Drive9.28.26Hr2: Around the NFL - Week 3

0:05 You're tuned to The Drive on your 24-7 home of the black and gold.

0:09 Steelers Nation Radio.

0:46 Good evening, Steeler Nation. How we doing? That's good. Us too. Hour number two here on this Victory Monday as a much-needed win in the books for the Steelers, and we're going to have to turn the page quickly this week. But before we do that, Matt, we of course need to recap what was, as we mentioned, a lot of important, a lot of surprising, a lot of exciting results across the NFL yesterday.

1:08 Yeah, and I guess things are starting to kind of take shape. A little bit. Division, the only division right now that has no losing records in it in AFC North. Didn't love seeing the Ravens get that last second.

1:22 I know.

1:22 I mean, half a second down. Thanks, Dallas.

1:24 Right.

1:27 But, yeah, I mean, there's some teams like the Chargers that you mentioned when we went to the break. It might be over. I mean, with the way that their schedule looks and being 0-3. Can Houston rebound? I mean, I don't know. I don't know. And teams like the Raiders that you thought were going to.

1:43 Be bad, they're 3-0. 3-0 Las Vegas Raiders. We all saw that coming, right?

1:47 Trust me, folks, this is a joke, but I got a kick out of it. I got like three tweets yesterday. Man, Kirk Cousins is playing great. Looks like the Steelers' next quarterback.

1:55 I'm like, no!

1:56 And we're not doing that again. No, we'll take Geno Smith instead. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right.

2:02 Matt, let's start there. You mentioned Chargers being 0-3 in what was. You know, probably one of the most important results of the weekend.

2:10 Yeah, because this game was winnable, too. You'd think you'd go to Buffalo and get your doors blown off. That's not what happened here.

2:14 The Chargers were plus four in the turnover differential.

2:16 Yeah.

2:17 And still lost by eight points.

2:19 It wasn't Josh Allen being a superhuman, either.

2:21 No, he didn't play that well.

2:22 He didn't play great. I mean, they were turning the ball over early. Chargers should have really taken it and kind of run with it.

2:28 They were up 10-0 at the end of the first quarter.

2:30 Their defense is bad, too. I mean, they have nothing really to hang their hat on. We were talking at the break. I still have I mean, if they want to trade Herbert in the off season, I'm all ears. Don't get me wrong, but he looks like a lost dog right now that just isn't getting, you know, not knowing where to go with football. A couple of quarterbacks in the league have that look about him. Baker Mayfield, like he broke his thumb. So I don't want that to be the reason, but him sitting down for a couple of weeks might be a good thing too. You know, like.

2:58 So there's a couple of these guys are just not.

3:00 Cam Ward struggling.

3:01 Drake May. A little bit too. Yeah. I mean, guys I have. Yeah. May and Herbert are guys I love, but they're hard to back right now.

3:09 Drake May.

3:10 Yeah.

3:10 I tell you what.

3:11 Jags are good, by the way. Jags are good.

3:16 All right.

3:16 We're all. I just said 400 different things.

3:19 Right.

3:19 Everybody quick. Scream your thoughts.

3:21 Yeah. Yeah.

3:21 Bills moved to 3-0. Chargers moved to 0-3.

3:25 Bills are going to run away with that division.

3:26 Bills are going to absolutely run away with that division. And the good news, if you're a Buffalo fan, is you're 3-0, but you're not anywhere close to playing your best football.

3:33 No. And the Patriots don't look like a threat.

3:35 No.

3:36 It was a two-horse race. I give the Jets credit. They're better than we thought. But it looked like a two-horse race. Now it's a one-horse race in the East.

3:42 And again, it could still change.

3:44 Of course.

3:45 It's starting to get to that point, though, where you've got enough data points to formulate some real opinions. In Cleveland, the Browns hold on, Matt. 21-18 over the Panthers. An exciting back-and-forth fourth quarter. They're able to force a turnover at the end. Sean Watson's playing okay.

4:03 They're not bad teams they beat. They're not great teams they beat. Watson's doing a lot with his legs. He's strung together two not-terrible games. Their young pups look like young pups. You know, like good young pups. Fano, the two receivers, Fannin, Mason Graham has four sacks. Burse started really slow, but he's playing well. So they're 2-0 in the last two. They're 2-1 for the season. 4-1 their last five games, though. I mean, a different staff, and Garrett was there, et cetera, a different quarterback. But they're not, you know, well-do-do, you know?

4:39 Sure.

4:39 I mean, they're okay. Okay. That's not going to be an easy game.

4:42 That place is going to be rocking on Thursday night.

4:44 Yeah.

4:45 I've been out there for some Steelers teams playing some bad Browns teams.

4:49 Never going to go.

4:50 There's been times it's December and the Browns are 4-10 and that place is still rocking.

4:57 They get up where they hate Steelers.

4:59 And you can understand why. It's been a one-way street for all their lives. That place is going to be juiced up on Thursday night.

5:07 That is not going to be an easy game. layup type.

5:09 No, it is not. And we'll start talking plenty about it tomorrow.

5:12 Yeah.

5:12 Uh, the lions and the jets are really fun. One, Matt, 28 combined points in the fourth quarter.

5:17 It was awesome.

5:18 Gino Smith, three touchdowns, 321 yards. Jameer Gibbs. I think he just scored another touchdown as, uh, as he had himself a heck of a Sunday, the lions prevail 31 to 24.

5:28 I think all lines games kind of go this way too. I mean, we kind of projected that going in, like they have no defense. Their offense is really, really good. Goff was really, really sharp in this game. I thought both quarterbacks were really fun. This would be a perfect game that if it had been on Thursday night and the whole world would have watched it, they'd have been like, boy, this is a blast. Garrett Wilson did a lot of good stuff.

5:51 Yes, he did.

5:51 They did lose Brees Hall in that game.

5:54 That they did, which is unfortunate for them and unfortunate for my fantasy football team.

5:57 There was five or six big injuries again.

5:59 Yeah, there were.

6:01 There were some big ones across the league. Yeah, absolutely.

6:05 Good call by you. We'll have to recap some of that stuff as well, too. In Indianapolis, Matt, one of the more surprising results of the weekend, the Colts get their first win of the year. The Texans drop to 0-3, 19-17. Colts win.

6:20 I've sold the Colts short every step of the way. I mean, they lost pretty bad to the Ravens. They took the Chiefs to the very, very nitty-gritty in a night game in Kansas City. That's like beating, you know, hang with LSU at night.

6:35 Sure.

6:35 And they pretty much handled the Texans. Maybe they are a wild card contender. I kind of looked at it like the wheels might fall off here. They don't have their first-round pick. They still could. Houston, though, their O-line isn't close to being fixed. It is really the root of their problem. The defense went from an A-plus to a B, and they'll probably get back to being an A.

7:00 But defense is a little less predictable year to year. They have no running game still, and they still have no O-line and no Nico. You know, like, it's a rough time.

7:10 But other than that, things are going very well.

7:12 Everyone's going to blame Stroud. It's not his fault right now.

7:15 No, it's not, but he also, Matt, this is the time, if you're Houston, that you need the quarterback to be the high tide that raises all shit.

7:21 Here's $ 50 million a year. Go raise, yeah, go squeak out a win against an okay Colts team.

7:26 Exactly right.

7:27 And he doesn't.

7:29 And I don't mean to go to the utmost example, but, you know, if... Maybe this isn't the perfect time because he didn't play great yesterday either. But if Josh Allen was the quarterback of the Texans, they bet you they would have found a way to win one of these games.

7:42 Exactly. It's a great point.

7:44 Speaking of the Chiefs, who you mentioned a minute ago when talking about the Colts and that overtime result, they went down to Miami, took care of business 24-10. Another touchdown for Travis Kelsey as he's continuing to define the end zone. They had to score 10 points at the end to really kind of put it away, but Kansas City never in danger.

8:03 Yeah, and it's probably the game I paid the least attention to, but another bad injury is a Chan is out.

8:10 For the year. A lot of running backs getting banged up.

8:13 Yeah, Miami's going to have a tough time winning any game. Boy, are they. Especially without that guy.

8:17 Don't feel great for Malik Willis.

8:19 No.

8:20 Low-scoring game, Matt. One of the only actually few low-scoring games this weekend in New York. The Giants, 12-7, grinded out against the Titans.

8:29 This is probably the other game I saw the least of. But they lost Brian Burns for the year, and then they traded for J.J. McCarthy today.

8:36 They traded for J.J. McCarthy today.

8:38 I assume that's just a Harbaugh-Michigan connection. Brother tells brother, you can get more out of this guy. I thought that was a really weird trade, though, because I thought they'd be more of a Flacco, Mac Jones, even Rudolph.

8:53 Higher ceiling.

8:54 Somebody to get us through the year, not a project. I mean, maybe they just had this plan in place of how to bring Dart along, and they're just going to implement it in a McCarthy QB school type of manner with McCarthy and see if it works. I can't imagine they're just going to throw him in as a starter.

9:10 I certainly can't. No, it might just be one of those. We we've got room for another body now.

9:14 Yeah.

9:15 Let's buy, let's buy low.

9:16 And maybe around pick. Right.

9:18 Maybe if it ends up working out, it's a big hit. We, you know, we have him and Jackson dart. We end up trading him down the line for a third rounder.

9:26 Maybe it works out. There's definitely a chance their season goes down the toilet and he's starting by week eight or nine when they have two wins or whatever. Tennessee is going to be in the, in the hunt for first overall.

9:38 Do not like what we've seen from cam ward through no it's it's a it's a whole new coaching staff and offense and everything and they've still obviously got time but i do not like what we've seen from cam ward i think you and i are both fans of his when he when he was coming out of miami but it's been a rough start to uh to his sophomore season i.

9:53 Don't mean to get ahead of ourselves and i've thrown this out a couple times actually not consciously in just the last 10, 15 minutes, but they have a top three pick, and Arch Manning's on the board. I might give you a pick for Cam Ward from the Steelers, pick it at 26 or whatever. You know what I mean?

10:11 We looked at that team like, oh, they won't ever draft a quarterback. Who knows?

10:15 They're picking third overall.

10:16 They're picking third overall, and Some stud's sitting there for you. Why not try it? I'll take him word off your hand and try to rehabilitate him.

10:24 Just stay away from Mestemaker, all right? I told everybody in the booth yesterday, I said, there's only one way that Drew Mestemaker can make up for what he did to me Saturday night, and that's by becoming a Pittsburgh Steeler and winning me a Super Bowl. He owes that to me now. commanders, Matt, at home, and maybe the most surprising result of the weekend, potentially.

10:43 Very much so.

10:44 They get their first win. They hand the Seahawks their first loss. What's even more surprising about it is Sam Darnold played really well.

10:49 He played really well.

10:50 Like 380 yards passing and four touchdowns.

10:53 And Smith and Jigba is an unstoppable force.

10:56 Might be the best football player in the world right now.

10:58 Right now. I mean, he gets like two touchdowns every game.

11:00 But Washington's offense putting up 33 points.

11:05 Mariota played really well, too.

11:06 Yes, he did.

11:07 He's better than just Joe average backup too. I mean, I think he's kind of figured it out and they shouldn't move on from him, obviously with Daniel's injury history and him being out right now, but he keeps any team competitive. This game was kind of weird. I paid a lot of attention to it. I didn't watch every snap that was going on during the Sierra game. I'm not exactly sure how Seattle lost, you know, like it's just kind of one of those fluky. They didn't do anything massively wrong. You know, just, Jadarian Price keeps fumbling.

11:38 They can't really find a running back at the moment. I also wanted to highlight Sonny Stiles. I mean, he might be defensive rookie of the year. I mean, dude.

11:47 He is an animal.

11:48 He is an animal.

11:51 Seattle, Washington was plus three in the turnover margin.

11:55 Yeah, I know.

11:56 I mean, that's how you end up.

11:58 But I'm not like Seattle can't win on the East Coast anymore or they're in big trouble. I mean, I think Darnold coming back, they'll be fine.

12:05 They will be just fine. Hey, I don't care who you're playing. In the NFL, you lose unless you're the Chargers.

12:11 Yeah.

12:12 You have a turnover margin that bad, minus three. That's tough to overcome. It's tough to overcome. Matt, in Jacksonville, as you mentioned, my goodness to the Jags.

12:20 Low out.

12:21 My goodness to the Jags look good. 35-6 over the Patriots. And my goodness is your boy, your boy, not mine, Drake May, struggling.

12:29 Lawrence is another one of my boys, though, too.

12:31 It's true.

12:31 That's a good point. Yeah. And it kind of, it's funny you saying this because both guys I've defended and sometimes that limb I've been on is pretty weak, you know, especially early in Lawrence's career. He's playing like an MVP. I mean, he really is. I mean, they are really, really good. Okay, they got beaten Denver in week two.

12:54 Everybody gets beaten Denver in week two. They're in it. They're clearly the best team in that division. Patriots are hard to defend right now, though, including May. He's getting very little help. He's doing that thing that young quarterbacks do where he just plays hero ball and things aren't going my way. So I'm going to drill it in this keyhole between five defenders and it gets picked off.

13:14 And I mean, it's rough.

13:17 It sure is.

13:18 Yeah.

13:18 But you know what? I do kind of feel bad for Drake May. But I think it's happening to the right organization. That's all I'm going to say.

13:25 I don't think anyone's crying for the Patriots, yeah.

13:27 I think there's been some powerful people in that organization that have deserved some karma for a little while and have escaped the throngs of karma. But then they took their young MVP runner-up quarterback and said, watch this. We're going to have them regress like crazy. And, hey, I think it couldn't have happened to a nicer group of people.

13:47 It takes a village to raise a quarterback. No doubt. He's still an adolescent in terms of being raised.

13:53 He could be great again later this season. Yeah. Win the MVP next year.

13:56 He's not getting much help. Right.

13:58 No doubt. No doubt. Also, again, though, it's nice to see things come back around for that organization a little bit.

14:04 And it's a perfect case of how progression just isn't linear. I mean, you take five steps forward, two steps back.

14:09 We talk about that all the time, but I think that's especially true for the quarterback position.

14:13 Mm-hmm.

14:15 See Trevor Lawrence, the guy on the other side. People were writing him off at kind of this same point as Drake Mays at, too. 49ers at home, Matt. Not as comfortable as we would have thought. And this was another one.

14:27 No, they had a lot of injuries, too. 30 points in.

14:29 The fourth quarter between these two teams.

14:31 Brock Purdy's playing like an MVP.

14:32 Boy, is he.

14:33 My goodness.

14:34 300 yards and four touchdowns. The Niners hold on at home. They move to 3-0, 36-30 over the Cardinals.

14:41 By all metrics, they're the best offense in the league. I mean, they've been really playing with their food on offense. I mean, it's a cat playing with a mouse lately. But Arizona didn't go away. The Niners were without Bosa, which is a big deal. And Trent Williams got hurt in this game. Mike Evans got hurt in this game.

14:59 They do have that old man reliance, fragility to their roster. But they're in a good spot. I mean, they could win the Super Bowl this year.

15:09 Remember last year when the Steelers– when it was Aaron Rodgers versus Joe Flacco.

15:14 Yeah.

15:14 It was the icy hot bowl. Everybody was joking. The Niners are like the icy hot team.

15:19 They really are.

15:20 Yeah. Matt, Tampa Bay, another surprise 0-3, and maybe another surprise 3-0 in the Minnesota Vikings as the Vikings go down to Florida, and they win 23-16. Baker Mayfield's going to be out for a few weeks, and that means it's going to be Jalen Daniels when the Steelers head to Tampa here in a couple weeks.

15:40 That looks like a coaching change. recipe to me because i think his seat was warm to begin with.

15:45 And can i interest you in one mike tomlin for one make a deal for one first round draft pick.

15:49 Yeah might not even cost you that much no.

15:51 It's gonna cost you that much i'm holding.

15:53 Firm especially if they get like the sixth pick in the draft.

15:56 I'll take that sixth pick for mike tomlin thank you very.

15:58 Much messed a maker for tomlin you want to prick my finger i'll sign him blood yeah let's do it no i think tampa's in a really bad spot and i'm impressed with the vikings they lost justin jefferson really early in that game too Defense, they scored on a, I think it was a punt return right off the bat.

16:15 It was a kickoff return. They'd return for a touchdown right off the bat. Defense got after Baker over and over. They're pretty good. I think Minnesota could be a playoff team.

16:24 Reno certainly could be.

16:26 And Kyler didn't light the world on fire coming back.

16:28 No, he didn't. But, you know, I think that's to be. He's still trying to get, you know, used to that offense. And, you know, right out of the chute, picking up a concussion certainly doesn't help.

16:37 No.

16:38 Matt, in Rio, in Brazil. Brazil. Man, this is another great one that if we had it on in the press box, you know, myself, I'm there producing Charlie Batch and Mike Pursuit are doing the postgame show.

16:49 We had it on in the press box. It was a lot of fun.

16:53 Unfortunately, we do wish from a Steelers standpoint that the Cowboys were able to pull it out. But there is, Matt, I'll never say that I'm happy or feel good for anything that involves the Baltimore Ravens. OK, I'm a I'm a black and gold blooded Pittsburgh or born and raised. There is a small part of me though, that, that felt pretty good for Tyler loop. He has obviously that, that devastating miss at the end of last season that led to the Steelers winning the division and making the playoffs.

17:17 I do from just a, if you take away the colors and the team for him, it's a nice redemption story of you nail that 56 yarder to get your team a victory early in the season. After, after how the way the season ended for him last year, I will give that to Tyler loop.

17:31 I look at Dallas and think I'm like kind of since he, Did they fix one of the worst offenses in the league from a year ago? Or defenses, I mean. I haven't seen many signs to say that it's noticeably better despite all the resources they put in it. And I think Baltimore's offense is really fun to watch. Mostly based off the ground game, but Lamar's playing really, really well.

17:55 Baltimore's in it. Baltimore's a pretty good team.

17:58 Hate to say it, but I think they just might be. I just need them to not win 12 or more games this year. You might be right on that one. Personal finance reasons.

18:07 Two more.

18:09 Two more to discuss here, Matt. The Raiders, man.

18:11 3-0.

18:11 The Las Vegas Raiders as they score 13 unanswered points in the fourth. A lot of big fourth quarters. The Raiders with 13 unanswered points in the fourth quarter. They go to New Orleans and come away with a victory 35-27. This is another one I think.

18:27 They were like plus three in turnover ratio too. The Raiders. But they're doing a really good job of not beating themselves. Cousins is playing well.

18:34 He is.

18:35 They're rushing the passer.

18:36 My goodness.

18:37 I think that's the story. I mean, he comes back and he's all over the field doing anything he wants.

18:42 He's unbelievable.

18:43 He's a really, really special player that you can do so many things with. I saw something today about Kubiak, their new head coach, should be leader in the clubhouse for coach of the year. I think that's hard to argue when you go first pick overall to undefeated through three weeks. Good call.

19:00 There's some, I think, deserving candidates to this point in the season. But he might be at the top of the list.

19:06 So we had a conversation today, which is obviously this is a great problem to have. But when do you get Mendoza in there now? I mean, not soon. No. You know, even if he's super ready.

19:18 We talked about this before the season. I think they have a little bit of a relatively later bye week.

19:22 I think it's like 13. I think it's really late.

19:24 It's like, yeah. So if you wait that long.

19:26 I mean, if they're a competitor all year, just... Math-wise, you can't make a quarterback change.

19:32 What if they're 8-4? I guess it wouldn't be 8. What if they're 8-4 heading into their bye week?

19:37 Right.

19:37 I mean, it could be in first place in your division. I mean, you're not going to make a quarterback change if you keep winning, which is a good problem to have. but unforeseen yeah.

19:44 Yeah hey keep it rolling there in las vegas and then matt last but certainly not least now stop me if you've heard the host say this today but another crazy fourth quarter 24 points in the fourth quarter of this game between the broncos and the rams as denver gets it done 30 to 26 late last night coming back from a 16 point deficit Good game for Bo. Well, good second half for Bo Nix.

20:10 Yeah.

20:10 They scored all 30 of their points in the second half of the Broncos game.

20:13 I mean, their offense was miserable going into halftime. They interviewed Sean Payton, and he did not look thrilled.

20:19 You think he took play calling back?

20:20 I'm wondering what really happened there. I'm sure he had a major influence, and it wouldn't shock me if it's his from now on. They couldn't get Waddle involved early. So, I don't know. I mean, I picked Denver to win. just because it's still early in the season, it's in Denver, mile high. I don't know that squandering a big lead in Denver against a good defense is the worst thing ever.

20:47 But the Rams showed some warts, too. I mean, like, Stafford puts a ball in harm's way quite a bit. And I heard this today, that even last year, he was the, quote, luckiest quarterback in the league. When you look at, like, interceptable balls that didn't get picked off yeah yeah yeah turnover worthy plays it just didn't happen to be turnovers he got lucky a lot hasn't as much this year I thought Nakua was really missed in this game too like Adams is great but then Terrence Ferguson gets hurt and all of a sudden like I don't know that Higby and who's the pit kid they have at wide receiver I mean he's a blocker. He's, he kind of fills in when the coup was out. Yeah.

21:34 But like, if you're this powerhouse, yeah. Yeah. He's a nice pickup in the late rounds, but if you're a powerhouse team, I don't think he'd be in Mumford need to be the focal points of your offense. You know what I mean? Like it's just not quite good enough.

21:50 I tell you what, I will say this though, for the Rams. And this is kind of a more of a philosophical big picture thing for you. I don't want to be playing my best football in September or October.

22:02 Right.

22:03 The rest might be gone.

22:04 It might even be a little bit better for them, and maybe it'll cost them a division title and they'll have to go on the road for the postseason and all that stuff. That's always the line you're trying to walk. But so often, so many of these teams, heck, we've seen it with the Buffalo Bills for a long time, where it's like they're playing their best football in September and October, and it's just tough to sustain that. How often does the team in the NFL that looks the best in September and October, the one that wins the Super Bowl in February?

22:28 Good point.

22:29 Very rarely.

22:30 They might be a freight train by Christmas.

22:32 You get Miles Garrett back and Aaron Donald knocks all the rust off and the offense gets healthy and they win nine straight games rolling into the postseason.

22:40 But your point's great. I mean, it's a lot different than... Oh, we're hosting the saints in week one, or we're going to Philly in week one of the playoffs. You know, like that's, that's the, that's what you're worried about.

22:51 I don't want to be the best team in the NFL in September. I get it. Somebody has to be, I don't want to be the best team in the NFL in September or October. I, I want to start being the best team in the NFL around Thanksgiving and then kick that thing. And, but you know, in the butt from there, and that might be in the cards for that might be in the cards for them. Um, But you're right. If that ends up being, you know, instead of hosting the Saints, you're.

23:12 Behind the Niners or Seattle or whatever, and you've got to go on the road to Philly.

23:16 It's a tightrope to walk. I will say, though, I don't think, as much as he's great and I think he's a future Hall of Famer, I don't think having Matthew Stafford throw the ball 55 times is a real recipe for success for that group.

23:30 They have more tight ends active than wide receivers for that game. I mean, everyone talks about their 13 personnel and all that. That's great and all, but I don't know that I want Higby being my feature receiver. You know what I mean? Totally. 13 personnel is great, but not if it means Puka or Adams is on the bench.

23:47 Correct.

23:48 You know.

23:49 Paint your barn red.

23:50 Yeah, yeah.

23:51 Matt, we mentioned some of these, but I just kind of want to run through the gambit of news of the day in the NFL front because there was a ton from yesterday.

23:59 Yeah, trade injuries.

24:02 J.C.

24:02 Horn, Panthers quarterback, out indefinitely with a torn quad.

24:05 Oh, I didn't know that one. He's one of the better corners in the league.

24:07 Giants edge rusher, Brian Burns, torn ACL.

24:10 Out for the year.

24:11 According to Harbaugh. You mentioned a Chan, torn ACL, out for the year. From a Chan to.

24:21 I think you pronounce them the same.

24:24 The Saints running back, the artist formerly known as Travis Etienne, who is now Travis Etienne. He's considered week-to-week with a hamstring injury. Brees Hall, week-to-week with a quad injury. Baker Mayfield out at least three weeks with a dislocated thumb. Good news out of Minnesota where it was said today by Kevin O'Connell that Jefferson avoided serious injury and he could potentially even play this weekend.

24:47 He's going to be day-to-day. And then he was rolled out early. I thought, oh, no.

24:52 And then, as you mentioned, JJ McCarthy being traded to the Giants. I think that's kind of the gambit of the big injury and movement notes. But it's a lot.

25:01 It's a lot.

25:02 It's a lot for a Monday. And, of course, as we joked, that comes on a busy, condensed week here for the Steelers.

25:08 When do we get the Steelers? I don't know if you know the answer to this. And I feel like I should. When do we get the first Steeler practice report?

25:14 And that's a good question. I don't know if it'll be today, but I would.

25:16 We get one tomorrow. I will definitely get one tomorrow. Because they have some injuries. looming too that we haven't touched on.

25:22 Matt, a Steelers sequence that I want to discuss with you when we return from yesterday that really had me encouraged in thinking that this group, particularly this offense, might be on to something different, something much better this year. And obviously we've got to talk a little bit about a big one tonight between the Bears and the Eagles.

25:40 So a lot more to get to here in the back half of our number two of the drive, Euler and Williamson. Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.

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26:22 I used to have cable internet, but I'm a 100% kind of fan, so I switched to Verizon Fios. It's 100% fiber internet that's super reliable. So I streamed 100% of the NFL draft live with ultra low lag.

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26:59 You're tuned to The Drive on your 24-7 home of the black and gold.

27:03 Steelers Nation Radio.

27:29 Matt, as we've highlighted over the last 90 minutes or so, it was a wild Sunday across the NFL.

27:35 Yeah.

27:35 Not just at Accresure Stadium, but all throughout the league.

27:39 It was a good week, yeah.

27:40 Some crazy high-scoring fourth quarters and just a lot of fun back-and-forth games. The wildest thing, though, that I heard yesterday was a statistic about Joe Burrow. Have you seen this? Have you heard about this?

27:53 I think so.

27:54 I think everyone in Steeler Nation has, and I think, honestly, everyone across the NFL has. Joe Burrow... But if you've been living under a rock, Joe Burrow is now one in 34 when his team trails in the last eight minutes and his time in Cincinnati.

28:08 Eight minutes is a long time. That could be a one-point deficit. It could be a 20-point deficit.

28:14 It's one thing if it'd be like at the two-minute warning. That would still be a pretty wild statistic. But to be one in 34, one win in 35 opportunities when your team is trailing at the eight-minute mark of the fourth quarter is Man, that is a, that's head turning. That is insane. That's just a statistical anomaly that.

28:35 I don't know exactly how to digest it.

28:37 Right.

28:37 Like some of it might be okay. The obvious thing, if it's just any quarterback, it's like, he's not clutch.

28:43 And that's the low hanging fruit.

28:46 That's the low hanging fruit.

28:47 Might be some of that.

28:47 And there might be some of that, but he sure doesn't appear that way.

28:51 I think, I think some of it has been over the last couple of years, they have lost so many close games. because they would be up 35-31 and their defense would give up a touchdown in the last 70 seconds.

29:05 I can't remember a quarterback since I've watched football that's lost more games when you play an A-level game.

29:13 But not one in 34.

29:14 Right.

29:15 But there's so many losses, whether they were leading or not, that are in the 30s because the defense was a disaster. And yesterday was part of it. I mean, did Burrow play winning football? I thought so. I thought he played really, really well.

29:31 He's going to want that turnover back at the end, but that was a great play by Derek Harmon.

29:35 A couple notes on that. I've been hard on Harmon because I never thought his pass rush upside was super great or that he was a big time pass rusher. I'm not saying he's out of the woods and he's an ex cam Hayward, but he's rushing the passer much better this year than he did last year. And it's certainly improving and is a handful. I mean, he's, he's progressing better than I expected. Um, but Burrow, uh, got the ball out of his hands remarkably quick, 2.1, 2.5, one seconds, two and a half seconds. The ball came out on average, which is faster than like Rogers last year.

30:09 I mean like that is remarkably difficult and his receivers kind of had a field day with the Steelers corners and to say the least and, um, Steelers pass rush rarely got home. A lot of it's cause the ball was coming out. Great. A lot of this cause Mims is great, et cetera. Um, But I don't think you could ask more out of your quarterback. And I think that's often the case in that stat that you opened the show with. I don't think it's him. You know what I mean? But it's overwhelming numbers. That's, again, I...

30:41 It can't be a total fluke.

30:42 It's not a total fluke. It's not just his defense has been Swiss cheese for.

30:46 A couple of years. Some of it, well, it doesn't apply.

30:51 Some of it is certainly because he scored with a minute and 53 seconds left to give his team the lead, and then the Chicago Bears go right down the field and win the game back like we saw last year. But a lot of it is, I think, in those moments, and maybe yesterday was a kind of microcosm of that, even where he's played pretty well throughout the afternoon. All it takes is one play, bang, you don't take care of the football strip sack, and that's the difference in the game.

31:15 So this was a while ago, but Mike Sando did an extensive study like, near the end of like Ben Brady, Manning, Rivers, Breezes tenure of being the best quarterbacks in the league. And he went deep into their careers to see who of those guys had the most help, not only from their defense over that stretch, but also special teams.

31:36 Okay.

31:37 And Brady had the most help, you know, like, and he had the most rings and, you know, And Belichick had something to do with it and all that.

31:44 He was also great in the, in the weighty moments.

31:47 No question. No question.

31:48 He defines that, that clutch term.

31:50 Ben was definitely more towards the Brady end than the bad end. Got a lot. I mean, there's some really good defenses. Yeah. Yeah. But like Phillip rivers was a distant last.

31:59 Sure.

31:59 And. Is rivers really that much worse than Ben and Brady, but in the history of time, they're going to be remembered that way. He's a borderline.

32:08 Right.

32:09 You're right.

32:09 Clutch.

32:10 And I think burrow could be that guy for sure. You know, that organization hasn't helped him much over the years. It looked a lot better coming into this game defensively in a run game, an O-line. But if we only look back and be like, man, if he would have been, you know, on a different organization, does he have two or three rings?

32:28 Right.

32:29 I don't know.

32:29 If he gets drafted by the Eagles.

32:30 Yeah, exactly.

32:31 Right.

32:31 Or whatever. If he's light in the league, I'd see Mahomes.

32:33 We could be saying that same thing potentially about Josh Allen. Now the good news for those guys is they still have a lot of years left before their legacy is written.

32:41 Same with Lamar.

32:41 But they're pushing 30 more so than they are the young pups right out of the league. Same with Lamar.

32:45 I was thinking about Allen and Lamar, but more Allen just because after two games he was playing an unworldly level. I think we should start comparing him to the Marinos of the world in terms of all-time greats. But I'd rather play against– Steve Young was a great player. I'd much rather play against Steve Young than Josh Allen. I mean, they're not even close to me.

33:04 Especially if Josh Allen gets Jerry Rice.

33:06 Yeah, exactly. I mean, if you look at the top 10 quarterbacks of all time, I think you've got to start talking about Allen and Lamar, and they're just hitting their prime now. But they could easily go down like a Marino is never get one.

33:19 One of the greats to not have a ring.

33:21 Yeah, yeah.

33:21 And we know it's a team sport, but we also know, especially for quarterbacks, that kind of rings on your finger. is a direct parallel drawn to your career success.

33:31 Chances are at least one of Burrow, Lamar, Allen are never going to get a ring.

33:37 I would almost bet the mortgage that at least one of them, maybe even two, are.

33:40 Never going to get a ring. Yeah, I bet the over-unders, one and a half of them will end up with a ring.

33:44 What if Mendoza hits and the Raiders are about to enter a successful era?

33:46 Right, or what if Lawrence is now an MVP? I mean, I'm just looking around the AFC. The fact they're all in the same conference really hurts our chances.

33:52 It happens quick, man. Matt, two specific kind of leftover things that I wanted to to highlight with you here. The first. You know, we heard from Mike McCarthy and our buddy Rob King actually referenced it in the first hour of him saying he doesn't want to be a dink and dunk offense. And I agree. But I also think with that, you have to be an offense that can string drives together.

34:17 Oh, absolutely.

34:18 So you need the explosive. That was a 3-4-5 play scoring drive, but you can't rely on that just like you can't rely on having a 10- or 12-play scoring drive every time.

34:27 You got to play both ways, yeah.

34:29 And boy, did we see that in the first two drives of the game for the Steelers. First drive of the game, four plays. You get the huge Jalen Warren explosive right off the bat. Four plays, 73 yards, less than two minutes, bang, seven points.

34:42 Love it.

34:42 Then the second drive of the game. 11 plays, 86 yards, five minutes, more methodical, more third down conversions, ends in the end zone.

34:53 I bet there was very few negative plays.

34:55 That's the duality of man that you need right there. You need to be able to score in four plays in less than two minutes and get your butt down the field with some explosives. You also need to be able to, I don't even know if I would call it dink and dunk, but string together a drive and stay ahead of the sticks and convert on third downs.

35:12 And like the Falcons, you saw a really good four minute offense, you know, like that type, you gotta be able to do a lot of different things to win against different opponents in different situations.

35:19 Steelers had some four plays, some six play scoring drives. They also had a couple of 11 play scoring drives. I love that balance. You gotta be able to do both.

35:27 So in the pre pregame show that I do with Tom, the first hour, we got into this pretty heavy because we didn't know how this game was going to go. It hadn't happened yet. It was a pregame show. And we kind of came to the conclusion of, yeah, it sounds great to drive the ball down the field, but you're, you're going to have two new offensive linemen on the right side. You allowed a ton of pressure in new England and Cincinnati's front was scary as could be, you know, 28 hours ago. You know what I mean? Like, and we basically thought maybe you do want to do the 2025 passing game of get it out quick, get it to Warren in the flat, quick hitter to a tight end.

36:02 You're not going to be able to protect four yards in a cloud of dust. Yeah. And thinking that might be the strategy. But the way the line played, it allowed so much more. The protection, we kind of thought, just get it out of your hands quick. You be the team that's getting it out in 2.5 seconds, not the Bengals.

36:19 Exactly right.

36:21 And I think they can still do that. We've seen Rodgers do it.

36:25 You've got to have the duality. If you have just one way to win and score and have success as an offense, I don't care what level of football it is. It's going to catch up with you eventually.

36:35 Oh, no doubt.

36:35 You've got, you've got to be able to have the quick explosive minute or two drives down the field. You got to be able to string together 10, 11, 12 plays and find the end zone. You got to do it both ways. And the Steelers started doing that yesterday.

36:46 And even the great teams. That's why I think the NFL playoffs are so great. It's like, okay, we went through the regular season based on Josh Allen being great, but I mean, chances are, someone's going to expose your weakness between wildcard weekend and hoisting the Lombardi. You know, I mean, if you really want to get to where you need to be, and it's happened in Steeler history a lot, you know, like, boy, the Jags were not the team you wanted to see that year that they got, that they came here and eliminated you. It's like, it's just a bad matchup. You know, styles make fights type of thing.

37:19 Styles do make fights. And you know what, Matt, how about a little teaser? How about a little teaser here?

37:23 Okay.

37:23 I told you I had two things that I wanted to highlight. That was the first one. The other one involves some play sequencing at two different points in the game. But we are kind of up against it here. I don't want to rush it. And I do want to maybe look into those a little bit more. So how about I tease it? And for the Tuesday Rewind tomorrow, I've got some offensive play sequencing that I want to run past you that I was very encouraged by as well.

37:47 Cool.

37:48 We'll tease that. We'll do that tomorrow because we're going to take our last break now. When we return on the other side, we will hit on some of your questions, comments, concerns, and reactions.

37:57 I bet there's a bunch.

37:58 There's been a ton. Yeah. And mostly good stuff, as you can imagine, after a big divisional win at home yesterday. We'll also give some thoughts on that big NFC clash on Monday Night Football this evening before we get out of here. Euler and Williamson, it's The Drive, Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.

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38:49 I used to have cable internet, but I'm a 100% kind of fan, so I switched to Verizon Fios. It's 100% fiber internet that's super reliable. So I streamed 100% of the NFL draft live with ultra low lag. And after what went down in the first round, still getting video calls from my best friend, rubbing it in that he called all the picks.

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39:16 Get that hot dog costume ready. Bruh.

39:24 You're tuned to The Drive on your 24-7 home of the black and gold.

39:28 Steelers Nation Radio.

40:07 Down the homestretch here of the drive on this Victory Monday. Mike tweets us and says, shout out to Wolf and Tunch. Victory Donut Monday.

40:14 Oh, yeah. Love it.

40:16 They would have been having themselves some fun today. I'm sure they were having themselves some fun on Friday when the Hall of Honor– dinner. It was always a lot of fun there to, uh, to see all that and, you know, seeing faith Wolfley and all the kids saw CJ. Um, I mentioned this when we were talking to Kinger, but Wolf's oldest, uh, Kyle Jacob, you'd always hear him referred to Kyle Jacob Wolfley. That's his son who went to West point. Um, and has, you know, been, been stationed in Germany for a long time. I saw Kyle first thing when I walked through the doormat and I was like, Kyle, what's up? Did you fly back from Germany for this?

40:49 He's actually working at West Point now. He got a job as a professor at West Point. That's pretty impressive. I said to him, I was like, dude, I was like, oh, humble brag. I'm a professor at West Point now. I said to him, I said, your dad would have been so proud of you. And he knows that, obviously. But it was just great to see the Wolfley family. And as I mentioned, I think some of that Some of that Wolfman juju was just sprinkled on the field on Sunday to make that one happen.

41:13 I think he got some of Wolf's toughness, strength, physicality, but maybe he got his mind forward from his mom. Yes.

41:20 And that's probably the same thing he would tell you, probably the same thing Wolf would have said, and probably for the best in the big picture.

41:26 You're a West Point, right.

41:27 Matt, let's hit on some of these questions, comments, concerns, and reactions before we get up out of here in just a few minutes. Kyle tweets and says, more tight end involvement.

41:36 Check.

41:37 More efficient in the run game.

41:38 Check.

41:39 Better play calling.

41:40 Check.

41:41 Changes on the right side of the offensive line. Check. Are you guys being properly compensated as Coach McCarthy's unofficial advisors?

41:48 Not checked.

41:50 Listen, Matt and I are pretty easy to buy. I mean, I think we could make that happen.

41:54 Right. Some of that was low-hanging fruit.

41:56 Some of that was low-hanging fruit.

41:57 We didn't reinvent the wheel, but, you know.

41:59 But you know what? I'm always down for more compensation. Jeff says the Steelers are 2-10 in road Thursday night games since 2007. I hope that changes this week.

42:09 Have never won within the division. Never won within the division. On a Thursday night road game. And obviously not in Cleveland. I think they're 0-4 in Cleveland.

42:16 Yes.

42:17 Now, I do think... every coach has strengths and weaknesses. When you look at Tomlin's career, he was close to unbeatable when you gave him a long week, but the less prep he had was much worse. I mean, it's just, we have 19 years or whatever of data to show there. And so that could be to say Tomlin weakness.

42:41 And in those years too, Tomlin was like, 17 and two on Monday night football or something like that.

42:47 Gave him an extra day, let alone at home.

42:49 The prime time games.

42:50 Oh yeah.

42:51 Um, the good news is Mike McCarthy's had a lot of success in his career. I think he said the record.

42:55 Someone told me today and I forget what it was. It was really good.

42:57 We're joking. I think it was 16 and six. Now that's all.

43:00 That's all combined.

43:01 That's not, that doesn't, that's not just on the road.

43:04 Or just in the division or just in Cleveland or any of that stuff. But yeah, I know he has a lot of success on Thursday night football.

43:09 New, new head coach.

43:11 I'm curious what Roger's stats are too. Yeah, maybe we'll look into that a little bit from tomorrow. I bet they're good. I mean, they probably, the two of them are together, so they probably won a lot of games on Thursday together.

43:20 And he says, happy Victory Monday. Brock Hoffman, 27 years old.

43:23 I feel like we're about to get a text from Tyler telling us exactly that. Let us see how his mind works over there. Anytime we throw something out.

43:29 Tell Tyler I only got like two minutes left here, all right? I gotta keep this thing moving. And he says, you got Brock Hoffman, the 27-year-old, playing like a real vet. Max Ahanachor, the rookie. And hopefully we have taken a big step forward in shoring up the right side of that offensive line.

43:43 Oh, there's a text.

43:44 Amen, Annie. What'd he say?

43:46 Let's see.

43:47 What'd he say? What'd he say? What'd he say? I sound like Jon Bernthal.

43:51 What is that? Oh, jeez. Now I got to hit links.

43:55 Is he sending this to you in French or something? Sacre bleu over there? You trying to translate?

44:01 13-7, Rodgers on Thursday night. Pretty good. I figured he had a winning record.

44:05 Oh, how do you say 13-7 in French?

44:07 Nice.

44:09 Ian says Mad Max looks like an overall upgrade. The run game flourished. The pass game opened up, and we finally saw the offense that we thought we would get with Mike McCarthy. Just like we all thought, the Steelers and the Browns playing for first place on Thursday. Yeah, we all had that.

44:23 We all had that in our predictions.

44:27 Ahead of the start of the regular season.

44:28 Just mathematically, think how bad a shape you'd be already in the division if you happened to lose that game.

44:33 Terrible.

44:33 Yeah.

44:33 And in the conference, too.

44:34 That's what I mean, right. Yeah, you have one win and to be against the Falcons, that doesn't go very far.

44:39 Nate asks, could we see Jeremy Bernard's role expand throughout the year? He's been a chain mover with really good hands so far.

44:45 I hope so. Yes.

44:47 I hope so.

44:47 I'm almost certain Wilson only had two snaps after the interception. He more or less got benched. Which.

44:56 is a bummer because I thought he was starting to move in the right direction too. And maybe he still is.

45:00 Yeah.

45:00 I'm also pretty excited about, uh, Jeremy, Jeremy. Yeah, absolutely.

45:06 Steeler nation, Australia gets the last word of the day, Matt and says, good day, Matt and Wes. Is it time to call Darnell Washington, the Bengal killer? And should we call PETA and inform them?

45:18 All tight ends are Bengal killers.

45:20 Him and Pat Fryer moves. They might be on PETA's most wanted list. Okay, one more.

45:24 I lied.

45:25 Sinister671 says, Jalen Warren, how about 20 to 25 touches a game? He's the best running back on the roster, period. Let the man eat.

45:34 When everybody's healthy, I'd like to see like a two to one split. He doesn't need to get every touch. He doesn't need to get 25. You can go overboard on this stuff. I've been in the total opposite camp on this.

45:45 It was 17 carries yesterday, Matt. I think that's about right.

45:49 I'm fine with that.

45:50 I'm fine with that. But he doesn't need to be out there.

45:54 I think he was out there like 55 of 58 snaps. Let's not get too crazy.

45:59 Maybe 40-something out of 58.

46:00 Yeah, yeah, two-thirds.

46:02 Two-thirds. Do the math for us, TV.

46:04 No, I'm kidding.

46:05 Speaking of which, tonight on TV, ESPN and ABC, 8-15 at historic Soldier Field in Chicago. I think that's the best thing I can say about it. The Bears host the Eagles, a big early season NFC one here, Matt. Philadelphia, three-and-a-half point favorites.

46:19 Case Keenum.

46:21 Case Keenum.

46:23 I think I'm laying the points. I don't feel strong about it, but I just don't. I think the Bears defense is flat out bad. And if their quarterback's bad.

46:29 And you're not getting any potential hero ball from Caleb Williams. I'm with you on that one. Fun show today, Matt.

46:35 Sounds like Caleb's got to be out a few weeks now.

46:37 A few weeks. Yeah. A lot of injuries, man, early on in the season here. Just stay healthy and just keep stacking victories and getting better week by week. Matt, that'll do it for us today. Fun show today. As Craig Wolfley would have said, I think we... shoved 10 pounds of potatoes in an 8-pound sack with all of today's content. We'll continue to do that tomorrow.

46:55 Tomorrow will be similar.

46:56 Tomorrow we'll have some final thoughts on yesterday, and we'll start to look ahead to the Browns.

46:59 I've got to do a lot of Browns homework tonight while I'm watching the game.

47:02 Thanks to Rob King for joining us in the first hour. Thanks to our guy, Mr. TV, Tyler V., resident statistician, and, of course, video producer of The Drive. For Matt Williamson, I'm Wes Euler. Take care, everybody, and 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.

47:18 Steelers Nation Radio. on the Steelers Audio Network.