November 4, 2025 • 17 mins
Tom and Matt break down the Steelers upcoming matchup with the Chargers.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We got some work to do. This is the Advanced.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Scout with Tom Opperman and Mac Williamson.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
Steelers pulled the upset against the Colts last Sunday to get.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Back in the win column.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
They are now five and three, and Matt, I don't
think either of us saw that coming. Both of us
picked the Colts on our pregame show on DVE. But
sometimes the NFL just has a weird way of kind
of zigging when everybody thinks it's gonna zag. It did
that a lot last week. Actually, steel was kind of a.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Part of that.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
They were a division leader and they were at home,
so I don't want to make it seem like they
were the Panthers beating the Packers, right, but it was
still something that no one really saw coming. It looked
like it was a big mismatch in favor of the Colts,
and the Steelers defense really flipped that script.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
Yeah, and you mentioned the pregame show. This was the
first game I picked against this, Yeah, right, so I
was happy to be wrong.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
They played very very well on defense, and.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
I want to get too before in is a game
recap show, But they played so well on defense that
they I thought it was one of their worst offensive games,
and nobody seemed to notice or care because the defense
made so many plays that we kind of thought they
were capable of encouraging.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
We kind of like spent the past two weeks leading
into that game saying like, oh, this isn't the Steelers
we expected this year. The defense was supposed to be
carrying the load and the offense was just gonna have
to do just enough. What's going on? Oh well, it
played out exactly. Just get the ball in the end
zone after we get all these damn turnovers for you. Well,
now you try to carry that momentum into the game
(01:34):
against the Chargers on Sunday night football, going out on
the West Coast to take on LA and the Chargers
are a weird team, Matt and I don't want to
just kind of pinpoint their success and their failures on
one guy, but the splits when Joe Alt is in
and Joe Alt is out five and one with him,
one and two without him, and they just look like
(01:55):
a miserable football team without him too.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Those two losses are very very bad. He's out for
the year.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Now, great time.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
I think this is a good spot to lead off
our advance scout of them, because I think it's one
of the bigger factors in this game now, is that
Alt is down.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
It might be the biggest factor. I'm glad you recognize
it because you nailed it. I mean, tackles aren't something
you can go get. They did trade for Trevor Penney today,
a red line who's frankly been as big a first
round bust as any tackle in recent memory. That's how
desperate they are, right, But this was supposed to be
their best position other than quarterback with Slater Alt. I mean,
this is what the Steelers won in Faltanu and Jones,
(02:31):
you know, early first round picks and bad luck. I mean,
and you're right, Alt is so good and you hate
to see it. But what high Smith her big love
love to see.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yeah, we'll get more into Alt and that Chargers offense
in a second. Here's the serious history between these two teams.
The Chargers lead the series in playoff matchups two to one,
but Pittsburgh owns the overall series lead with a commanding
twenty five to eleven lead. Series began in nineteen seven,
and the Steelers won the first six matchup. San Diego
(03:03):
then won the next three but the Chargers have losing
streaks of six, five and five against Pittsburgh over the
fifty years. These teams have been squaring off. After a
large stretch in which the Chargers won just five of
twenty one games between eighty three and two thousand and nine,
These two teams have gone back and forth over the
past seven meetings, with the Steelers winning the most recent
matchup in twenty twenty four, and Mike Tomlin is six
and three against the Chargers both the San Diego and
(03:27):
La versions. Jim Harbaugh took over this team a couple
of years ago. They have met once since then. Steelers
got the better of them in that matchup, like you
mentioned in twenty twenty four, So Tomlin up one to zero.
As far as his Harbaugh Chargers matchup is concerned, we
all know what that playoff. One of those playoff games
is two in nineteen ninety four, one one of the
(03:49):
toughest ones in Steelers history.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Thousand.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
So I'm a lot older than you, but I grew
up a diehard Steeler fan. Imagine right, but when you're
born in nineteen seventy three, the early eighties Chargers, I
actually had a Dan Fouts Jersey.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
He's the Dan right, I mean they were way ahead
of their time.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
They threw the ball in an ungodly amount, They played
terrible defense. I mean, they were the Bengals at the
time they were as a kid, they were the most
fun team ever.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Yeah, and then of course Stan Humphreys Chargers rolling and
break Matt Williamson's heart in nineteen ninety four about to
break through and get to the Super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
That's right, each had to wait another year.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Point team get.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
No doubt charge and that was going to be Steelers
Niners two in that Super Bowl, which I mean, God,
you want to talk about epic.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
I'm not sure it would have went well for the.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Niners team ninety four nine ers, right, it didn't go
well for the San Diego Stan Humphrey Chargers. All right,
let's talk about the Chargers defense first, Matt, and let's start.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
By talking hard to wrap my head around a little,
but let's start.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
By talking about how successful the Steelers offense has been,
even though it was their kind of maybe worst performance
last week.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Yeah, They've scored twenty plus points in each of their
last six games, and only six offenses are producing points
per drive than the Steelers two point five four.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Those are really good.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
I bet some of our listeners are like, wait, I
better hit rewind on this thing.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
It's true that, right, Dare I say great?
Speaker 1 (05:08):
I mean we talked.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
About this a thousand times in the offseason, and in
previous years, the splits of like when the Steelers would
get to twenty points or allowed twenty points used to
be a monumental event.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
And now they scored twenty every.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Week every week.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Yeah, and that's kind of the Aaron Rodgers effect. And
that's what you're going to have to get him for. Hey,
we've recognized that if we get to twenty, we win
almost every time. Got to get a quarterback that can
consistently do that, and he is consistently doing that. The Chargers, though,
could make things a little harder on Aaron Rodgers. They
gave up just one hundred and eighteen yards through the
air last week, and they average two point nine sacks
(05:44):
per game, which is tied for ninth best in the league. Like,
when you look at their defense, it's a Dafe Oway
who they just traded for a couple of weeks ago.
It's Khalil Mack, Like it's.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
The passage guys are pretty good.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
It's like the Steelers. Honestly, that's their identity.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
I've been hesitating to say his name because I kill it.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
But to the top of the lope also is a
really good edge pretty good so so. But I do
think we mentioned all that tackles versus edge guys is
really important on both sides of the ball here. Other
than Derwin James, though, they don't have a lot of
players where a lot of our listeners are like, oh,
he's really good. But they're well coached and they're tough
and they're fundamentally sound on defense.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Yeah, I mean, Khalil Mack is a former Defensive Player
of the Year, so people know who he is. But
he's not the same Khalil Mack.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
He's not Defensive Player of the Year.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
His superpowers aren't at their height.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
You're right about Derwin James, though, he's like the name
that you got to look out for because he is
a superstar and he's finally been able to stay healthy
and that was such the thing that he looked like
his career might be bucked because of injury, and that
was gonna suck because he was such a talent.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
But yeah, not the case so far.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Big fan, and there's obvious Harbob brother correlations here, Like
a lot of the coaches have worked for both guys.
Derwin James is kind of their Hamilton. He'll do all
sorts of things. He'll rush the pass or play the slot,
we'll play. I mean, he's their jack of all trades.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Now, the Chargers allow four point nine yards per carry,
only five defenses are better than that. They also allow
an eight point zero percent explosive run rate, better than
only three defenses. So I think that's the way is
to just run the ball on. It's a good strategy
when you're on the West coast on the road, I
mean it travels well. Yeah, Like I think they have
a great offense, the Chargers, so you want to kind
(07:20):
of keep the ball out of their hands as much
as you can away from Herbert.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Now, unfortunately the Steelers go for it.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Only the Bengals Titans are producing fewer rushing yards per
game than the Steelers eighty seven point three. So it's
been a struggle for the Steelers. Looked like it was
turning a corner there, but boy, that Colts game, they
hit a brick wall.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
They did, and the Steelers are aren't producing a lot
of explosives either.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Their yards per.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
Carry isn't great either for the season, but I think
the recent sniff test is better than that.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
For the Steeler run game, I don't think it's a
bottom three run game.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
I don't think so either.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
I again, you see the one the running game against
the Bengals and the first half against the Packers, and
you just see that Jalen Warren had a lot of
juice since returning from injury. I think that you should
make it a goal like you did on the defensive
side of the ball. To Hey, we were kind of
embarrassed against Green Bay. We got to stop Jonathan Taylor.
We got to really hone in on stopping the run
(08:18):
this week. Offensively, we have to really hone in and
take it personally that we averaged under two yards per carry.
This is a defense that needs to be attacked on
the ground. We have to make that our goal.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
I think that's a great way looking at it, because
the first half against Green Bay was really really good,
great and then the last six quarters where to go.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
I know it was tough to see them just completely
turn away from that, especially when them having a lead
in the second half.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
It honestly didn't make sense.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
No, but that's the path against this Chargers defense, especially
when they rest the passers so well and you got
Derwin James on the back end. Now, the Charger offense
they hold onto.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
The ball a ton like second league.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Yeah, I think the second in the league. They had
like thirty four minutes last week. They have been a
revolving door as far as running backs are concerned, Yes,
but it doesn't matter because they're still committed to the
run and they're still successful at running the football.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
They are now.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
I think there's also a slight misconception there that people
watched Harbaugh all through his career, especially at Michigan, always
going to do is run the.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Ball, especially at Michigan.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Yeah, I mean six yards in a cloud at Dust
to all that. But he took the Chargers job when
he could have had any open job because they've justin Herbert.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
That was the quarterback, that was the job.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
And amongst quarterbacks with one hundred plus dropbacks, only Matthew
Stafford and Daniel Jones are producing more passing yards per
game than Herbert's two hundred and sixty five point six. Look,
the Steelers give up yards even when the defense is
playing great, and I know some of it was in
garbage time. Gave up yards through the air to Daniel
Jones and that colts offense. So that's never going to
go away. And when you don't get the turnovers, it
(09:52):
can really expose you and you look bad. But hopefully
you get the splash, and that's the more consistent thing
in what we saw the previous three weeks is the
dry spell. That won't happen again this year. But Herbert's
another one that can just rip you apart and he
will get his yardage against you if you don't get splashed,
if you don't turn him over, which he will turn
the ball over. Yeah, and if you don't pray on that,
you're gonna look at a game where he could have
(10:13):
four hundred yards against you.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
That's not far fetched.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
I think he's a total superstar.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
I mean, my opinion of the quarterback hierarchy in the
league has not changed much where I know he's hurt
and there has been injuries, but Burrow, Lamar Mahomes Allen
are still the tier one for me. I'm not going
to take Burrow out of that, but my number five
guy is Herbert for sure, and he was playing like
an MVP for much of the year when he had Joel.
(10:40):
He's not playing any worse, He's just always under pressure.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Yeah, I mean, and Chargers and see.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Rushes a passer so bad and he was under pressure
every step after all got hurt.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
And I'm sure the organization is looking things through this lens,
and I mean they have Harbo. There's a lot of
stability you're trying to tap into there with him. Hopefully
the fan base out there too can kind of look
at it in this light like this year.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Just might be a bogie year when it comes to
our tackles.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
But moving forward, Slater all Herbert, I mean, the formula
is there to be very successful, and you're starting to
see the receivers come along, like Quentin Johnson, who's playing
really well this year.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
They starting to catchers and a first round running back
that is not in the mix that he's off really
good next year.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Yeah, no doubt. I mean, I think Nausey. He's on
a one year deal, so you don't know about that.
But I liked the compliment of him and Omario on
Hampton out there, like I thought that was going to
be really good for them.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Keenann, keenan al and Maconkey. Yeah, those those guys are worrisome.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
And you bring up gats and because the Steelers are
struggling against tight ends until Busters, until Tyler Warren comes
to town, and then I guess the Steelers are great
against tight ends all of a sudden, leading receivers, I guess,
but hopefully they tap into that against some other rookie.
In gatst and four straight games with sixty five plus
receiving yards, and he leads all tight ends and receiving
yards per game with sixty four point seven. His route
(11:57):
share in each of those games, uh seventy seven percent,
nine ninety one percent, and.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Eighty five percent.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
I mean he's been the feature of the offense in
the previous couple games exactly.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
I mean the first couple of weeks he was kind
of an afterthought. He moved tight end not much with
locker half receiver half to write tight end.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
He's a big wide receiver.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
He's a big wide.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
Receiver, right right, I mean, and he's he's playing so
well when he's such a matchup problem that like Keenan,
Allen's having a hard time getting snaps and you know
guys like that.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
You only put so many guys on the field.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
You know, now if you Dahala has been taking over
the workload since the running backs have been out.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
He's been okay, I mean he.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Yeah, uh semi got benched at the end of the
last game though.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
They had one hundred and thirty one rushing yards last week,
but Herbert led the way. Herbert had fifty seven yards runner.
That's something that you have got to worry about.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
And Matt, I.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Remember they played yeah yeah here in.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
My mind, buddy, not the last time they played, because
remember Herbert tried to start that game at Pittsburgh. Oh yeah,
and then he had to come out and was it
Chas Ding I don't know who went in the game.
Wasn't Chased Daniel, but they had to bring him back
up into that game. But you're right, it was the
last they went out to LA. They played the Chargers
on the road. He had ninety rushing yards on nine attempts.
He also had over four hundred passing yards in that
game too.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Just seemed like part he'd get twelve yard slide pop up.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
I remember it over and over and over.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
He's a really good app.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
And he's still doing that, and you have to worry
about that. I remember I can still see this in
my mind's eye Week one this year in Brazil against
the Chiefs. Game on the line, he ices it by
running the football, has a nice little slide in the
first down signal like it's a really athletic strong play. Yeah,
you gotta worry about him. Got to keep lids on
him in the running game as well. Uh. The Steelers
(13:34):
third heaviest blitzing team defense in the NFL, but they
blitzed on just twenty four percent of their dropbacks last week.
That was their lowest percentage of the year. And that's
coming off of a game where they blitzed at their
highest rate against Green Bay got torched against the blitz
so drastic reducing it.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Now, two things I want.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
To talk to you about, Matt before we get onto
our matchups here and wrap up. You saw a little
bit more of a four to three look from the Steelers.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Now.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
I don't know if that's something that just now becomes
the thing. I think that might be more matchup specific,
but I like tapping into it. I think you should
tap into it again this week.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
Yeah, and my thoughts on it were we're gonna I
think it starts with even the back end they got.
They got away from playing so much single high. They
played a lot more too high, middle of the field open,
and I think that they wanted a big body in
the front seven Harrison, who hasn't been available, who doesn't
run great, but he'll.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Thump and he'll hit the you know, right to deal with.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
The tailor factor if we're going to play, you know,
basically a cover two shell.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
So we'll see. But I'm glad that they added that wrinkle.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Well, that's the other thing I was going to bring up,
is Ramsey playing safety?
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Yes, and you actually had it here.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Ramsey played safety on eighty three point six percent of
his snaps, the first time in his career he has
played safety more than thirty percent of his snaps in
a single game. So that drastically took a jump up
and he was awesome. And I think, you know, Dougger
and Ramsey just that's your tandem for the Charger game too.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
By the sound of Van, we record this on Tuesdays.
Coach Tomlin has press conference today basically said he's a
full time safety until further notice, which I totally understand.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Yeah, and I bet it's practice plays out this week.
Dougger and Ramsey will be your guys.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
I think so, yeah, And I'm still kind of intrigued
what Peppers could do.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
They just need help anyway, get players healthy and have depth.
It's nice that Ramsey and Dugger played every single snap
save one between the two of them, but you can't
rely on that.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
You can't rely on it, and who knows going forward
they could have a corner injury and then Ramsey's back
a corner and write you know, Dougger and Elliott are
your safeties or Peppers or who knows.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
But for now, key matchups in this game between the
Steelers and the Chargers, it's all about the edge rushers
versus the tackles on both sides of the ball. When
it comes to these Steelers, now you have to pray
on some backups. The Penning's gonna play, don't you think.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
I don't know, he's played guard in his career.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Who else could you throw out there? I mean, I
don't know. They're desperate, it's really bad. Yeah, so feast
on that.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
You have to win over and over and over with that.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Yeah, it goes from that's the greatest strength for the
Chargers maybe to now their biggest weakness without questions.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Is someone that loves team building. I hate whenever you
have such a blow up in your face like this
couldn't go more wrong?
Speaker 2 (16:10):
You know, an alt Slater's good, but alt.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Is, Yeah. I think they would be my pair of
tackles that I would.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Pay either one your surviving this season. You can't have
both came out though you can't. And then it comes
to the Steelers offensive tackles Troy Fontano and Roger Jones
taking out the Chargers edge rushers Khalil Mack too.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Is that right? Did I get? I sped through it
a little bit?
Speaker 1 (16:32):
And then a deaf doing as long as I do
things like this, and then a deaf a.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
O way which should be hard to pronounce, but it's
easy because of that one that you had to say
on the front.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
End strong the brotherly trade they made, I mean ways
good for them.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Let's investigate that a little collusion going on like that, Hey,
you needs.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
The fantasy trade. That's like at midnight that your two
buddies make, Like, what do you guys do it here? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Steelers and Chargers Sunday Night Football on the national stage
out on the West Coast this week eight twenty kickoff.
Matt Williamson and myself get things started on DVE.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
At four point thirty. Can't wait for that.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Thanks for giving us a listen here, and we'll talk
to you next week on the next edition of the
Advanced Scout.
We got some work to do. This is the Advanced.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Scout with Tom Opperman and Mac Williamson.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
Steelers pulled the upset against the Colts last Sunday to get.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Back in the win column.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
They are now five and three, and Matt, I don't
think either of us saw that coming. Both of us
picked the Colts on our pregame show on DVE. But
sometimes the NFL just has a weird way of kind
of zigging when everybody thinks it's gonna zag. It did
that a lot last week. Actually, steel was kind of a.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Part of that.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
They were a division leader and they were at home,
so I don't want to make it seem like they
were the Panthers beating the Packers, right, but it was
still something that no one really saw coming. It looked
like it was a big mismatch in favor of the Colts,
and the Steelers defense really flipped that script.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
Yeah, and you mentioned the pregame show. This was the
first game I picked against this, Yeah, right, so I
was happy to be wrong.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
They played very very well on defense, and.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
I want to get too before in is a game
recap show, But they played so well on defense that
they I thought it was one of their worst offensive games,
and nobody seemed to notice or care because the defense
made so many plays that we kind of thought they
were capable of encouraging.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
We kind of like spent the past two weeks leading
into that game saying like, oh, this isn't the Steelers
we expected this year. The defense was supposed to be
carrying the load and the offense was just gonna have
to do just enough. What's going on? Oh well, it
played out exactly. Just get the ball in the end
zone after we get all these damn turnovers for you. Well,
now you try to carry that momentum into the game
(01:34):
against the Chargers on Sunday night football, going out on
the West Coast to take on LA and the Chargers
are a weird team, Matt and I don't want to
just kind of pinpoint their success and their failures on
one guy, but the splits when Joe Alt is in
and Joe Alt is out five and one with him,
one and two without him, and they just look like
(01:55):
a miserable football team without him too.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Those two losses are very very bad. He's out for
the year.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Now, great time.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
I think this is a good spot to lead off
our advance scout of them, because I think it's one
of the bigger factors in this game now, is that
Alt is down.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
It might be the biggest factor. I'm glad you recognize
it because you nailed it. I mean, tackles aren't something
you can go get. They did trade for Trevor Penney today,
a red line who's frankly been as big a first
round bust as any tackle in recent memory. That's how
desperate they are, right, But this was supposed to be
their best position other than quarterback with Slater Alt. I mean,
this is what the Steelers won in Faltanu and Jones,
(02:31):
you know, early first round picks and bad luck. I mean,
and you're right, Alt is so good and you hate
to see it. But what high Smith her big love
love to see.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yeah, we'll get more into Alt and that Chargers offense
in a second. Here's the serious history between these two teams.
The Chargers lead the series in playoff matchups two to one,
but Pittsburgh owns the overall series lead with a commanding
twenty five to eleven lead. Series began in nineteen seven,
and the Steelers won the first six matchup. San Diego
(03:03):
then won the next three but the Chargers have losing
streaks of six, five and five against Pittsburgh over the
fifty years. These teams have been squaring off. After a
large stretch in which the Chargers won just five of
twenty one games between eighty three and two thousand and nine,
These two teams have gone back and forth over the
past seven meetings, with the Steelers winning the most recent
matchup in twenty twenty four, and Mike Tomlin is six
and three against the Chargers both the San Diego and
(03:27):
La versions. Jim Harbaugh took over this team a couple
of years ago. They have met once since then. Steelers
got the better of them in that matchup, like you
mentioned in twenty twenty four, So Tomlin up one to zero.
As far as his Harbaugh Chargers matchup is concerned, we
all know what that playoff. One of those playoff games
is two in nineteen ninety four, one one of the
(03:49):
toughest ones in Steelers history.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Thousand.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
So I'm a lot older than you, but I grew
up a diehard Steeler fan. Imagine right, but when you're
born in nineteen seventy three, the early eighties Chargers, I
actually had a Dan Fouts Jersey.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
He's the Dan right, I mean they were way ahead
of their time.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
They threw the ball in an ungodly amount, They played
terrible defense. I mean, they were the Bengals at the
time they were as a kid, they were the most
fun team ever.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Yeah, and then of course Stan Humphreys Chargers rolling and
break Matt Williamson's heart in nineteen ninety four about to
break through and get to the Super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
That's right, each had to wait another year.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Point team get.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
No doubt charge and that was going to be Steelers
Niners two in that Super Bowl, which I mean, God,
you want to talk about epic.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
I'm not sure it would have went well for the.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Niners team ninety four nine ers, right, it didn't go
well for the San Diego Stan Humphrey Chargers. All right,
let's talk about the Chargers defense first, Matt, and let's start.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
By talking hard to wrap my head around a little,
but let's start.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
By talking about how successful the Steelers offense has been,
even though it was their kind of maybe worst performance
last week.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Yeah, They've scored twenty plus points in each of their
last six games, and only six offenses are producing points
per drive than the Steelers two point five four.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Those are really good.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
I bet some of our listeners are like, wait, I
better hit rewind on this thing.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
It's true that, right, Dare I say great?
Speaker 1 (05:08):
I mean we talked.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
About this a thousand times in the offseason, and in
previous years, the splits of like when the Steelers would
get to twenty points or allowed twenty points used to
be a monumental event.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
And now they scored twenty every.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Week every week.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Yeah, and that's kind of the Aaron Rodgers effect. And
that's what you're going to have to get him for. Hey,
we've recognized that if we get to twenty, we win
almost every time. Got to get a quarterback that can
consistently do that, and he is consistently doing that. The Chargers, though,
could make things a little harder on Aaron Rodgers. They
gave up just one hundred and eighteen yards through the
air last week, and they average two point nine sacks
(05:44):
per game, which is tied for ninth best in the league. Like,
when you look at their defense, it's a Dafe Oway
who they just traded for a couple of weeks ago.
It's Khalil Mack, Like it's.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
The passage guys are pretty good.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
It's like the Steelers. Honestly, that's their identity.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
I've been hesitating to say his name because I kill it.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
But to the top of the lope also is a
really good edge pretty good so so. But I do
think we mentioned all that tackles versus edge guys is
really important on both sides of the ball here. Other
than Derwin James, though, they don't have a lot of
players where a lot of our listeners are like, oh,
he's really good. But they're well coached and they're tough
and they're fundamentally sound on defense.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Yeah, I mean, Khalil Mack is a former Defensive Player
of the Year, so people know who he is. But
he's not the same Khalil Mack.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
He's not Defensive Player of the Year.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
His superpowers aren't at their height.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
You're right about Derwin James, though, he's like the name
that you got to look out for because he is
a superstar and he's finally been able to stay healthy
and that was such the thing that he looked like
his career might be bucked because of injury, and that
was gonna suck because he was such a talent.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
But yeah, not the case so far.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Big fan, and there's obvious Harbob brother correlations here, Like
a lot of the coaches have worked for both guys.
Derwin James is kind of their Hamilton. He'll do all
sorts of things. He'll rush the pass or play the slot,
we'll play. I mean, he's their jack of all trades.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Now, the Chargers allow four point nine yards per carry,
only five defenses are better than that. They also allow
an eight point zero percent explosive run rate, better than
only three defenses. So I think that's the way is
to just run the ball on. It's a good strategy
when you're on the West coast on the road, I
mean it travels well. Yeah, Like I think they have
a great offense, the Chargers, so you want to kind
(07:20):
of keep the ball out of their hands as much
as you can away from Herbert.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Now, unfortunately the Steelers go for it.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Only the Bengals Titans are producing fewer rushing yards per
game than the Steelers eighty seven point three. So it's
been a struggle for the Steelers. Looked like it was
turning a corner there, but boy, that Colts game, they
hit a brick wall.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
They did, and the Steelers are aren't producing a lot
of explosives either.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Their yards per.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
Carry isn't great either for the season, but I think
the recent sniff test is better than that.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
For the Steeler run game, I don't think it's a
bottom three run game.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
I don't think so either.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
I again, you see the one the running game against
the Bengals and the first half against the Packers, and
you just see that Jalen Warren had a lot of
juice since returning from injury. I think that you should
make it a goal like you did on the defensive
side of the ball. To Hey, we were kind of
embarrassed against Green Bay. We got to stop Jonathan Taylor.
We got to really hone in on stopping the run
(08:18):
this week. Offensively, we have to really hone in and
take it personally that we averaged under two yards per carry.
This is a defense that needs to be attacked on
the ground. We have to make that our goal.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
I think that's a great way looking at it, because
the first half against Green Bay was really really good,
great and then the last six quarters where to go.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
I know it was tough to see them just completely
turn away from that, especially when them having a lead
in the second half.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
It honestly didn't make sense.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
No, but that's the path against this Chargers defense, especially
when they rest the passers so well and you got
Derwin James on the back end. Now, the Charger offense
they hold onto.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
The ball a ton like second league.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Yeah, I think the second in the league. They had
like thirty four minutes last week. They have been a
revolving door as far as running backs are concerned, Yes,
but it doesn't matter because they're still committed to the
run and they're still successful at running the football.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
They are now.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
I think there's also a slight misconception there that people
watched Harbaugh all through his career, especially at Michigan, always
going to do is run the.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Ball, especially at Michigan.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Yeah, I mean six yards in a cloud at Dust
to all that. But he took the Chargers job when
he could have had any open job because they've justin Herbert.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
That was the quarterback, that was the job.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
And amongst quarterbacks with one hundred plus dropbacks, only Matthew
Stafford and Daniel Jones are producing more passing yards per
game than Herbert's two hundred and sixty five point six. Look,
the Steelers give up yards even when the defense is
playing great, and I know some of it was in
garbage time. Gave up yards through the air to Daniel
Jones and that colts offense. So that's never going to
go away. And when you don't get the turnovers, it
(09:52):
can really expose you and you look bad. But hopefully
you get the splash, and that's the more consistent thing
in what we saw the previous three weeks is the
dry spell. That won't happen again this year. But Herbert's
another one that can just rip you apart and he
will get his yardage against you if you don't get splashed,
if you don't turn him over, which he will turn
the ball over. Yeah, and if you don't pray on that,
you're gonna look at a game where he could have
(10:13):
four hundred yards against you.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
That's not far fetched.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
I think he's a total superstar.
Speaker 4 (10:17):
I mean, my opinion of the quarterback hierarchy in the
league has not changed much where I know he's hurt
and there has been injuries, but Burrow, Lamar Mahomes Allen
are still the tier one for me. I'm not going
to take Burrow out of that, but my number five
guy is Herbert for sure, and he was playing like
an MVP for much of the year when he had Joel.
(10:40):
He's not playing any worse, He's just always under pressure.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Yeah, I mean, and Chargers and see.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Rushes a passer so bad and he was under pressure
every step after all got hurt.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
And I'm sure the organization is looking things through this lens,
and I mean they have Harbo. There's a lot of
stability you're trying to tap into there with him. Hopefully
the fan base out there too can kind of look
at it in this light like this year.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Just might be a bogie year when it comes to
our tackles.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
But moving forward, Slater all Herbert, I mean, the formula
is there to be very successful, and you're starting to
see the receivers come along, like Quentin Johnson, who's playing
really well this year.
Speaker 4 (11:13):
They starting to catchers and a first round running back
that is not in the mix that he's off really
good next year.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Yeah, no doubt. I mean, I think Nausey. He's on
a one year deal, so you don't know about that.
But I liked the compliment of him and Omario on
Hampton out there, like I thought that was going to
be really good for them.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Keenann, keenan al and Maconkey. Yeah, those those guys are worrisome.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
And you bring up gats and because the Steelers are
struggling against tight ends until Busters, until Tyler Warren comes
to town, and then I guess the Steelers are great
against tight ends all of a sudden, leading receivers, I guess,
but hopefully they tap into that against some other rookie.
In gatst and four straight games with sixty five plus
receiving yards, and he leads all tight ends and receiving
yards per game with sixty four point seven. His route
(11:57):
share in each of those games, uh seventy seven percent,
nine ninety one percent, and.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Eighty five percent.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
I mean he's been the feature of the offense in
the previous couple games exactly.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
I mean the first couple of weeks he was kind
of an afterthought. He moved tight end not much with
locker half receiver half to write tight end.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
He's a big wide receiver.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
He's a big wide.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
Receiver, right right, I mean, and he's he's playing so
well when he's such a matchup problem that like Keenan,
Allen's having a hard time getting snaps and you know
guys like that.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
You only put so many guys on the field.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
You know, now if you Dahala has been taking over
the workload since the running backs have been out.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
He's been okay, I mean he.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Yeah, uh semi got benched at the end of the
last game though.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
They had one hundred and thirty one rushing yards last week,
but Herbert led the way. Herbert had fifty seven yards runner.
That's something that you have got to worry about.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
And Matt, I.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Remember they played yeah yeah here in.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
My mind, buddy, not the last time they played, because
remember Herbert tried to start that game at Pittsburgh. Oh yeah,
and then he had to come out and was it
Chas Ding I don't know who went in the game.
Wasn't Chased Daniel, but they had to bring him back
up into that game. But you're right, it was the
last they went out to LA. They played the Chargers
on the road. He had ninety rushing yards on nine attempts.
He also had over four hundred passing yards in that
game too.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Just seemed like part he'd get twelve yard slide pop up.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
I remember it over and over and over.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
He's a really good app.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
And he's still doing that, and you have to worry
about that. I remember I can still see this in
my mind's eye Week one this year in Brazil against
the Chiefs. Game on the line, he ices it by
running the football, has a nice little slide in the
first down signal like it's a really athletic strong play. Yeah,
you gotta worry about him. Got to keep lids on
him in the running game as well. Uh. The Steelers
(13:34):
third heaviest blitzing team defense in the NFL, but they
blitzed on just twenty four percent of their dropbacks last week.
That was their lowest percentage of the year. And that's
coming off of a game where they blitzed at their
highest rate against Green Bay got torched against the blitz
so drastic reducing it.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Now, two things I want.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
To talk to you about, Matt before we get onto
our matchups here and wrap up. You saw a little
bit more of a four to three look from the Steelers.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Now.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
I don't know if that's something that just now becomes
the thing. I think that might be more matchup specific,
but I like tapping into it. I think you should
tap into it again this week.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
Yeah, and my thoughts on it were we're gonna I
think it starts with even the back end they got.
They got away from playing so much single high. They
played a lot more too high, middle of the field open,
and I think that they wanted a big body in
the front seven Harrison, who hasn't been available, who doesn't
run great, but he'll.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Thump and he'll hit the you know, right to deal with.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
The tailor factor if we're going to play, you know,
basically a cover two shell.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
So we'll see. But I'm glad that they added that wrinkle.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Well, that's the other thing I was going to bring up,
is Ramsey playing safety?
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Yes, and you actually had it here.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Ramsey played safety on eighty three point six percent of
his snaps, the first time in his career he has
played safety more than thirty percent of his snaps in
a single game. So that drastically took a jump up
and he was awesome. And I think, you know, Dougger
and Ramsey just that's your tandem for the Charger game too.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
By the sound of Van, we record this on Tuesdays.
Coach Tomlin has press conference today basically said he's a
full time safety until further notice, which I totally understand.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Yeah, and I bet it's practice plays out this week.
Dougger and Ramsey will be your guys.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
I think so, yeah, And I'm still kind of intrigued
what Peppers could do.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
They just need help anyway, get players healthy and have depth.
It's nice that Ramsey and Dugger played every single snap
save one between the two of them, but you can't
rely on that.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
You can't rely on it, and who knows going forward
they could have a corner injury and then Ramsey's back
a corner and write you know, Dougger and Elliott are
your safeties or Peppers or who knows.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
But for now, key matchups in this game between the
Steelers and the Chargers, it's all about the edge rushers
versus the tackles on both sides of the ball. When
it comes to these Steelers, now you have to pray
on some backups. The Penning's gonna play, don't you think.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
I don't know, he's played guard in his career.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Who else could you throw out there? I mean, I
don't know. They're desperate, it's really bad. Yeah, so feast
on that.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
You have to win over and over and over with that.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Yeah, it goes from that's the greatest strength for the
Chargers maybe to now their biggest weakness without questions.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Is someone that loves team building. I hate whenever you
have such a blow up in your face like this
couldn't go more wrong?
Speaker 2 (16:10):
You know, an alt Slater's good, but alt.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Is, Yeah. I think they would be my pair of
tackles that I would.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Pay either one your surviving this season. You can't have
both came out though you can't. And then it comes
to the Steelers offensive tackles Troy Fontano and Roger Jones
taking out the Chargers edge rushers Khalil Mack too.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Is that right? Did I get? I sped through it
a little bit?
Speaker 1 (16:32):
And then a deaf doing as long as I do
things like this, and then a deaf a.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
O way which should be hard to pronounce, but it's
easy because of that one that you had to say
on the front.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
End strong the brotherly trade they made, I mean ways
good for them.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Let's investigate that a little collusion going on like that, Hey,
you needs.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
The fantasy trade. That's like at midnight that your two
buddies make, Like, what do you guys do it here? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Steelers and Chargers Sunday Night Football on the national stage
out on the West Coast this week eight twenty kickoff.
Matt Williamson and myself get things started on DVE.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
At four point thirty. Can't wait for that.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Thanks for giving us a listen here, and we'll talk
to you next week on the next edition of the
Advanced Scout.
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