Drive10.12.26Hr1: Colts Recap

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Steelers Nation Radio.

Good afternoon, Steeler Nation. It's The Drive on the Steelers Audio Network. Wes Shuler and Matt Williamson with you here for the next two hours on this Victory Monday. As the Steelers take down the Colts 34-22 yesterday at Accresher Stadium. Matt, a whole lot to get into, always, as there is on a Monday. But that one was a lot of fun.

That's a nifty t-shirt you got there.

It's funny you say that.

There must be a story behind that.

Mr. TV, of course, intrepid producer of this video program, Tyler Vee. sorry, intrepid video producer of this program. I got a little dyslexic there for a second. Anyways, if you're not watching on YouTube, if you're just, uh, on audio format, uh, I am, I'm wearing a shirt that, uh, is victory donut Monday, uh, here with some hypo, hypo cycloids.

Yep. Yep.

The story behind this. And it's funny. As soon as I walked in today, uh, I didn't see any donuts today. First, no donuts because they're all gone. I tell you what, man, that's the one downside of moving up to the big leagues with you. You know, when I used to have to be in here.

At like nine in the morning, they had stuff still around.

Pizza and donuts and all that. By the time you and I get.

Here, it's just like either laying around or it's long. Yeah.

It's something that's soggy or it's a, you know, peanut butter filled pretzel jar. That's already three fourths of the way. It's just a bunch of germs and nasty. But two years ago, when I started producing in the locker room, which was, which was, uh, Max Starks, of course, he's still on that program and our dearly departed brother, Craig Wolfley, uh, They used to do a thing, and I think Max still does it with Willie and Rob now, where if the Steelers win on Sunday, you get donuts Monday morning.

They used to call it Victory Donut Monday, Wolf and Starks. One of our great listeners and friend in real life, the DeSantis family. Marty is the mom, their son James. I've been kind enough to get to hang out with them and meet them regularly. uh, every year at training camp. They went back with Wolf for years and years.

Yeah.

You brought them up before and you've told the donut story, but I didn't know anything about this t-shirt.

So we would always do, you know, victory donut Monday. And so two years ago, Um, Marty reached out to me on Instagram and she was like, Hey, if it's cool with you guys, I got something I want to send to the studio, the studio for you. I just need the studio address. And so I gave it to her and, you know, a few days later in the mail, show up these t-shirts they're in Steelers colors, all that stuff.

Victory donut Monday.

That's awesome. That's like our cool mugs.

Exactly right. I meant to Matt where this, uh, what would have been two Mondays ago, uh, when the Steelers beat the Bengals because of course it was a victory donut Monday, but our guy Wolf had gone into the hall of honor, you know, just 24 hours, 24 hours prior. So I meant to bust out this t-shirt two weeks ago on that Monday and kind of the spirit of the thing.

Yeah.

Wolf would appreciate it.

And honor Wolf. Totally forgot. Okay.

Busy.

I've got, I've got, I've got two kids. Like just hand up. I totally forgot. And so today I wasn't going to let the opportunity pass. So I took notice my victory donut Monday shirt on here.

Well-deserved as a nice win.

It certainly was Matt 34 to 22 against the Indianapolis Colts. And I think we have to start the conversation with the Steelers offense and with the running back that you, especially you, but I think a lot of us have been screaming about getting him more involved, making him a focal point of this offense.

Yeah.

And they really had to the last two weeks and it's really started to pay off. My goodness, what a day Jalen Warren, what an afternoon Jalen Warren had on the North Shore yesterday.

Yes, he's a very good football player.

I mean, whether it's passing game, running routes, pass blocking, handing the football, outside zone, inside zone, man blocking schemes, whatever the position entails, he's really good at it. And I was just talking with Mark Madden and he was asking me, you know, like, where's Warren in the pecking order running backs?

I'm like, Wow. I mean, we've only been three weeks, but I've been really high on him. But, I mean, he's definitely in the top ten. I mean, he's not B. John and Gibbs.

He's third in scrimmage yards right now behind B. John and Gibbs. I don't know if you knew that.

It doesn't surprise me.

I knew he was on pace for like 1,900 going into that game, which is Lev Bell kind of numbers. And he had a better game than that, so it had to go up. So, yeah, I think that's a wonderful place to start. But I'm sure he would even tell you, or any running back would tell you, that's a hard position to do it alone. I mean, this was a pretty much a group effort across the board on offense. And I really think they're starting to find an identity and one that we've been pushing.

For, for weeks of be big, be nasty.

You know, don't take Darnell Washington off the field because nobody wants to deal with him at all. I thought Bernard was a nice upgrade over Pittman.

Flat out led the team and targets.

Yeah.

And I definitely want to have a rookie conversation at some point of the next two hours or tomorrow or whatever. I think that's really encouraging. Might have been Rodgers' best game as a stealer. I mean, there's things about pro football focus I can take or leave, but this one just is really smart by them, is they have a completion percentage.

Where they get rid of spikes. Yes. They get rid of throwaways.

Throwaways, yep.

If a ball's batted down, not interceptions or bad things, but like things where you're not even really trying to complete.

The pass, drops.

Mm-hmm.

Rogers completed 85% of his passes when looked at in that manner.

Wow. 85%.

And the ball came out quick. He didn't drive the ball down the field a ton, but it was where it needed to be. I just heard today that the Steelers lead the league in yards after the catch by like 100 yards. I don't know how much it is, but it's a wide margin. They're a distant first, which, as we always say, is a quarterback stat. Not that their guys after the catch, including Warren, aren't really, really good.

But I think the offense and maybe the long week helped, as well as having a couple games under their belt. And McCarthy knows what he's doing in this regard. Has a pretty high floor now and is a pretty buttoned-up unit that is really finding itself.

Well said. And I think you and I and a lot of savvy people, or maybe just patient people, have been talking about how It's going to take some time. That doesn't mean that the first couple weeks don't matter or anything like that. All that it means is it's going to take some time for all of it to come together. The offensive line, the new coaching staff, the new pieces on this offense, the rookies, everything.

Wasn't a lot of preseason reps.

Wasn't a lot of preseason reps. Training camp, we know Mike McCarthy kind of is on the very low end of the spectrum of physicality and tackling and those things in training camp. But, Matt, if you look at it quietly now, the last three weeks, the Steelers' offense has scored 34 points, 24 points, 30 points.

Yeah.

That's top of the league stuff.

Even if you break out like yards per carry, yards per drive. I mean, any little metric you want. It's not like it's just a fluky big play here and there. It's efficient, too. It's explosive and efficient.

It absolutely is, and it's been a lot of fun to watch, honestly. And I thought Jalen Warren was the straw that stirred that drink, but you're right, it was a team effort. You got a lot from your tight ends.

Yes.

While DK Metcalf on the stat sheet, just one carry for 11 yards, one reception, sorry, three receptions for 12 yards. Man, and I know this is not what you're... He still chips in, though. It's not what you're paying him for, and it's not what you want to be necessarily... kind of at the forefront of what he did well on a Sunday. My goodness was his downfield blocking huge on a couple of those Steelers plays. particularly that Jalen Warren 80-yard reception on the Steelers' first offensive play from scrimmage.

DK Metcalf took two defensive backs out of that play. Got one for Jalen Warren to seal off the edge, and then one got the second guy so that Jalen Warren could take that thing to the house. I like the way you said it.

There were a couple plays.

Washington took out two dudes at one. That wasn't even uncommon on that day. They put guys on the ground.

Aside from youth, what do the Steelers have on their offensive line? physicality yeah if you look at the wide receiver position DK Metcalf big physical body you look at the tight ends I they have.

Bernard throws his weight around.

Is not a jitterbug you know for not being the biggest guy I wouldn't call him small either he's maybe you've used that to describe Jalen Warren Jalen Warren's he's not really a big back he's not really a small back he's he's.

Just that line he's just kind of that line he's.

The you must be this tall to ride this ride And I think there's some of that that can be said for Jeremy as well and excited to see how he's going to grow here in the coming games, in the coming weeks. But it feels like an offense that has found their identity, and that is we're going to be physical, we're going to be big, and if we can hit it, we know that we can do the 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 play drives if we have to.

Yeah.

But if we can start hitting these explosives too, these one play, these three or four play drives, that's when we're starting to average 30 points a game.

And you start to really assert. There's also, you know, Wolf would like this.

You start to assert your will after a while, too, and people start to get sick of playing against you.

Did you see the Mason McCormick clip that's been going around?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You and I talked about these guys having a touch of the jerk in them.

Especially the two guards.

A little bit of a-hole in those guys. And you absolutely love it. It's starting to shine through.

It sets a trend.

Sets a trend.

Sets a tone.

And that's the kind of stuff that, You might not reap the rewards in the first quarter, but if you do it well over the course of 60 minutes, you're going to be finishing guys off in the final 10, 15 minutes. And you know this is something Wolfe and Tunch would love to. That's the way an offense wants to finish a game.

Exactly.

It's just assert their will, just beat you up, ground and pound, takes you back to the Jerome Bettis days. you know it's that's what that's.

A helpless feeling for a defense.

That's what it was kind of reminded me in the fourth quarter there of like if you squint right now is that bill cower and jerome bettis and alan fanica and those guys out.

There cower never lost a lead you know i mean that's got to bring the closer on your face yes i think all that stuff is highly uh important and really developing in the right direction And I think Rogers above the neck is really understanding that too. I mean, in terms of keeping the ship on schedule and, you know, I can lean on this.

Um, there's still criticisms.

I mean, as good as they've been running the ball, I think, I still think their past percentage is higher than I'd like it to be. I mean, and frankly, I don't think the Colts are a very good defense, but you made them look like a pretty bad defense, which I love, you know, and you know, their defensive tackles are good players and they were moving backwards. Um, You're going to have to do it against Vita Vea here in a week or so and see how that goes.

But I think what they do travels and is sustainable not only for the coming weeks, but for the next five years.

You know what I mean?

That's the really exciting part. You start to kind of extrapolate.

This offseason could be a fun conversation about where this team is.

Steelers' starting offensive line right now is the same age as a couple NCAA offensive lines.

Yeah, right. That's crazy.

I shared that stat with you. Virginia, University of Virginia, has the oldest average age offensive line in college football. The Steelers is six months older on average.

And a lot of those guys have been in the league.

A reasonably long time. It's not like these guys are just rookies.

And maybe Dunker's a starter next year. And that number goes.

Down even a little bit more.

Yeah, no, great call. And so there's a lot to like. It is, Matt, it's why we're all so enthralled with the National Football League. I mean, you lose in Cleveland and it feels like the sky is falling and this team's going to unravel and you're looking at mock drafts and could we pick in the top 10 and all that?

And then you go and you kind of soundly, comfortably beat the Colts. You're back above 500. You're second place in the division, right? You know, one game behind the Baltimore Ravens. Hey, thanks a lot, Tua and the Falcons. Really appreciated that one last night.

I thought Atlanta had them right where they wanted them.

I thought they had them right where they wanted them. And now we're all looking and we're like, man, look at this offense. And that's three straight games in a row. And you've got a lot to build on and a lot to grow with.

Yeah.

Man, Aaron, I know you kind of mentioned them there in that kind of PFF metric of your actual pass attempts.

Yeah.

Um, but I thought he was, he was exactly what you need from a 42 year old future hall of famer yesterday.

Yeah.

Most, there was once or twice pressure a little bit better.

Once or twice where he extended the play correctly, but I thought he did a much better, only took one sack. You know, you and I always talk about how that's on both the offensive line and the quarterback sacks are not just an offensive line stat. I thought Aaron Rodgers was a smooth operator. He was exactly, he was exactly who the Steelers need him to be. He made the throws and the plays when he needed to, he just got rid of it and kind of, you know, played a secondary role when he needed to.

Yeah.

That's, that's how the quarterbacks at that age, at that point of their career have, have high level success.

He kind of had that experienced, confident point guard feel to him. I don't need to score 40 myself. You know, I think that's exactly where he.

Wanted to be.

And I think he's very, Trusting, compared to last year, I think he's much more trusting of his environment than he was a year ago.

That's well said.

Let's get to our first break here today. When we return, the voice of your Pittsburgh Steelers, Rob King, is going to join us on the other side. We'll get all his thoughts on Steelers 34, Colts 22, a much-needed win yesterday at Accresure Stadium. Just getting started here on this Victory Monday. Euler, Williamson, 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.

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You're tuned to The Drive on your 24-7 home of the black and gold.

Steelers Nation Radio.

Rolling along here on a victory Monday, having some fun. Steelers 34, Colts 22. And joining us now, the voice that called that Steelers victory on the Steelers Audio Network. Of course, the king in the castle, Rob King. Kinger, thank you for taking the time for us here on this Monday as always. And I tell you what, a lot of kind of flowers that we handed out in our opening segment. But I just think for this offense in general, if you do the 30,000 foot thing, I mean, they are averaging 31 points a game over their last three contests. I think it is or 29 points, you know, 30 against Cincinnati, 24 against the Bengals, 34 against the Colts. Man, it has been a lot of fun seeing this offense kind of find their identity and get rolling here early

on in the season.

It is.

You know, the fun thing is that they're doing this, and I'm still not even sure they've hit on all cylinders, which is kind of fun. The offensive upside is greater than I think we've seen in a while. It's more aggressive than we've seen in a while. You know, that decision to go for it on fourth down in the fourth quarter, I'm thinking, man, I think I'd kick the field goal. But I'm glad they went for it. I'm glad they wound up scoring the touchdown there. You know, the faith and the trust that you can put it away on offense. And if it backfires, you can still hold on defense. So I just think there's a lot to like. And Mike McCarthy talking today during a press conference about, hey, what are you going to do with

Rico Dotto when he comes back? Well, hey, Jalen Warren's our guy. You know, he's hot right now and he's our number one guy and he's got to be the guy we get the ball to. I think that's that's music to my ears. And hopefully he also said, look, you know, we start running more plays, which is what he wants to do. He's a high play guy. I believe I have a friend of mine in the business that pointed that out to me. Matt Williams.

Don't listen to him.

Yeah, he's OK. You got to double you got to double check it. Nobody. But, you know, Matt, you brought up that stat about plays run. And I think that's an interesting stat. And plays run shows more up-tempo, more aggressiveness, the ability to hang on to the ball, but also the ability to feed the mouths, you know? So, you know, I think the thinking is, well, if you're only going to run the ball 22 times a game, you know, or 20 times a game, let's say, and, you know, you're splitting up the carries, well, now Jalen Warren gets down to 11 carries or something. Nobody wants to see that.

But if you run... 28 times a day, a game. And now Jalen Warren's getting 17 and Rico Dowd is getting 11. Now that sounds way more palatable. And I think Rico Dowd is a good back. So I think, you know, everything he was talking about today in the press conference, I think, you know, if you're a Steelers fan and you like offense and want to see offense, all that stuff. And then again, what they've done in the field as well has been very encouraging.

So one thing just kind of dawned on me as you were chatting there is one of my still complaints, and I don't mean to bring the mood down, is I would still like to see a higher percentage of run plays.

It's getting a little better because they're so good at it, and it sets the tone. However, a lot of their pass.

Plays almost look like an extension of the run game. I mean, you flare it out to Warren running behind Metcalf, Fryer, Muth, and Washington. It kind of has the same effect.

As a run play. Student body left.

Right.

Yeah.

I mean, I don't know how much of that was part of Mike McCarthy's passing attack in Dallas.

I think some of it's just because Washington's such a freak.

Right.

Weaponize him.

A lot of what he said, including when I asked you what time it is, I don't want to hear how the watch was made, which is a great quote from yesterday. A lot of what he said is, you know, I find myself nodding my head to, you know, like when he came here and said, you got to, you know, you want to play a certain way, but you have to fashion your roster to the personnel. He was asked this today about, Hey, you have all these tight ends now who are, you know, varsity guys in the, in the term of Mike Tomlin. And you have some, some receivers that are probably going to have to be elevated from the practice squad along with Brandon Smith, or you're going to have to sign somebody else just to fill roster spots. Well, what do you do? Maybe you use

those tight ends and you're right, man. I mean, you know, I think that, And I don't know if we talked about this last week or not, but when you see a big play, I mean, I mean a big play, 30, 40, 50, 60 yards, 80 yards happen in a game. That doesn't happen without downfield blocking.

98% of the time.

Yeah.

And look, we saw that to our detriment, the Steelers detriment up in New England. Pop Douglas. who's not a huge guy comes across uh gets a piece of the safety I don't remember who it was and that's enough to make it a 39 yard game well you got DK Metcalf and Jeremy Bernard and Darnell Washington and Pat Friermuth large gentlemen um you know Roman Wilson sticking his nose in there when he's been healthy Ben Skoranek's an excellent blocker So maybe this is just going back to what Mike McCarthy said at his original press conference. Maybe this is him tailoring his scheme to the personnel he has.

And you're right. Maybe the use of more extended, you know, little short passing plays, West Coast, you know, mentality, the equivalent of a running play. I still think he wants to run it more. But you're right. That maybe mitigates some of those lack of rushing attempts.

Just a couple of minutes ago, I told Wes, because I heard it on the way here. Going into Monday Night Football and no one's going to catch them, the Steelers are a distant first in yards after the catch. That doesn't surprise me, but a lot of it's because of that. I mean, a distant first.

That's amazing.

Yeah.

I mean, it certainly helps when Jalen Warren takes one and goes 80 yards.

Sure.

A little flare pattern.

But Metcalf running alongside him gets him there, you know?

Right.

Picks up two blocks and then catches them.

Yeah, yeah. Not bad.

It shows you how fast DK Metcalf is, you know? Yeah, that's a great stat. And, you know, like just was it last week, I think, in Cleveland or Thursday night, little pop pass to Roman Wilson. He gets around the left end. And you have two guys out there blocking for him and creating a hole, a crease, in which he's able to run through untouched and score. And, yeah, I mean, you know, that could have gone for 90 yards.

You know, it's just there's a lot of that. First play in the game the week before that, the home game, they won against the Bengals. Yeah, I mean, you know, great blocking, Pat Fryermuth and others downfield. So, yes, it is– It shows a little bit that they have some playmakers, but a lot of it that the scheme is good and the blocking downfield is really good.

Everyone's buying in.

Yeah, that's right. That's exactly right. Everyone's buying in.

And, you know, I think the buy-in is being led by the future Hall of Fame four-time MVP, Super Bowl champion quarterback, Kinger. And I think that's, you know, Matt and I, we kind of laughed about this in our opening segment of, you know, we did a 15-minute opening segment or whatever the time that we usually do. And we didn't really talk about Aaron Rodgers until about 10 minutes into it. Cause it was a lot of Warren and a lot of tight ends and a lot of offensive line. And, but I also think it's, that's kind of what we want this offense to be Kinger. I think in a way, the fact that Aaron Rodgers played so well, was such a smooth operator, did everything that you want him to do yesterday, and isn't necessarily the

lead story today, I think that's perfect for this offense. I think that's perfect for him. That's how these 40-plus quarterbacks, the Tom Brady's, the Peyton Manning's, who have success and win a lot of games and win playoff games later in the stages of their career, I think they do that playing the way Aaron Rodgers did yesterday.

He played great. No doubt about it. He played great to me. I mean, I think, you know, Jeremy Bernard's an interesting story just because of, you know, you know, could he step up with the injury to Michael Pittman? And then during the game, Roman Wilson, the answer is yes, at least for that game. But, you know, he's he seems like I think the Steelers traded up to get him right in the second round. I mean, obviously, they feel they feel really good about what he can do and he's showing what he can do. And that was very heartening if you're a Steelers fan and if you're the Pittsburgh Steelers, heartening too. But the way Aaron Rodgers distributes the ball, the way he showed the mobility in this game, you know, I was asked on the DVE

show this morning, hey, who's your MVP? And I, you know, I originally, I initially thought of Rodgers and I'm like, well, yeah, you kind of got to give it to Jalen Warren, you know, the offensive MVP when he does something that hasn't been done in 40 years as far as, you know, taking those two long ones into the end zone. But I think Aaron Rodgers is, I think that this was a really good game for him. I thought it was a really good game plan. You know, we talked last week about where are the Colts good? Well, they're good on their defensive line. You know, DeForest Buckner is a great player. They've got some depth there. They have some pretty good pieces in the secondary. Well, where are you going to get them? You know, in the flat and

over the middle, you know, using your tight ends and your running backs in the running game. You know, the inside linebackers, Carlisle was hurt in it. Unit that probably wasn't strong to begin with, maybe the safety positions. I thought it was, we shouldn't be understated that the game plan, the way to attack it, you know, starting with Mike McCarthy, but then being executed by Aaron Rodgers in the field, attacking the weaknesses of the Colts was, it seemed perfect to me.

So Wes and I, we only did one segment.

Hang on, let me say that. Yeah, yeah, please. I say that, but at halftime, I was looking down at the stat sheet, and I was like, really, man, only four runs for Jalen Warren? You know, so I don't want to talk out of both sides of my mouth. But, you know, 24 hours ago, I was like, man, they should be running the ball more than Warren. But, you know, it was beautifully done. And, of course, they were able to lean on him in the second half in the running game.

Big time.

Um, we have not, you know, we're only on the second segment of the show. We have not brought up the Steelers defense yet. And to me, that was a little more of a mixed bag. I feel like Patrick Graham's trying to patch together a secondary and that's a work in progress is kind of a kind way of putting it at the moment, but they accomplished goal number one.

And that is not letting Jonathan Taylor run rampant on you. In fact, they were pretty much shut them down.

They did. And you know, it, it goes back to, uh, You know, being a fan means our guys should break tackles and their guys should never break. Of course, we talked about that with B. John Robinson, right? You know, I got to get that guy in the ground. Well, he's B. John Robinson, man. He makes a lot of people miss, you know, and Jonathan Taylor is a great running back. And it was interesting. I thought his postgame comments.

that Mike Pursuita brought to light in that TV morning show, praising the defensive line of the Steelers. Hey, that's a really good defensive front. You don't face a front like that that often. It was hard to run the ball, but we need to be better at it. I'm like, okay, well, that tells you what the rest of the league thinks about that front, even with Derek Harmon injured. That's high praise coming from Jonathan Taylor. They shut him down. The point being, you know, talking about Bijan, they got lots of guys on scholarship. If you could have taken away Taylor and Warren– And the other things still happen in the game. I'd be like, Hey, that, you know, hats off.

He did a great job. I'm with you, Matt. I, you know, I was asked to give him a grade. I would give him a B or B plus. There's a couple of reasons I would, you know, they only gave up 22 points, right? If you do that with this offense, you should be able to win. You played well. Great situational defense in bending but not breaking, holding them to field goals. Each team scored the same amount of times, and the Steelers won by 12 points. Well, that's good situational defense on your part, good situational offense on the other side. But sticking with the defense, all that's wonderful.

Not a single three and out. Um, very little pressure on Daniel Jones. Um, those things I think, yeah, yeah. Those knocked me down a peg for the grade, but overall they got the job done. And I do think there's a little bit of let's rush for and, and play back because we do have some young guys back there and we don't want them to get burned. Um, but still, you know, you, I, I, the, the front four for the Steelers are so good that even when guys are being chipped or whatever, um, I, I, usually go into a game anticipating more pressure than they got, especially early on. Like, I don't remember Jones being hit in the first half. He must've been, but I don't remember.

Him being hit till, till later.

On in the game when they began to get home and, and Harry him a little bit more.

Rob King, voice of the Steelers with us here on the drive on the Steelers audio network. You know, guys, one thing that I think would help the defense out a little bit, certainly would be better special teams, kick coverage units, uh, Guys, five kick returns for the Colts for 165 yards yesterday. Way too often, they're starting at the 35, the 40, the 45, and they're a first down or two away from being in Spencer Schrader range.

He's pretty good, too. He did kick a couple.

Yes, he is.

He did kick a couple 20-some yarders from the shadow of the red zone, but he also kicked some 56 yarders from 57 yarders. That, to me, Kinger, is if you're looking for areas early in the season, everyone's trying to clean up their own house, to get better in certain marginal areas that will have a big effect over the course of 60 minutes. For me right now, that kick coverage unit has to be at the top of the list of that conversation.

Yeah, and going into the game, neither the Colts nor the Steelers performed particularly well in kickoff coverage. Now, I want to separate this out because even though you know, they have a terrific punt returner in Gould, you know, Caden region at 9.9 to return. That's not bad. That's solid stuff.

Right.

So forget that for a minute. And by the way, neither team had a punt return. So that didn't matter, but going into that game, you know, the difference in the punt returns, which is 2.6 per return between what the Colts were averaging and what the Steelers were averaging and the kickoff returns. It was at the Colts versus the Steelers 37 yards difference. Now, Some of that is in the punt game for sure. But 37 yards. And Matt has heard me do these kind of stats. I looked this up when they got Cam Johnson as a punter and what difference he could make in punt return yardage a game. Well, 37 yards a game. If you if you get those are real yards, they call them hidden yards. Well, let's say you just said, OK, our

offense is going to have 37 more yards a game. Well, that took the Steelers going into this week from 17th in the league to 11th. That's what 37 yards is. Well, in this game, the difference was 55 yards just in kick returns. They didn't even have a punt return. And they both had the same amount of kickoff returns. So it's a two-headed monster. The Steelers need to get more.

Especially when you have kickers that are across the league and like the Colts and Steelers have. Sorry to interrupt you there, but if I'm picking up, If I have one less first down to go just because of starting field position, that's a field goal.

That's like almost guaranteed three points.

To go or to give up, right? Yeah, exactly. 55 yards in a game is significant. I mean, just think if we were– let's say we gave that to Jonathan Taylor, right?

Right. They got gashed on the ground.

15 carries for 100 yards. That's what that means.

Exactly.

Instead of 15 carries for 45. 55 yards is a lot of yards. And so– That is, you know, one of the things that I like about the Steelers at this stage of the game being 3-2. You know, that Browns loss, you guys helped talk me off the ledge on that because 4-1 would be so nice. You're not. You're 3-2. But I just think there's upside. I think there's upside for the defense. I don't think the offense, as good as it's been, has hit on all its cylinders yet. And I think that special teams is clearly something.

And by the way, part of the reason I think that is because I think this offensive line is going to get better and better and better. I think it's the one unit of all the units on the team. I think that's the one that we could be looking up at the end of the year and being like, oh, that that offensive line of the Steelers is really good.

We're going to see it. But I think others might start seeing that. But the kick return and the kick coverage, kickoff in specific, has to be better. Cam Johnson, great game. Chris Boswell, terrific job. Nails that field goal. That was it for the Colts. He misses that field goal. They get the ball at the 44-yard line. They still have hope, even though they need two scores. That was the nail in the coffin. So great job by him as well.

But the kick coverage and the kick return, it just has to be better. I mean, just look at London. You know, let's say you kicked it off to them and they returned it that far.

Yeah.

And by the way, that's a whole, we could take, spend a whole segment talking about that strategy. I don't happen to disagree with that strategy. Kick it off and trust your kick coverage to.

Well, I don't know though, King or man, Jacksonville had been returning them long the whole day, but I get what you're saying.

Yeah, that's right.

Yeah. I mean, in general, when I, in general, my point would be if you've got the ball, if you're, if you kick it through the end zone, right, they've got the ball at the 35 yard line. I think they had a timeout left, right? at a timeout in eight seconds. Yes. Well, now you're a 15-yard slant away from bringing Cam Little in who can kick it from Glasgow and make the kick. And so instead, if you kick it off and they return it, as long as you keep them before midfield, they're a Hail Mary away. Now, the Steelers elected to kick it through the end zone, which is smart because you're up two scores. You can't give up a big play there. Regardless, yes, the Steelers The point is that you can't allow that kind of

discrepancy in the kickoff return game. You just can't.

No, you can't because eventually it will bite you. It's not a matter of if. If it continues to be like that, it will bite you. It will cost you.

That's right. That could cost you a game just like it just cost the Eagles a game.

No doubt about it. Rob King, voice of the Pittsburgh Steelers, kind enough to give us some of his time here on this Monday. Kinger, great conversation as always. Thank you, and we will talk to you soon.

Thanks, guys. See you, man.

The king exits the castle. There he goes. Always a lot to contemplate with that guy. I want to piggyback off a couple of those things. Let's talk a little bit more about the defense, about the special teams here when we return to close down our number one on this Victory Monday. Wes Shuler, Matt Williamson, it's The Drive, Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.

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I will say, Matt, I think it's refreshing the way that the conversations have been framed today, but especially these last couple games. And what I mean by that is it felt like for so long, We would come in here after Steelers victories and we'd say, man, the defense did their part. The offense just couldn't put it together.

For like six years.

For so long. Where now the offense is humming and playing at a high level and we go 40 minutes into the show and barely even mention the defense.

After a win.

Yeah, yeah.

I think it's kind of refreshing in that regard. I thought the defense played winning football yesterday. but certainly still left plenty to be desired. Listen, when you hold a team to five field goals, and I realize a couple of those were from distance, but a couple of those were from the red zone as well.

I think they ran 20 snaps in the red zone and only scored once. And the red zone D was great.

That's winning football in 2026.

It reminded me of what Tomlin would say about weighty downs and things like that.

Exactly right.

Holding your opponent to 22 points is winning football in 2026.

Yeah, it is.

It starts with, and obviously it wasn't perfect, but when you can take away the opposition and its offenses, bread and butter, and that being Jonathan Taylor in the run game, Hey, Tyler Warren still hurt you and made some plays. You can't shut down everybody. It's an, it's an NFL team. They've got coaches. They've got guys on scholarship too. Like we always say, but I thought job number one for the Steelers defense was do not let this Indianapolis Colts run game take over and a plus in that regard.

It's a great place to start. I think you should start with the positive. They won the football game. They only allowed 22 points.

Yeah, it wasn't a Mona Lisa.

No.

And goal number one had to be do what you can against Jonathan Taylor. And I think you used the word shut down. I think they did basically shut him down as one of the best playmakers in the league. That's not easy to do.

15 carries for 45 yards.

Yeah, a couple catches. A three-yard average.

But, you know, I mean, again, you'll take that all day long.

And maybe we even should have opened the show that big picture– The reason I think they won this game is they ran the ball better than their opponent and they shut down their opponent. I mean, a lot of it can be broken down to both run games, which is old school.

Mike did get football. You know what I mean?

So, side note, I want to get back to the special teams yardage numbers. They were worse than I thought. I hadn't heard all that hidden yardage. It shouldn't be hidden at all.

It's like 33 yards average on return for the Colts.

So, some of the negatives, I guess, defensively are... That's the worst turnover ratio team in the league coming in, and you didn't really get them to make mistakes or to force things.

There wasn't a ton of turnover-worthy plays from either offense.

No, from either team, right. There wasn't a lot of sacks.

There wasn't a ton of pressure from either offense, and there was some mirror image there. Quarterbacks were putting the ball basically.

Where they should.

I thought Rodgers vastly outplayed Jones, but still, he didn't hurt the Colts. You'd like more pressure. You'd like more splash. but job number one was accomplished in wonderful manner. And that's obviously Taylor. A lot of that comes back to tackling a lot better, which I hope people listen to us and didn't take it as an excuse that Thursday night football is bad tackling, especially by.

The road team.

Then I kind of knew it would get better, but this was a strength as opposed to, Oh, it's just okay. They tackled really, really well. Um, Patrick Graham's in a little bit of a tough spot with his secondary in terms of what I can do. He wants to be super diverse. We know they're not going to play a lot of man, but I don't think he can vary his coverages as much as he wants. I don't think he can blitz as much as he wants. I don't know that he can vary things up front as much as he wants.

Got some rookie game one week. If they turn around and play well the next week, make sure you're pointing that out as much as you did the criticisms.

I think Brisker's a good candidate. He played a lot better this week than last week.

Peyton Wilson, I thought, too.

Yeah, good one.

Played one of his better games in the black and gold, and I think it was very fitting that he got that pass breakup at the end to kind of put the game away.

Benton did a lot of good things.

Yes. So it was, it was not perfect. Um, they need to, I think so much of it for this defense gets back to, you gotta get pressure on quarterbacks.

Yeah.

You know, you didn't do enough of it in Cleveland. You didn't do enough of it. Only one sack of Daniel Jones. And I realized that the book for offensive coordinators is we can't let those three edge rushers run wild. We're going to get the ball out in 2.4, 2.5. 2.5 2.6 seconds.

But it's going to cut down the production it's but it's but it's.

It's it's it still has to have more of an impact on the opposition offense than it did.

Yesterday agreed agreed so they're at the top of the league highsmith and watt in chip rates you know in terms of somebody hitting an extra body, hitting you on the way to the quarterback, not just your primary blocker. And I'm sure when I look at it this week, it has to even be higher in the league in terms of lowest time to throw against.

Sure.

So these aren't excuses. It's going to be hard to disrupt quarterbacks the way you want when those things are in play. And it also limits how an offense can attack you too. They're not going to sit back there for three seconds and drive the ball 30 yards down the field. So you, Your defensive backs are going to soon realize I can be a little more aggressive jumping routes and things of that nature because everyone, and Rob mentioned this, people around here don't realize unless you really watch all 22 week after week and year after year, how much the opponent fears the Steelers defensive front every week.

I mean, everything is game planned around what is a much.

Not letting those edge rushers wreck the game.

It's a much bigger strength than I think people realize here. If they're like, well, they only had two sacks this year. Why are they paying all these dudes?

It changed the whole game.

And all of the offensive coordinators time spent in the facility gearing up for this game was based on fearing those dudes.

Yep.

Even without Benton or even without Harmon or whatever.

Right.

So that it has a massive ripple effect on how the game is played, even if it doesn't show up in the stat sheet. But I still want more from that group because it is a really good group. One small criticism. Herbig to me was awesome against the run and shows up again. But I just I was looking at his pass rush snaps for the year. I think it's only like 52.

Like, he's been on the field a lot, but he's not rushing the passer a lot.

It's like 10 times a game.

Yeah, and he might be the best pass rusher on the team. And I think he was last year, just on a per-snap, per-pass-rush basis.

You said before, if it's third and nine with the season on the line.

Yeah, and I gotta bet my mortgage on who's gonna get home.

You've said it. Like, I know it sounds crazy, because T.J. Watts going to the Hall of Fame.

Right, right, right.

But I think I would take Herbig.

Just in a one-on-one matchup against an offensive tackle, I think he's my pick. So maybe that's one method that's still... out there is get him five six seven eight more pass rush snaps a game.

Let's talk about some more of that an hour number two we'll talk more about the defense we've got plenty still to get to but that is an hour in the books i do want to go i feel like i say this every monday matt but it's also kind of the nature of the league i do want to go kind of around the horn and uh and talk about what was a wild sunday in the nfl we had a uh we had a crazy ending in london We had a crazy ending in Washington that ended in a tie.

Oh, man.

The Green Bay Packers looked like, I don't know, the 2019 Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase, Justin Jefferson, LSU offense against the Bears.

I was lumping the Patriots and Packers together. I thought they both were in big trouble yesterday, and their quarterbacks were awesome, and they blew out what looked like good teams.

You know, Matt, there's a lot of different things throughout the course of the year. I like to think we're right more often than we're not, but nobody who does this for a living bats, bats a thousand.

Oh, I told you Friday. I'm like, there's some low hanging fruit, easy bets. I think I lost every one of them.

All those ones like, oh, this is a no-brainer.

All I know is I told all my boys, Giants plus three and a half is my lock of the year. And boy, was I sweating that out.

Yeah, I bet you were sweating that one.

But it ended up hitting, baby, as that one ended.

Oh, I thought the Raiders, I thought Jacksonville.

Hey, Giants and Commanders, kiss your sister, all right? Because you just had an ugly tie.

Yeah, that division's bizarre right now.

As you said, Jerry Jones is probably kicking himself. Like, how are we not running away with this thing? We'll get into all that.

There's a trade we could talk about at some point, too.

There certainly is plenty going on here, and we will kind of go around the league when we return to open our number two. Euler and Williamson, halfway home on this Victory Monday. 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... Uh, what if we just got out of here and grabbed some Bud Lights? But man, we're on air for four more hours.

I'll figure it out.

Sounds good to me. Anything for the clean, crisp taste of Bud Light.

Stock up now.

Bud Light.

Louis, Missouri.

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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 picks.

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