game. So I'm not even being critical of the run path ratio. I mean, so pass heavy. Yes. Yeah. Well, again, was that because, and it's always hard to tell, right? So is that, is that what was called? Um, did Aaron Rogers, um, you know, check out of a bunch of plays. Did he check out a running place in the past plays? I don't know. I don't know if they were called Mike McCarthy said I got a call beginning better. So I'm assuming most of those were his calls, but it's, it's so hard to discern what

27:05was intended and what was accomplished. I will say this, they didn't run them all particularly effectively. True. So that is, that is something that they're going to definitely look, that could be, you know, that's probably as much on, um, you know, what they were doing schematically. A lot of run blitzing and what the steeters, you know, the students offensive line, perhaps still looking to gel on the early stages of the season. Rob King with us here on the drive, King, I tell you what, one of the things that I really like seeing on Sunday, how about some life from Roman Wilson? You know, we, uh, we take these topics all off season and we kind of discuss them to death and who's going to be the Steelers wide receiver number three was a huge one of those that everyone spent time on through the off season and through training camp and through the preseason. I thought Sunday might have been Roman Wilson's probably was best performance we've ever seen in the black and gold. Yeah, I mean, he got, and that included a ball in the end zone that it looked like he got uh, interfered with. I would have been a nice catch to make certainly would have been a touchdown. Now it would have been a, we'd be talking completely differently.

28:07Uh, he'd be getting universally praised if he caught that ball, but he didn't. There was also a post corner he ran. I think it was at the end of the first half where he was streaking up the right sideline and open and Aaron over shot him. Uh, one of the just a couple of throws that Aaron was a little, seemed to me a little off the mark on, you know, throws it he normally makes. So yeah, he broke open. I, I think the other guy, you know, I, I think, you know, pitman, I'd like to see pitman and I hope he's going to get more than three targets of game, you know, three receptions on three targets. You know, when you look at three receivers, generally speaking, you know, that first guy is going to get. I'm going to get you that amount of recess options. Then the second guy is going to get a reasonable amount of set of receptions. And I looked at this back with, of course, you know, Michael Carthi, at CDLAM, uh, in his time in Dallas, but that third receiver is going to catch 30 to 40 balls. That's probably what they're looking at. That doesn't mean it's an insignificant position. You know, we've seen in the past one of the problems that the city ran into each of the

29:08last two seasons was their number one receiver wasn't available. And when he wasn't available, the offense just seemed to stutter. And that was George Pippman a couple of years ago with an injury, it was DK, Medcalf last year with the suspension. Why I think now pitman control to that load. And then that means everybody's got to shuffle up a spot. So I think you're looking for Roman Wilson's value. I think he's probably going to have 30 to 40 catches this year. But I also think his value could be if pitman or Medcalf has to miss a game or two for any reason, can he elevate and become that guy that you don't miss a beat or much of a beat on? And I think that's a good first step for him. Yeah, we said some, you said some good things there about Roman Wilson. And I do think it's the right step in the, the right direction. But the other Wilson, Peyton Wilson to me was one of the standouts. And that might be a game we look back on of, oh, that's when Peyton Wilson broke out. I agree. I thought he was great. Yeah. You need to talk about snap counts. It was interesting. 21, thank you, Brian Batco for getting me the exact number.

30:1321, 3, the three outside linebackers out there. And it wasn't all, I mean, so really was mixed in there too. But are you talking about those four outside linebackers, three of them playing at once? And Peyton Wilson was only off the field for three plays. So at least 18 of those plays, which is one third of your defense, was five. And I think that's the right lineback on the field. I don't think that's always going to be the way it's going to be that. I think that they will match up differently with, yeah, it'll be a week to week thing. So will we see Peyton Wilson getting 57 snaps to get back to your question? I'm not sure. But I thought he was excellent. And I think he's going to have to be big again this week. I mean, first of all, the Patriots without AJ Brown, my assumption is they will come out. They were one of the best offenses running the football year ago. My assumption is, Frivia and Henderson is going to be healthy, and they will try to ram it down the sea of the strokes. And so those inside linebackers will be tested.

31:13And when they get into passing downs, they'll be tested again because Drake May is really mobile. So yeah, I thought Peyton Wilson, I thought there were four or five big time stars on defense, let of course, by TJ Watt. I thought, heismate was great. And I think that's good showed up. But I thought Peyton Wilson is right there comfortably in the mix of everybody right behind TJ for outstanding performance. I agree with him. And I thought he played really, really well. Yeah. And Rob, one of the things that Matt and I spent a lot of time talking about this off season was how the Steelers fourth quarter defense, not just needed to improve, but needed to improve drastically as one of the worst in the league last year in the fourth quarter. I think you can draw direct parallel. You see TJ Watt making plays in the fourth quarter. You see Cam Hayward looking fresh, knocking down passes, winning with his bull rush late in the game. It is. It's only one week. And so we have to see how this thing develops. But when you look at how they were able to, I guess, limit those guys usage throughout

32:13the game, I think there's a real correlation to how fresh they were down the stretch. I agree. And I think that whole finishing the game, it's not just an offense thing. I mentioned the form of an offense. It's an offense and it's a defense thing. But you know, it's one thing to say, well, we're going to limit a guy's snap counts. And then it's another thing for the defensive quarter to say, well, just exactly who do expect me to play? That's not a problem for the Steelers. The Steelers have, you know, they have great players. And then they also have really, really good players and even good players, whatever, I really want to slate them. But when TJ Watt comes off the field, is he going to be missed? Well, he's TJ Watt. Of course he is. Cam Hayward, of course, they're going to be missed. The other guy has a really good players. And so that mitigates some of the loss of losing him for X amount of plays early in the game. And then hopefully strengthen you not only in the fourth quarter. It's an intra game thing, but it's also a schedule thing. So it should help you within games. And I think certainly the hope is that, you know, come December, he's an hopefully January,

33:18deep into January and hopefully in February. He's ready to play top notch football because he just hasn't been out there for, you know, 52 snaps again. So I love the distribution and the effectiveness and we'll see. I think that's going to be one of those things that's going to be really interesting to look at. We get a week out and see who's getting what snaps. Rob, the last thing I have for you is it's easy to look at the defense and focus on the front and all the good things TJ did and Cam swatted passes, et cetera, et cetera and dominating the line of scrimmage. But I think you gave the secondary a lot of credit to, I mean, other than Beijon, what they have three catches. I mean, pits had zero, London had two and a couple of the new guys, Briskar and Dean, I thought showed up not only in coverage, but also as really good run defenders. Yeah, I agree. I like, you know, there's a lot to like about Jamel Dean and the San Tei Samuel. I think it was Matthew that uncovered a statistic that had him ranked is what the top cover

34:19was. Yeah. Yeah. In the week last year, I mean, that's pretty good. I mean, again, I think this goes back to the depth and quality of the Steerless roster is that they've got fewer and fewer holes to fill. And when you have fewer holes to fill, that allows you to fill those holes with better players. You don't have to spread out. You know, they have $20 million to spend. You don't spread it out on five players. You can maybe give it to two or three. You know, I think that that's going to up your quality. Sebastian Joseph, you've talked about him a lot along the defensive line. He's a quality player. I agree. The secondary was very good. I would all, and I'm bullish on it. I like the San Tei Samuel. Michael Cartney's raped about him really since OTA's. I like him. Remember, he was, he was a very good cover corner before his neck injury and it looks like he's rounding back into that. Hopefully he gets your reporter back. Even without AJ Brown, this will be a bigger test because let's face it. You're facing a third straight quarterback. Yeah, I was just not going to be facing, you know, the guy who finished second at the P voting

35:19a year ago. Cooper Rush did help the cause a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There have been more completions with a different quarterback. Yes. Right. That's right. And I'm bullish on the secondary. But again, you know, the other guy has run scholarship too. Like I heard people saying, well, you know, B's on Robinson. Okay. Well, first of all, you minimize London, you minimize kids. And B's on Robinson's best running back in the game. He's going to get his. So overall, I thought the defense was good, but I agree with you, Matt. I think that secondary, you know, and I'm looking forward to getting to Sean Elliott back. I think the world that him as a player. But again, bigger tests in wheat, especially the next two weeks. New England and Cincinnati. They're going to be big tests for that secondary. But I think they're up to the task, Matt. I really do. I don't know if you guys saw this in B. John Robinson's entire career now in his fourth season. The lowest amount of yards he ever had when he had 20 plus carries really in a game. So we still had over 80 yards. It wasn't like you completely slowed him down, but by his very high standards, you did

36:22a pretty good job. Yeah, he didn't kill you, you know, King or before we let you go Sunday, one o'clock. Of course, this weekend, you and I and a bunch of our friends will be shipping up the Boston for the second straight year. Give us a key to the game for the Steelers. And you can't say force five turnovers on defense again, like they did last year. Yeah, I think the offense, you know, just the offense has to be better in general. They've got to be able to run the football better. They're obviously going against a good Patriot scene that's coming off a loss. They're going to be super hungry to win this game. I think the defense, you know, and again, this is something that, you know, I know we've all talked about in the past. The defense that defense the least is usually the defense that defense the best. So, you know, find a way to control the ball a little bit more in this game. That means run the ball better. I think that the defense will do its job, especially if it's not asked to do, you know, way more than than you wanted to do. So I think it's, you know, control that line of scrimmage, run the football, just get

37:25that offense going a little bit more. I think that would be my, I know it's kind of a broad range key at this point, but that would be my key. Rob King, voice in the Steelers kind enough to give us some time on this Tuesday. Make sure you're listening to him and Max Starks and Willie Cologne in the locker room every single day at noon here on the Steelers Audio Network. King or great stuff is always thank you for the time and we will talk to you and see you soon. Thanks guys. Look forward to it. There he goes. The King has exited the castle. He's deaf. He's in the car on his way to PNC Park right now. I have a hunch. I was thinking the same thing. Now, there are buckos game. When I, when I called him here to get him on air, Matt, he was like a dragon a little bit. I think there's five Pirates games left in the season or so. Oh, that's, that's few. Huh? I guess today is Roberto Clemente Day at PNC Park. So he's like, this is always a fun day. It's a great cause. It's, you know, he's like, but after this, he's like, just give me to the finish line. Right. I'm ready to focus on football and get the Steelers as we all are certainly. So thanks to Rob for taking the time. This is always that the August September when the buckos are still playing in the, you

38:28know, Steelers are in preseason and training camp and regular season. I know that's always a busy time of the year for him. So thanks to him for taking the time. Couple more numbers, couple more observations. I want to run past Matt when we return to close down the first hour of the show, Yulor, Williamson. It's the drive. Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network. And now a word from our sponsor, Bud Light. There's nothing better than the clean crisp. There's nothing better than the clean crisp. If we just got out of here and grab some Bud Lights. But man, we're on air for four more hours. They'll figure it out. Sounds good to me. Anything for the clean, crisp taste of Bud Light. Stock up now. Bud Light. Easy to drink, easy to enjoy. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026 and has your Bush Bud Light beer St. Louis, Missouri. I used to have cable in it, but I'm a 100% kind of fan. So I switched to Verizon Fios. It's 100% fiber in it that's super reliable. So I streamed 100% of the NFL draft live with ultra low lag.

39:29I have to walk me down in the first round. Still getting video calls from my best friend. I'll bring it in that he called all the pigs. I told you they were building their own line. I win the bet. Get 100% fiber internet with Verizon Fios because when it comes to your team, it's 100% or nothing. Call 1-E-3-3 Verizon to switch today. Get that hotdog costume ready. Bra. You're tuned to the drive on your 24-7 home of the black and gold Steelers. Just Nation Raiyo. Man, a couple more Tuesday rewind. Just kind of overall observations to run past you. I got some numbers for you here. I know you're the stack, guys. You might already know this, but I wanted to get your thoughts and just lay this out there on this Tuesday.

40:30Just one game. We'll continue to say that all week. Of course. And you know what we'll probably say next week? It's only been two games. I'm doing a game, right? As you start to compile more data points, but the Steelers. It's a pretty important data point. Yeah, we gather dear on Sunday. Yeah, absolutely. And I, like I said, I meant to that one that I brought up with you and Rob. I meant to bring that up in the first segment of the show. Fewest yardage that B. John Robinson's had in his NFL career when he's had 20 or more carries. So yeah, you didn't completely put on the ground. On the ground. Yeah, you didn't completely shut him down and put a lid on it. You didn't let him take the game over either. Yeah. Four yards per carry for that guy. You'll take that all day long. Better. How many carries? Very reasonable. Matt, 11 personnel for the Steelers. Obviously, that means three wide receivers on the field. One running back, one tight end. We've got a smart listening audience. I think they know that. But sometimes it bears repeating. Yeah. Last year Steelers did that a little less than 40% of the time. The Steelers had 11 personnel. Sunday, it was almost like lowest in league. And Sunday, it was almost 61%. So a pretty noticeable leap there in 11 personnel usage.

41:30Yeah. And again, that, that's all the Roman Wilson snap counts. Not at all shocking. You brought this up in segment one that they still did play a ton of 12. Hardly any 13 or extra alignment. I think those days are probably past. So it was about a 60 40 split. Yes. Give or take a little bit, maybe 61 39 split of 11 and 12 per. Somewhere I saw this split as well. And they also, I think they called Noah Kowski a tight end because there was some 13. But that's an error. I mean, he's a fullback feeling. He's a fullback. I mean, I know he like worked out with the tight ends and combined. I mean, easy mistake. But he's a. But it's like, as of now, Hayden Reich is a running back. Yes. Until we see him line up at wide receiver, he can be listed as both, but he's a running back. Yes, even though, you know, Noah Kowski sometimes lines up near the line of scrimmage or in a wing or whatever. To me, what's more, maybe noteworthy about that 64% number is my hunch is if you look at McCarthy's just even time and dials, what was that five years, four years or whatever,

42:34I bet they were around 85% in terms of 11. You know, so it's not just my way or the highway. We're going to be an 11 personnel team paint to one red. You know, we got two good tight ends. We're going to put them on the field. And maybe by 2027, 2028, the Steelers are in that 80% file. Maybe, but as you and I've talked about when you're, when you're a new coach, you've got a blend, you've got to find that marriage between what you want to do and what your philosophy is and how the image of what you want your team to be, verse the paint that you have in the barn and just what you have to work with what you inherited and all that good stuff too. And then the other one, Matt, that I wanted to run by you last year on offense reminder, clean assault, just one game. But last year on offense, the Steelers were under center about 31 and a half percent of the time. Sunday 41%. So about a nine and a half percent rise there, albeit just one game. I have this information at home, but I can promise you league wide.

43:36It went up at least that 10% from last year. I mean, that is, it's a league wide trend. This is a league wide trend. It might know we have a short segment here. So I don't really have time to totally go into it. But the short of it is the league is really wanting to get behind center. I'll great deal more because you're seeing so many two high shells. You just run the ball better out of you know, if you're going to give me run with lighter box, we're going to take it and we're going to take it up another lot level and get better angles. And the other thing is too, I know there's some data that don't, so it doesn't support this, but I don't believe it. You sell play action much, much better from under center. There's no doubt in my there's no doubt. I think you're, I think you're spot on on that. And I know that that's why the leagues go in that. I know that that's something that's a, that's been, you know, that's been debated. I think amongst amongst football fans and, and former players and all that, but the numbers back it up. Yeah. And I wouldn't lie numbers don't. Yeah.

44:37And suddenly a quarterbacks just can sell it better. You know, with a big time ball fake, get those linebackers, just the freezer fee for a half a second. And it goes a long way. Hour in the books. Another hour to go. Matt, an hour number two, I want to talk a little fantasy football with you. And we'll do our, I never know is this week one power rankings are week two. I guess it's week two now because we are into. I guess, yeah. Because we did them last week. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's no week zero in the NFL like. I guess it's week two. Yeah. Like there is in college football. So we'll do some power rankings. And fantasy football focus all that more in hour number two of the program. Jullar Williamson halfway home on this Tuesday. It's the drive. Steelers nation radio on the Steelers audio network. And now a word from our sponsor Bud Light. There's nothing better than the clean Chris. There's nothing better than the clean Chris. What if we just got out of here and grab some Bud lights? But man, we're on air for four more hours. I don't figure it out.

45:37Sounds good to me. Anything for the clean Chris tastes of Bud Light. Stock up now. Bud Light. Easy to drink, easy to enjoy. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026 and has a Bush Bud Light beer St. Louis, Missouri. I used to have cable in the net, but I'm a 100% kind of fan. So I switched to Verizon Fios. It's 100% fiber in the net that's super reliable. So I streamed 100% at the NFL draft live with ultra low lag. And after what went down in the first round, still getting video calls from my best friend rubbing it in that he called all the piss. I told you they were building their own line. I win the bet. Get 100% fiber in the net with Verizon Fios because when it comes to your team, it's 100% or nothing. Call 1-3-3 Verizon to switch today. Get that hot dog costume ready. Bruh. So we heard Amanda is off to school? Yeah, big step. More independent. She's not going to call every week asking for more money for books, is she? With smart start banking from S&T Bank, she gets budgeting tools scholarship opportunities. Irkinson money using Zell. Wow. I guess college is about getting smarter, right? Give them financial independence and yourself peace of mind.

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