Drive11.2.26Hr2: Around the NFL Week 8

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Steelers Nation Radio.

Good evening, Steelers Nation. How we doing? Well, that's good. Us too. It is hour number two on a victory Monday here. We have plenty more to get to from Steelers 27 today. Brown 6. We'll have plenty of time to do that this week, obviously, as we will not be turning the page to an upcoming opponent with the Steelers headed into their bye week here.

So we're open to suggestions if you want to do some kind of exercise. This Wednesday, Thursday, next Tuesday, whatever.

Absolutely.

We could even grade each position group or do some kind of stuff we did in training camp or whatever.

Absolutely. That's a good call. And we've gotten a few people that have tweeted us some ideas. I've bookmarked some of those. And TV has some ideas that he's kept in his little trusty, dusty notebook over there.

I'm not even sure we shouldn't double down on a little college draft talk, too. Things are heating up in that world.

Who, buddy, are they?

Yeah.

I'm kind of excited for that conversation.

Who, buddy, are they?

I doubt you'd object. Talk more college football?

No.

I'll never. I'll never. I'll never object. But, Matt, I think we have to start with around the league with what happened in Buffalo.

Absolutely.

The Bills beat the Ravens 36-10, comfortably running away with that one in the second half. But that's not the story. The story is Lamar Jackson, first play of his first offensive snap of the game, injures his thumb, I believe it was, right on his throwing hand.

Throwing his thumb on a helmet, ruled out immediately. It was even reported he was going to IR before the game ended. It wasn't even like that was in the post-game press conference.

And I think Jesse Mentor confirmed that in his post-game press conference.

It has to be bad. I doubt it's just four weeks come back off IR. I don't know.

The Ravens are 4-4. Not only did they lose Lamar Jackson, they also lost Tyler Huntley. They had to go to their emergency third quarterback.

A fellow I'd never heard of.

Me either. If you haven't heard of him, I definitely haven't heard of him.

He was Skylar Bell's quarterback at UConn, but I found that out this morning. Okay.

Dan Orlovsky heritage there coming out of UConn. Matt, I think it is late early for the Baltimore Ravens, as we like to say.

Yeah, and you hate to see the Bills get such an easy win, but they were never threatened whatsoever. And as fans, I felt like we got robbed of what is as good a quarterback matchup as you could see just to sit back and watch. Like, you'd love that to be the Sunday night game, Lamar versus Allen.

Yeah, right, right, yeah.

But we didn't get that. But I don't think anyone's crying that's listening for the poor birdies either. So I want to have a little bit deeper conversation, and maybe this cuts into this segment. It's fine.

Hey, we got time this week.

We do. What do you do if you're the Ravens? So we don't have the– I'm going to throw some things out there. We don't have the advantage of knowing how bad these injuries are. But Huntley has a turf toe, which they always seem to linger, especially for a mobile quarterback. That doesn't sound good. Oh, by the way, they play Thursday.

Oh, my gosh.

Against the Jags. Against a great team. I mean, not only do they have a terrible stretcher.

On the road, too, I think, right?

I think it's in Baltimore. I think it's in Baltimore. Because they were in Buffalo, right?

You're right.

It was the opposite of this week. But, I mean, I look at the schedule.

Good seats still available.

I bet.

But I looked at their schedule when they were healthy going, Bills, Jags, back-to-back. That's awful. Let alone without your top two quarterbacks.

That's awful if you're completely healthy.

Really awful.

And Venga's still out hurt.

Yeah.

Right?

I don't know if he returned or not yesterday. I kind of tuned that game out when it was over in the second series of the game. So we know Lamar's out at least four weeks. Part of me, deep down, thinks.

Yeah, he did not. Venga did not play that.

He did not play.

They haven't ruled him out any further, but he did not play.

Okay, maybe play Thursday, whatever. So, Lamar's out at least four weeks. My hunch is it's longer, just the way that they reacted. I mean, everything was immediately. Usually, it's, well, we're going to evaluate on Monday.

Right.

There was none of that stuff.

There was none of that kind of PR speak. He's rolled out.

Yeah, right. I would think there's no chance Hundley plays this week and has to be out several weeks.

And even if he does, he's going to be compromised.

Do you punt the season? Now, if you do that, that's back-to-back non-playoff years for the Ravens.

And losing seasons because they went 8-9 last year.

And losing seasons, yeah. I mean, that's kind of unheard of there and a terrible way to start your new head coach's career. And how do you look Derrick Henry in the eye by throwing out– Trade him to Minnesota. So that's one option. I doubt that organization says we're just going to punt the season.

I doubt they do that either.

I mean, the Steelers wouldn't. That's just how some of these teams are built. They're not cool with that. Do you explore trade? And I get names.

Oh, Joe Flacco.

He's a Bengal. They're not getting IM.

That's a good point.

Their head coach or their offense coordinator.

Yeah.

The offense coordinator comes over from Chicago. You could get Case Keenum or T-Bag, who would know the offense like that, and maybe even could play Thursday. I bet you could get Daniel Jones. He's been horrible. Brissette got benched for Minshew. Andy Dalton's in the league somewhere.

Hey, Kenny Pickett's out there.

I mean, would you invest in something like that just to try to save your season and maybe compete in the division and hand the ball off a lot and... Hope Lamar rides in on a white horse in week 13.

Is this a cop-out if I say it depends on what happens Thursday against Jacksonville?

I assume you'll lose that game.

Because I think it's safe to assume, right? You're not going to go out and get a quarterback here in the next 24 hours and start them Thursday.

I'd say maybe the Bears guys, just because it's the exact same. The offense coordinator is in Chicago, but chances are no.

But if you fall to four and five, and a lot of those are AFC losses for them too. It's terrible.

Division and AFC, they're in a real bind.

I don't know what I'd do. There's no easy answers for that.

I don't know how I'd handle it. And it's not like Brissette's going to take you to the promised land or.

And then, no.

Tyler Badgent or, you know.

I think the even bigger overarching question with that, Matt, and maybe I'm doing the hyperbolic radio guy thing here that I was just joking about with Kinger in our first hour. Could we have seen... Could Sunday in Buffalo have been the last we see Lamar Jackson in a Ravens uniform?

That's where I was going next because... let's say he doesn't play again or they're out of it when he finally gets healthy and they just say, don't come back. You know, it's week 15 and yeah. And they have nothing to play for and things go bad. All we're going to hear about all off season. It's going to be like the biggest talking point is Lamar's contract. And that's going to, that was going to be a big thing on the horizon. It was already going to be, it was, yeah, it's already a big looming thing. That's the biggest thing going on in the Ravens organization right now.

I'm not saying this is the end of the Ravens as we know it, It probably isn't, but Henry could retire. Lamar could demand the trade. You have a new coach. I mean, it's just nothing lasts forever. I mean, like the Eagles are going through this, like a team that's been perennially good could hit that year where it's man.

I mean, we got to reset everything to the chiefs last year.

Yeah.

They didn't have to reset things to that degree. I mean, it's on new quarterback, but I mean, one year down doesn't always hurt you that much. I don't know. I mean, like, I'm not trying to get hyperbolic, like you said, but this could be the turning point in that organization. There's no Harbaugh, you know what I mean? It's just, everything's different, you know?

They do have a potential out in his contract after this year.

Well, I think he wants an extension is the big thing. I mean, like it's time to talk big money.

Because he has one more year left on his contract and then he has one of those void years. So it is kind of, it is kind of like heading into the last year of the contract.

I just know that was a big topic all along is, Ravens and Lamar have to get something done this offseason.

They'd have nearly a $ 75 million dead cap if they moved on from him.

Okay.

I'm not even suggesting they will, but it's going to complicate things.

He's set for next year, 2027, Matt, to have a $ 84 million cap hit. That's 26% of the Ravens' cap.

That's it, then. That's why they have to do something, because they can't go in as currently constructed. They at least need to renegotiate with him in some way, shape, or form.

If he's... Prime Tom Brady, I don't know if you can pay one guy 26% of the cap in this league.

Right. I mean, that's usually when the Chiefs go to the bank in my homes and we'll push things around and blah, blah, blah. But I don't know that he's thrilled there and he's coming off two injury-filled years. I mean, it's just rocky. It's just very unclear, I guess, is all I'm saying. And again, we're way getting ahead of ourselves.

It just turned November. This could become a two-horse race in the North real quick.

It sure could.

You know? And I really would have liked to have seen Cincy lose yesterday, which.

They almost did. Tennessee had him on the ropes.

Yes.

Lamar Jackson will look great as a Miami Dolphin next year in 2027. We wish him all the best. Speaking of the Bengals, let's do AFC North here, and then we'll break.

Yeah, because this was a crazy game, too.

Then we'll do the rest of the league. Talk about a shootout. I mean, unbelievable Titans and the Bengals. The Bengals pull it out in overtime, 43-36. Hope you had the over. monster offensive day for a lot of guys on both sides of the football. Sexy Dexy makes a big play at the end for the Bengals. I will say, though, for the third straight week, some life from the Titans, some life from Cam Ward.

I wanted to start there, yeah.

They might be turning a little bit of a corner, and they, again, as you and I have said many times, and I know this is supposed to be the AFC North conversation, but if the Titans can get to the end of the year with a top five draft pick, but they think Cam Ward's their guy, it's a fine place to be.

At least they're making noticeable steps in that direction, and maybe we don't have to have yet another coaching change, and maybe ownership can be like, you guys did some good things in the second half of the season, and Ward, he took a bad sack from Lawrence, and he had a couple questionable young guy stuff, but They lost two of their top offensive linemen during the course of the game. Tate, the first-round pick, who's been really, really good, didn't even dress in this game. And Ward was very patient and made some big-time throws and, frankly, exposed the Bengals' safety linebacker core for being horrendous. I mean, talk about a team that should make a trade. It's so bad. And Burrow was ridiculous in a couple manners. I mean, he

threw three picks. All of which were basically on him and like early in the game and like, what are you doing? You know, you're keeping the Titans in this thing. And then he was unbelievable in the second half. And T Higgins is better than he's ever been, by the way. I mean, it's crazy. You might, I've mentioned it. Like you throw Jonathan Taylor on that team or Reese Hall or somebody like that too. And I would trade for Jordan Brooks or Buda Baker.

That's not a Bengals move, but they could be the best team in the league. How about a Buda Baker or a Derwin James if you're Cincinnati?

Somebody in the middle of defense, because their linebackers and safeties stink. But the front's better and the corners are good. And if you could actually have a running back that was scary, that wouldn't cost you all that much.

No, and they're always reluctant. It's in what they do. They're the most static team maybe with their draft picks in the league.

I mean, I didn't see the Lawrence trade coming, though, either.

I don't think anybody did. And it's one of those things, if you're Cincinnati and you really feel like this is the year that we have to go on a run or else Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase and those guys are out the door.

And you're looking around and Lamar just went down and, you know, like, oh, the Steelers are better than we thought, but we could easily be the best team in this division and be the one or two seed in the playoffs. I think the Bengals are in a really interesting spot. My hunch is they don't do much. History shows you don't.

That's exactly right.

But, boy, Burrow was ridiculous in the second half.

Matt, not to get too ahead of our skis here, but the Bengals are in Madrid against the Falcons. Which is nice.

The Steelers didn't hurt the Steelers this past week.

Fantastic.

That's great, yeah.

Fantastic. They're at the Santiago Bernabeu there in Madrid. Who are they playing?

The Falcons.

Oh, okay.

The Falcons could beat them.

My favorite stadium in the world that I've ever been to, the Santiago Bernabeu. That's on my list. I'd love it if the Steelers would play a game there.

Falcons aren't the team you want to be bad at linebacker and safety.

No, that's a good call. No, they are not. But yeah, after the first two weeks, the reports of the Bengals' defense being fixed greatly exaggerated.

Greatly exaggerated.

Their defensive line is fixed. The front's great. Although Cassius Howe's out now, too.

Oh, I didn't know that.

He picked up a wrist injury. And they said he's going to miss some time. He was impactful. He was having a good rookie season, especially for a second-round pick.

But Lawrence and Moffay and those guys have been real good.

Bengals are 5-2, Matt. If they take care of business in Spain, in Madrid, they will be 6-2, and that would set up a heck of a Sunday night football showdown in Cincinnati.

Either way, it's a heck of a showdown.

13 days from now. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

You hope you get first half Bengals, not second half Bengals.

I didn't even realize until yesterday that that was the Sunday night football game out in Cincinnati.

Yeah, I don't know the schedule as well as I should.

Don't hate it, though. You know why? Since he's a good town to poke around and have some fun in. Ah, Saturday night. We'll be able to enjoy ourselves Saturday night.

That's cool.

And then if you're going to have a Sunday night late game, at least Cincinnati.

At least it's quick.

It's a pretty quick plane flight. It's not in Seattle. It's not in Seattle or LA or Las Vegas, like seemingly where the Steelers have played those games.

You won't be as sleepy on Monday.

No, I won't be getting home at 5 a.m. like we normally do on those Sunday night West Coast games. It'll be like 2 a.m. We'll make it work. So there's your kind of AFC North recap. Let's table this for now. Let's take a break.

It was a seismic shift in the division all of a sudden one day.

Absolutely. And also a seismic shift in Wes's confidence that his Ravens under 11 and a half wins.

Oh, you should feel real good about that one.

Going to cash, baby. Boys, I'm buying sandwiches at the end of the season. Our favorite spot down the road, Portman's Deli. I'm treating with my Baltimore Ravens winnings. Let's talk about the rest of week eight here as we roll along. Euler and Williamson, it's The Drive. Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.

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

Steelers Nation Radio.

Rolling along here down the home stretch, down the back half of this Monday show, and let's recap some of the rest of these games. A pretty. A lot to digest, I'll say, from Week 8 there. In the AFC North, definitely, but across the league as well, too, Matt. And I think we should probably begin this portion of the conversation in Dallas, where no one is sicker than Jerry Jones and company this morning.

Some of his reactions in the booth now are just.

Not even in Cleveland are they as sick as they are deep in the heart of Texas. Cowboys, Matt, they give up 40 points to the Cardinals in the fourth quarter. Now they got a miracle. They got a prayer. Cardinals had a chance to win it with an extra point at the death. Oh, right. And missed it.

Missed it.

But then, redemption. Arizona hits a walk-off field goal in overtime, 33-30. Another Gardner-Mischu madness that we've seen a few times in his career. And now the Cowboys are 3-5, Matt. They're just 1-3 at home.

Mischu's fun, though.

He is.

He just doesn't care.

He comes up and he's going to chuck it. He's a lot of fun. He's not like the Ravens dude that comes in and is like, I just can't make a mistake. You know, Minshew's like, I don't care.

He's going to let it fly. I'm going to let it fly.

Arizona's spunky. I mean, I'd be disheartened, though, if I'm the Cowboys here. I mean... How could you not be? I mean, you allowed a lot of yards on the ground. Your offense should beat up on that defense.

Oh, my gosh.

I mean, like, everyone knows Dallas has defensive issues. Don't get me wrong. But their offense is not holding up their end of the bargain either.

So.

What do you do if you're them? I mean, they could still win that crap division.

They certainly could.

They certainly could. Or do you trade Pickens and call Tomlin after the season? I mean, there could be a coaching change no matter what. But are you a buyer or seller at the deadline?

Well, I don't know if Mike Tomlin's going to want to be there if that wide receiver's there. I think he washed his hands of him.

Him and Broderick and Porter and all those bodies. They should be a seller. But you have an owner that's up in age. There's no way. I mean, I bet they kept talking that whole game like Josh Swets is going to stay in Dallas and be a Cowboy. You know, I mean, like that could really bite you, though. You've used a lot of picks sent to the Steelers for dudes and you're not getting any return.

The good news for the Cowboys, and this even sounds funny. I'm like laughing through my teeth as I say this because nothing's guaranteed with this team. They do have some wins left on that schedule. Like, they got the Colts next week. You better beat the Colts next week. They're the worst team in the league. They're the worst team in the league right now. You do still play the Titans.

You do still play the Eagles again. You know, you do still have the Giants and the Commanders.

I mean, the division's very winnable.

But they have the 49ers. They have to go to Seattle. They have to go on the road to the Rams. They have to play the Jags. Like, they've got some really tough games on that schedule, too.

And if you win the division... Here's your grand prize. You get to host Seattle.

Yeah, right.

You know what I mean? In the 4-5 game. Congratulations, here come the Rams. Exactly, right. The Niners are coming to town. I'm like, oh, good. Here come the Bears. It's a dilemma.

Much like the Baltimore Ravens, I think we can throw the Dallas Cowboys into this... into this grouping as well, of that the Steelers fans are not sad for their problems. In fact, they're probably happy they have them.

Oh, we want them to lose as many games as possible and give the Steelers better picks, too.

I'm also telling you this. If there's a little bit of a cue for potentially acquiring Mike Tomlin's services... I think I've told you guys that I might even.

List three or four teams that should be very interested.

I might even said this, this past week or the week before one of, one of my best friends, TJ is from long Island. He, he lives here. We went to college together. He lives here. He lives here in Pittsburgh now and has for a long time, but he's still a jets guy at heart, obviously. And every, every Sunday, these last two Sundays is the jets have just been losing in miserable fashion. He's like, he'll text me and he'll be like, we got three first round picks, pick anyone that you want. Send Mike Tomlin our way. we'll call it even.

Oh we can make it we can make that i'm like.

Hey buddy you tell me which one of those first round picks you want to give i'll take any of.

Them and tom i don't know if he'd even have interest in that he might not but i mean that's exactly what they need just like harbaugh going to the giants in the same town you know like get us back the respectability Teach us how to win.

Woody Johnson. Any one of those three first round picks will do.

Yeah.

Especially with the Colts losing a million games in a row. Side note. I can't remember if I mentioned this first hour or not. Sometimes you just get lucky. You know that. The Jags get the Colts the week that they sell everybody and just smash them. And then they get the Ravens with no quarterbacks four days later. That looked like a terrible game. We had to go to Baltimore on Thursday night after the Colts game.

Steelers might be getting Baltimore at the right times at the end of the season.

I'm glad that both games are still out there. I mean, Eagles look a lot better game.

You could have played the Ravens twice already instead of the Browns.

Absolutely.

Different story.

Matt, the 1972 Miami Dolphins?

Undefeated team it's 72 right for some reason I was thinking it was no it's 72 yeah they could pop their champagne as the Vikings have their first loss of the season a low scoring knuckle dragging win for the Lions 19 to 15 and all of a sudden that division is very interesting too.

And the Vikes are really interesting first off huge win for the Lions they're legit I think they're a contender first off Jack Campbell's situation was scary. Very, very scary. There hasn't been updates. He's resting in the hospital now, but that was scary, scary stuff and a really good player. I think I need to focus a little more on the Vikes. I mean, their defense was as good as ever, but the offense is so anemic. They lost the time possession battle like 35 to 25, and eventually Jamar Gibbs just starts ripping off runs. I don't know if you're the best defense in the league. You can't be out there that long on the road against that offense. And that was the difference. Not that the defense is to

blame at all. Sure. But Kyler Murray's still very uneven. They don't get the ball to Jefferson nearly enough. I really like their head coach, but McCarthy's thriving into the Giants and he's not reviving Kyler and your best guy is Darnold and he goes to the other team and wins the Super Bowl like. Maybe the quarterback whisper stuff was a little overblown. You know what I mean?

We have a video producer on this program that's been saying that for like three or four weeks. He's feeling pretty vindicated right now.

And they've been linked heavily to like Jonathan Taylor. I mean, they only have one loss. I guess that's a good move. But that offense is far from playoff worthy.

Yes, it is. Even with Justin Jefferson doing circus.

Stuff out there. And he's getting frustrated, as he should.

Matt?

The Jets fall at home to the Raiders. I think both of these teams were kind of– this win meant a lot for the trajectory of the rest of their season. Yeah.

I think we're going to keep Cousins in there for a while now still.

Raiders 38, Jets 33. Enjoyed the performance of both of the veteran quarterbacks and Cousins and Geno.

Yeah, yeah. They still have it. I mean, they're still– Good enough, you know?

That's exactly right, Matt. I, you know, enjoyed myself this weekend. WVU had the bye week, so they couldn't ruin my weekend. Steelers beat up on the Browns. Geno Smith was out there balling and looking great. But I just, this one was, it's kind of a weird one, because neither of these teams are really going anywhere. But if you're the Raiders now, you're 4-4, and you've got important football in front of you.

As you were talking about that, it's like, I think one team has a coach and one doesn't.

Yes.

We might be in the final days of Aaron Glenn here. Yeah.

I mean, I don't think he'll be there next year, whether it's Tomlin or not or whoever, but he's had two years and doesn't seem to give them any kind of competitive advantages. You know, in games you should at least probably should win. You know what I mean? Weird, like kind of fantasy note is it looked like flat out.

Mike Washington got like 23 carries and Jenty got two.

Yeah.

And he's been fighting a foot injury. I don't know what's going on there.

Did you see Rex Ryan just destroying him on ESPN Countdown?

I heard something about it, but yeah.

He was basically calling him soft, and he shies away from contact, and he's been one of the worst top 10 draft picks in recent memory when you consider running back.

You have to start kind of thinking about him in that light. And the bar is so high. If you're going to use that kind of pick on a running back.

You better be B. John, you better be Gibbs, you better be Saquon. Right. Matt, it was a weird Sunday in a lot of different facets, but the weirdest probably happened down in Tampa. Oh, yeah. That's where I was thinking of the 1974. The Dolphins were 72. 74 was when the Buffalo Bills won a game with O.J. Simpson without completing a pass. The Bucs just did that for the first time in 50-some years. 16-0 over the Falcons.

Baker Mayfield did not complete a single pass, and the Bucs still win by two scores at home.

So let's talk box for a minute. Cause this is really steal irrelevant. And people have been listening for weeks. We were both very, had a lot of respect for Tampa going into the Steeler Tampa game, even though they only had one win at the time. I think they're one in four.

Yes.

I'm like, they're good on the line of scrimmage. That defense is legit. They, I mean, they got quarterback issues. They got passing game issues, but they can bully you. And in a lot of ways, they're sort of like the Steelers where they're, starting to pick up steam here with a defensive-minded head coach who's hard to play against, good on both lines of scrimmage. That offensive line's playing really, really well, and they're running the ball great with Irving.

So this was a perfect game for them. I mean, it was a monsoon if you didn't see it. I know they don't stop those games, but they probably should have.

They couldn't have picked better weather for the way they wanted to play.

Right, like we don't want to throw it anyway. And Penix throws four picks. They didn't run it particularly well. I don't know how impressed I am with Tampa or how down I am in Atlanta for, you know, considering the circumstances, but there's no doubt in my mind what Tampa did against the Steelers. And especially since just bullying, absolutely bullying two divisional foes shows that the Steelers are, can battle the best and beat the best in the trenches.

You know, it's, it should make you feel good. That team has looked way different the last two weeks than they did.

They've truly found their identity, too, and it's all about the trenches.

Matt, I and we, because we're one band, one sound here on this show, right? I make that joke a lot. This is the NFL. You're not going to get Ohio State versus Akron. But Jags versus Colts was about as close as Ohio State versus Akron. That's as easy as it.

Gets, especially this week with everybody.

42-7.

I don't really know if there's much analysis into that other than I think the Jags are a legit AFC contender.

It doesn't get any easier, though.

And I might even pick the Chargers to beat the Colts if they were playing on Sunday.

Oh, I would.

I would.

I mean, I think they just are downtrodden. Like, it's almost a shame that the Colts have to play eight or nine more games. Can't they just be like, we forfeit all of them? Who do you want off our team? I mean, the way that they— We don't have a first-round pick.

Just leave us alone.

Right.

I mean, just, it's that bad. They may not win again. I can't imagine getting much better. I mean, I think Riley Leonard will be in there at some point.

Maybe they'll beat the Titans.

Maybe. I mean, Titans are playing. Everyone's playing better than them right now.

Speaking of the Chargers, Matt, they remain the NFL's lone winless team. They showed some life in the first half.

Some.

But then the Rams pulled away in the second half 24-9. They win the Battle of L.A. The Rams get back to 500 or at least okay for now.

Yeah.

I'd say the Rams are at least okay for now.

They're far from out of the woods, but they're not with one foot in the grave yet either.

I mean, the Chargers were a little better than they were heading into their bye two weeks ago and how they started the season. But Herbert still did three or four things that you make me wonder, is that guy broke or is he just, you know, is this who he's become? Is he made this way? Well, I don't know.

They're not good, and I don't see anything getting much better for the Chargers. You could probably pry two or three guys away from them, Derwin, McGonkey. whoever.

Khalil Mack.

Yeah, Mack, I think, has to go.

Tell you what, if they end up picking first overall, that would be a hell of a storyline for us to kick around all draft season. Do you go and get Jeremiah Smith and believe in Herbert, or do you get rid of Herbert and start over?

Yeah.

That would be a heck of a conversation.

In a much different light, I think Tennessee's similar, too.

Yeah.

As you mentioned. Yeah.

Matt, another wild one. I left Accresure Stadium a little after 7 o'clock last night, We had the Chiefs, you know, Charlie Batch and Mike Pursuit are doing the postgame show. I'm producing for them. Show ends at 7. I got to clean up and everything. I'm out of there at 7.15. We had the Chiefs and the Broncos game on in the booth.

Okay.

And I left there going, ah, Chiefs got this. Yeah, yeah. They were up two scores, and they were firmly in command of that game, and Bo Nix looked like he was a third-string emergency quarterback. And then the Broncos score 15 points in the fourth quarter, come back and win 28-24.

I think it's a pretty evenly played game, and I probably raised as many questions about both those teams as answered. I mean, Kenneth Walker's great, but you can slow down a running back as Seattle and Denver did with big-time defenses, and I just don't think they have enough. You know, Kelsey's starting to look a little older each week, and Rashi Rice was back but didn't make much of an impact, and they have O-line issues. I'm not real fearful of the Chiefs.

Denver....

They have a good defense. They're well coached. When you look at it, Nix is not taking many chances at all with the ball, but he was rather efficient in this game, and he's slowly getting better. They might have found something in Jonah Coleman as just a pounder to put teams away late, and he was real useful in the fourth quarter. But it begs the question for the Steelers.

when you look around the AFC with the state of the Ravens, who's really good, you know, and.

Maybe the bills, but their defense is suspect to bangles. The bills are another one that should be on the horn trying to get a Derwin James or a Buddha Baker or some.

It almost should be the bills a year.

Yes.

You know, you, you can't waste Josh Allen's career and not at least get to the Superbowl.

I realized they already don't have a second round pick because they traded it for DJ more in the off season. But like, I think you can get one of those safeties for a third rounder.

Oh yeah.

Rounder go get them.

But, Could the Steelers be as good as any of them?

Yeah.

I mean, they're playing as well as anyone in the AFC.

Especially if we stop throwing goal line fades in goal-to-go situations. Then we could really be on to something.

Maybe we should work on that in the bye week. Let's throw that.

That's the one thing that's holding me back right now.

Let's pull that out of the playbook, yeah.

Yeah, the AFC is very– I mean– Jacksonville is quite good. It's a fun year. We said this, I think, on last Wednesday when we were doing around campus. It's a fun year in college football and in the NFL because it doesn't feel like there's a proverbial juggernaut.

Yeah, why not us?

Now, if Miami– we'll talk more about this on Wednesday. If Miami, the U Miami, not the Dolphins, they go to South Bend Saturday night. If they go in there and they roll Notre Dame, then I'm starting to think they're that juggernaut in college football. They're number one, yeah. But there doesn't feel like there's that proverbial Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio State have been for so often. Like the Eagles or the Chiefs have been for so often.

Right. It's not like, oh, it's going to be Eagles-Chiefs again.

Boring.

Rams-Chiefs. Boring. No, it's open.

And a lot of these teams will start to hit their stride in the next three, four weeks. Yeah. We'll be like, oh, look at Seattle. Oh, look at the Rams.

And we've already seen it. I mean, we'll see it tonight. You know what I mean? Jeffrey Simmons versus Nelson. Simmons versus Nelson. Buckner going to a team on a bye. Maybe Micah Parsons comes back in a week or two. Maybe Khalil Mack ends up on a team. I think there'll be a lot of action of adding players. Some big-time players in November. Nelson, Buckner, Simmons is a start.

We've got eight days until the trade deadline. It's already been heating up, and I expect that to only ramp up. Two more to discuss, Matt. You called this one. I'll give you credit. Patriots, Dolphins. The Patriots, I don't know if they were ever really in danger of losing that game, but 24-19, about as comfortable of a one-score win as you could have. The Dolphins kept it interesting. They wouldn't let the Patriots put that away.

Dolphins might have a coach and a culture now, too, and maybe a quarterback and an O-line. They're playing all these rookies, and that's exactly what they should do. I look at New England, though, too, and I bet I'm going to think they're too high in the power ranks tomorrow, wherever they're at.

It's like.

It's Drake May and not much else. I mean, it's kind of how it's been.

After a real struggle in his first, what, three games or so, he has been one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL since October.

As he was last year. I know this is getting ahead of ourselves, too, but think about it when you're watching the game tonight. Could Caleb and May be the next Lamar and Allen Burrow? I mean, like, the five-year-below next tier one guys?

Maybe.

Could be.

Yeah. Certainly could be. Certainly could be. And when you combine that with, like, the Josh Allens and the Patrick Mahomes, maybe we'll have a little bit of a Brady, Manning, Roethlisberger, Breeze thing going on here.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, how Brady passes it down to Mahomes. Could Caleb or maybe those guys that are perennially MVP candidates. I don't think that's nuts.

And, Matt, it wasn't quite a cherry on top last night. In fact, it was.

That was a miserable game.

The exact opposite. I could see why NBC wanted to flex the Steelers and the Browns into that game.

Ugh.

I can also see why CBS said no. Commanders get it done, though, at home, 27-10 over the Eagles. I don't know if there's really a lot to say about this. The Eagles definitely aren't going anywhere. I don't think the Commanders are either.

Somebody has to win the division. I don't think it's either one of those teams. I don't have much to take away from the game, period. I enjoy all NFL games, but I didn't mind when it was over and I could flip something else on.

I was like, ugh. Let's just say Mrs. Doubtfire was on last night at the same time as that game, and I might have spent more time watching Robin Williams than I did the Commanders and the Eagles.

Okay.

Matt, one more segment to go.

The dude I graduated high school was in that movie.

Oh, yeah?

Yeah, yeah. His name's Dan London. I was good buddies with him, but he's a prominent role in that movie. He's one of the sidekicks.

You Lebo guys, I tell you.

I know. Coming out of the woodwork, man.

Dan London.

Oh, yeah.

He's one of the guys I think that like works.

I haven't seen the movie in 30 years.

He works.

He works. And I think in like the like the beauty parlor where they help Robin Williams dress up as a woman, as the grandma, as the woman. That's pretty good.

Oh, yeah.

Doubtfire, dear. One more segment to go on the other side. Let's give some I won't even say final Brown Steelers thoughts because we'll talk about it more tomorrow. But some some final thoughts for today on Steelers and Browns. And then, of course, we'll give a prediction and a thought for tonight's big Monday night football matchup. Seahawks, Bears, two NFC contenders on Monday night football out there in Seattle tonight.

We'll do all that before we get up out of here. Yuler and 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. 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.

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

Steelers Nation Radio.

Down the homestretch here on this Victory Monday. Hopefully everybody enjoying the fruits of the Steelers' labor yesterday. Some donuts today if you're the type in celebration lockstep with Craig Wolfley. Uh, Matt, another, we just, this stretch of beautiful days continues here in Western Pennsylvania. It's November now. Long, long may it rain.

I've been saying for three weeks in a row now, I bet you this is the last time I'm wearing shorts until April and I'm wearing shorts again today.

Yeah. I didn't go out or check the weather all day until I was leaving for here. And I'm like, is it cold out or warm out? I'm like, it looks really nice. I'm going to go out and get the mail. I'm like, Oh, that's wonderful. You're right.

I used to this time of year. If it was nice out, I would be like, I'd be like shaken because it's I just had the itch to go skiing, go play pond hockey, go sled riding. Now I'm like, I would wear. You know what? If we could just have a bunch of snow the week of Christmas and then the rest of the year, it was like this.

Sign me up. I did want to mention you talked about at the start of our show. we kind of mentioned the trenches and some of the stuff we saw on both sides of the ball. A name that we haven't mentioned yet that I think deserves a shout is Keanu Benton.

He's been really, really good lately.

His box score numbers aren't blowing you away.

Impact is.

But if you're just watching the game, his impact is undeniable. He's been really good. But you mentioned, and maybe that's something we can talk about. We'll do the Tuesday Rewind tomorrow. I'm going to go home and watch the game again tonight.

I did a show with Tim Benz this morning, and So this is like third-hand information. I haven't heard Cam Hayward's post-game interview yet, but Tim just kind of described it to me and read some of it while we were on the air. And basically what Cam was saying was we were able to control their guards, have wider pass rush guys on the edge, and really do a nice job containing Watson. And the second I heard him say control the guards, I'm like, that's Cam and Benton.

That's Cam and Benton.

And they've been doing that so well.

Yes, they have.

I hope everyone... I'm glad you brought up Benton's name because... That contract's going to be a steal for one thing, and he just keeps getting better and better and better.

That's going to age like all that French wine that Rob King brought back with him from Paris. I saw this, though, and just wanted to run this by you before we kind of give some Monday Night Football thoughts and get out of here. You mentioned the offensive line traps that were executed beautifully in that first segment.

Fun, man.

A lot of fun. Five times they ran that trap play on offense.

Okay.

And here's the stats that they posted. I bet they were good. 17.8 yards per carry.

Wow.

I mean, some gouging giant runs.

On five carries, three of them went for first downs, three of them went for 10 or more yards. So on five carries, three first downs, three explosives.

And Rob mentioned it's a good point too. When you're doing all that twisting and stunning and you think you're coming free and then someone ear holes you from the side, you don't see a lot of trapping in today's NFL because one of the things is like the advantage like the Chuck Knoll teams had was you were able to keep Tunch and Wolf for 10 years to do it together.

You weren't chasing. linemen in every, every year and all the change. I mean, I'm going to keep Webby. I got Cole, but you know what I mean? I'm going to be, these guys are used to doing it. Not to mention with all respect to the Joe greens and stuff of that era, the D linemen are just more dangerous and scary. Now, like I'm going to let their Jeffrey Simmons come free for three three steps up the middle, right at my quarterback. Like I'm not even gonna practice that stuff. You know what I mean? The last one, Matt, it can pay off and you can blast it.

It sure can.

Yeah.

You've talked about this a lot in off seasons, particularly in the last two, where we talked about how the yards per carry needed to uptick for the Steelers. Oh, it sure has the, the yards before contact metric.

Yeah.

How, how close to the line of scrimmage or beyond the line of scrimmage are you getting and how, and it's great that, Jalen Warren is always falling forward.

And he gets a ton after contact.

You give him a yard and he'll get four. But, Matt, on those five trap plays that the Steelers ran, 3.2 yards average before contact.

Yeah.

I mean, if you're going three yards past the line of scrimmage before anyone gets a fingernail on you.

That's Ohio State versus Akron stuff.

I bet that's not going to go away. And what's great is if you only use it five times.

You got a game plan for it. It's in the back of your mind the whole time.

Since E-Week, they're going to be like, man, we got a game plan for trapping. You're like, I don't want to do that. I mean, we don't ever have to do that. So you'll throw a lot at you offensively. The way they're moving Washington around, they're putting Anderson in motion, Dowdell's touchdown. Anderson gets downfield and basically blocks both safeties and smashes them.

And the second one, he like looked like WWE. It looked like Monday Night Raw out there.

I've been saying this for a month. If you watch all 22, and I can't watch all 22 of every game, I'll take my chances that more Steeler defensive opponents end up on the ground than against any team in the league. They mash dudes, and yesterday may have set the record. Your boy Zach puts people on his back. God, I love him.

I would die for my country, Zach Frazier. Matt, the part of that that's everything that you just said is absolutely true, and if you can't feel me smiling through the microphone, the part of that that should really get people excited... this offensive line is not near their best.

No, this is all the stuff we talked about.

Troy's going to get better. Mason and Zach still have growth to their game.

Yeah.

These guys are all still on their rookie deals. Yeah.

They're puppies. I mean, this is how much did we talk about this in the off season and really even before they drafted a haunted chore and you know, you even have a Jennings dunker just sitting there marinating and hopefully getting better and learning, you know, like he might be your starting right guard next year. Who knows? And, My hunch is this front off. Again, we kind of opened the show by saying this was Andy and Omar's vision whenever they took over this thing is we're going to draft a lot of big, nasty, athletic people and watch them develop. And it hasn't even reached the peak yet. Again, Harmon's going to be back. You know, like they're 300 pounders.

The investment is paying off, folks. And I know that there were times and I caught a lot of arrows. Williamson, you're always just defending these guys. You know, Broderick Jones was a miss, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, the process is right. Yep. And this is the way to do it.

I think it was. It was early in the season, one of the first few weeks. We had Mike DeFabo on the show.

Mm-hmm.

And he said, you know, drafting offensive linemen, it's not sexy. It's like putting money... It's like you could have bought... 401K. You could have bought the sports car, but instead you put it into your 401K. It's not sexy at the time, but eventually... It pays off.

When it's retirement time, it's real sexy.

That Steelers offensive line is sending some dudes into retirement.

You don't want to be shopping for those dudes in the open market. That's when you get Dan Moore for $ 22 million a year.

The Quentin Nelson is few and far between.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Speaking of Quentin Nelson, he'll make his Seahawks debut. I think it's going to be a great game. I am pumped for this tonight.

It's so cool that Simmons versus Nelson, too, and they used to battle in the same division twice a year.

There's so many fun storylines and two real contenders there in the NFC.

They might be two of the best three teams in the league.

They certainly could be.

They're really, really good.

I'm sure they'll be very high in the power rankings when we do that tomorrow. Seahawks at home where they are three and one this season against the Chicago bears, Seattle, a three and a half point favorite this evening.

I'm definitely taking the points. I may regret that because I have great respect for Seattle. And I think Nelson's are such a great addition. And maybe the bears are a little ahead of over their skis in terms of just development, coach Gordon back, all that stuff. I'm just buying into the bears. And I think they have a 50, 50 chance to win it. So if you're going to give me three and a half, Sign me up.

This is one. I would like this a lot more if it was two and a half for Seattle than three and a half, because I think that seems like a lot. Seattle just also they're one of those teams that just goes to a different level when they're at home. They feed off that crowd. It's one of the better atmospheres in sports. It's going to be a raucous atmosphere tonight because, you know, there's a lot of displaced Chicagoans out there on the West Coast who are going to this one.

And I'm sure Seattle fans are loving the Nelson edition.

Oh, you've got to be excited.

The best left guard in the league just falls out of the sky to add to the Super Bowl champs. Like, yo, baby.

Pretty good. Most expensive get-in price of the week. I think I'm with, if this was two and a half, I'd lay him with Seattle at three and a half. I'm going to take the points with the Bears and what I anticipate will be a very close and very fun game.

I think it'll be a lot better than last night's game.

Not a very high bar to clear, but you're right. Matt, tomorrow on the show, let's recap the picks that we made this week since we were different on so many of them. We'll get this final one in the books tonight. We'll do our Tuesday power rankings. I'm going to rewatch the Steelers this evening as well, so we'll do some Tuesday rewind stuff as we head into the bye weekend for the Pittsburgh Steelers. But that will do it for us today on this Victory Monday. Big thanks to our buddy Rob King for joining us in the first hour.

And a shout-out, as always, to the intrepid video producer slash resident statistician of this program, Mr. TV, Tyler Vee. For Matt Williamson, I'm Wes Shuler. Take care, everybody. We will talk to you tomorrow. As always, you know where to find us. It's on your 24-7 home of the black and gold. Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.

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.

I told you they were building their own line. I win the bet.

Get 100% fiber internet with Verizon Fios, because when it comes to your team, it's 100% or nothing. Call 1-833-VERIZON to switch today.

Get that hot dog costume ready.

Bruh.

Drive11.2.26Hr2: Around the NFL Week 8

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