Drive10.12.26King: Rob King on Colts Win

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0:23 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

1:09 on in the season.

1:11 It is.

1:12 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.

1:47 About, Hey, um, what are you going to do with Rico Dotto when he comes back?

1:51 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.

1:55 Guy we get the ball to.

1:57 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.

2:04 He's a high play guy.

2:05 Um, I believe I have a friend of mine in the business that pointed that out to me.

2:10 Um, Matt Williams done like that.

2:15 Don't listen to him.

2:16 Yeah, he's okay. You got to double, you got to double check it. Nobody, but I, you know, Matt, you brought up that stat about plays run. And I think that's an interesting stat and plays run shows more uptempo, more aggressiveness, the ability to hang onto the ball, but also the ability to, to, 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, and 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.

3:00 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.

3:10 And then again, what they've done in the field as well has been very encouraging.

3:13 So one, 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 the, the, 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.

3:39 Kind of has the same effect as a run play.

3:41 Student body left.

3:42 Right. Yeah. I mean, I don't know how much.

3:47 Of that was part of Mike McCarthy's passing attack in Dallas.

3:52 I think some of it's just because Washington's such a freak.

3:56 Right.

3:57 So weaponize them.

3:58 You know, a lot of what he said, including when I asked you what time it is, you know, I don't want to hear how the watch was made.

4:06 That's a great quote from yesterday.

4:09 You know, a lot of what he said, 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 term of Mike Tomlin, and you have 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.

4:35 Well, what do you do? Maybe you use those tight ends. And you're right, Matt.

4:38 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.

4:52 98% of the time.

4:55 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, gets a piece of the safety.

5:05 I don't remember who it was.

5:06 And that's enough to make it a 39-yard gain. Well, you got D.K. Metcalf and Jeremy Bernard and Darnell Washington and Pat Friermuth, large gentlemen. 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.

5:26 Maybe this is him tailoring his scheme to the personnel he has.

5:30 And you're right.

5:31 Maybe the use of more extended, you know, little short passing plays, West Coast, you know, mentality, the equivalent of a running play.

5:40 I still think he wants to run it more. But you're right.

5:42 That maybe mitigates some of those lack of rushing attempts.

5:45 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.

6:01 That's amazing. Yeah.

6:03 I mean, it certainly helps when Jalen Warren takes one and goes 80 yards. Sure.

6:07 A little flare pattern.

6:07 But Metcalf running alongside him gets him there, you know?

6:10 Right.

6:11 Right.

6:11 Picks up two blocks and then catches them. Yeah, yeah. Not bad.

6:15 It shows you how fast DK Metcalf is, you know?

6:18 Yeah, that's a great stat.

6:20 And, you know, like just was it last week, I think, in Cleveland or Thursday night, little pop pass to Roman Wilson.

6:26 He gets around the left end.

6:28 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.

7:03 Is really good. Everyone's buying in. Yeah, that's right. That's exactly right. Everyone's buying in.

7:09 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 because it was a lot of Warren and a lot of tight ends and a lot of offensive line. 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 Rogers played so well was such a smooth operator, did everything that you want him to do yesterday. And isn't necessarily the lead

7:47 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, and win playoff games later in the stages of their career, uh, I think they do that playing the way Aaron Rodgers did yesterday.

8:05 He played great. No doubt about it. He played great to me.

8:08 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,

8:45 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.

9:13 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.

9:45 So Wes and I have really did one segment.

9:47 Hang on, let me say, I say that, but at halftime I was looking out 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.

10:02 But, you know, it was beautifully done.

10:05 And, of course, they were able to lean on him in the second half in the running game.

10:07 Big time.

10:09 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.

10:31 In fact, they pretty much shut him down.

10:35 They did.

10:35 And, you know, it goes back to, you know, being a fan means everything. Our guys should break tackles, and their guys should never break tackles.

10:46 Of course. We talked about that with B. John Robinson, right? You know, you got to get that guy in the ground.

10:50 Well, he's B.

10:50 John Robinson, man.

10:51 He makes a lot of people miss. You know, and Jonathan Taylor is a great running back. And it was interesting.

10:57 I thought his post-game comments.

11:00 that Mike Pursuita brought to light in that TV morning show, praising the defensive line of the Steelers.

11:05 Hey, that's a really good defensive front. You don't face a front like that that often.

11:10 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, hats off.

11:34 He did a great job. I'm with you, Matt.

11:36 I was asked to give him a grade. I would give him a B or B +. There's a couple reasons. They only gave up 22 points, right? If you do that with this offense, you should be able to win. You played 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.

11:58 Right.

11:58 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. Very little pressure on Daniel Jones.

12:12 Not much. I think.

12:13 Right.

12:14 Yeah. Yeah.

12:14 Those knock 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.

12:26 Don't want them to get burned.

12:28 Um, but still, you know, I, I, the, the front four for the Steelers are so good that even when guys are being chipped or whatever, um, 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.

12:53 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. 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 today.

13:20 You know, he did. He's pretty good, too.

13:21 He did kick a couple.

13:22 Oh, yes, he is.

13:24 He did kick a.

13:25 Couple, you know, 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, you know, 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.

13:50 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 they have a terrific punt returner in Gould, Caden Legion at 9.9 a 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, 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.

14:24 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 kinds 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.

14:44 They call them hidden yardage.

14:45 Well, let's say you just said, okay, 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.

15:10 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.

15:24 To go or to give up, right? Yeah, exactly.

15:27 55 yards in a game is significant. I mean, just think if we were– let's say we gave that to Jonathan Taylor, right?

15:35 55. They got gashed on the ground. 15 carries for 100 yards. That's what that means.

15:40 Exactly.

15:40 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.

15:56 You're not.

15:57 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.

16:16 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.

16:33 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.

16:54 You know, let's say you kicked it off to them and they returned it that far.

16:58 Yeah.

16:58 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.

17:06 I don't know though, King or man, Jacksonville had been returning them long the whole day, but I get what you're saying.

17:12 Yeah, that's right. Yeah.

17:13 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.

17:22 I think they had a timeout left, right? at a timeout in eight seconds. Yes.

17:26 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.

17:59 You just can't.

18:00 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.

18:06 That's right.

18:07 That could cost you a game just like it just cost the Eagles a game.

18:10 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.

18:20 Thanks, guys.

18:21 See you, man.

18:22 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.