Drive10.27.26Travel: Steelers Travel

0:03 You're tuned to The Drive on your 24-7 home of the black and gold.

0:07 Steelers Nation Radio.

0:17 Matt, I was trying to think in my mind how I could creatively work a Jimmy Buffett reference into the start of this segment here. Is it like I ate the last mango in Paris? Or is it like he went to Paris? I don't know. Jimmy Buffett sang a lot about Paris for some reason. But I was trying to get a line in my head there that would equate to traveling and moving around and things that are kind of universal. I'm just going to stop there because I'll try and get too witty and it won't work out and I'll make a fool of myself. And again, I'm all twisted and on sleep and my hair's all crazy and whatnot.

0:48 Yeah, I'm wondering when you'll get back on track because you're not yet, right?

0:51 No.

0:52 Not even close.

0:53 Not even close, but that's okay. I'll take that every single time. I don't want to sound like a sappy dork to you, but I was obviously very fortunate to get to experience what I did over the last five days. So I will take the kind of tiredness and unrest and some of it that comes with it. But, Matt, we traveled to Paris, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Steelers Nation, and much like Jimmy Buffett, had a lot of fun doing so. And you and I have kind of talked about where this team's strengths need to be since June, July, August, and throughout the season.

1:24 They need to work on this stuff.

1:25 And the things that travel really well in the National Football League, too. You know, being the team that throws for 400 yards and four touchdowns every week, sometimes that's great. But when it's December in Buffalo, that's tough to do. When it's November in Philadelphia, that's tough to do. I think we've all long thought this Steelers offensive line could and should travel. This Steelers defensive front should and could travel.

1:49 And boy, did they. Yes. And I think particularly on the defensive side of things, they're down some dudes. I mean, they're missing some guys along that defensive front. The secondary is not exactly what we all thought it was going to be. But once again, Matt, for the third straight week, you basically take Jonathan Taylor in that Colts run game out of it. You basically take Bucky Irving in that Tampa Bay Buccaneers run game out of it. The New Orleans Saints had 18 rushing yards on Sunday.

2:18 Tyler Shuck was their leading rusher.

2:19 Tyler Shuck was their leading rusher with three carries. Or seven yards.

2:23 I think they averaged 1.1 per carry.

2:26 And in an alternate universe, you could have blown that game open with turnovers.

2:31 I mean, you had two right. The Watt one.

2:34 And they were the right. The Watt one, I think it was the right call. But it's so close to being a massive play. And the Saints end up scoring three there. The Cole Holcomb, the fumble at the goal line. I think it's probably the right call. That one that was a little 50-50 on. Both of them, they called fumbles originally on the field, which means you need inconclusive evidence.

2:53 I thought on the shuck one, you did have it. I didn't know as much about that second one, but that's 10 points right there because the Saints then go in and punch it in on fourth and one, the touchdown pass. That's 10 points right there, man. Patrick Queen should have had it. I tailored the Butterfingers interception.

3:10 He's playing really, really well, but catching the ball is not his forte. No, it is not.

3:14 Keanu Benton was eating people up and blocking passes. Cam Hayward was eating people up and knocking down swatting passes at the line of scrimmage. Matt, I think this defense is starting to settle in a little bit, particularly in that defensive front. They're going to travel wherever they go, and they're going to make life miserable for teams.

3:31 Yeah, so... A couple notes. It's funny because I've had these conversations for almost 48 hours, but some of our listeners have heard us talk about it and the first you and I have talked about the game. A couple notes. The Watt play I just wanted to mention, I would not have overturned it. Whatever was called on the field, I would have stuck with. And that's my only complaint with it. I know that there's different angles.

3:58 That's the kicker is you have to remember what the original call was. Right.

4:01 That was my only qualms with how it was called was I would have kept whatever they ruled on the field the same, you know, based off the replay. I did a hit with Tim Benz yesterday. He was filling in for Mark Madden. He had a good point. I mean, people are like only one by six in this game. Like they really won by nine. I mean, that's not like, oh, well, they should have made this. I mean, they made a field goal they didn't have to make at the end.

4:25 I mean, that matters. They did benefit from a missed field goal. I'm going to go down that road later in the week. It's been another Steeler thing to talk about. But let's talk about the defense because I think it's become very clear what their identity is, and I think it travels, you know, to your point, is first off in this game, I think everything started with Benton and Hayward.

4:47 They just killed those poor guards.

4:50 It was unbelievable.

4:51 Yeah, and that left guard, he's a backup, and he'll be lucky to be a backup for as long as he possibly can.

4:58 They did it to two pretty good offensive lines with the Colts and the Bucs.

5:01 And then the Bucs go stomp the Panthers, all based on line play, by the way. Side note.

5:06 This was not those last two weeks.

5:08 But they destroyed them in the trenches. So anyway, in this game, it started with those two just killing guards. and moving them backwards and either penetrating or just pushing the line of scrimmage in the run game and rerouting running backs over and over and over. And then linebackers flowing the ball with vigor and great, great speed. It's going to be a trend of the week, too, because linebacker speed in this upcoming game is really something for both these teams. And you really felt that. And defensive backs are aggressive triggering downhill right now. And the edge guys are keeping contained really, really well. I'm just talking run stuff. So I've been digging into numbers even more than usual this last 24 hours. Steelers played with the

5:52 second lightest boxes in that game in the whole league this past week.

5:57 You would have thought it was the opposite.

5:58 You would think they were just loading up to take away the run. They dominated them with fewer people than you would even think. I mean, really low, heavy box rate. I don't know if I even... I put a lot of stuff on Twitter. I don't remember if I even posted the numbers, but it was really low. Didn't... And that wasn't... reminiscent at all of how they played. So anyway, I think what you're going to see, and some of it is frustrating. I mean, trust me, the group texts with my buddies are still, man, can't they ever get off the field? How about a contested catch when the Steelers are on defense? But based on their personnel, they're not going to play a lot of man. They are going to focus on the run, and they've gotten incredibly

6:43 good at it. They tackle really well lately, and they get a lot of people to the ball. But they're going to give up catches, folks. They're going to give up a lot of catches. And some other interesting notes from this game, too, was almost every drive for both teams was 11 plays or longer. It had the most 11-plus play series in, like, 40 years. I mean, it wasn't meant that people didn't get the ball often, but when they got it, they held it because both teams were short pass, short pass, move the chains. One team could actually run. The other one couldn't long sustained drives, but long sustained drives are hard to pull off in this league. I mean, you're one cam Hayward tip pass or a holding call or a sack or a, you know,

7:28 Wilson cutting on the ball and, you know, picking.

7:30 It off one miscommunication amongst the line or the wide receivers.

7:34 And you don't play against many Tom Brady's that'll just paper cut you to death. And, you know, so there is a patience level too, but, The way they're structured, and I can't see it changing anytime soon, they should be really good against the run. You hope that keeps up. You're going to allow a lot of short completions, tackle the catch, and make people sustain long drives. The thing I found late last night, side note, my Twitter followers, and many of you are probably listening, thank you, first of all, have been hilarious lately because they're starting to do my stat pack for me. They like go find it.

8:13 Oh, yeah.

8:14 They're like, what do you think of this one? How about this?

8:16 I love it.

8:16 I'm like, as long as they're not making them up. I'm going to fact check them. But I'm like, so someone sent me this last night.

8:22 Matt, you're like this ripping guitarist who's famous enough now that you have a guitar tech who will just like do the strings for you and tune the guitar up for you.

8:28 Right, right, right.

8:28 He hands it to you and all you got to do is just play.

8:30 And just make the packet.

8:31 How about this?

8:32 I think you might like this.

8:33 All you got to do is just play. You don't have to tune the guitar.

8:35 It's actually getting pretty funny. Plug it into your pedal board. The guitar tech does it all for you. It's incredible. So like midnight last night, this pops up on my Twitter feed and I look over and I'm like, wow, this is really, really good. The Steelers have faced the least, the fewest drives that have reached the red zone.

8:53 That's good.

8:54 And their red zone defense is really good. And while they do play a lot of zone and they make you, it's more difficult than most defenses to get to the red zone. Once you get there, things get tough too. I mean, it's a lot of constricted bodies. We know that Mid-level quarterbacks always struggle in the red zone. Shuck isn't one of those, by the way. He's a great red zone player that struggled against this red zone defense.

9:19 But it really reminded me of Belichick. Belichick's defenses in history will go down as great. Awesome defensive coordinator. One of the best minds ever. That was his bread and butter.

9:29 How many Super Bowls? They won a couple Super Bowls where the score was like 17 to 10. Yeah.

9:33 Not to mention he was on the LT Giants before he was a head coach and all that.

9:37 He had two rings as a D coordinator.

9:38 But where did Patrick Graham make his bones? Belichick. I mean, those, but where I was going with this is these Patriot defenses of the McGinnis Brewski years, they bent all the time. I mean, they would be on the field for a while. They would allow completions. If you can sustain 10, 11, 12 play drives without screwing it up and taking a bad penalty and we'll get you in third and long and then heat you up. But when you get to the red zone, you don't get that many points off us.

10:03 So they were never into the top of the league in yards allowed, but they were always in the top of the league and most importantly, wins and points allowed. Yeah, because they practiced. I mean, people that were there, the Rodney Harrisons that are on media now will be like, We practice red zone more than we practice everything else.

10:21 We basically knew people might get there.

10:23 We'll give you between the 30s and between the 20s.

10:25 As long as you don't screw it up.

10:26 Best case scenario, you're getting three points and we're just fine.

10:30 Yeah, exactly. And I think that's the defense that travels. Sometimes the Colts game, you don't get a ton of splash. Sometimes you get a ton of splash. The Colts game a year ago with different defensive coordinator, different schemes. It just came to mind. This game, you got a fair amount of splash. And if you get the splash, which this defense is good at, they're near the top of leagues in takeaways. They're a good pass-rushing team. They bat down passes. It's hard to play against. The day ends, even though you're frustrated watching it on your lazy boy going, man, there's a lot of easy completions. How's that going to work against Burrow and Chase? Probably not as well. But they do that to everybody.

11:08 They sure do.

11:10 And at the end of the day, you're like, they only let up 10 points. They only let up, was it 14 the week before or whatever.

11:15 Right.

11:16 If I'm keeping teams under 20, you're going to win a lot of games.

11:18 You're going to win a lot of football games. Yeah. Via the desk of intrepid video producer Tyler V, Steelers have given up 12 touchdowns this season, fourth fewest in the league, have given up the most field goal attempts at 22, tied for the most field goals made against at 18. But get this, the average distance of a field goal against the Steelers is 43 yards. Okay. Which basically means right outside the red zone.

11:42 Yeah, you've moved the football.

11:43 You've moved the football, but now you're at the 20, 25, and you ain't going nowhere. Okay.

11:48 That's good stuff. Some of that might even make the packet. You can be on my Twitter following list, TV. Good work. The one thing, now that I'm thinking of it, though, is the thing I was fiddling with this morning was, you know how I always talk about field goal luck. The Steelers have also been, they've also had the most misses against them of any team in the league. Okay.

12:08 But they've also had a lot of attempts, to TV's point.

12:10 And I would say, to be fair, it's not like.

12:12 There's been four misses.

12:13 It's not like Chris Boz. To be fair. It's not like... To be fair. I want that to be fair. English pig dog. You know how many times I said that over and over?

12:20 Oh, I bet.

12:20 You English pig dog. Boz has missed a few this year, too.

12:25 There's been eight misses in Steeler games. That's a lot. That's a lot.

12:28 In seven games, that's a lot.

12:29 Yes. So, only two or three teams have missed more kicks than the Steelers. There's two or three that have missed five. But none have had their opponents miss more than the Steelers, which is four.

12:41 Gotcha.

12:42 And that's field goal luck. The boss part's not luck.

12:44 No.

12:45 Teams are going to probably make a higher percentage. But what I didn't realize, and now I'm going to add to the group, is, well, if you kick a lot more field goals against a team, you're going to miss more.

12:54 Totally.

12:54 Because you're not scoring that many touchdowns or getting in the red zone.

12:57 Totally. Matt, I also love this. The Steelers on offense, 10 of 16 on third down. Yeah, that was a story, too. That's something that was, and I think at half it was like, six of nine at half. They were so good at it in the first half. I mean, 21st downs over 32 minutes of possession. This is, you know, this is again, we're starting to see how this team is going to win games.

13:21 Yeah. And during the identity is really becoming more and more prevalent on both sides of the ball. And just, In the whole building, the whole franchise, yeah.

13:27 And don't look now. We will really turn the page tomorrow. But obviously, there's a huge one at Accresure Stadium on the North Shore this weekend. Five and two Steelers against the five and two Browns, just like we all predicted before the season started. after that we'll hit the bye week and you and i will really be able to do some reset bigger picture conversation and we can talk about has your thoughts on the steelers ceiling you know changed and how good do you think this team could be and man tell you what you beat the browns on sunday and you move to six and two and we'll really start having some of those conversations.

13:57 Yeah yeah i'm your driver's seat but.

13:59 I think all of the kind of key points of If the Steelers are going to once again contend for a division title, once again go back to the postseason, they're going to have to do X, Y, and Z. I think so far so good in a lot of those regards.

14:11 Yeah, so much to unpack here, and I'm going to talk about a lot of different facets of it too, but it was pretty clear, and just watching Coach McCarthy and his staff and the hiring process and first couple trips to the podium and then being around those guys a little bit in camp, not that the, and this isn't comparing it to the old staff, but obviously this staff had a plan and everyone does, but it's working.

14:39 You know what I mean? Like it was a well thought out plan. How do we, you know, every little bit of it, how do we develop drew our, you know, something we only haven't seen in two months, but he had a very succinct plan. How are we going to practice exactly? You know, how are we going to not be the worst fourth quarter quarter defense in the league?

14:57 You know, how are we going to change our offensive personnel around? That's a conversation I want to have real soon here. 6-0 linemen all of a sudden. Yeah. To me, they're adapting to their surroundings, but they're also having their surroundings adapt to them.

15:09 A little bit of Jack on both sides.

15:11 Right, right, right.

15:12 Be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me. Translate that to French for me, TV, please.

15:17 I mean, it's easy when you're sitting there with Mr. Rooney saying, I'd like to be your head coach, and these are the things I think I should change. Well, six, seven months later or whatever, and you change them and they're working. I mean, every head coach, I mean, the Titans head coach sat down with them and said, I got these plans, too. Like, oh, let's see the results.

15:34 Robert Sala said, we're going to do this, this, this, and this.

15:36 We're going to turn Cam Ward into a great player.

15:39 In your own five. Although they're looking a little bit better. The last two weeks, they're starting to. To show some life. In an hour or two, we'll go around the league and actually, Matt.

15:46 Big trade today. Ravens-Bengals was nuts.

15:50 I was driving in here today like, how are we going to, Craig Wolfley, how are we going to fit these 10 pounds of potatoes into an 8-pound sack.

15:56 For today's show?

15:57 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

15:58 For today, yes.

15:58 Because some trades and a lot of stuff going on around the league. And it was a wild Saturday in college football that we're going to get to a little bit tomorrow when we go around campus. Dante Moore, we're not going to see.

16:08 Any more of him this season. There's a lot going on.

16:10 Quentin Nelson, the guy that we just talked about a ton, rightfully so, two weeks ago, has been traded.

16:14 Who's next? There's going to be a lot of guys on the move.

16:17 So a ton to get to here today, but I think that was really kind of from the X's and O's and what we still want to discuss from the game, a lot of what I wanted to talk about there, and you did a great job of laying that all out.

16:29 But folks, get used to seeing completions against the Steelers. I mean, you can't have everything perfect. You're not, you know, and It also still makes me crazy. People think it's 1976. You went on this rant last week. It's like, you're not going to shut teams out every week and hold them.

16:43 To three points. You're not giving up 180 yards and 13 points a week anymore.

16:46 And there's seven sacks.

16:48 The Steelers' 2008 defense is not walking through that door. Yeah. The Ravens' 2001 defense is not walking through that door.

16:53 And it's easy to complete passes in this league. I mean, a completion is not the end of the world. Everybody does it. You know?

17:00 Everybody's doing it.

17:01 Yes. But if you make it one-dimensional, okay. Absolutely.

17:05 Absolutely. and they certainly did that to the Saints. Shuck had some success through the air.

17:09 I thought he played really well.

17:10 Yeah, but he also got to them and rattled them a little bit and won many more of the battles than they lost, and that ultimately, I'm going to make this joke all week, like we do in France, just won the war for the Steelers, baby. 16-10 NFL Paris game, history in the books. There's a lot of history out there in France, without a doubt. That was one of the things, and we'll talk to Kinger about this tomorrow, but he was explaining to me so much of the stuff.

17:36 He's like, Dublin and Ireland, it's really cool. But their history there kind of started in the 1910s in Dublin.

17:44 Which is infantile compared to Europe.

17:46 Which is infantile compared to a lot of these buildings and a lot of these streets and a lot of this history.

17:51 It's like people in America think, boy, that's an old building.

17:55 Not compared to Greece. Yes. Rob and I are walking in like that. Now I need to see the Greece pantheon too, by the way, because I've seen the French one, which was immaculate. Now I need to see the Greek one. But Rob and I are walking through that whole Notre Dame pantheon area, and he's like, these roads here seem really wide to you for European cities, don't they? I'm kind of like looking around and I'm like, yeah, actually, now that you mentioned it, yeah.

18:15 Not like you've been to as many as him, but okay.

18:17 But like, you know, I've been to Rome. I've been to Dublin. I've been to Madrid and Barcelona. I'm like, yeah, you know what? You're right. These streets are a little bit wider.

18:23 He goes, I mean, Dublin was narrow.

18:24 Never thought he was it. Kinger goes, Kinger goes, yeah, that's because back in the day, Napoleon wanted to march his armies down the street. So they widened them.

18:33 That's actually where I know we're up against it, but I was curious. Like there's an awesome. world war ii tom hanks uh series that came out a year ago or so and i watched everyone was like 24 parts and i knew some world war ii but i and it dawned on me it's like much less so than dublin there had to be so much destruction less than 100 years ago i mean so many buildings blown up and bad stuff that happened because world war ii happened in your backyard you know like america Fortunately, America hasn't had to deal with those type of things ever.

19:06 I believe, right, the Civil War is the only one we've had in the American Revolution.

19:10 No one's dropping huge bombs on each other or destroying things. But I was wondering, some of their old stuff isn't there anymore. You know what I mean? It sure is, man.

19:21 And they actually still were putting on– the Notre Dame Cathedral caught on fire in 2019.

19:25 Yeah.

19:26 I would say it's probably 95% of the way rebuilt, but they still had a couple scaffolding and cranes and areas where they were doing the final touches.

19:33 So it's not original.

19:34 But they also, anytime they do stuff like that, they have to be so careful and take so much time, abundance of caution, because if you mess one thing up, it's like that's gone forever.

19:43 That's kind of what I was thinking too. it's like how do.

19:46 You restore that city that thing's hundreds of years old and if you move one brick the wrong way.

19:50 It's gone yeah yeah yeah so wild

19:52 Really cool couple uh two around the league things i want to hit on with you quickly when we close down the first hour on the other side euler and williamson it's the drive steelers nation radio on the steelers audio network