Drive9.22.26Hr1: Tuesday Rewind - Snap Counts

0:00So 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, and can send money using Zell. Wow. I guess college is about getting smarter, right? Give them financial independence and yourself peace of mind. Stop by your local branch. Call 835-2265 or visit STbank.com to send money with Zell. Both parties must have an eligible checking or savings account, terms and conditions apply. S&T Bank, member FDIC. Matt Williamsson with you here for the next two hours on this Tuesday as we have got plenty

1:03to get to. We're going to talk some snap counts. We're going to do a little Tuesday rewind. We'll have your fantasy football focus, everything that you expect here on this program on a Tuesday. But once again, we are leading off with a heavy hitter, of course, our buddy Mike DeFaibo of the athletic joining us now on the phone lines to talk all things Steelers. And Mike certainly a sour taste left in the mouth of everybody after that performance on Sunday, that 20 to three defeat up in New England to the Patriots. And we heard Mike McCarthy talking yesterday in his press conference about simplifying the offense. That's a pretty loaded term. What are you hearing? What do you think that looks like in your mind and what it looks like, starting Sunday again since an addy? Yeah, I think it goes down to knowing who you are and what you do well. And that's really the whole central focus of when he's talking about that kind of thing. He's saying, rather than having an exhaustive menu of plays and trying to beat a team based on the variety and the numerous different things you do, know what you do well and executed

2:06at a high level. You know, it makes sense to me back in the day when I covered the penguins, Mike Solven, we'll always say, hey, when things aren't going well for you, sometimes you have to simplify. So figuring out who the Steelers are and executing those plays at a high level, I think is the first step. So it was very easy to overlook this because the game is out of reach and Mason Rudolph comes in for the last three plays. I found it a little peculiar that along with him came in Max's hornet chore and Hoffman on the right side of the line. Do you think that could be a harbinger or harbinger or whatever that word is of things to come? You know, I feel like over the last couple of days I've heard Mike McCorky talk both ways, you know, initially, immediately after the game, we're asking them, could change his becoming, we were alluding, of course, to that right side of the offensive line. And you know, he's kind of left the door open, I thought with his initial comments and he said, well, it's easy to come in here and probably the right thing to say is everything's correctable.

3:06But in that was kind of like a telling the way he then continued that and he said, if you're making the same mistakes over again. And so I really thought that we could be seeing the switch over to Max the hornet chore. But then when we talked with Mike McCorky yesterday at his press conference, he was then kind of reversing course and saying that he felt like this group needs some more continuity, more snaps together, more time to grow together. So I don't really have a good sense. I came out of it thinking that it was going to be big max time and I came out of yesterday's press conference thinking maybe not. Like how much how much of the offense is woes, do you think could be fixed with the offensive line taking a step forward? I think we all have great expectations for this offensive line when you consider all the draft capital that's been invested there. I think we also all realize how young and how inexperienced and how little work they have together, but footballs and instant gratification sport, right? Nobody wants to hear this offensive line will figure it out.

4:07They just need a few weeks, even though that that could be. I'm not saying it definitely is, but that could be a reality. How big of a trickle down effect for this offense would be this offensive line taking a big step forward, starting this week and hopefully really growing together here in the first half of the season. Yeah, but it pretty simply this group should be the best position group on the team. When you've invested the number of first and second rom takes into this group, you know, you spent three first rom picks on tackles, a second rom pick on a center, two third rom picks on guards. It should be the best group on the team. And right now it's one of the worst. And that's a huge problem. You know, this dealers have had this philosophy. You know, you're not creating a lot of excitement on draft night when you're just drafting offensive line men. But the whole goal is that four years later, which is where they are within this process, you should be able to win games because of your offensive line. And right now I think that it's one of the biggest issues.

5:07So they've got to figure it out. They have to figure it out soon. Maybe it is going to just take a matter of time. Maybe we are being too impatient, but you know, I think it all starts with that. If you can't protect a 42 year old quarterback, because not as mobile as he once was, you're going to have and you're not running the ball at a high clip, you're going to have a hard time executing offense consistently. Let's shout running backs over here a little bit. So I really don't have any qualms with the Rico Dowdell other than past protection. But if you asked me this last year, the year before or training camp or yesterday, I still think Jalen Warren's just a better football player than him, more well rounded, hard to tackle. Maybe the most underrated back in the league. If they're both healthy, and I know that's an if at this point, I would go to maybe a two thirds Jalen one third Dowdell split as opposed to 50 50. Did you see that being in the cards? And then step two of this conversation is if Dowdell can't go, who else gets carried besides Warren?

6:07Yeah, it's a great question. I mean, I'm with you with the Jalen Warren thing. I totally am. You know, I was just watching through all the film again right before we had this call. I mean, there were a number of instances where it looked like Jalen created more on the ground than what was blocked for him. Oh, yeah. A lot of the loose of guy yards after contact. And then in particular, and then beyond just that, the past protection. If the steals were going to be in shotgun as much as they were in that last game, there is a night and day difference, I think, in terms of the past protection. You know, there were a number of instances where it looked like Jalen kind of bailed out the offensive line. And on the flip side, sometimes that the rego Dowdell left something to be desired. So I think, I felt like art to Smith never fully realize what he had in jail in Warren, just because jailing I think was injured maybe his first or second year. You know, I think that it is time to start treating jailing Warren like the legitimate number one running back. Yeah, I agree.

7:08Would it be Homer? Would it be Heidenright though? If Doudal can't go, I mean, they're not going to give him every carry. Yeah, I mean, I think it would be interesting to see if Doudal, they would have toughed out and go and it was interesting to me that he was able to come back and he was carted off the field. He sat in the front seat of a court, I guess he wasn't truly carted off in the quote unquote sense of it. Like you would think of it. But he was able to come back. If he's not, you know, I think I would think about activating lunacles. Yeah, like I really would. I think that if you're talking about the next best running back on the team period, I honestly think that it might be lunacles right now. Just ball carrier handing the ball on a traditional way. Yeah. Mike DeFamau of the athletic with us here on the Steelers audio network. Mike obviously a lot went wrong for the offense on Sunday and, you know, that was on the back of not their best performance in the opener against the Falcons either. It feels like another real element of this offense that just if you're going to see them turn things around and not turn into a top five offense in the league, but certainly climb

8:11out of the basement of NFL offensive standings. DK Metcaps can have to be a big part of that equation too. Yeah, the offensive line needs to be better. Yeah, you got to run the football more effectively, but you need a little bit more from your number one wide receiver as well. Yeah, more than a little bit more out of your number one wide receiver. You know, you need to play like a number one wide receiver because they spent twice to get him. You gave up a second round pick. That's spending once and then they gave him $33 million a year. He's the seventh highest paid wide receiver in the league right now. And you know, he also got the guaranteed money that it seems like they're unwilling to give Joey Porter, Jr. So on a number of levels, they've committed themselves to this player. They've taken a different approach to different path than what they've done in the past at least in terms of guaranteed money. And right now, Christian Gonzalez completely took him out of the game. And in the few instances when DK was able to create separation, he wasn't able to make the catch. And I think at this point, some of it's in DK's head. You know, when we asked McCarthy about some of these drop issues or just how much of

9:14it was self-inflicted, he talked about confidence. And I think right now, DK's not playing with much confidence at all. And I think that it's getting the point that it's almost like he has the yips. And so he's got to snap out of it because, you know, I mean, I think back to a conversation with Aaron Rodgers before the year when reporters were asking him about, you know, you got Michael Pitt and Jr. You drafted Jeremy Bernard. You keep talking up, Roman Wilson. And he was like, basically, stop right there. DK McCaff is our number one for a reason. We need to get him to football. And that remains as true now as when Aaron Rodgers said it initially. And he said you brought up Bernard and he played three snaps in week one, 55 snaps in week two with Pittman sidelined. I'm sure when Pittman comes back, whether it's this week or next, it'll be somewhere in between, but which direction do you lean? Do you think he's going to be a prominent member of the offense? I mean, I liked what I saw from him. And it was just appointing that he basically gifted the Patriots an interception and

10:14I heard Aaron Rodgers stats and maybe heard a little bit of the conference level that Rodgers hadn't in because up until that point, I think he was the lone bright spot on this offense. You know, I really liked the first catch that he made where he made it in traffic, absorb two really big hits and still stay on his feet and kept moving for a couple more yards. That was the kind of catch, I think, that earns the trust of a quarterback like Rodgers. And you saw it. Later that drive, you went to him two more times within that same drive, clearly starting to develop a little bit of confidence in Bernard. And I'd like to see him continue to get more. You know, I just think that he can create something for you. I think you can scheme up some things in terms of getting the ball into his hands. He's good yards after the catch for an offense that right now is kind of one dimensional. He just would give you a different type of threat. And so I would like to just see him continue to get more and more as the season goes on. I think you will. Mike, kind of spend on the block with you to the other side.

11:15I did think that the Steelers defense played pretty well on Sunday. They're the explosive plays that they have to clean up and they weren't just, you know, 1520 yard explosives. They were big chunky explosives. And that needs cleaned up. Like I said, but I thought other than that, I thought they played pretty well. I thought they limited Drake May. I thought they limited that run game outside of those two big chunk runs. I've really liked how Patrick Graham has used the edge rushers in the front and the rotation with those guys. I think Patrick Queen has played pretty good football so far to this season. It feels like Patrick Graham's really, you know, might be onto something with that defense. And if they continue to kind of gel and improve over these next couple weeks, that could be something for this team to continue to lean on while the offense figures it out. Yeah, I think that they really carried the team for most of that game. I think that they played very well in each of the first two games. And if anything, maybe they just wore down a little bit at the end of the last one. I think that they were better than the stats even suggest and the stats were pretty good

12:18overall, at least in terms of limiting the points, creating the splash plays. You know, and I think you're doing it in a variety of different ways in updating this defense that has needed it. You know, like you look at some of the sacks that they produced, you know, one of them, they got incredibly creative where they had cam Hayward lined up over the tackle and they had Alex Heismith over the guard. Then Alex Heismith basically stabs inside like he's going to rush and drops back. It's only a three man rush. Drake may doesn't know what to do. He ends up stepping up and Alex Heismith gets a sack. That'll go down as a sack for Alex Heismith, but that was a Patrick Graham sack. And it's plays like that, you know, another time where they had a disguise, non-traditional Tampa 2 out of a single high look led to another sack from TJ Watts. So I think I really like the way that he's modernized this defense, the way that he's deploying personnel in different ways, the way that he's creating one-on-one matchups for these

13:21talented ed rushers, in the way that he continues to show different types of things that I'm sure that, you know, the offenses can't get a beat on it. So all that said, huge tests this week, though, against Joe Burrow. You know, there's a big difference between shutting down a third string quarterback and Cooper Rush who gets himself benched in the second game. A Drake May who struggled a bit and a Joe Burrow offense that they've got, tons of weapons. Jamar Chase, T Higgins, just surrounded by talent. So, you know, I think a huge test for this defense, but I also love what I've seen to this point from that group. Yeah, I mean, Chase and Higgins are really the difference from this week to last, not that Burrow's any kind of slouch at all. He's phenomenal. But that brings me to the elephant in the room that we have to keep bringing up unfortunately, and that's Joey Porter, Jr. Are you buying that he's going to get revved up and potentially see the field in this game? Honestly, until I see Joey Porter, Jr. on the field in a Pittsburgh Steelers uniform, I'm going to remain skeptical.

14:22Yeah. Yeah. And because of where this where this has gone to this point and I mean, Jalen Ramsey flashed the two four after his sack that got nullified. I don't know if that was for back injury awareness or what, but I found I found that interesting and I mean, it's impossible to ignore the fact that they've Joey wanted to contract and didn't get one. Always a lot to ponder with our buddy Mike DeFabo. Make sure you're checking out his work, his coverage this week and every week in the athletic. Mike, great stuff is always man. Thank you for taking the time and we'll see you soon. All right guys, thank you for having me. I appreciate it. We appreciate you. There he goes. Mike DeFabo of the athletic. I'm with him on the Joey stuff. But we almost didn't ask because who knows right? Because who knows we didn't even really talk about it yesterday because well, you got a lot to download your thoughts from that game. But also who just got to wait and see what happens.

15:22I mean, I think that's the next real data point is what does he do in practice on Wednesday, but even that is going to be a little, you know, you're going to have to take it with a grain of salt for what it means for Sunday. Yeah, I think it goes out saying, I mean, if you look at the 17 games on the schedule, which ones you need them the most for, since that would be that would be the one, be the one that you would circle and say we really want that guy against these wide receivers. We've got plenty more to get to as we roll along here. I want to talk with Matt about some snap counts and some Tuesday rewatch some Tuesday rewind stuff here as we'll continue to discuss everything that happened that transpired Sunday up there at Gillette Stadium, just getting started on this Tuesday, West Euler, Matt Williamson, it is 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. What if we just got out of here and grab some Bud lights?

16:23But 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 a bush Bud Light beer St. Louis, Missouri. I used to have cable in and out, but I'm a 100% kind of fan. So I switched to Verizon Files. It's 100% fiber in and out 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 pigs. I told you they were building their own line. I win the bet. Get 100% fiber internet with Verizon Files 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. Let's go.

17:32Matt, I want to get into some snap count conversation with you here as we will tend to do on Tuesday's of this regular season. Before we do some big breaking news as according to pretty much every single insider in the national football league world, further testing reveal giants quarterback Jackson Darts knee injury is worse than initially thought the team in Dart are now facing the possibility of season ending knee surgery. And Matt, that is pretty significant and pretty tough news for the giants to stomach in just the second week of the season here. Yeah, I think people know I was not big on Dart coming out of Mississippi. And frankly, I thought his rookie season was vastly overrated. I mean, yeah, he's fun to root for and does some good things and some playmaker traits. Don't get me wrong. And week one, he looked like a different guy to me. He looked way more comfortable. Wasn't that Mickey Mouse lane, Kiffin vibe to him as much. It was an NFL offense and he was going through his reads.

18:35And I was starting to get pretty excited about him. Now, last night, you didn't see enough of them to even know. Sure. Didn't those two series. I think that's about it. I think he played 13 plays or something along those lines. But the way he was acting on the sideline and they kept saying he wanted to come back in and all this, you kind of thought, ah, maybe it's a week or two. This isn't great though. And oh, by the way, yeah, he's out the whole season. I mean, especially where the state of that team is, I never thought they were a contender even after week one, but they are a developmental squad trying to build around that guy. And I'll be honest, I mean, I expected a lot more out of James Winston than what we saw last night too. Like he went just like throwing the ball was a struggle for war. And maybe you'll get that now that he'll have time to prepare for the air. Number one, but they just gave him money too. They just extended them like we could go. It did not look good. Did not let me do it for James last night. And again, that's, that's a tough situation when your starter goes out so early in the game and kind of everything that you prepped for for the week goes out the window. Yeah.

19:36But that's a, that's a tough loss. That's it. It can, it can continue some of these young quarterbacks that you think, okay, you know, well, I guess Jane Daniels never really had to turn a corner because he had such a good rookie. He's easy to stay on the field. And now he can't stay on the field for two years in a row. And then Jackson Darts had the same problem. It's like these guys are playmakers, man. And I don't even fault Jackson Dart for what happened last night. You know, no, that wasn't him being reckless. Some of those guys is just, they're overly reckless and haven't, you know, toned that down. But that one last night, just an unfortunate hit and he ends up kind of getting thrown awkwardly into, into another line in there. And yes, certainly all the best for him. You hate to see that, especially so, especially so early in the season. We'll continue to, to monitor that obviously. You mentioned Jane Daniels, but it looks like Caleb Williams should be back sooner than later because that certainly didn't look good. No, you know, he's getting carted off with the, yeah, the top over his head. Yeah. And our same Arnold went down in the opener. Yeah, locks. Hold his own. Tyler Murray is. Good point. Right.

20:36So yeah, listen, it always is the league really hates that. There's a thing. I was just thinking that in the back of my mind, if you're the NFL, the last guys you aren't going down or quarterbacks, especially potential young and up in commerce who could be that next wave of great quarterbacks in the league, that's a big part of what drives viewership is that quarterback play for sure. Matt, what do you say we take a look at some snap counts get back into some stealers stuff here? Yeah. In this hour. I did this yesterday and there weren't a lot of strange things. It popped out to me like, what were they thinking there? I mean, I thought it was pretty well distributed. I know they lost and all those things. But you know, 50 snaps for Jalen Warren and just 18 for Rico Dotto. But some of that is there was some injury stuff in the absence of doubt. The two plays for Travis Homer on offense to carries for him. Mm-hmm. There. Not a lot of Robert. I think Mike had a good point though about luniches. Yeah. Yeah. You could call him up for free for one game of doubt. It makes a ton of sense. Yeah. In terms of just not the entire skill set and the special teams acumen in that stuff.

21:42But just in terms of if you were to take Warren and doubt all off the board, who do you want carrying the stealers? Carrying the wall. Because I want those carries to go up in a meeting game on Sunday. Loonickles would be the guy. Me too. Hide and right has a more complete skill set. Homer has a more complete skill set. But in terms of who you want running the football. Yeah. If you take special teams out of the equation to I don't think it's more of value. I don't think it's much of a conversation even. No. I agree there. I think he's much more equipped in that regard. Just two snaps for Robert Tanya and didn't see a ton of that 13 personnel. And I don't know what to make of this Matt. The one thing that really stood out to me on offense was two snaps for Riley Noah Kowski. That's the one that stood out to me too. Is it still just early days? Did we maybe put too much stock into one of the fullback would be in this off? I think he played 12 in the first game. He played, he played significantly more in the first game. It was definitely more than two. You're trailing this in this game for the most of it. I thought part of that to a lot of 11 personnel. I'd have to double check, but I think he in week one played more with the lead.

22:45You know, I mean, which I get, but it was not like you're down 30 in this game. I mean, maybe it's just a game slam specific thing that they just didn't think of fullback was required. You know, that's a dime only type defense. They played against it. That's why I thought they might do some 22 just to try to get them out of time. Yeah. No, we'll see, but that one, that was one of the notable one to me too. And then once again, Matt, and this kind of drives home what we were, another thing we were chatting a little bit with Mike DeFabo about 68 out of 70 snaps for DK Metcalf. Yeah, they don't even give him breathers really. But even week one, he played 100% of the offensive snaps. He played every but the kneel down, every but the kneel down. Yeah, yeah. And then he plays 68 out of 70 97% of the snaps in week two. He's the number one wide receiver. He's not leaving the field. No, you got, you got to find a way to get him going. Yeah, he needs to be a consistent producer every week in that, at that pace. Yeah. And I think you and I, we've had this conversation many times.

23:45DK Metcalf is not one of the bona fide wide receiver ones in the NFL. There's not 32 of those guys walking the planet. The guy coming down is this week. Yeah, exactly right. And, you know, but having said that, you need him to be your number one wide receiver. There's a balance there between, I mean, at least you need trustworthy and consistent production, you know, and and and consistent hands and, and all, and all that stuff. And they have clearly have no intentions of DK Metcalf going anywhere. And I think that's the right move. I think that's the right decision considering what you have on that offense and, and what you have in that wide receiver room, but you, you got to get an uptick there. Hopefully Michael Pittman will be back this weekend. And hopefully next couple of days we hope we get some good pitman news. But again, even a lot of that stuff, no Pittman going up against the guy like Gonzalez, you got to control what you can control. Yeah. Oh, I couldn't agree more. I think that's dead on about making any excuses for Metcalf because it's been a long streak here that he has not been real productive.

24:47But I do think Gonzalez is about as bad a matchup as you could get for him, but Gonzalez definitely won the one on one stuff. Yes, he did. It's one thing to, to lose the one on one stuff and then it's another to lose it decisively. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you lose it, but it's 60 40. Okay. Yeah. At least you landed some punches. Yeah, right. Yeah. It's 65 35. At least you got a couple shots in and made a couple plays too, but that was not the case on Sunday. No, I'm not sure if you mentioned it or not, but I did find it not worthy that Roman Wilson and Bernard played equal snaps. They were both at 50 five. Oh, yeah. We did. I did not mention that. Different usage. Yeah, yeah, yeah. With Pittman, Jr. Yeah, and Skoronic got in a little bit too. Yes, he did. Skoronic played 15 offensive snaps to go with his 18 special teams reps. Matt defense three guys played every single snap, Queen, Ramsey, Samuel, and Briskler missed just one snap 54 out of the 55. Dean, a heavy share to he played 47 of the 55 snaps for 85%.

25:47I didn't. So I didn't realize he came out at the end of the game though, because if you go, if you scroll down, Everett played, I didn't realize that in the moment either. No, I mean, at that point, they were losing heavy. Was that like a sit in Roger situation that I don't know? Is he going to pop up on the injury report tomorrow? I'm just curious because I didn't realize watching it live that he, there was a stretch that he was out. Yeah. And you're right. Maybe some of that was just what we saw with the offense. You know, this game's out of hand. Something's bugging them. Get them out now. A couple of guys out there. Maybe you want to see a little bit of Dalen Everett and some. Yeah, that makes sense to live rep situations. But I think it's pretty clear who they kind of view as the main stays in that secondary for the second straight week. Patrick Queen on the field for every single snap in the second straight week. I actually thought he played pretty well, Matt. We can get into a little more of that when we do our Tuesday rewind in just a few minutes here. Peyton Wilson, 43 out of 55 snaps. So not quite to the same extent that he was in week one, but still close to 80% of the

26:47snaps. Yeah. I expect that to continue. Cam led the way with the defensive line. 41% of the snaps. Benton 36. A little higher percentage for Cam. Sorry. 41 snaps. Part of me. Yes. For 75% of the place. Little higher percentage for Cam than it was in week one. Keanu Benton 36 snaps. That's 65%. I thought he played really well too. Of the defense of plays. I'm with you. I thought I thought Keanu Benton and Patrick Queen were bright spots. If you go back and watch the defense. Jenkins. He had a good time. He was really good. He was really, really good in a lot of different roles. But more off the edge in this game than in week one. Where did Sawyer come in? Today's Jack Sawya. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me.

27:48Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. Me. He demons snaps. I don't know if it was five percent of the system. Thank you. He has me. I found a good reason how it Vermont plays. It's a very, very good formation to see his talent in the FF想 you think he plays in reminiscing gotten here and realized how to be better and would like to see more Terence now. He can be better. He slopes and shoves up to that talent and new näm't streaming anymore. Things I was thinking about, maybe? That's a big surprise. He's a bigger body guy. Yeah. But I'd like it if that number was 12 instead of 19. And again, I don't have a problem, Sawyer, but everyone I think would agree with me. He's a distant force of those of that room. I want him on the field in situations, but maybe 12 snaps instead of 19. But if that means her big's not or heism is not, I don't know. I wouldn't mind that going down. Why a black 20 snaps, 36% Sebastian Joseph Day, D day, just seven. It felt like more. I feel like he was making plays in those seven snaps that he was out there.

28:50He was partially to blame for the long Henderson run. For the long Henderson run. I wonder if they kind of did need it. Yeah, if they kind of penalized him for that. That's something when our next segment we should talk more about that play too in the Tuesday rewind, because I think there was a lot of subs on the field for that. I've got a lot of people that made me aware of it. And I, everybody Chris Hallock did a really good breakdown of it. And I watched that play over and over the way he broke it down. And they were right. The defense of front was all backups. That's kind of low hanging fruit though. I mean, like people were a lot of people came at me on Twitter. Why would the coaching staff that early in the game not have at least one starter on the field? Okay, but that's a little one day morning quarterbacking because there's a lot of snaps for that. The friends of front does not have a starter on the field. Yes. And they're deep and they're doing it on purpose. And we're, you can't praise them for keeping what? And you know, Cam fresh and you know snap counts down. And then when something doesn't go right, just crush them for it. Now, maybe you could have one of those guys out there.

29:51Does he bust that same wrong run? Maybe, you know, it's a huge hole. Yeah. And a lot of really key blocks for the Patriots. It was. They, one thing was really interesting that Chris laid out on his all 22 is one of their, I think it's the Mario Davis. So there's huge hole and we obviously don't have the visuals here, but the huge hole. Can you get us a grease board to work with? And we know Henderson is a instant accelerator home run guy. You talk about that all week. I mean, that was, that's what he does really well. But the Mario Davis comes over and blocks. I think it was brisker, one of the safeties and running back blocking in the, in the or wide receiver blocking in the running game is so unbelievably important. And he not only see block the one stealer safety. So at this point, Henderson's got to like the second level, the third level, but that safety runs into the other safety. So Davis ends up blocking both safeties on the same attempt, which was kind of bad luck, but also really nice move by them too.

30:52Once somebody's got to tip your cap to the opponent too. I mean, that was a very well blocked play. It sure was. It sure was. There's a little taste of your Tuesday rewind before we get to it here on the other side. And then yeah, I think, I mean, five for echoes, one for Spears Jennings. And then a bunch of special teams. Yeah. But back to Joseph Day, I'd be shocked if he's in the doghouse or, you know, I think he's a better player than white. Black. I mean, I would rather those snap counts be switched going forward. You know, if you were to lay it out, found this out and threw it on Matt stats. If you check my Twitter feed, it's pretty crazy about Spears Jennings. His special teams tackles. He has seven already. And I think no one else in the league has more than four. I mean, it's more than five. I mean, it's pretty good. No one else in this upcoming game is more than three. No one else on the Steelers has more than two. Like I think Killebrew has led the league and special teams tackles with like 12. I mean, Spears Jennings has in a season.

31:53He has seven already. That's an ungodly number. That's a special team's demon. Yeah. And it showed up. You know, he's a very, very core impressive special teams player. I like that. Let's talk a little more specifics from that game on Sunday. When we return and do our Tuesday rewind our Tuesday rewatch. I want to talk more about Patrick Queen and Keanu Benton. I also want to talk about and I referenced this mat yesterday. But I went back and watched some of those moments where I felt like Aaron Rogers had the extra second to hold onto the football and drive something down. Field and got rid of it quickly. Let's discuss some of all that film study film notes stuff. When we return on the other side to close down the first hour, West Ulyr Matt 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.

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34:15All right, Matt, close down the first hour here. Something that we tend to do on Tuesdays throughout the regular season. A little Tuesday rewind, Tuesday rewatch. Monday is just a lot of downloading our thoughts and our reactions. Yeah. And I don't want to call them knee jerk, because we're sitting there and watching the game. But maybe initial reactions, first reactions is the way to describe it. Yeah. Then we get an opportunity to do it. Try not to be too emotional on Monday, but you can't help it sometimes. Yeah, absolutely. And we try to, you know, then kind of rewatch some stuff, revisit some stuff. You get a little more time on day evening, Tuesday morning and afternoon. And then we kind of come in and discuss some final thoughts and observations from the Steelers past performance. I want to start with the good, Matt. And I tell you what, I was very impressed. Patrick Queen, I thought played really well. And I thought this is the second straight week that he's done so. But man, Keanu Benton, I think is flying under the radar. How well he's played these first two weeks of the season. I agree.

35:15And it made some waves last night on Twitter. And I'm not super active on Twitter, but I forget who posted a very nice rep that Benton had. He had this like spin move and was in the backfield. And I tweeted it and said something like, I think he's on the verge of start him. It got all kinds of likes and for you on blah, blah, blah. I'm like, I don't know why that's controversial if you watch him, especially with a little bit of a roll change, not taking on doubles at the nose, past rushers in particular. And he's a good past rusher. Yeah, he is a good past. He's got some tools on his belt, man. Yes, I'm not saying he's the next cam Hayward, but more and more. And I was happy about the contract when they gave it to him. I think that's going to be a bargain. I just, I think he's played really well. He is kind of flying under the radar because his last name's not Hayward or water, high Smith or her big, you know, but he got a contract for a reason this off season two. And that roll change that you mentioned, I think has been a big part of it. I don't think he square peg round hole anymore. No, square peg square hole.

36:17And it's shown through 120 minutes of. And he still plays some nose, but I mean, it's not the same. You don't ask him to be Casey Hampton by any stretch. You know, right? Yes, exactly right. And then sticking with the defense, Matt. And I referenced this, I think a little bit with with the FABO. And I think that's the biggest explosive given up by the defense. Yeah, not, not ideal. Not ideal, not the end of the world. It was more so the type of explosive. So, and we, we say this a couple of times a year, but I think it always bears repeating. And explosive. Really my only critical aspect of the performance by the defense. That's it. And at first, I kind of brushed it aside because I was like, okay, often, that's what NFL teams do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Offences are setting up to hit the explosives because they know so often that's the difference between winning and losing. Everyone knows turnover differential. Everyone knows sack differential. Explosive play differential is kind of the new really big indicator of success in a game. You're going to hit some. You're going to surrender some. That's that's going to happen. Absolutely. The six that they surrendered though, man, they were explosive play is ten or more on the ground.

37:19Mm hmm. Twenty or more through the air. The explosive plays of the Steelers surrendered on Sunday. It wasn't a 14 yard run. It wasn't a 22 yard pass. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it was a 30 some yard run. They're on a table. A 20 some yard run, a 60 some yard pass, a 30 some yard pass. Yeah, you can give up explosives. And Anderson would have taken that 100. Absolutely. Absolutely. No one's got to that right. You can give up some explosives. It's going to happen. No one's going to have a clean bill of health in that regard over a full 60 minutes. Yeah. But they can't be explosive explode. I mean, those were the valedictorians of explosive plays. Maybe I'll even do it from that stats, but there were six of them, you said, and they were all pretty substantial. There wasn't like a 14 yard gain in there. I mean, they were all substantial. I'm just in their 30 plus maybe one of the runs was like 28. Yeah, yeah. But some of the things that come up to me was that stats are just like, what percentage of their yardage allowed was based on those six plays. I bet it was really high. You know, if you think through it, I mean, it had to be 60 70%.

38:21And those plays count. Of course, you can't be like, well, just forget about the home run. The home run, right, right, right. But still they were big ones. But again, they weren't just 14s or whatever. If you hold Henderson to a 14 yard gain instead of a 30 some yard touchdown, maybe that drive plays out differently. If dogs play, if dogs is a 27 yard gain instead of a 60 yard gain, maybe that plays out differently. Yeah. You can give up explosives. You can't give up grand slam explosives. That's a great point. And I bet it is a large percentage of the total yardage they gave up without a doubt six plays. I mean, Matt, because they did their share of tackles for loss. They had a lot of plays that were only one to yard gain. Drake may barely pass for over 200 yards. I bet you. The Hobbes was 60 plus. And the two other ones were 30 something yarders, I think. So that's like, so it might have been what I should go back and I could go back and double check this for tomorrow. But more than I think now that we're talking this out, more than half of Drake may has passed yardage came off of three. And I bet the Russian yard is even higher percentage probably even higher.

39:22Yeah, I bet there are about 75% of the past. I'm sure someone scribbled in a town. It wouldn't take long to figure it out. No, we're all not going to do it on the air. But I bet 75% of their yardage came on six plays. And so instead of giving them that yard and make it 40% and 75% and that's going to go a long way. Then you're right. You can't just pretend like they didn't happen. Right. They did. They did. They did. I always love it when people are like, well, if you take away that 75 yard touchdown run, they did a really good job stop in the run. Yeah, but that play. Right. The fact that play probably counts more than that. Right. Anything else on the defensive side that you wanted to throw in there before we switch. Um, a minor negative is I thought Samuel who we've been very, very happy with took a small step backward. And I think that's a direct correlation with more man coverage. I mean, he's just more of a zone guy. And that also lends itself to the poor girl conundrum and all those type of things. But I'm not worried about Sam.

40:22I didn't think he had a bad game. I thought he was mostly responsible for that dog 60 some yard or two. I mean, so I mean, that's a, yeah, a small thing over the course of playing basically every snap over to two games. Um, defensively. Now you mentioned Benton. I thought that was a good one. We talked about snap counts with Wilson just going down a little, but that doesn't really bother me. Um, no, I thought it was a very good defensive game. I did too. Yeah. I mean, if you just take away the six plays. So I still I still think it was it was a, it was a, it was a varsity level performance from the defense. I agreed. So new DVOA stats come out every Tuesday. Steelers were number one in Bunks. They're the top ranked defense in DVO. I was a little shocked by that. Atlanta is not the hardest competition in the world, but they were 31st in offensive DVOA. Yeah. A lot more to complain about in this side of the ball. It's, it's hard to find positives on this side of the ball after that.

41:22Yes, it is. Yes, it is. Here we go, though, Matt. This might be one for you. And you know, it's funny. I mentioned this yesterday. I mentioned how I thought there was a couple instances where, uh, where Aaron Rogers, the protection held up. He got rid of the ball really quickly when he didn't have to. And people were very upset in the, uh, in the comments and the mentions, right? Of, why are you blaming Aaron Rogers? And what do you want him to do? Stay in there and get killed. Yeah. All right. Listen, people calm down. All right. This is, we're not doing hot takes social media garbage here. All right. We're having conversation. We're having conversations like adults. If you want the hot takes social media garbage, go find it. Leave us alone. That's not to say that Aaron Rogers was terrible. And Aaron Rogers was the lead reason they lost. And Aaron Rogers is, is a big problem and all this stuff. That's just to say there were a couple opportunities where I thought they had a chance to drive the football down the field. And I understand why Aaron Rogers was getting rid of that thing quickly. I'm not saying that he was insane. And why is he doing that? The offense line was putrid. And he took a couple massive hits.

42:22And obviously at age 42, heck, I don't care if you're 27. You don't want to take those kind of hits. But especially at age 42. But having said that, Matt, there was, there was a lot of things that I thought I was going to do. Matt, there was, there was a couple instances and one that really stood out to me was late in the third quarter. You had a second and five situation. So you picked up five yards with Jalen Warren on first down. You're sitting, you're set up and second and manageable where you have a lot of us. You and I have talked about right now. Yeah, yeah. You want second and second and manageable because then everything's on the table. And my goodness, it was maybe the best rep that DK Metcalf had all day. He had Christian Gonzalez burnt on the outside. And he had his hand up calling for the football and Rogers quickly dumped it short to Ben Scronic for a two yard game. I'm going to go back and double check that for a two yard game that's set up like a third and two. Again, this is not me, all you people on social media and in the YouTube comments who want everything to be so black and white. This is not me saying Aaron Rogers sucks and how did he blow that?

43:22Of course. And anything that was scrutinized every rep a quarterback has. There's open receivers sometimes they don't see your release of ball. And in fact, I actually kind of look at this as a positive because I say because maybe when they go back and watch the film, they'll be like, you know what, there were some plays to be made out there. We just didn't make them not to excuse the offensive performance, not to say that actually if a couple things went different, it would have been a really good off. No, they losing that game on that day. 95% of time. 95 out of 100 times. Yeah. There were there were a couple times where Bernard was open where DK was open where the offensive line hell where moose was open down the scene. And Aaron just didn't hit that hit them. I would expect that to not be a trend. I would expect that to get corrected going forward. Yeah. To me is encouraging. It is. And I'm trying to, you know, obviously people have been very hard on Metcalf and I get that. But just again, I'm not making excuses for the team or for him. But if Roger throws him that ball, how much different does his day look? You know, one play.

44:22I mean, it's kind of like an offensive tackle who's perfect all day and gets beat once. I got I was terrible. Yeah. The other way too. It can work the other way too. Right. 50 yard gain and all of a sudden. All right. Here we go. Some of those sins are annoying. Yeah. I'm amended or whatever. Yeah. And maybe it's, you know, maybe the final score is still 20 to 10. He's still my losing right. You're still not, he still didn't have a great game, but it's still okay. That was in there. You know. So again, I kind of I know a lot of people, a lot of people yesterday were like, what the hell's the matter with you? I'm kind of looking at that as a positive. Yeah. Yeah. Because I think there were there were more, there was more plays to be made out there for the offense. And then I thought, you know, leaving Foxboro on Sunday night or doing the show with you yesterday. You know, a few hours removed from from the game. And that to me is encouraging. And it's going to happen again this week. And hopefully they'll be, they'll be able to take advantage of it. Yeah. So I don't know if you have more on your list. No, that was that was about it. Yeah. Okay. Okay.

45:22One thing I wanted to talk briefly about though is their past protection in this game. Okay. I don't know him. I guess he's also in the media, but a fellow named Tommy Jaggy puts these out. And I've been retweeting them where here's the all 22 of everyone of Falpton who's past right, our past protection snaps. Here's everyone of cooks. And when you isolate them, it's different. When I'm sitting there in my lazy boy like everyone else is I'm not at the game. I'm immediately like everyone going boy, this aligns really a problem. Past protections terrible. But when you isolate every player like a coach does or in an all 22 scenario and I bring up the what Tommy put out just because it's real easy and that takes you four minutes to watch 30 past protection. That is great. Now you can get all those condensed view type things now. Well, first of all, they drop back a bazillion times. Some people are going to get beat once in a while. You're not going to pitch no hitters all the time if you drop back 50 times. You know what I mean? Like the other guys get paid to.

46:23But when you go through it and you watch each one of the starting offensive lineman's I'm just talking about past protection. Cook played a lot better than I thought he did. Yeah. I mean, I still think he's not as pretty as a hauntress going to be. I mean, he's a stiffer athlete, you know. But he didn't he wasn't consistently getting beat. I've seen many mixed reviews of how Faltan who played in protection. I thought it was very good. I mean, frankly, I thought he moved really well. He is kind of nursing some sort of injury member. I'm not making excuse for any guys. But when you isolate them all, Frazier got beat a little more than I expected on first blush. Their detacles were really good. Anderson had a very rough day. But of the five, I'm only talking about protection. Anderson's the only one to me that I thought, oh, he really hurt the theme on that day. The other four, they weren't monews and fanica out there, but they were a lot better than you think. But their blitz picked up was bad.

47:24And they blitzed a lot. And we've had a lot of conversation. Oh, last week after you barely saw any blitz against the Falkens by the right. And it was the first time since he's been a stealer that dowdles past protection stuff that I've warned people about was questionable. Either getting the wrong guy or not. A lot of times it's just not getting the right angle or picking up the right guy. But a lot of their blitz stuff was a problem. And they're going to need to spend some time on it. And we had such a long conversation going to Atlanta. Well, no one blitzes Rogers. Well, they're gonna. You know, you put something on tape. It's a problem. They're gonna. Right. They absolutely are. And I tell you what as much I love Warren and I want to throw him the ball. He's going to have to stay in the past block. You know what I mean? So their blitz pick up stuff was problematic. And I think you and I have talked plenty because we started talking about it down the stretch last season of how improved the Cincinnati Bengals offensive line is.

48:24Yeah. And has been that defensive line that completely reworked defensive line with playing great through two games. And the base is is playing great through two games as well. So we'll obviously have. I don't know if they'll blitz a lot. Yeah. They might not need to. They might not need to. Right. But the blitz pick ups and stuff were problematic for the Steelers. And that could be a jelling thing too with the O line. You know, we talk so much about the O line playing together all those things. Blitz pick up can be hard. I mean, because the beauty of blitz is it from a defensive perspective is. Know the protection and challenge the weaknesses of said protection. And you know what, if you struggle with it for one week, Matt, it can be in anomaly. It can be an omelie, right? But if you start to do it two weeks in a row, then it becomes a trend. But if you struggle with it once, you're going to see it a couple of times. Exactly. Right. Until you prove that you can handle it. Yeah, put that to bed now. You know, right. They're going to have to do that on Sunday for sure. And I've had some of the falls on Rogers too. I mean, going forward like, hey, you've got him. You know, that kind of stuff. Yeah, absolutely. I'm sure we will talk plenty more about that as the week rolls along and we get closer and closer to that clash with Cincinnati.

49:27That's an hour in the books. Another hour to go fantasy football focus to lead us off an hour number two. You'll learn Williams and it's the drive. Steelers nation radio on the Steelers audio network. 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, Inconsign money using Zell. Wow. Colleges about getting smarter, right? Give them financial independence and yourself peace of mind. Stop by your local branch. Call 835-2265 or visit STBank.com To send money with Zell, both parties must have an eligible checking or savings account. Terms and conditions apply. S&T Bank. Member FDIC.