Drive9.22.26Hr1: Tuesday Rewind - Snap Counts

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Good afternoon, Steeler Nation. It's The Drive on the Steelers Audio Network. Wes Shuler and Matt Williamson with you here for the next two hours on this Tuesday as we have got plenty to get to. We're going to talk some snap counts. We're going to do a little Tuesday rewind. We'll have your fantasy football focus, everything that you expect here on this program on a Tuesday. But once again, we are leading off with a heavy hitter, of course, our buddy Mike DeFabo. of the Athletic, joining us now on the phone line to talk all things Steelers. And Mike, certainly a sour taste left in the mouth of everybody after that performance on Sunday, that 20-3 defeat up in New England to the Patriots. And we heard Mike McCarthy

talking yesterday in his press conference about simplifying the offense. That's a pretty loaded term. What are you hearing? What do you think that looks like in your mind and what it looks like starting Sunday against Cincinnati?

Yeah, I think it goes down to knowing who you are and what you do well.

And that's really the whole central focus of when he's talking about that kind of thing. He's saying rather than having an exhaustive menu of plays and trying to beat a team based on the variety and the numerous different things.

You do, know what you do well and execute it at a high level. You know, it makes sense to me.

Back in the day when I covered the Penguins, Mike Sullivan would always say, hey, when things aren't going well for you, sometimes you have to simplify things. So figuring out who the Steelers are in executing those plays at a high level, I think is the first step.

So it was very easy to overlook this because the game is out of reach and Mason Rudolph comes in for the last three plays. I found it a little peculiar that along with him came in Max's Haunted Shore and Hoffman on the right side of the line. Do you think that could be a Harbinger or Harbinger or whatever that word is of things to come?

Yeah. You know, I feel like over the last couple of days, I've heard Mike McCarthy talk both ways, you know, initially, immediately after the game, we were asking them, could change is becoming, we were alluding of course, to that right side of.

The offensive line. And, you know, he's, he kind of left the door open.

I thought with his initial comments and he said, well, it's easy to come in here and probably the right thing to say is everything's correctable, but And it was kind of like telling the way he then continued that. And he said, if you're making the same mistakes over again. And so I really thought that we could be seeing this switched over to Maxi on a chore. But then when we talked with Mike McCarthy yesterday at his press conference, he was then kind of reversing course and saying that he felt like this group needs some more continuity, more snaps together, more time to grow together. So I don't really have a good sense. I came out of it thinking that it was going to be big max time. And, you know, I came out of yesterday's press conference thinking

maybe not.

Mike, how much.

How much of the offense's woes do you think could be fixed with the offensive line taking a step forward? I I think we all have great expectations for this offensive line when you consider all the draft capital that's been invested there. I think we also all realize how young and how inexperienced and how little work they have together.

But football is an instant gratification sport, right? Nobody wants to hear this offensive line will figure it out. They just need a few weeks, even though that that could be. I'm not saying it definitely is, but that could be a reality. How big of a trickle down effect for this offense would be this offensive line taking a big step forward starting this week and hopefully really growing together here in the first half of the season?

Yeah, I'll put it pretty simply. This group should be the best position group on the team.

When you've invested the number of first and second round picks into this group, you know, you've spent three first round picks on tackles, a second round pick on a center, two third round picks on guards. It should be the best group on the team. And right now it's one of the worst. And that's a huge problem. You know, the Steelers have had this philosophy.

You know, you're not.

Creating a lot of excitement there. on draft night when you're just drafting offensive linemen. But the whole goal is that four years later, which is where they are within this process, you should be able to win games because of your, your offensive line. And right now I think that it's one of the biggest issues. So they've, they've got to figure it out. They have to figure it out soon. Maybe it is going to just take a matter of time. Maybe we are being too impatient, but you know, I think it all starts with that. If you can't protect a 42 year old quarterback is not.

As mobile as he once was.

And you're not running the ball at a high clip, you're going to have a hard time executing offense consistently.

So let's chat running backs here a little bit. So I really don't have any qualms with Rico Dowdle other than pass protection, but if you asked me this last year, the year before, or training camp, or yesterday, I still think Jalen Warren's just a better football player than him, more well-rounded, harder to tackle, maybe the most underrated back in the league. If they're both healthy, and I know that's an if at this point, I would go to maybe a two-thirds Jalen, one-third Dowdle split as opposed to 50-50.

Could you see that being in the cards? And then step two of this conversation is if Dowdle can't go, who else gets carries besides Warren?

Yeah, it's a great question. I mean, I'm with you with the Jalen Warren thing. I totally am.

You know, I was just watching through all the film again right before we had this call. I mean, there were a number of instances where it looked like Jalen created.

More on the ground than what was blocked for him.

Oh, yeah.

And he's a very elusive guy, yards after contact. And then.

in particular, and then beyond just that, the past protection, if the Steelers are going to be in shotgun as much as they were in that last game, there is a night and day difference.

I think in terms of the past.

Protection, you know, there were a number of instances where it looked like Jalen kind.

Of bailed out the offensive line.

And on the flip side, sometimes that Rico Dowdle left something to be desired. So I think I felt like Arthur Smith never fully realized what he had in Jalen Warren just because Jalen, I think, was injured maybe his first or second year. I think that it is time to start treating Jalen Warren like the legitimate number one running back.

Yeah, I agree. Would it be Homer? Would it be Heidenreich, though, if Dowdle can't go? I mean, they're not going to give him every carry.

Yeah, I mean, I think it would be interesting to see if Dowdle was able to tough it out and go. And it was interesting to me that he was able to come back. He was carted off the field. He sat in the front seat of the cart, I guess. He wasn't truly.

Carted off in the quote-unquote sense of it like you would think of it. But he was able to come back. If he's not, you know, I think I would think about activating Lou Nichols.

Yeah, I really would.

I think I think that if you're talking about the next best running back on the team period, I honestly think that it might be Lou Nichols right now.

Just ball carrier handing the ball in a traditional way. Yeah, I agree.

Mike DeFabo of The Athletic with us here on the Steelers Audio Network. Mike, obviously a lot went wrong for the offense on Sunday, and that was on the back of not their best performance in the opener against the Falcons either. it feels like another real element of this offense that just, if you're going to see them turn things around and not turn into a top five offense in the league, but certainly climb out of the basement of NFL offensive standings, DK Metcalf is going to have to be a big part of that equation too.

Yeah.

The offensive line needs to be better. Yeah.

You got to run the football more effectively, but you need a little bit more from your number one wide receiver as well.

Yeah.

More than a little bit more out of your number one wide receiver.

You know, you need him to play like a number one wide receiver because he's They spent twice to get him. You gave up a second round pick that's spending once. And then they gave him $ 33 million a year. He's the seventh highest paid wide receiver in the league right now. And, you know, he also got the guaranteed money that it seems like they're unwilling to give Joey Porter jr. So on a number of levels, they've committed themselves to this player.

They've taken a different approach, a different path than what they've done in the past.

At least in terms of guaranteed money.

And right now, Christian Gonzalez completely took him out of the game. And in the few instances when DK was able to create separation, he wasn't able to make the catch. And I think at this point, some of it's in DK's head. You know, when we asked McCarthy about some of these drop issues or just how much of it was self-inflicted, he talked about confidence.

And I think right now, DK's not playing with much confidence at all. And I think that it's getting to the point that it's almost like he has the yips.

And so he's got to snap out of it because... You know, I mean, I think back to a conversation with Aaron Rodgers before the year when reporters were asking him about, you know, you got Michael Pittman Jr. You drafted Jeremy Bernard. You keep talking up Roman Wilson. And he was like, basically, stop right there. DK Metcalf is our number one for a reason. We need to get him to football. And that remains as true now as when Aaron Rodgers said it initially.

That being said, you brought up Bernard and he played three snaps in week one, 55 snaps in week two with Pittman sidelined. I'm sure when Pittman comes back, whether it's this week or next, he'll be somewhere in between. But which direction do you lean? Do you think he's going to be a prominent member of the offense?

I mean, I liked what I saw from him and it was disappointing that he basically gifted the Patriots and interception and heard Aaron Rogers stats and maybe heard a little bit of the confidence level that Rogers had in him, because up until that point, I think he was the lone bright spot on this offense. You know, I, I really liked the first catch that he made where he made it in traffic, absorb two really big hits and still stay on his feet and kept moving.

For a couple more yards.

That was the kind of catch I think that earns the trust of a quarterback like Rogers. And you saw it later that drive, he went to him two more times within that same drive, clearly starting to develop a little bit of confidence in Bernard and And, you know, I'd like to see him continue to get more. You know, I just think that he's he can create something for you.

I think you can scheme up some things in terms of getting the ball into his hands. He's good yards after the catch for an offense that right now is kind of one dimensional.

He just would give you a different type of threat.

And and so I would like to just see him continue to get more and more as the season goes on.

I think he will.

Mike, kind of spinning the block with you to the other side, I did think that the Steelers' defense played pretty well on Sunday. They're the explosive plays that they have to clean up, and they weren't just 15, 20-yard explosives. They were big, chunky explosives, and that needs cleaned up, like I said. But other than that, I thought they played pretty well. I thought they limited Drake May. I thought they limited that run game outside of those two big chunk runs. I've really liked how Patrick Graham has used the edge rushers in the front and the rotation with those guys. I think Patrick Queen has played pretty good football so far to this season. It feels like Patrick Graham's really, you know, might be on to something

with that defense. And if they continue to kind of gel and improve over these next couple of weeks, that could be something for this team to continue to lean on while the offense figures it out.

Yeah.

I think that they really carried the team for most of that game. I think that they played very well in each of the first two games. And if anything, maybe they just wore down a little bit at the end of the last one.

I think that they were better than the stats even suggest.

And the stats were pretty good overall, at least in terms of limiting the points, creating the splash plays, you know, and I think you're doing it in a variety of different ways and updating this defense that has, has needed it.

You know, like I, You look at some of the sacks that they produced.

One of them, they got incredibly creative where they had Cam Hayward lined up over the tackle and they had Alex Highsmith over the guard. Then Alex Highsmith basically stabs inside like he's going to rush and drops back. It's only a three-man rush. Drake May doesn't know what to do. He ends up stepping up and Alex Highsmith gets a sack.

That'll go down as a sack for Alex Highsmith, but that was.

A Patrick Graham sack. And it's plays like that.

You know, another time where they had a disguised non-traditional Tampa two out of a single high look led to another sack from, from TJ Watts. So I think I really liked the way that he's modernized this defense, the way that he's deploying personnel in different ways, the way that he's creating one-on-one matchups for these talented edge rushers in the way that he continues to show different types of things that I'm sure that, you know, the offenses can't get a beat on it.

So it's, All that said, huge test this week, though, against Joe Burrow. There's a big difference between shutting.

Down a third-string quarterback and Cooper Rush, who gets himself benched in the second game, a Drake May, who struggled a bit, and a Joe Burrow offense that they've got tons of weapons.

Jamar Chase, T. Higgins, just surrounded by talent.

So I think a huge test for this defense, but I also love what I've seen at this point.

From that group.

Yeah, I mean, Chase and Higgins are really the difference from this week to last. Not that Burrow's any kind of slouch at all. He's phenomenal. But that brings me to the elephant in the room that we have to keep bringing up, unfortunately, and that's Joey Porter Jr. Are you buying that he's going to get revved up and potentially see the field in this game?

Honestly, until I see Joey Porter Jr.

On the field in a Pittsburgh Steelers uniform, I'm going to remain skeptical.

Yeah, yeah.

Just because of where this has gone to this point.

And, I mean, Jalen Ramsey flashed the 2-4 after his sack that got nullified.

I don't know if that.

Was for back injury awareness or what, but I found that interesting. And, I mean, it's impossible to ignore the fact that Joey wanted a contract and didn't get one.

Always a lot to ponder with our buddy Mike DeFabo. Make sure you're checking out his work, his coverage this week and every week in The Athletic. Mike, great stuff as always, man. Thank you for taking the time, and we'll see you soon.

All right, guys. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

We appreciate you. There he goes, Mike DeFabo of The Athletic. I'm with him on the Joey stuff.

Yeah, I almost didn't ask because who knows.

Because who knows.

We didn't even really talk about it yesterday because, well, you got a lot to download your thoughts from that game, but also who knows. We're just going to have to wait and see what happens Wednesday. I mean, I think that's the next real data point is what does he do in practice on Wednesday? But even that is going to be a little, you know, you're going to have to take it with a grain of salt for what it means for Sunday.

And I think it goes without saying, I mean, if you look at the 17 games on the schedule, which ones you need them the most for?

That would be.

The one that you would circle and say, we really want that guy against these wide receivers. We've got plenty more to get to as we roll along here. I want to talk with Matt about some snap counts and some Tuesday rewatch, some Tuesday rewind stuff here, as we'll continue to discuss everything that happened that transpired Sunday up there at Gillette Stadium. Just getting started on this Tuesday, Wes Shuler, Matt Williamson. It is The Drive, Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.

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Matt, I want to get into some snap count conversation with you here, as we will tend to do on Tuesdays of this regular season. But before we do, some big breaking news, as according to pretty much every single insider in the National Football League world. Further testing revealed Giants quarterback Jackson Dart's knee injury is worse than initially thought.

The team and dart are now facing the possibility of season ending knee surgery. And Matt, that is pretty significant and, and pretty tough news for the giants to stomach.

And just the second week of the season here.

Yeah.

I think people know I was not big on dart coming out of Mississippi. And frankly, I thought his, his rookie season was vastly overrated. I mean, yeah, he's fun to root for and does some good things. He has some playmaker traits. Don't get me wrong. But in week one, He looked like a different guy to me. He looked way more comfortable. Wasn't that Mickey Mouse, Lane Kiffin, you know, vibe to him as much. It was an NFL offense and he was going through his reads and I was starting to get pretty excited about him. Now, last night, you didn't see enough of him to even know.

Sure.

It was two series, I think.

I think that's about it. I think he played 13 plays or something along those lines. But, The way he was acting on the sideline, and they kept saying he wanted to come back in and all this, you kind of thought, ah, maybe it's a week or two. This isn't great, though.

No.

Oh, by the way.

Extended absence and possibility, you know, he's out the whole season.

I mean, especially where the state of that team is. I never thought they were a contender even after week one, but they are a developmental squad trying to build around that guy. And I'll be honest, I mean, I expected a lot more out of Jameis Winston than what we saw last night, too. Like, even just, like, throwing the ball was a struggle for him.

And maybe you'll get that now that he'll have time to prepare for number one, but.

They just gave him money, too. They just extended him like a week ago.

It did not look good. Did not look good for Jameis last night.

And again, that's that's a tough situation when your starter goes out so early in the game and kind of everything that you prepped for, for the week goes out the window.

Oh yeah.

But that's a, that's a tough loss.

That's it.

It continues.

Some of these young quarterbacks that you think, okay, you know, well, I guess Jaden Daniels never really had to turn a corner because he had such a good rookie season.

He needs to stay on the field. Now he can't.

Stay on the field for two years in a row. And then Jackson darts had the same problem. It's like, these guys are playmakers, man. And, yeah, I don't even fault Jackson Dart for what happened last night.

You know, no, no, that wasn't him being reckless.

Some of the, some of those guys is just, they're overly reckless and, and haven't, you know, toned that down. But that one last night, just an unfortunate hit. And he ends up kind of, uh, getting thrown awkwardly into, into another lineman there. And yeah, certainly all the best for him. You hate to see that, especially, so thanks especially so early in the season we'll continue to uh to monitor that obviously you.

Mentioned jayden daniels but it looks like caleb williams should be back sooner than later because that certainly didn't look good no you know he's getting carted off.

With the yeah injuries so far sam darnold went down in the opener.

Yeah locks held his own kyler murray is yeah good point good point right.

Um so yeah listen it always.

Really hates that there's a thing i I was.

Just thinking that in the back of my mind.

If you're the NFL, the last guys you want going down are quarterbacks, especially potential young and up-and-comers who could be that next wave of great quarterbacks in the league. That's a big part of what drives viewership is that quarterback play for sure. Matt, what do you say we take a look at some snap counts, get back into some Steelers stuff here in this hour?

I did this yesterday, and there weren't a lot of strange things that popped out to me, like, what were they thinking there? I thought it was pretty well distributed. I know they lost and all those things, but, you know.

50 snaps for Jalen Warren and just 18 for Rico Dowdle, but some of that is.

Because of the injury stuff.

In the absence of Dowdle. The two plays for Travis Homer on offense, two carries for him there. Not a lot of Robert Tanya.

I think Mike had a good point, though, about Lou Nichols. You could call him up for free for one game if Dowdle were to miss this one, and I'd give him touches.

It makes a ton of sense.

In terms of just not the entire skill set and the special teams acumen and that stuff, but just in terms of if you were to take Warren and Dowdle off the board, who do you want carrying the football for the Steelers?

Because I want those carries to go up.

In a meaningful game on Sunday, Lou Nichols would be the guy.

Me too.

Heidenreich has a more complete skill set. Homer has a more complete skill set. But in terms of who you want running the football.

Yeah, if he takes special teams out of the equation too, I think he has more value.

I don't think it's much of a conversation even.

No, I agree with you.

I think he's much more equipped in that regard. Just two snaps for Robert Tanyan. Didn't see a ton of that 13 personnel. And I don't know what to make of this, Matt.

The one thing that really stood out to me on offense was two snaps for Riley Nowakowski.

That's the one that stood out to me, too.

Is it still just early days? Did we maybe put too much stock into what the fullback would be in this offense?

I think he played 12 in the first game.

He played significantly more in the first game.

It was definitely more than two.

And you're trailing in this game for the most of it.

I thought part of that too.

A lot of 11 personnel.

I'd have to double check, but I think he, in week one, played more with the lead. You know, I mean, which I get. But it was not like you're down 30 in this game. I mean, maybe it's just a game slam specific thing that they just didn't think a fullback was required.

Yeah.

You know, that's a dime-only type defense they played against. But that's why I thought they might do some 22, just to try to get them out of dime.

Yeah.

We'll see. But that was one notable one to me, too.

And then, once again, Matt, and this kind of drives home another thing we were chatting a little bit with Mike DeFabo about, 68 out of 70 snaps for DK Metcalf.

Yeah, they don't even give him breathers, really.

I believe in week one he played 100% of the offensive snaps.

He played every but the kneel downs.

Every but the kneel downs.

Yeah, yeah.

And then he plays 68 out of 70, 97% of the snaps in week two.

He's the No. 1 wide receiver. He's not leaving the field.

No.

You've got to find a way to get him going.

Yeah, he needs to be a consistent producer every week at that pace.

Yeah.

And I think you and I, we've had this conversation many times. DK Metcalf is not one of the bonafide wide receiver ones in the NFL. There's not 32 of those guys walking the planet.

The guy coming to town is this week.

Yeah, exactly right.

Um, and you know, but having said that you need him to be your number one wide receiver.

There's, there's a balance there between, I mean.

I at least need trustworthiness and consistent production, you know.

And, and, and consistent hands and, and all, and all that stuff. And they have, clearly have no intentions of DK Metcalf going anywhere. And I think that's the right move. I think that's the right decision considering what you have on that offense and what you have in that wide receiver room.

But you got to get an uptick there. Hopefully Michael Pittman will be back this weekend.

I hope the next couple of days we hope we get some good Pittman news.

But again, even a lot of that stuff, no Pittman going up against a guy like Gonzalez.

You got to control what you can control.

Yeah.

Oh, I couldn't agree more. I think that's dead on. I'm not making any excuses for Metcalf because it's been a long streak here that he has not been real productive. But I do think Gonzalez is about as bad a matchup as you could get for him. But Gonzalez definitely won the one-on-one stuff.

Yes, he did. And it's one thing to lose the one-on-one stuff, and then it's another to.

Lose it decisively.

Yeah.

If you lose it, but it's 60-40.

Okay, yeah. At least you landed some punches.

Yeah, right. Yeah, yeah.

It's 65-35. At least you got a couple shots in and made a couple plays, too. But that was not the case on Sunday.

No.

I'm not sure if you mentioned it or not, but I did find it noteworthy that Roman Wilson and Bernard played equal snaps. They were both at 55 from where I saw them.

I did not mention that.

Different usage.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

With Pittman Jr.

Being out of the game. And Skoranek got in a little bit, too. Yes, he did.

Skoranek played 15 offensive snaps to go with his 18 special teams reps today. Matt, defense, three guys played every single snap. Queen, Ramsey, Samuel, and Brisker missed just one snap, 54 out of the 55. Dean, a heavy share, too. He played 47 of the 55 snaps for 85%.

I didn't realize he came out at the end of the game, though. Because if you scroll down, Everett played the remainder.

I didn't realize that in the moment either.

No, I mean, at that point, they were losing heavy. Was that like a sit-and-rodger situation? That I don't know. Is he going to pop up on the injury report tomorrow? I'm just curious. Because I didn't realize, watching it live, that there was a stretch that he was out.

Yeah, and you're right. Maybe some of that was just... What we saw with the offense, you know, this game's out of hand.

Something's bugging them, get them out now. Let's get a couple other.

Guys out there.

Maybe you want to see a little bit of Daylon Everett in some live rep situations. But I think it's pretty clear who they kind of view as the mainstays in that secondary for the second straight week. Patrick Queen on the field for every single snap.

In the second straight week. I actually thought he played pretty well, Matt.

Oh, I did too.

We can get into a little more of that when we do our Tuesday rewind in just a few minutes here. Peyton Wilson, 43 out of 55 snaps, so not quite to the same extent that he was in week one, but still close to 80% of the snaps for Peyton Wilson. I expect that to continue. Cam led the way with the defensive line, 41% of the snaps.

Benton, 36.

A little higher percentage for Cam.

Sorry, 41 snaps, pardon me, for 75% of the plays.

A little higher percentage for Cam than it was in week one.

Keanu Benton, 36 snaps. That's 65% of the defensive plays. I'm with you.

I thought Keanu Benton and Patrick Queen were bright spots if you go back and watch the defense. Jenkins, 34 snaps at safety, so that was 62% of the defensive snaps. And then your edge rusher usage, once again, Matt, very well balanced. 33 for Highsmith, that's 60%. 31 for TJ, that's 56%. And 29... For Herbig, that's 53%. I thought Herbig.

Was one of the best players on the field as well.

He was really good, too.

He was really, really good in a lot of different roles, but more off the edge in this game than in week one. Where did Sawyer come in?

Today's Jack Sawyer, me, me, mine. 19 snaps for 35% of the defensive share.

Okay, so he's played around 40% or 40 snaps.

He was on every special teams rep, too.

Well, that, too.

Almost every special, 92% of the special teams plays.

I don't have a problem with Sawyer.

35% of the snaps a lot, though.

It is a lot.

For him to be on the field one out of every three plays on defense, that's maybe a— That's two weeks.

In a row now that he's been around 20 snaps.

And maybe that's just an early season we're keeping everybody fresh thing.

Yeah, and I'm sure it's on rundowns. He is a bigger-bodied guy.

I'd like it if that number was 12 instead of 19.

And again, I don't have a problem with Sawyer, but everyone, I think, would agree with me. He's a distant fourth of that room.

I want him on the field in situations. But maybe 12 snaps instead of 19.

But if that means Herbig's not or Heisman's not, I don't know. I wouldn't mind that going down.

Y.A.

Black, 20 snaps, 36%. Sebastian Joseph Day, D-Day, just seven. It felt like more.

I feel like he was making plays in those seven snaps that he was out there.

He was partially to blame for the long Henderson run. I wonder if they kind of did after that.

Yeah.

If they kind of penalized him for that.

That's something when our next segment, we should talk more about that play too. And then in the, in the Tuesday rewind, because I think there was a lot of subs on the field for that.

I've got a lot of people that made me aware of it. And I, I, our buddy, Chris Halleck did a really good breakdown of it. And I watched that play over and over the way he broke it down. And, and they, they were right. The defensive front was all backups. That's kind of low hanging fruit though. I mean, like people were, A lot of people came at me on Twitter, why would the coaching staff that early in the game not have at least one starter on the field? Okay, but that's a little Monday morning quarterbacking because there's a lot of snaps where that defensive front does not have a starter on the field. Yes. And they're deep and they're doing it on purpose. You can't praise them for keeping Watt and Cam fresh and snap counts down and

then when something doesn't go right, just crush them for it. now maybe you could have one of those guys out there does he bust that same wrong run maybe you know it's a huge hole.

Yeah and a lot of really key blocks for the patriots.

It was they one thing was really interesting that chris laid out on his all 22 is one of their i think it's the mario davis so there's huge hole and we obviously don't have the visuals here but a.

Huge hole TV, can you get us a grease board to work with here?

And we know Henderson is an instant accelerator, home run guy. You talk about that all week. I mean, that's what he does really well. But the Mario Davis comes over and blocks, I think it was Brisker, one of the safeties. And running back blocking or wide receiver blocking in the running game is so unbelievably important. And not only does he block the one stealer's safety, so at this point Henderson's got to the second level, the third level, but that safety runs into the other safety. So Davis ends up blocking both safeties on the same attempt, which was kind of bad luck, but also a really nice move by them too.

Yeah.

Once in a while, you just got to tip your cap to the opponent, too. I mean, that was a very well-blocked play.

It sure was. It sure was.

There's a little taste of your Tuesday rewind before we get to it here on the other side. And then, yeah, I think, I mean, five for Echols, one for Spears, Jennings, and then a bunch of special team usage there.

But back to Joseph Day, I'd be shocked if he's in the doghouse or, you know, I think he's a better player than White Black. I mean, I would rather those snap counts be switched going forward. you know, if you were to lay it out, found this out and threw it on Matt stats. If you check my Twitter feed, it's pretty crazy about Spears Jennings, his special teams tackles.

He has seven already. And I think no one else in the league has more than four.

I mean, it's more than five, five. I mean, it's pretty good.

No one else in this upcoming game is more than three. No one else on the Steelers has more than two. Like I think Killebrew has led the league in special teams tackles with like 12. I mean, Spears Jennings in a season. He has seven already. That's an ungodly number.

That's a special teams demon.

Yeah, and it showed up. He's a very, very core, impressive special teams player.

I like that.

Let's talk a little more specifics from that game on Sunday when we return and do our Tuesday Rewind, our Tuesday Rewatch. I want to talk more about Patrick Queen and Keanu Benton. I also want to talk about, and I referenced this, Matt, yesterday, but I went back and watched some of those moments where I felt like Aaron Rodgers had the extra second to hold onto the football and drive something downfield and got rid of it quickly.

Let's discuss some of all that film study, film notes stuff. When we return on the other side to close down the first hour, Wes Shuler, Matt Williamson, it's The Drive, Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.

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All right, Matt, close down the first hour here.

Something that we tend to do on Tuesdays throughout the regular season, a little Tuesday rewind, Tuesday rewatch. You know, Monday is just a lot of downloading our thoughts and our reactions. I don't want to call them knee jerk because we're sitting there and watching the game, but maybe initial reactions, first reactions is the way to describe it.

Then we get an opportunity to try.

Not to be too emotional on Monday, but you can't help it sometimes.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

And we try to, you know, then kind of rewatch some stuff, revisit some stuff. You get a little more time Monday evening, Tuesday morning and afternoon. And then we kind of come in and discuss some final thoughts and observations from the Steelers past performance. I want to start with the good Matt. And I tell you what, I was very impressed. Patrick queen, I thought played really well.

And I thought that's the second straight week that he's done. So, but man, Keanu Benton, I think is flying under the radar, how well he's played these first two weeks of the season.

I agree.

And it made some waves last night on Twitter. And I'm not super active on Twitter, but I forget who posted a, a very nice rep that Benton had. He had this like spin move and was in the backfield. And I, I, quote tweeted it and said something like, I think he's on the verge of stardom. It got all kinds of likes and for, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah.

I'm like, I don't know why that's controversial. If you watch him, especially with a little bit of a role change, not taking on doubles at the nose pass rushers in particular. He's a good pass rusher.

Yeah.

He's got some tools on his belt, man.

Yes.

I'm not saying he's the next cam Hayward, but more and more. And I was happy about the contract when they gave it to him. I think that's going to be a bargain.

I just, I think he's played really well.

He is kind of flying under the radar because his last name's not Hayward or Watt or Highsmith or Herbig, you know, but he got a contract for a reason this off season too. And that role change that you mentioned, I think has been a big part of it. I don't think he's square peg round hole anymore. I think he's square peg square hole and.

It's shown through 120 minutes.

And he still plays some nose, but I mean, it's not the same. You don't have to be Casey Hampton by any stretch, you know, right? Yes, exactly.

Right.

And then sticking with the defense, Matt, and I referenced this, I think, a little bit with DeFabo, six explosives given up by the defense.

Yeah, not ideal.

Not ideal, not the end of the world. It was more so the type of explosive. And we say this a couple times a year, but I think it always bears repeating.

It's really my only critical aspect of the performance by the defense.

That's it.

And at first I kind of brushed it aside because I was like, okay, that's what NFL teams do. Offenses are setting up to hit the explosives because they know so often that's the difference between winning and losing. Everyone knows turnover differential. Everyone knows sack differential. Explosive play differential is kind of the new really big indicator of success in a game. You're going to hit some. You're going to surrender some. That's going to happen.

Absolutely.

The six that they surrendered, though, man, they were— Explosive play is 10 or more on the ground, 20 or more through the air. The explosive plays that the Steelers surrendered on Sunday, it wasn't a 14-yard run. It wasn't a 22-yard pass.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, it was a 30-some-yard run.

There were haymakers, yeah.

A 20-some-yard run, a 60-some-yard pass, a 30-some-yard pass.

Yeah.

You can give up explosives.

Everyone's going— And Henderson would have taken that 100. Absolutely, absolutely. No one's catching them, right?

Yeah.

You can give up some explosives. It's going to happen.

No one's going to have a clean bill of health in that regard over a full 60 minutes, but they can't be explosive. I mean, those were the valedictorians of explosive plays.

Maybe I'll even do it for Matt Stats, but there were six of them, you said, and they were all pretty substantial.

There wasn't like a 14-yard gain in there. I mean, they were all substantial. I think they were all 30-plus, and maybe one of the runs was like 28.

Yeah, yeah. But some of the things that come up to me with Matt Stats are just like, What percentage of their yardage allowed was based on those six plays? I bet it was really high. If you think through it, I mean, it had to be 60, 70%.

And those plays count.

Of course.

You can't be like, well, just forget about the home run. But still, they were big ones. Again, they weren't just 14s or whatever.

If you hold Henderson to a 14-yard gain instead of a 30-some-yard touchdown, maybe that drive plays out differently. If Dobbs is a 27-yard gain instead of a 60-yard gain, maybe that plays out differently.

You can give up explosives. You can't give up Grand Slam explosives.

That's a great point. And I bet it is a large percentage of the total yardage they gave up.

Without a doubt.

Six plays.

I mean, Matt.

Because they had their share of tackles for loss. They had a lot of plays that were only one, two-yard gains.

Drake May barely passed for over 200 yards.

I bet.

Bet you.

Dobbs was 60-plus.

And the two other ones were 30-something yarders, I think.

So that's like.

So it might have been... I should go back and.

I could go back and double-check this for tomorrow, but more than... I think now that we're talking this out, more than half of Drake May's pass yardage came off of three completions.

And I bet the rushing yardage is even higher percentage.

Probably even higher.

Yeah.

I bet they're about 75% of the pass. I'm sure someone's scribbling it down. It wouldn't take long to figure it out.

No.

But I'm not going to do it on the air. But I bet 75% of their yardage came on six plays.

And so instead of giving them that yard, make it 40% instead of 75%.

Right, right.

And that's going to go a long way.

And you're right. You can't just pretend like they didn't happen.

Right.

They did.

They absolutely did.

I always love it when people are like, well, if you take away that 75-yard touchdown run, they did a really.

Good job stopping the run.

Yeah, but.

But that play counts.

Right.

In fact, that play probably counts more than most.

Right.

Uh anything else on the defensive side that you wanted to throw in there before we switch.

Um a minor negative is i thought samuel who we've been very very happy with took a small step backward and i think that's a direct correlation with more man coverage i mean he's just more of a zone guy that also lends itself to the Porter conundrum and all those type of things, but I'm not worried about Samuel.

I didn't think he had a bad game. I thought he was mostly responsible for that Dobbs 60 some yard or two. I mean, so, I mean, that's a, you know, a small thing over the course of playing basically every snap over two, two games. Defensively. Now you mentioned Benton. I thought that was a good one. We talked about snap counts with Wilson, just going down a little, but it doesn't really bother me. No, I thought it was a very good defensive game.

I did too.

Yeah.

I mean, if you just take away those six plays. Still, I still think it was a varsity-level performance from the defense.

Agreed. So new DVOA stats come out every Tuesday. Steelers were number one in bunks. They're the top-ranked defense in DVOA. I was a little shocked by that. Atlanta's not the hardest competition in the world, but they were 31st in offensive DVOA.

Yeah.

A lot more to complain about on this side of the ball. It's, it's hard to find positives on this side of the ball after that. Yes, it is.

Yes, it is.

Here we go though, Matt, this might be one for you. And you know, it's funny. I mentioned this yesterday.

I mentioned how I thought there was a couple instances where, where Aaron Rogers, the protection held up and he got rid of the ball really quickly when he didn't have to. And people were very upset in the, in the comments and the mentions, right.

Of why are you blaming Aaron Rogers? And what do you want him to do? Stand there and get killed.

Yeah.

All right, listen, people, calm down, all right? We're not doing hot take social media garbage here, all right? We're having conversations like adults. If you want the hot take social media garbage, go find it. Leave us alone. That's not to say that.

Aaron Rodgers was terrible and Aaron Rodgers was the reason they lost and Aaron Rodgers is a big problem and all this stuff. That's just to say there were a couple opportunities where I thought they had a chance to drive the football down the field and I understand why Aaron Rodgers was getting rid of that thing quickly. I'm not saying that he was insane and why is he doing that? The offensive line was putrid and he took a couple massive hits and obviously at age 42, heck, I don't care if you're 27, you don't want to take those kind of hits, but especially at age 42.

But having said that, Matt, there was a couple instances, and one that really stood out to me was late in the third quarter. You had a second and five situation. So you picked up five yards with Jalen Warren on first down. You're set up in second and manageable where you have a lot of, as you and I have.

Talked about, right? Yeah, yeah. That's where you want to be.

You want second and manageable because then everything's on the table.

Mm-hmm.

And my goodness, it was maybe the best rep that DK Metcalf had all day. He had Christian Gonzalez burnt on the outside.

And he had his hand up calling for the football. And Rodgers quickly dumped it short to Ben Skronic for a two-yard gain.

I'm going to have to go back and double-check that.

For a two-yard gain that set up like a third and two. Again, this is not me. All you people on social media and in the YouTube comments who want everything to be so black and white. This is not me saying Aaron Rodgers sucks. And how did he blow that?

Of course.

And anything.

You scrutinize every rep a quarterback has. There's open receivers. Sometimes they don't see or release a ball.

It just happens. And in fact, I actually kind of look at this as a positive. Because maybe when they go back and watch the film, they'll be like, you know what?

There were some plays to be made out there. We just didn't make them. Not to excuse the offensive performance. Not to say that actually if a couple things went different, it would have been a really good offensive performance.

No, they're losing that game on that day. 95% of the time, but I, there were, there were a couple of times where Bernard was open, where DK was open, where the offensive line held, where Moose was open down the seam and Aaron just didn't hit that, hit them.

I would expect that to not be a trend. I would expect that to get corrected going forward. And that to me is encouraging.

It is.

And I'm trying, you know, obviously people have been very hard on Metcalf and I get that, but just again, I'm not making excuses for the team or for him. But if Rodgers throws him that ball, how much different does his day look? You know, one play. I mean, it's kind of like an offensive tackle who's perfect all day and gets beat once. Like, oh, that guy was terrible.

It can work the other way, too.

Right, right.

One 40, 50-yard gain, and all of a sudden, all right, here we go.

Some of those sins are amended or whatever. Yeah.

And maybe it's, you know, maybe the final score is still 20 to 10.

He still might lose. Right. He still didn't have a great game, but it's still okay.

Yeah.

That was in there, you know?

And so again, I kind of, I know a lot of people, a lot of people yesterday were like, Wes, what the hell's the matter with you?

I'm kind of looking at that as a positive.

Yeah.

Because I, I think there were, there were more, there was more plays to be made out there for the offense than I thought, you know, leaving Foxborough on Sunday night or doing the show with you yesterday, you know, a few hours removed from, from the game. And that to me is encouraging and it's going to happen again this week. And hopefully there'll be, there'll be able to take advantage of it.

Yeah. So I don't know if you have more on your list.

No, that was about it.

Okay. One thing I wanted to talk briefly about, though, was their pass protection in this game.

Okay.

I don't know him. I guess he's also in the media, but a fellow named Tommy Jaggi puts these out, and I've been retweeting them, where here's all 22 of every one of Falton who's pass protection snaps. Here's every one of Cook's. And when you isolate them, it's different. When I'm sitting there in my Lazy Boy like everyone else is, I'm not at the game, I'm immediately like everyone going, boy, this O-line's really a problem. Pass protection's terrible. But when you isolate every player like a coach does, or in an all-22 scenario, and I bring up what Tommy put out just because it's real easy and it takes you four minutes to watch 30 pass protection.

That is great how you can get all those condensed view type things now.

First of all, they drop back a bazillion times. Some people are going to get beat once in a while. You're not going to pitch no-hitters all the time if you drop back 50 times in particular. You know what I mean? The other guys get paid, too. but when you go through it and you watch each one of the starting offensive linemen, I'm just talking about pass protection.

Cook played a lot better than I thought he did. Yeah. I mean, I still think he's not as pretty as a haunted chore is going to be. I mean, he's a stiffer athlete, you know, but he didn't, he wasn't consistently getting beat. I've seen many mixed reviews of how Faltani played in protection. I thought it was very good.

I mean, frankly, um, I thought he moved really well. He is kind of nursing some sort of injury. Remember during the, I'm not making excuses for any of these guys, but when you isolate them all, Frazier got beat a little more than I expected on first blush. Their D tackles were really good. Anderson had a very rough day, but of the five, I'm only talking about protection. Anderson's the only one to me that I thought, Ooh, he really hurt the team on that day. The other four, they weren't, Munoz and, and Fanica out there, but they were a lot better than you think, but their blitz pickup was bad and they blitzed a lot. And we thought we've had a lot of conversation over the last two weeks.

You barely saw any blitz against the Falcons by the right.

And it was the first time since he's been a stealer that dowdles past protection stuff that I've warned people about was questionable, either getting the wrong guy or not. A lot of times it's just not getting the right angle or picking up the right guy. But a lot of their blitz stuff was a problem. And they're going to need to spend some time on it. And we had such a long conversation going into Atlanta about no one blitzes Rodgers. Well, they're going to. You put something on tape, it's a problem. They're going to.

They absolutely are. And I tell you what.

As much as I love Warren and I want to throw him the ball, he's going to have to stay in the pass block. You know what I mean? So their blitz pickup stuff was problematic.

And I think you and I have talked– plenty because we started talking about it down the stretch last season of how improved the Cincinnati Bengals offensive line is and has been. That defensive line, that completely reworked defensive line with four new faces is playing great through two.

Games as well.

I don't know if they'll blitz a lot. They might not need to. But the blitz pickups and stuff were problematic for the Steelers. And that could be a gelling thing too with the O-line. We talk so much about the O-line playing together, all those things. Blitz pickup can be hard. I mean, because the beauty of blitzes from a defensive perspective is know the protection and challenge the weaknesses of said protection. You know what I mean?

You know what? If you struggle with it for one week, Matt, it can be an anomaly.

It can be an anomaly, right.

But if you start to do it two weeks in a row, then it becomes a trend.

But if you struggle with it once, you're going to see it a couple times. Exactly. Until you prove that you can handle it. You've got to put that to bed now. They're going to.

Have to do that on Sunday for sure.

And I bet some of it falls on Rodgers too. I mean, going forward, like, hey, you've got him. That kind of stuff. Yeah, absolutely.

I'm sure we will talk plenty more about that as the week rolls along and we get closer and closer. to that clash with Cincinnati. That's an hour in the books. Another hour to go fantasy football focus to lead us off an hour. Number two, Euler and Williamson. It's the drive Steelers nation radio on the Steelers audio network.

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