Drive9.29.26Hr1: Tuesday Rewind, Power Rankings

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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 once again, we have plenty of ground to cover, Matt. We are attempting to continue to stuff 10 pounds of potatoes into an 8-pound bag here this week on this short week.

And so today, kind of just some final stuff from Sunday's win and turning the page to Cleveland at the same time.

So do we make predictions at the end of the show?

Oh, geez.

I guess, right?

This will be our last show before game day because I'll be getting on the buses with the team in the early afternoon on Wednesday to bus out to Cleveland.

I guess we've got to do it, right?

We will be back on Friday. So I guess you're right. I guess we do have to give predictions.

Close the show with predictions.

Okay.

I've got two hours to give it some thought.

I've got two hours to give it some thought here. We'll see what happens. We'll see what happens.

But Matt, we will begin today with something that we typically do on a Tuesday, regardless of the schedule.

A little Tuesday rewind.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Simple concept, just kind of, you know, Matt and I, we always watch the game on Sunday. We come in here, we do the show on Monday. It's a lot of instant reactions, a lot of first reactions, a lot of just off-the-cuff, off-the-sleeve stuff. And then we have some time to see some more numbers, see some more highlights, watch some game film.

Let it digest a little bit.

Let it digest a little bit. And we revisit it on Tuesdays with our Tuesday Rewind. Matt, there are two. I kind of teased this yesterday, but there's two specific instances that I want to talk with you about here.

One's a sequence. The other is just one individual play.

Let's start with the sequence because it, I think, was the biggest part of the game for the Steelers offense. So with about eight and a half minutes left in the game, the Steelers kick a field goal, right, to tie the game at 27.

So you punt. They muff the punt. You recover it.

You're unable to punch it in to take the lead, but you kick the field goal to tie the game back up at 27.

So you're kicking off after the muffed punt field goal.

So you're kicking off after the muffed punt field goal. with about eight and a half minutes left. Big shout-out to the defense. They do exactly what they need to go.

I think Renegade hits at that point.

Renegade hits at that point.

Yep, yep.

Three and out for the Cincinnati offense. Steelers get the ball back. Tie game, seven and a half minutes left. We are in business.

In a game like that, you kind of stole possession back, too. That three and out goes a long way.

You're right.

Again, you obviously would have loved to take the lead there and really take advantage of it, but the muff punt gets you back on level footing, and then a three and out, as you mentioned, is like getting the ball right back, almost like stealing a possession.

Yeah.

So you got about seven and a half minutes left in the game at this time, 739 to be exact. And we are tied up at 27. First play of the game. First play of the series, pardon me.

Jalen Warren.

This is deep in their own head.

This is deep, deep, deep at their own eight-yard line.

Yeah, nice punt and coverage.

And Jalen Warren goes 87 yards to take that thing all the way down to almost the goal line. and there's the flag on DK Metcalf, which I think was a bad call, by the way.

I think it was a real bad call, but.

But you know what? This is kind of where I'm going with all this, Matt.

It would have been very easy in that moment to poo-poo, to hang your head, to that's a bunch of crap, to that ends up being an 87, 88, if you factor in the penalty, close to a 90-yard swing there on one call by the referee.

So instead of being.

Real quick on the call. I would not have thrown that flag as being as impartial as I possibly could have. But Metcalf probably should know, you know, this is late in the play. The good stuff's already happened. Let's just do this. You know what I mean? He kind of hands off it.

I didn't think it was the worst call ever.

No, no, no. I just thought it was a bad call.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And the ref was real late throwing the flag, which always makes you feel some type of way.

But I mentioned it yesterday, but I definitely want to reiterate. I really commend him, everybody else, for blocking downfield, the non-linemen. The tight ends, running backs, I mean, everybody blocked really well in this game, and that's a really good sign of coaching.

There's an alternate universe, Matt, where that penalty costs you, it sinks your drive, you go three and out, Cincinnati gets good field position, they win the game, and then we are screaming and yelling about that DK Metcalf penalty all day yesterday.

Sure, sure.

This is how I tell you all the time. 99.9% of the time when people blame referees, I don't want to hear it. I think it's a crock. You're going to get favorable calls. You're going to get bad calls over the course of a 60-minute game that plays out for three hours on Sundays or Thursdays or Mondays or whatever.

If one bad call sunk you, you didn't deserve to win the game in the first place, basically.

No question. And there's probably... so many instances in the first half of a guard on either team holding that they shouldn't have called and did or vice versa or whatever. And nobody, this is not as a crucial of a moment.

I make this reference a lot, that infamous 2017, I think it was NFC championship game where there was one of the worst missed pass interference calls you'll ever see on the saints. When the Rams defensive back tackled the guy before the ball got there. And then new Orleans goes on a few minutes later and loses an overtime and they threw a whole parade and protest downtown because their feelings were hurt. What nobody talks about is New Orleans got the ball to start at overtime and drew breeze through an interception. So they still had every opportunity.

It wasn't like the game was over.

The reason that we don't have to beat that DK Metcalf holding call to death is because the Steelers said, said bleep it.

We ball who cares?

Yeah.

Seven yard penalty. So all of a sudden it's first and 11 instead of being first and goal. And you're backed up at your own seven yard line. What do the Steelers do? 14-yard gain to DK Metcalf. Right back to DK.

Make a play. Pick up a first down.

I like that, too, because it's a confidence.

Absolutely.

That was definitely deliberate.

Next play, Aaron Rodgers, Darnell Washington.

47-yard completion as Darnell shrugged a few guys off, made a few guys miss.

Nobody wanted to tackle him.

No.

The dancing bear down the sideline.

So just like that, in what could have sunk you, you go 14 plays, 47 plays. The next two snaps, you are right back at the cusp of the red zone. First and 10, or no, pardon me, a first and 10 at the 32. So you're right back in Cincinnati territory. You're right back in scoring range. Two big plays, two chunk plays that we talk about all the time.

And then what happens?

26-yard run for Jalen Warren down to the Cincinnati six-yard line.

Then Lou Nichols gets stuffed.

Which he should have scored on. Thanks, Pitt. Absolutely.

You said it again. Not me. He said it again.

And then you end up stalling out, and you get a penalty for ineligible downfield on Faltanu, and you end up kicking the field goal. But, Matt, to me, that's how teams respond. That, to me, is the sequence. The DK hold negates the massive Jalen Warren run, and you go, oh, no. But instead of hanging your head, you go 14-yard catch the next play. 48-yard catch the following play. 27-yard run the following play. And you end up settling for a field goal, but you get the lead back. That is how you respond as an offense in the NFL.

That is how you say, all right, bad call. Who cares? Doesn't matter.

We still control this. We still have the outcome in our hands. And you go and you march down the field with a couple big explosives, and you take the lead. you know, right before the two minute warning.

There's been so many times, and I don't know that we're over this hump yet for 2026, but been so many times in the last, in the 2020s or since Ben was in his prime where every play was just so hard, you know what I mean? Like nothing came easy to the offense that when you did get something good, like that big play.

Ooh, wow.

You know what I mean? Like what a relief. And then if it gets called back, especially being at home, the fans are probably like, Oh, Oh, we're cooked. You know, like the whole attitude, like the whole place was just deflated. Not at all. How that, that, that transpired, you know? And I think that they see things a little differently now, you know.

Bad call negates it.

You go three straight explosive plays to make up for it would have been, could have been, you know, four straight explosive plays. If you do factor in that Warren run that got called back, That as an offense is how you take matters into your own hands.

Yeah.

Over my dead body. And I don't care if there's a bad call. We're still getting down the field and we're still taking the lead here. I loved that from the offense.

My hunch is in the huddle. They probably felt like we have a really good beat on the Bengals defense right now, probably in the headsets as well. We know what they're doing. We know how to beat it. I think, you know, fourth quarter defense can be a difficult thing, especially early in the season. And, you know, we got them where we want them. We know how to attack them and okay, we'll get that stuff back. And they did.

I just love that sequence because for an offense that certainly has had their struggles in recent history, it would have been real easy to hang your head and poo poo face and woe is me in that moment.

But you did it. You responded.

You continued to punch that Cincinnati defense in the mouth. You got yourself back into scoring range real quickly. You took significant time off the clock right up until the two-minute warning. Took five and a half minutes off the clock with that drive. Matt, that to me is winning football. It's not always going to be perfect. You are more times than we would like to. You're going to have to overcome bad or questionable officiating and calls and things like that. whether it's not the right spot on the field, whatever the case may be, still get it done.

And that's what the offense did in that moment.

And that's the first time I remembered that type of resiliency, that over-my-dead-body attitude from a Pittsburgh Steelers offense in a long time.

Yeah, couldn't agree more. I think you said that well. You laid out the whole situation really well. Cause I, you know, I'm sitting there watching at home, taking notes like crazy. And when the flag comes out on Metcalf on the 87 yard run or whatever, I was probably like everyone else, like, oh man, now they're going to go backwards deep in their own end. This is probably a punt to midfield and the Bengals are going to get the ball at the 45 yard line or something like that.

First downs to win the game.

Yeah. And maybe eating clock or whatever, you know, like this is, this is a problem, you know, but no, you're right.

So that to me was the sequence that I really wanted to highlight. And I think just about along with the offensive line play, clearly being much better, a lot to be encouraged by with what we saw from the offense on Sunday. And, and I think that sequence kind of summed it up for me, Matt, just the other one that I had for you that I wanted to, to run by you. It was just one play, the Ben Skronic 23-yard touchdown pass from Aaron Rodgers. I've actually got the highlight in front of us here playing. So Skronic moves in. It was a little Sean McVeigh-ian from the Steelers there.

Especially because the player.

It was a little Puka Nakua-ish what they like to do with him. line him up in motion, have him attack somewhere in the line of scrimmage. It was right off of Maxi Honachor's shoulder. Now, sometimes it's like A-gap stuff that we see the Rams doing with their wide receivers.

But they'll block linebackers and edge guys, and yeah. But Scoronic's very capable of that, too. He came from the Rams.

Some of the things that we discussed last week with the offense were, how about some more play action? How about some more motion? How about some more dressing things up pre-snap? And this, to me, was a perfect example of it. You bring Skronic in motion. You have him kind of attack through a seam on the offensive line there between Darnell. The defense loses track of him. He's wide open, you know, squeaks into the end zone there for a pretty easy pitch and catch 23-yard touchdown. I loved that play design and that play call in that moment.

Yeah.

I'm not picking on Roman Wilson. I just pulled him out because he's a little guy. If it's him in this motion, it doesn't work. You know what I mean? The fact that it's your blocker, it's your tough guy.

They think he's just coming to chip somebody.

I mean, they're not designing a play for Skoranek. He's out there because someone's getting a breather or they're going to run the ball or whatever. I mean, these guys do homework too. I'm sure leading up to that play, if Skoranek had been on the field, I'll just pull a number out of thin air, 20 plays before that for the season, they probably ran the ball on like 16 of them.

Sure.

Yeah.

I'm sure there's strong run tendencies when he's out there. Um, all that being said, I love that too. I thought it was a very, very good play design. You were just watching. I can't remember as a linebacker or a, uh, safety for since he really played it poorly though, too.

Yeah.

I mean like sitting there pretty flat footed and watching this guy almost run by him. Like you, you got to, There's a coverage bust.

Oh, yeah. I mean, they all bit.

They all bit.

Strong. And that's also a tendency. Their linebackers are not very disciplined.

They're young.

As you mentioned, they're looking and they're going, okay, it's Ben Skronic.

He's in here for a play to block and match somebody's face, and they're not going to throw it to him.

And he's at full speed while they're flat-footed and haven't even flipped their hips yet.

No, it was the perfect play call for the perfect moment.

It was.

And I would like to see that continue here. as we roll along this season. And hopefully you get a little more confident with your personnel and your offensive line and all those things that work in concert together. So that's my Tuesday rewind, Matt. That's what I had for you. I don't know if there's any specifics that you want to, uh, to discuss.

I'm sure there's a ton. Um, I stumbled into a, I wish I knew who did it, but it was late last night and I stumbled into a YouTube video on a Haunted Shore. And then, It honestly didn't really matter. I was just kind of watching the all 22. It just happened to find it. And, um, there was a play that really stood out to me where he he's blocking boy, a Moffay they're one-on-one and Moffay is a really good player. And he's having a really good year and Moffay beats him. I mean, like he, Max puts his hand, you know, gets his hands out. Moffay does a great job of knocking his hands down. and is about to swim right through Max to the quarterback. I mean, it's like a very typical Watt coming off the edge

type of move. And because he's so athletic, Ohana Shore's feet were able– he saves himself with his feet. He doesn't really have his hands to use, but he can at least get his feet to the point where he pushes Moffay just a little bit past the quarterback. I mean, that's everything. He's not going to be perfect. He's going to be learning. But the fact that he can be wrong or right when he's wrong is awesome. Huge. It's huge.

That's kind of the God-given gifts and talent size that not many humans walking the earth possess.

And I'm not singling him out, but if that's Cook, it's a sack. Sure. Or at least it's a quarterback hit or a disruption or whatever. I mean, who knows how Rodgers responds.

It's one of those instances where a defensive back gets beat or reads the play wrong, but he's so fast that he can make up for it and close on the back end.

Absolutely. Like, I'm just a better athlete than you, and I was still able to keep you down the field. You know, it's incredible.

It really is. And it's only one game.

We don't want to be too hyperbolic, but both of us, and especially you, have been singing Mad Max's praises since February.

Yeah.

And it was awesome to see him end up a Steeler. And then we had to kind of wait a little bit. And now we're finally getting to see it. It's exciting, man. And I know we said this yesterday, too. I thought Brock Hoffman was outstanding next to him.

I was just about to mention him. And I think people probably know this about McCormick. But I love when offensive linemen are a-holes.

Yes.

And especially guards. Tackles can be dancing bears and a little prettier. Centers can be smart and dumpy or, you know, whatever. Just get the job done. But I kind of want my guards to be A-holes. And both those dudes are A-holes.

Yes, they are.

Honestly, Matt, I think they have the perfect blend on that offensive line because I want my center.

To be an A-hole too, and Zach kind of is in different ways.

Yeah, he is, yeah.

But Zach's more cerebral. Zach's more mental.

When the rest of them are fist pumping and getting fired up, he's.

Already back at the huddle setting the ball.

He's all business.

I want my center to be all... Now, Zach obviously has the touch of nasty too, but he's all business. Oh, yeah, yeah. And then the other four are just hype men, bouncers throwing everybody out of the club.

Yeah.

It's, it's the same thing. I want my quarterback to be cerebral, all business, cool, calm, collected. And then everybody else around them to be a junkyard dog.

Yeah.

Same with, I want my quarterback in center to be cool, calm, collected, and then a bunch of a-holes and a bunch of junkyard dogs.

And I think we might be getting there.

Yeah.

Like I want a sniper on Sid's wing, but I want the other guy to be 210 with sharp elbows.

Run through your face.

Right. You know what I mean? Sharp elbows. And no one messes with your stars then. And you know, that type of thing too.

McCormick's like that. Hoffman's like that. Ionichor's like that.

Hoffman has a lot of it. And I just don't know if people know it.

Yeah.

They were, they.

Were given, they were given sexy Dexy, a little extra business and getting under his skin.

And it's, it's a beautiful thing to see.

So in that Ionichor video that I watched too, I've seen some of this particular at senior bowl. But he still could be nastier finishing run blocks. I'm nitpicking. He's a little more advanced in protection than he is the run game. He makes some crazy blocks in the run game, though, too, where he can reach a guy just because of his quickness and things like that. But I think it'll rub off on him. That's why I brought up the a-hole factor at the guard's. just cause the whistles just starting to blow. Doesn't mean you can't give them one more dump.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

That might still be coming.

Uh, I tell you what we've, uh, We've been watching the build of this offensive line for the last couple years, and it feels like finally the fruits of that labor are starting to manifest.

Kind of reminds me, Matt, of my garden out back every summer. Okay.

Put a lot of work in in May and June, and then August rolls around, and you've got tomatoes and cucumbers and lettuce and peppers and stuff everywhere.

You've got to be patient. It's not instant gratification.

Maybe early in the season the deer get to it.

There's deer from New England knocking back a peg, but— eventually you get the fruits of that labor, you get the harvest, and if that's the start of the harvest, we could be in for a lot of fun Sundays and Thursdays and Mondays here throughout the fall.

I will say the Browns D-line really beat up on the Panthers versus back to being a stud. Mason Graham's playing really well. Just because Garrett's not there does not mean this is an easy matchup.

Another great test for the Steelers' offensive line here on a short week, Matt. Your defense has to travel in this league. Your offensive line and your run game have to travel in this league.

They usually do. There's an old antage, you know, great O-lines travel.

Great defenses and great O-lines travel because the weather and the factors and the heat or the snow or the cold don't matter for those guys.

It just raises the floor.

It just raises the floor, and hopefully that's a high tide that's going to raise the floor for the Steelers' offense once again Thursday night in Atlanta.

Cleveland. Got to get to our first break. Plenty more we need to get to.

I need to talk to Matt when we come back on the other side about a Pittsburgh Steeler on defense that I think is leveling up right in front of our own very eyes. We'll do that when we return. Just getting started here on this Tuesday. Euler and Williamson. It's The Drive.

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So much to do, so little time. It's the Gene Wilder portion of the program here as Matt and I are– Continuing to cross all the T's and dot all the I's from Sunday's win and beginning to preview the Cleveland Browns on Thursday. And always the challenge here in a short week, Matt, certainly. Wanted to run this by you, though, that I mentioned at the end of the last segment.

I guess it's kind of the final portion of the Tuesday Rewind in some ways. We talked, I can't remember if it was last week or the week before, about how it felt like Keanu Benton was leveling up on this defense.

Absolutely. Can we have the same conversation about Derek Harmon now?

I think slightly. I had mentioned that he's far exceeding my expectations, which were kind of low, as a pass rusher. I think he's getting off the ball a lot quicker. Like, if you watch y'all 22 of them last year, he was never the first guy off the ball. And not that he's slow. By the way, check out my Twitter feed, what I put out about Cam Hayward today. It's unbelievable.

It's one of the most shocking things I've seen. They got it from NextGenStats. But anyway, I think Benton is... taking it, leveling up a little bit in year two or not Ben Harmon. I think he's getting off the ball better. I think he's got more of a pass rush repertoire. You know, like I know he had a lot of pressures at Oregon. I that's a different world.

Sure.

I'm sorry. I mean, it's just a different world.

A lot.

I know he had four and a half sacks, I think last year, but most of them were late in the down. It wasn't just whipping a guard, you know, like he did in this game. It was TJ flushes them out and Harmon hustles as he always does drags a guy down. But no matter what, he's big and he's strong with real long arms, and that makes him hard to play against in both phases. And he plays hard, and he will always have a fair amount of value just for that. There are times he'll take guards and just bully them in the pass game as well as the run game, and he plays big. There are big, strong guys in the league that don't play big. You feel his presence out there.

Yes, he's a big body.

Yeah.

And you're right.

I think we had always known his acumen in the run game.

Yeah, yeah.

But could he kind of develop some of those pass rushing tools?

It's getting better. It's getting better.

Yeah, yeah.

And man, if he continues that, he could really be leveling up. I think Keanu Benton is on that track.

Benton as a pass rusher, I think, is stepping up.

He really is.

The results haven't really been bad. glowing in terms of five sacks or anything but he influences a lot.

He sure does he's been winning a lot of matchups and uh and i think for both of those guys it's eventually that dam's gonna break and they're gonna have one of those games where they have three and a half sacks between the pair of them or something like.

That now i've been digging into matt stats heavy they're gonna be done tonight um but i sent you a kind.

Of a show of it a while i got pulled up here but.

There's more that since then that i was digging into watson Since he's been a starter, or I think since he's been with the Browns, I'm not sure if this is exactly right, but it's really close. He averages four sacks a game that he takes.

Wow.

I mean, he's elusive, but he holds the ball. He's slow to process, doesn't feel it particularly well. His rebuilt offensive line is okay. Fanu, who we liked out of Utah, looks like he's going to be a really good player, but he's a rookie. He's not particularly strong. But there are lines in better spot than I thought it would be, but it's not great. But he's very sackable, except for his running skills. But he takes a lot of sacks.

Interesting. Interesting.

Burrow sacked just once last week, but it was a pretty big one.

It was.

Pretty big moment.

And hopefully that's something that can continue. Let's have this same conversation.

Oh, I teased it. I was going to read that Cam Hayward thing. Oh, yeah, I got it for you.

I got it for you right here, too. Pretty crazy at his age.

Cam Hayward recorded the quickest time to pressure among interior defensive linemen with five or more pressures this season. 2.5 seconds, his quickest mark since 2018. Hayward also has the fastest get-off time among interior defensive linemen with 50.

Or more pass rushes.

That's what blew me away.

0.85 seconds, which is 0.13 seconds quicker than the next fastest season since 2018.

That's impressive.

I mean, at his age, he's still getting off.

It'd be one thing if he was doing this at 28 years old.

Right, right, right. I mean, like, all the great defensive time. And you won't find that in Matt's stats. Like, get-off time. I mostly believe you, but I don't 100%. But he's, at a minimum, is getting off the ball as quick as any defensive tackle in the league. That's insane.

It's insane.

It really is.

He's Benjamin Button, man. I'm telling you. He just gets better as he gets older. It's wild.

Yeah.

I mean, why not bring him back next year, too? You know what I mean?

I think that door's wide open.

Yeah.

Wide open.

Matt, I want to live in a Pittsburgh where Cam Hayward and Sidney Crosby are just perpetually just doing their thing at a high level forever. Speaking of this conversation and defensive linemen leveling up, I think I would be remiss, or at least maybe a touch of Homer, and maybe just not even doing my job fully, if we didn't spin the block and talk about Mason Graham on the Browns defensive line.

Yeah.

Another guy that you.

And I were not very fond of, and he was very, I think, mediocre last year. Yes. but he has been really strong in their first three games. The second year guy who was what the fifth overall pick.

I think so.

Four or five out of, out of Michigan two years.

Five.

Yes.

So he is a sack week one. He is sack week two. And he had two yesterday or a couple of days ago, four on the four and three games for defensive tackles. Pretty darn good. And it makes it a handful of tackles for loss as well. So he's been very productive. I think their defensive coordinators starting to figure things out a little bit in, taking some good things that Schwartz did, and they play pretty fast and aggressive up front. They're not really slow playing anything, and he fits that. So I still have some doubts, don't get me wrong, but it's going to be hard for me to be knocked off my preconceived thoughts on the guy.

Hey, that's your scouting background.

Yeah, right. I mean, he might just be having a moment. But he's been very disruptive. What I didn't like about him as a prospect, he's definitely small-ish. Kind of joked he kind of looks like a long snapper. He does.

He's just not a big body.

No.

I mean, I was shocked if he was. I can't believe he'd be like a five-star at Michigan or whatever.

We said at the Combine, when all those defensive linemen walk in and go up to the podium, he did not look like the rest of them. And I don't mean that in like the Darnell Washington sense. I mean that in the opposite way.

Exactly. In terms of. Who would you pick if you didn't know anything about any of them? He's your last pick in that whole class.

He's never been considered– well, maybe when he was in high school because I'm sure he was a– but he's never been the proverbial first guy off the bus body type that we talk about.

So, yeah, he doesn't really look the part. And, again, we're not selling genes here.

But he's also– Levi's a wrangler.

Also not a great athlete. I mean, he didn't test great. There's hardly any defensive tackles that are small and not good testers that went on to have good careers. I mean, it's a position where you, the Harman conversation, you need to be big and strong, you know what I mean? Or win with extreme athleticism, like a Geno Atkins or something like that, if you're undersized.

You have to have something that you do at a valedictorian level.

Yeah.

Like the jack of all trades, master of none. There's exceptions.

Sure.

But typically don't have the best NFL careers.

No, I mean, they're nice journeymen, you know, fifth guy type of dude. And I thought he projected best the passing downs because he could get moved. And he played next to Grant in Michigan, who's a big space-eating nose tackle, and that was helpful. But he made a ton of plays at Michigan. He's making a lot of plays for the Browns. He is good at the game. You know, he understands hand placement and leverage, and, you know, he understands the technique.

Of it all.

I'm not ready to annoy him. This isn't a Mims conversation where I'm like, that dude's awesome.

That dude's good, yeah.

Right. The pain in the butt in the group, though, is Jared Vers. By no means is he a throw-in in the Garrett trade. And he's never going to be a super high sack producing guy. But in terms of edge players fun to watch, he's probably the most violent one in the league.

Really?

He is so nasty and runs through you and never stops. And a lot of bull rush stuff, a lot of disruption in the run game. Like if a pulling guard's coming to him, he blows them apart.

Is he going to move around on the defensive line at all or do you expect him to be pretty static?

He mostly went against the left tackle last week. I think they will move him. I may watch more of that tonight. But he's going to give the Steelers tackle some problems. Be a good test. Just because his style of play is nasty.

He's got a touch of the a-hole in him too? A lot of it.

A lot. Excessive.

I love it. I'm getting fired up for Thursday night already.

Matt, via the desk of intrepid producer slash statistician Tyler V.

Yes, yes.

Mr.

TV.

Mason Graham, as you mentioned, he's recorded a sack, at least one sack, in each of the team's first three games. He's only the second player in Cleveland Browns franchise history to do that, to start a season. The only other one, Miles Garrett in 2019.

I don't know who else it could possibly be.

You're right, you're right.

He has leveled up, and I tell you what, the Cleveland Browns as a whole have leveled up. The offense is better. The defense maybe isn't the proverbial top three unit that it was for a little while, but they're still really good, and they still have playmakers at every level.

I mean, Schlesinger's, to me, the second-best linebacker in the league behind Warner. He's a tremendous player, just one rookie of the year. Quentin Williams, Quentin Williams' brother, they got from the Jets, and he had a really down year with the Jets, but he is back to flying around. He's a really, really active player. Their safeties are good. Uh, Ward is a follow you 30 million plus corner, you know, like Gonzalez, but a much different style, smaller, you know, veteran type, but he's still a really good player. And their front doesn't have a lot of big names other than the two we mentioned, but they're effective. You know, they really are. Um, their defensive coordinator. I just read this last night. I never would have put two and

two together. I don't know his history particularly well. He just took over for Schwartz, but he was on staff with the jets with Aaron Rogers.

Okay.

So he's going to be very familiar just two years ago.

What makes Aaron tick.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So they overlapped.

Something to keep an eye on there, absolutely.

Let's table this for now, Matt, but I want to dig into some more of your early Matt stats when we return because we don't talk about them today. We ain't talking about them this week. So we still have plenty of ground to cover. We'll do some Matt stats to close down our No. 1 when we return. Euler, Williamson, it's The Drive, Steelers Nation Radio. on the Steelers Audio Network.

And now a word from our sponsor, Bud Light. There's nothing better than the clean, crisp... There's nothing better than the clean, crisp... Uh, what if we just got out of here and grabbed some Bud Lights? But man, we're on air for four more hours.

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

Steelers Nation Radio.

All right, Matt, down the homestretch here of the first hour of the show today. I think we kind of piggyback on some Matt's stat stuff here. I think we've talked a lot, rightfully so, over the course of this week about the Steelers' offense, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Big step forward, ton of attention on the offensive line. Really.

It's the story of the week.

Really impressive performance from Jalen Warren.

Yeah.

But the defense is doing some good stuff as well.

It is.

Now, after giving up just 13 points in week one and 13 points in week two, as a defense, hey, they gave up 27 on Sunday. But you also look at the level of competition that they were facing.

I thought Burrow played great.

I thought he did, too.

Yeah.

I thought he did, too. That 1-34 statistic that we read yesterday is just insane.

It's pretty nuts.

But different conversation for a different day. Hey, if.

As we've talked about, while they do have their flaws and they're not perfect, we would listen to phone calls if Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert became available on the open market.

But a different conversation for a different day.

Real quick, I didn't get into this enough yesterday, but it's pretty clear after watching the game and studying the game more that the Steelers' strategy was pretty obvious on defense was don't let anybody get behind you.

Quarters, defense.

Tackle the catch.

These guys are really good after the catch. Burrow, if he's going to keep getting it out of his hands quick, great but even him at his age a lot of young quarterbacks just won't take layup layup lay I mean that was the beauty of Tom Brady we've talked about death by a thousand paper cuts that eventually he's gonna force it and maybe throw you one or you're gonna tip one and you know cause a mistake that didn't really happen to a huge degree until the last snap or whatever but the strategy made a lot of sense and they played zone like 85 percent of the snaps heavy It would have been nice to have more man capabilities, especially like red zone or tell you a certain situations.

But I read this today too. This was off next gen stats that while the Steelers have not played much man this year, the results haven't been good either. You know, their man snaps.

Are their best man to man corner.

It's yeah. No question. No question. And I wonder, this isn't something we've talked about a lot too is, is Dalen Everett now a.

Starter or is he played well on Sunday?

I mean, he, Kind of moved Samuel to the bench. I think Samuel had a rough day. I don't think he's a bad player.

Sure.

It wasn't the best matchup situation for him either.

Some people told me too, right, that I think Everett's size kind of had something to do with that. But I also think just deep down they're really high on Everett, which could make a Porter trade a little more feasible, especially if it's in the offseason.

No, it makes a ton of sense, and he played well.

Yeah, he's promising.

He's promising, and we'll see what that role looks like for him on Thursday. Two things here that I wanted to pull to run past you, Matt. The first, for some love for the Steelers' defense, the Steelers' defense has contacted the ball carrier behind the line of scrimmage on over 52% of runs this season.

That's the third highest rate in the NFL.

When I read the 52%, I'm like, that has to be a distant first. I mean, you would think more than half.

The time, if you're stopping the ball carrier behind the line of scrimmage, you're doing your job.

Yeah.

So, I mean, they're really beating blocks right away. They're getting, you know, run blitzes. Ramsey, I think has a lot to do with that too. He plays behind the line of scrimmage a lot for a defensive back. Really promising.

Yeah.

Now, I think that led to what we saw was some difficult third down situations for Cincinnati to convert on. They did end up going for it twice on fourth down and converted.

Both of those. But I thought overall.

A much better job from the Steelers' defense of winning on first down, making life a little more difficult and a little more predictable for the opposition offense, certainly than they did in New England.

Yeah, I think that'll be important this week too. I mean, the Browns have– they look better. But their run game is still a real problem. They don't have a ton to hang their hat on. I mean, I think if you can make Watson in uncomfortable situations, probably won't go great for him either. I mean, him and Burrow just from the neck up are a lot different.

You know, this just kind of hit me, but I said this a lot to you on Friday going into that Cincinnati game.

How it was a big narrative game.

Yeah.

You win and you're above 500 and you're first place in the AFC North and life is good and everything's still in front of you.

You lose, and oh my goodness, the sky is falling.

The division looks so different.

It was a real narrative game in that regard. There wasn't going to be an outcome where everyone was like, okay, it was either going to be, hallelujah, Super Bowl Steelers, or it was going to be, my goodness, start firing up your mock drafts. I think it's kind of like that for Cleveland this week.

Maybe.

Not to the same extent of Doom, but it's a real narrative for the Browns. They win, they're 3-1, they're first place in the division.

Yeah, I wonder if their fan base believes that they're good or not.

And if they lose, I don't think they're going to be suddenly firing up their mock drafts. And they would probably say we still have a lot of young pieces that are growing together and everything, and we've still got some opportunity in front of us. But it's a real narrative game for Cleveland on Thursday as well.

Yeah, I think you're right.

The Todd Monken air is off to a flying start.

Yeah.

Do we have a coach?

Sean Watson can still play.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I think the smart way to look at their season through the Browns' eyes is– Man, it looks like we've strung a couple good draft classes together. Or Fano and Concepcion and Boston. Are all those dudes real? O-Line we invested in a little bit as well. Are those guys keepers? And can we compete with the Panthers, Steelers, Bucs?

Those are going to be three games in a row. And win two out of three. Maybe three out of.

Two division winners from last year.

You're not beating necessarily the Bills and Rams or Seahawks necessarily, but Can you hang with those teams and get wins against teams like Carolina and Tampa that have some things going wrong for them? And in the end, do you have an awesome nest?

Yeah.

Because I think there's a chance they have a really good nest.

I do too, unfortunately.

And after their first week of the season, you and I were like, there's no chance we see Deshaun Watson that Thursday.

At the beginning of October. No, I think he's going to be here for a while, yeah.

But he has looked much better, obviously, in their last two games. So a lot going their way and a lot on the Steelers' plate. Here in about 48 hours.

We might learn more about the Browns than the Steelers.

We might.

You know, like, boy, they can kind of hang with anybody. You know?

Do you see they're wearing their all-brown uniforms? Brown helmet. Brown jersey. Brown pants.

So I had to wear a lot of that stuff.

If it's brown, flush it down.

Yeah.

All my stuff went on eBay after I got fired. But, I mean, I used to. They'd get mad at you if you're like, like, these shoes I've been wearing too long. They got some stains on them and stuff. Like, they would be so mad at me.

Put some cleaner clothes on.

Oh, yeah, yeah. They'd get so mad at you if you, like, wore your shoes too long or whatever. Like, there's a million pair. Take as many as you want. Like, don't walk in WVU with any scuff on your shoes or whatever.

Right, right.

Which, okay, I'm a first-year scout. I didn't know those things. But the shoes were so... There were these bright orange, you know, like, brutal. So bad. I mowed the lawn in them for a couple years afterwards. It's so bad. Yeah, they were rough.

They're going to look like Mr.

Hangy, Christmas Pooh.

On Thursday night.

I'm just saying. Not my aesthetic choice, okay? Last one to run by you, Matt. Peyton Wilson and Patrick Queen rank third and fourth respectively.

Yeah, this shocked me.

Among off-ball linebackers with five or more targets in expected points added per target this season.

EPA.

EPA, yeah.

Steelers off-ball linebacker duo. uh also ranks third and fourth wilson and queen in completion percentage over expected allowed so they're playing the pass well so in layman's terms that means that the steelers linebackers are doing a good job in.

Coverage yeah i wouldn't have guessed that i didn't think they were bad but i didn't think boy they're really leveling up or but i think that adds up you know i mean middle of the field has not been as vulnerable.

As in recent years i thought peyton wilson made.

A And I think both of them fly around the field more than they did a year ago, too, just in terms of freedom.

They've got much more freedom in terms of the defensive line in front of them being improved.

I don't think they have as much on their plate in terms of communication and play calls. I think they're just going and hunting the ball and being fast.

Yes.

And they vary their coverages, their zone stuff a lot more.

And I think that's where those two excel.

Yeah, that's how they have to play.

Is flying around all over the place.

You've mentioned this a few times with Patrick Queen, like, Hey, I know at the end of the seasons, his missed tackle numbers sometimes are higher than you would want to be. But a lot of that is because he does such a good job of getting to the ball first. He gets to the ball at times when he probably shouldn't.

I remember that being a Shazier thing.

That was a Ryan Shazier thing, too. And when you are freed up without those offensive linemen in your lap, that allows you to play much faster.

I mean, just speed at linebacker is crucial.

It absolutely is.

Yeah.

Absolutely is.

I don't think they have the fastest secondary out there.

No, they don't. I mean, and part of it's just, you know, Ramsey and Dean and those guys.

Yeah, they're bigger than they are fast.

They're bigger than they are fast.

And they're not young.

And they're not 24 years old anymore.

And their safeties are more strong safety types.

Yes.

Speaking of safeties, no one has brought up Deshaun Elliott's name, but this is about to be week four. I think he's eligible to come off IR after... On Friday. And I just haven't heard, is he ready or not? Because I never got the impression it was a really bad injury. Could we be getting Elliott back for Indy? Does that sound right?

So he has to miss the first four games, but then yes.

I thought it was a real short-term thing when they put it on.

That's kind of what they made. They made it seem like they were about as... minimally concerned as.

You could be for having a guy on IR and going to miss the first four games of the season.

Like he was kind of week to week and they just decided we'll just shut him down for four.

And I would think especially, not that this would directly affect him because it's not like he's playing Thursday night, but you've got a longer week to prepare.

And get him back integrated too.

Yeah, I assume he'll just step right in and be the starter.

It's a good call by you.

Honestly, I hadn't even forgotten about him.

I was sort of out of sight, out of mind. But yes, hopefully, you know what? That's great. Take care of business Thursday.

Get to three and one. Get to Sean Elliott back.

Mm-hmm.

Long week is nice.

Long week to.

Prepare for a Colts team that has certainly had their own struggles, and you'll get them at home as well.

I'm sure we'll say this over and over, and you've said it even in week one, just win any way you possibly can. I mean, a Thursday road game to me, no matter when and where it is, they're ugly football games. And if you can get out of this thing with a W, I don't care how it happens.

I don't care if it's 3-2.

Yeah, right.

As long as you've got more points on the scoreboard as them after 60 minutes.

Hour in the books, another hour to go in hour number two.

10 pounds of potatoes and an 8-pound sack.

We're going to do power rankings, Matt.

Okay.

And then around campus.

Ooh.

And then our picks for Thursday night.

Okay.

So we will be fast and rapid and plenty of ground to cover when we return. Euler Ann Williamson halfway home on this Tuesday.

It's The Drive. Steelers Nation Radio on the Steelers Audio Network.

There's nothing better than the clean, crisp... Uh, what if we just got out of here and grabbed some Bud Lights? But man, we're on air for four more hours.

I'll figure it out.

Sounds good to me. Anything for the clean, crisp taste of Bud Light.

Stock up now. Bud Light.

Louis, Missouri.

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

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

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Bruh.

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