November 18, 2025 • 27 mins
Matt Williamson and Tom Opferman break down the Steelers upcoming opponent the Chicago Bears.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We got some work to do. This is the advanced
scout with Tom Opperman and Mac Williamson.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Steelers bounce back and got to win against the Bengals
thirty four to twelve in a game where they had
two defensive scores, so a ton of splash from the
defensive side of the football. They improved to six and four,
and now they go and face the NFC North leading
Chicago Bears at seven and three, so you got the
battle of the two leading teams in both North divisions.
(00:30):
Matt I said, the Steelers got splash against the Bengals
from the defense and they won the game. It was
actually more like a cannonball from the defense with that performance.
You pointed out on your stat pack that when the
Steelers get just one takeaway this year, just one, they
are five and one as a football team. So it
(00:50):
really comes down to that.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Doesn't that It really does, And I'm sure we'll get
into it quickly here that there's some things that are
really good matchups this upcoming week. But turnovers is also
the Bears specialty and very important with them.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yeah, no question. They actually have the NFL's best turnover
differential at plus sixteen, and they have the most takeaways
in football at twenty two, and they now have the
most interceptions in football at fifteen. I think the Bears
defense overall, and we'll get to them more in depth
obviously as we work our way through this podcast, but overall,
I think the Bears defense is worse than the Steelers defense.
(01:29):
But that is an area that they do just as well,
if not actually they do better than the Steelers to
this point in the season.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
They're like the only team that can really say that
with some consistency that's not a one off or anything
like that. But yes, I don't think so big picture Bears.
You know, like they draft Caleb Williams first overall, that's
the year before they go higher the Lions esteemed offensive coordinator.
So what do the Bears wisely do. They got two
(01:59):
new guards, new center, drafted, a tight end in the
first round, a wide receiver in the second round, a
running back later on that they're using quite a bit,
and really focused on offense. Make Caleb Williams life easier.
Offensive great offensive mine, let's fix that side of the ball. Therefore,
they couldn't do a ton on defense, like I'm assuming
(02:21):
this upcoming offseason will be heavy defensive draft, maybe a
free agent signing or two. They did a little, but
it's pretty clear what their priorities were, and thus I
think this defense is turnovers aside. It's not Bengals level,
none are, but it's a work in progress. Let's say that.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah, it's not very intimidating, aside from the fact that
they will take the ball away a lot, but it's
definitely a side of the football that can be gettable.
The Bears on the hole, Matt, since we're kind of
looking big picture for them. They're seven to three and
they're winning the NSC North, but they kind of seem
a bit fake, a bit smoke and meary to me.
(03:03):
You look at their resume of wins and there really
isn't an impressive one on there. Their most impressive win
is probably against the Dallas Cowboys, who are still trying
to find their way back to five hundred. It's not
like they beat a juggernaut team.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Right, and a win's a win in this league. I
mean we say that on Mondays a lot when the
Steelers don't look their best. Don't get me wrong, but
I found it interesting that the Bears have a very
low average margin of victory. So in their wins, it's
very low amount. They've squeaked by some teams they yester
(03:41):
or they're you know, they beat the Bengals with a
big kickoff return very very late in the game and
then hit a long field goal. A lot of come
from behind victories. And yes, Caleb Williams has a lot
a ton of abilities, or he's the first overall pick,
and there is something to quote being clutch and all
those things. But they've also had some bounces, let's just
(04:04):
put it that way. And again, I don't think that's
been a murderer's over them either, no.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Question about that. You mentioned that average margin of victory.
It's at six points, which is only better than just
three teams in the NFL as our as a margin
of victory is concerned. So they are squeaking by, But
I will give them credit, Matt. And you're right, you know, clutch,
how do you measure that? And you are going to
get some favorable bounces and there's luck involved. But for
(04:31):
a long time, at least in my life, Matt thirty
one years old, the Bears were not getting the bounces,
and the culture of the Bears, the culture of the
Bears was kind of, Hey, we're going to keep things close,
and we'll always lose these field goals that we have
that we could make to win it. They're going to
joink off the upright, like it will always go bad
and enter Ben Johnson. And I think he's a phenomenal
(04:51):
head coach. He has really done a good job as
far as changing that culture and seeing results early as like,
hey we win close games now, like we're not just
the classic Bears just getting in our own way. How
do we close out games? We can't do it.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Exactly. You know, he comes from the Lions that are
extremely tough minded, go forward on fourth down. You know,
we're going to be aggressive. We're going to be the hammer,
not the nail. And I think the Bears, like you said,
I mean, I just want to reiterate what you said.
I mean, they're used to it going the wrong way.
Things are shaping up. And I mean you mentioned how
(05:29):
old you are. I'm fifty two and the Bears haven't
had a quarterback in my lifetime. They might even have
a quarterback now.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
They just might. Here's the serious history between these two
storied franchises, the Bears and the Steelers. First, started playing
in nineteen thirty four. Chicago bet Pittsburgh Pirates as it
was called back then the first six times these franchises met.
Then when the Pirates became the Steelers, they proceeded to
still lose the next four meetings to the Bears, and
that made the Bears ten and zero against the Steelers
(05:57):
before nineteen fifty. Since then, Chicago and this Doers have
only played eighteen times, and the Bears have gotten the
better of Pittsburgh during that stretch as well. Chicago leeds
this series nineteen eight and one, but the Steelers did
win the most recent meeting in twenty twenty one. Steelers
have had some struggles in Chicago over the years as well,
so you don't see this team very much, but they're
(06:18):
a bit of a tricky devil. You can't really take
anything from that. As we just mentioned, the last time
they met was in twenty twenty one. That was four
years ago. These teams have gotten complete facelifts since then,
but still not a favorable matchup, and usually that goes
in the Steelers' favor when you look at the rest
of the NFL.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Great point. Now we're recording this as we always do
on Tuesday evening. One guy that does kill the Bears, though,
is one Aaron Rodgers. I don't have his numbers in
front of me.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
I believe it's twenty five and four. It's his record
against the Bears all time.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Really, Yeah, okay, And I mean there's like legendary quotes
of him. I own the Bears, you know, I mean
that kind of stuff he does in a rothless Berger
versus Browns type fashion. Now, is Aaron Rodgers gonna play
this game that? I don't know?
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, let's talk about that a little bit, because we're
gonna look at the Bears defense here to kick things
off and the quarterback situation in flux for the Steelers.
It obviously just depends on if Rogers can tolerate the
pain and if he can take the snap right. Like
that's the biggest problem here. It's obviously his non throwing hands,
so there shouldn't be an issue as far as that's concerned.
(07:29):
But getting under center, which is such a big part
of Rogers's game and Arthur Smith's offense, you like to
incorporate that throughout the game plan, even catching a snap
from shotgun. You know, I hate to do this. Matt
Or maybe I don't because he went to Wells Virginia.
But Zach Frasier isn't the best at snapping the ball.
Sometimes you know, what if that thing's what if that
thing's low into the left and all of a sudden,
(07:49):
I got to use my broken wrist to try to
corral this thing that, to me is the biggest hang
up here? Am I wrong?
Speaker 1 (07:55):
I think? I mean our boy Wesley Yuler, who I
do the drive with, is the biggest West Virginia hank ever.
And he actually said freight. Fraser's done that as much
as he loves Fraser. Fraser's done that his whole WU
career too. So it's probably gonna be a wayward snap
here and there and shotgun until Fraser retires, so be it.
(08:17):
But yes, I think that's huge. I wonder about handoffs.
Would you rather be in shotgun? I would think the
answer is yes, unless there's a wayward one to your
left and then all of a sudden it's a fumble
and you're rolling around and it goes without saying too.
But this is true for any quarterback that he takes
a big shot on that hand, maybe he exits, you know,
(08:37):
in the first quarter or the first hit he hitted Diggs.
But that's not untrue for any quarterback. I mean, the
backup is going to have to be ready or the
backup might be starting, you know.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
And I'm on the fence as far as you know,
is this a good matchup for a backup quarterback to
have to play? Is it a bad matchup for the
backup quarterback to have to play? Now, the Steelers have
one of the best backup quarterbacks in football and Mason Rudoff,
and he did a really good job against the Bengals
in the second half. But here's why I'm on the fence.
Mat we mentioned it. They take the ball away a ton.
They have the most interceptions in football. You know. They
ballhawk even good starting quarterbacks. So now you have a
(09:09):
backup in that's obviously going to be vulnerable. But as
far as it being a favorable matchup, they allow a
lot of yards after the catch. Forty one point seven
percent of their passing yardage allowed is after the catch.
The Bears defense only three defenses are lower, and they
allow five point one nine yards per carry, which is
the fourth highest, So you should be able to get
(09:29):
the ball out. Rudolph Hans quick at the line of scrimmage,
high percentage passes, and you should be able to hand
it off to your running backs a lot in this game.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Yeah, and this is gonna sound negative towards Rogers, and
I only mean that one percent or two percent to
be negative towards Rogers. Would it be the worst thing
in the world in a non conference, non division game,
if you're on the fence, if he should play or
not at forty one years old, to give them a week?
(09:58):
And why I say that is I bet his knees, ankles, hamstring,
back blah blah blah, blah blah, all would say, thank you.
I love the bye week you just gave me late
in the year. I haven't had one in a long time.
Steelers had an early buye. And would it be terrible
for this passing game to game plan exclusively for a
(10:19):
different quarterback? And why I say that is so much
of what Rogers has done is predetermined at the line
of scrimmage, and so much is after the catch and
short of the sticks and get it out of your hand.
Let's just play the passing game somewhat different and see
(10:39):
how it goes. You know what I mean. Let's throw
to the mill field more, let's throw intermediate routes. More,
let's run the ball higher percentage of the time. And
then Rogers comes back, presumably the next week, and you
pick out two or three things that worked really well,
and you throw away two or three things that didn't.
And I just think the passing game could use a facelift,
(11:00):
and maybe this would be a good week to attempt that.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
No, I like where your head's at, and it is
another good favorable matchup to do that against when it
comes to this Bears defense, because this Bears defense faces
a time to throw of two point sixty nine seconds.
Only four defenses face a higher time to throw than
the Bears. And there are only two players on the
Bears that have more than three sacks, that's Gervin Dexter
(11:25):
and Montese Sweat. And the Bears did not record a
single sack last week. So they might be stealing some
of the Steelers sauce when it comes to picking the
ball off and taking the ball away, Matt, But they
are miles away as far as getting pressure on the
quarterback is concerned.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Oh right. I mean again, I think that'll be a
big offseason thing for them, is we need to find
more pass rushers. I'm glad you mentioned Dexter though he's
one of my favorite young d lineman in the league.
That he's ascending day.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
From the inside. So I mean him having four and
a half.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Yes, it's huge, that's a big accomplishment.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Yeah, and Montes' sweat is the name that everybody is
familiar with. Two. There's just not enough there for the Bears.
So to your point, you can sit in there. You've
got a quarterback that might be a little more willing
to sit into the pocket here and push the ball
downfield because he's younger, and you've got a good matchup
where there might not be that much pressure in Rudolph's
face anyway. And now I like where your head's at
when it comes to we can kind of do things
(12:18):
a little bit differently here with Rudolph. Prove that we
can do it, and then carry it into carry elements
of it into Rogers return, right.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Put it on tape at least, make people think about
it more, become a little less predictable, Steal a few
snippets out of there for when Rogers returns, and see
where it goes.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Now, I want to talk about some of the ball
hawking elements of this defense. Three players for the Bears
have at least four interceptions this year. Kevin Byron has
five and Sean Wright has four in that secondary. And
then how about the linebacker Tremaine Edmonds with four interceptions
as well. And then they have fifteen total as a team,
(13:01):
thirteen of them coming from just those three gentlemen. So
I'm sure you're keeping an eye on those three when
you're breaking the huddle and you're pacing Rootoph or if
you are Aaron Rodgers and you're scanning the defense.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Yeah, but I don't know that any of them are
superstar players. I mean, I think some of that, and
I think it's an opportunistic I think they're coached that way,
much like the Steelers, that we're gonna go crazy, go
overboard to try to take the ball away, and they'll
they'll do some things that can confuse you on the
(13:33):
back end, and they move pretty well collectively. Don't get
me wrong, But I don't think that there's a superstar
here that you have to be afraid of. You know.
Jalen Johnson, the Corners missed a lot of time. He's
a really good player. The slot Gordon's missed a lot
of time. I don't know if either one will even
play in this game. They're but really good players, But
(13:53):
I hear what you're saying. You know, you have to
be extremely, extremely conscious of their ability to take the
full ballway without a doubt.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
They're also so bad, as we mentioned, against the run
as a defense, an injury that you got to keep
an eye on if you're the Steelers this week. Not
just Aaron Rodgers, but Jalen Warren only playing three snaps
in the second half last week, but he was averaging
six point two yards per carry against the Bengals. It
looked like a more explosive running game against Cincinnati Matt
(14:23):
Pittsburgh's two point six percent explosive run rate is the
worst in the league. Chicago allows an explosive run rate
of six point six percent that is fifth highest in
the league. I already mentioned this, but they allow five
point one nine yards per carry, that's fourth highest. So,
whether it's Warren, whether it's gain Well, whether you want
to splash in some more Caleb Johnson, you got to
be able to run the ball against this team. You
(14:44):
remember how he said last week. If the Steelers offense
wasn't able to do this and that and the other thing.
We'd be worried about it. Because of how bad the
Bengals are. I'd be a little worried if they aren't
able to run the ball on this Bears defense, especially
when you're on the road. Yeah, the game just kind
of begs you to do it, you know, back up quarterback.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Maybe thousand percent in the Windy City, Yes, you know,
it's always a soft track, you know, like I would
imagine there's some kind of weather. It is going to
be late November in Chicago. And I didn't quite realize
this until I start digging into the stats, but there throw.
The Steelers are throwing the ball at the twelfth highest
(15:21):
rate in the league. That's too high for me. I
want to be the twelfth lowest rate in the league.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
That kind of comes with Rogers, though, doesn't it. That's
kind of the Rogers territory, because the Jets were, like, what,
the second or the most percentage team to throw the
football last year, and you were kind of like, what
the heck they shouldn't be doing that, And it's not
that drag here.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
They had the fewest rushing attempts in the league.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Yeah, so I think that might be a little bit
of the Rogers territory. But hey, like you said, maybe
this is an opportunity to throw it a little less
because you're game planning around a different quarterback with Mason
Rudolph probably in there. Let's slip it over to the
Bears side of the Bears offensive side of the ball,
they average five point eight yards per play. The Steelers
defense allows five point four yards per play, but it's
(16:03):
just four point eight over their past three games. And man,
I think that was something that was a little overshadowed
in the Bengals win because you got the big splash plays,
the two defensive scores, but you really shut down that
Bengals offense for the most part, a little shaky in
the run game. I think people are ignoring that a
little bit. There's a lot of holes there for the
Bengals to run through. But their past defense was phenomenal.
They really shut Chase down as best as you possibly can.
(16:27):
And when you think about it, Matt, the defense could
have won the game by themselves. They scored fourteen points,
they only gave up twelve. I mean, it was a
really just dominant performance more than just the defensive scores.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Yeah, I mean, it didn't allow a touchdown to a
great offense, a great passing game, you know, phenomenal wide receivers.
And I'm not going to fight you on the Chase
Brown stuff, but since the first game, Chase Brown's come
on pretty strong. I mean as a receiver. Yeah, It's
not the worst running game in the league anymore that
people remember, that's for sure. And if you watch the
(17:01):
All twenty two, the Steelers played a really really high
percentage of two high safeties. They played a lot of
two man coverage, so I'm not saying stopping the run
was an afterthought, but it wasn't priority number one, and
flat out it just worked. I mean, the game plan
was great.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
A big problem with the Steelers defense is forcing three
and outs. They forced the sixth. They forced the sixth
fewest three and outs per drive in Pittsburgh's opponent's average
six point seventy nine plays per drive. That is the
highest in the league. Hey, time of possession is a
problem for this team. They actually won the time of
position battle against the Bengals by ten seconds, so first,
since here's they finally got one woo in that category.
(17:44):
But that is a two way street. And I know
we think of it a lot as the offense, Matt,
but the defense is allowed to get off the field too.
And the Steelers' defense.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Oh yeah, I've been harping and I'm a the loan
here and it's low hanging fruit. The time of possession
is as big a problem as any on this team
from start to finish, from Week one until middle of
November now, and early on I thought a lot of
it was the defense's fault, you know, like Jets game
and things like that. They just couldn't get off the
(18:10):
field at all. Lately, I blame the offense more. Now again,
the Bengals defense is historically bad and they did barely, barely,
barely win the time possession battle finally, But there can
be misleading stats with time possession too. Is if you
score twice on defense, well you don't get a chance
(18:32):
to possess the football, you know. So, I mean like
when we previewed the Colts game, it's like, well, the
Colts are pretty mediocre in time and possession, maybe this
is the week the Steelers can control the football. Well,
the culture mediocre in time possession because they hand them
all Jonathan Taylor and he takes it eighty yards. You know,
So sometimes game flow can screw up time possession numbers,
(18:55):
and I felt like the Steelers controlled the game in
a encouraging fashion against the Bengals on both sides of
the ball for the first time in maybe all year.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Well, the Bears offense does a good job as far
as time of possession is concerned. Their fifth best in
the league, possess at thirty one minutes and forty three
seconds on average, and they only throw the ball on
fifty three point five percent of their snaps. Matt, only
seven offenses throw at a lower rate, and when they're
at home it's even lower. They only throw at fifty
one percent of the time when they're playing against in Chicago.
(19:27):
So not surprising, right, That's kind of what the Lions
where Bill Tomlin Ben Johnson was there a strong running
game that they relied on offensively, and he just carries
that over to Chicago.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Yeah, and a running quarterback helps. He's a very good runner.
He's fast as could be. He's an unbelievable athlete. And
what's funny is you might think, well, look, I mean,
this is a team that's in first place. As you mentioned,
they have a bunch of wins. Are they just closing
teams out, No, because every one of their games goes
down to the wire.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
I like his receiving cor Matt, but they're not really
catching on, are they. They didn't have a pass catcher
last week eclipsed forty five yards. Yeah, seven different pass
catchers with at least one hundred and ninety two receiving yards.
But I think it's a very defined room. I mean, Roma,
Dunza and DJ Moore are very solid one twos. I
think I like Burden as a rookie, Zakias has value.
(20:21):
Du Ferne is even a very nice depth piece. Like
I like this receiving room. It's weird that no one
is really separating, although maybe because it's so deep that
that's why you're seeing capable and spread it out a
little bit.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Yeah, and there's a little weirdness here too because just
watching tape and usage and all those things. Yeah, what
you said, it's one hundred percent right. But at Donsay
is clearly the one. You know, they scheme things up
for him. DJ Moore runs a lot of like go
routes to open up space for others. You know he
doesn't get featured as much. Burden all of a sudden
(20:56):
is coming on like Gangbusters and taking over that number
three roll. And they drafted a tight end in the
first round even though they had cole Kmet So part
of it is just a lot of mouse to feed.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
And Caleb Williams, we talked about him a little bit
at the beginning of the show. You can't really say
definitively one way or the other how he is in
the NFL. I think he's done a good job of
kind of avoiding being label to bust and we're kind
of moving past that now. He's an adequate NFL quarterback.
Now it's just about defining where that ceiling is. What
(21:29):
is he going to reach as far as the height
of his powers is concerned. And boy, you were talking
about a little bit there when you talk about his athleticism,
but he has every tool, Like if you want to
look at it from a baseball perspective, he's a five
tool player and he's got the great coach right now
and a commitment as you illustrated in this podcast, building
up the offensive side of the ball that I'm pretty
(21:50):
optimistic if I'm a Bears fan I'm feeling good about
the quarterback right now and the situation around him.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Yes, one thousand percent. I mean, as we laid out,
but even on a week the week basis, lately it's
getting better and better. Now he's had six games where
he has under a Six of his ten games he
is under a sixty percent completion rate, and he had
his lowest of the season this past week. So he
(22:17):
still misses throws. The big knock on him was he
took so many sacks, and that was even at USC
That was even you know, all through his college career.
Kind of thinks he's Lamar that can just extend to
you know, four or five seconds into the play. But
lately he's been extending but not taking the sacks. And
(22:40):
his athleticism is really really good, and his arm strength
and arm talent frankly is like Mahomesy in you know,
he'll miss more, but he makes throws that people should
throw this term around way too much that there's not
many guys in the league that can make that throw. Well,
you underestimate how many awesome quarterbacks in the league if
(23:00):
you say those things. But this guy is right there
with all of.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Them, and he's got a great running game to go
with it. Like we said, the Bears generated four point
eight five yards per rush, sixth most in the league.
Pittsburgh allows an explosive run rate of six point three
percent that is the seventh highest. Last week, the Bears
ran for one hundred and forty yards ninety by DeAndre Swift,
and that was Swift's first game of the season with
twenty plus carries in third game with ninety plus rushing yards.
(23:26):
But you hinted at the rookie Kyle Moong guy earlier,
Matt seventh round pick. He's really coming on, isn't he.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Yeah, he's a little more of the David Montgomery and
Swift is more of the Gibbs, you know. And that's
the light extreme example. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I take the
Lions guys a thousand times out of a thousand, but.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
It's the same thing. Ben Johnson's just kind of xerox
and over the philosophy.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Right, because it worked very, very well, and Swift has
been more reliable this year. You know. I think he's
a good back.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Yeah, I think DeAndre Switch is a good and solid back.
I think it's more scheme driven when it comes to
the Bears, though, Yeah, what I mean, it's not like
these superstar running backs that you have to worry about
them running down your throat no matter what. But it
is something that you have to worry about. You mentioned
Kayleb Williams doing a better job as far as extending
plays but not taking sacks. The Bears do take a
sack on four point three percent of their dropbacks. That
is the sixth highest rate in the league. Minnesota last
(24:23):
week blitz Kayleb Williams on sixty six point seven percent
of his dropbacks. How is he when he faces blitz?
Is he good now? Getting better at finding that weakness
in the secondary that's always there when a blitz comes.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
So I don't want to brush over the sixty six
percent blitz rate because that's like that's gonna lead any
game probably of any year. That's too Yeah, it's Flores
and that's him getting extreme. That's an extreme coordinator getting extreme.
So clearly a smart coordinator thought blitzing this guy is
(24:59):
the way to go, and that's also what the Vikings do.
But I think he handled it pretty well, and I
think he's getting better and better at dealing with pressure
and blitz and finding answers and his supporting cast helps,
including his coach, But he's not the best in the
league at it.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
You know, Let's take a look at some key matchups
that we have here in this game before we get
out of here. Looking at it from the Steelers' perspective.
Whoever plays quarterback Mason Rudolph or Aaron Rodgers versus that
Bear secondary. We named some of the players that have
a lot of interceptions, but this is a team that
leads the league in interceptions with fifteen. It's going to
(25:36):
be a day that the quarterbacks going to want to
protect the football make an emphasis on that.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Yeah, and I don't have much to add, I mean,
but they it's not a fluke that this team takes
a ball away like crazy. And you opened the show saying, well,
I mean, we didn't go down this road, but we
have before. When the Steelers win the turnover battle, they're
really hard to beat. And when they cause a turnover,
they've only lost one game. And all these stuff goes
(26:01):
hand in hand that these are the most these are
the two most turnover driven teams in the league.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
You mentioned too that the Bears spent a lot on
their offensive line this offseason, a lot of investment in
protecting Caleb Williams.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Well.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
One guy was a homegrown talent first round pick by
the Bears in twenty twenty three. Darnell Wright is our
other key matchup. He's the right tackle that'll be going
up against TJ. Watt. Almost always lean in the favor
of TJ. Watt in this and I have a feeling
you do too.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
I do, but this is one of my favorite young
linemen in the league. He is really coming on fast.
This is an extreme comparison, but he has a lot
of Penny soul to him, and they use them the
same way where they'll get him out in space, crushing
linebackers and defensive backs. He's a really, really good athlete.
(26:51):
He's gotten better and better. Usually offensive tackles as the
Steelers of Witness don't just come in the league and dominate,
and he didn't. But now he's really starting to hit
that strike for Broderick Jones's draft class and he's I
wonder how much they'll leave Watt alone on him because
he's a very, very rapidly ascending player.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Matt. You know what, Sometimes teams fall on a trap
though they think that their tackles great leave Watt on
an island. That's a favor for the Steelers. We've seen
that so many times.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Colts is the real reason, the reason, he's.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Got him right right.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Yeah, that's why we're paying a big buck. I think
you should chip.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
All right, that'll do it for us on this podcast,
but not for this week as far as Steelers Talk
is concerned. A ton more of that with Matt on
the Drive, myself on the Blitz, and then Matt and
I will reconvene on Sunday at nine am on DVE
to get our coverage started of Steelers and Bears one
o'clock kickoff in Chicago between two teams leading the AFC
(27:50):
and NFC North format. I'm Tom. Thanks for listening to
the Advanced Scout.
We got some work to do. This is the advanced
scout with Tom Opperman and Mac Williamson.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Steelers bounce back and got to win against the Bengals
thirty four to twelve in a game where they had
two defensive scores, so a ton of splash from the
defensive side of the football. They improved to six and four,
and now they go and face the NFC North leading
Chicago Bears at seven and three, so you got the
battle of the two leading teams in both North divisions.
(00:30):
Matt I said, the Steelers got splash against the Bengals
from the defense and they won the game. It was
actually more like a cannonball from the defense with that performance.
You pointed out on your stat pack that when the
Steelers get just one takeaway this year, just one, they
are five and one as a football team. So it
(00:50):
really comes down to that.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Doesn't that It really does, And I'm sure we'll get
into it quickly here that there's some things that are
really good matchups this upcoming week. But turnovers is also
the Bears specialty and very important with them.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yeah, no question. They actually have the NFL's best turnover
differential at plus sixteen, and they have the most takeaways
in football at twenty two, and they now have the
most interceptions in football at fifteen. I think the Bears
defense overall, and we'll get to them more in depth
obviously as we work our way through this podcast, but overall,
I think the Bears defense is worse than the Steelers defense.
(01:29):
But that is an area that they do just as well,
if not actually they do better than the Steelers to
this point in the season.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
They're like the only team that can really say that
with some consistency that's not a one off or anything
like that. But yes, I don't think so big picture Bears.
You know, like they draft Caleb Williams first overall, that's
the year before they go higher the Lions esteemed offensive coordinator.
So what do the Bears wisely do. They got two
(01:59):
new guards, new center, drafted, a tight end in the
first round, a wide receiver in the second round, a
running back later on that they're using quite a bit,
and really focused on offense. Make Caleb Williams life easier.
Offensive great offensive mine, let's fix that side of the ball. Therefore,
they couldn't do a ton on defense, like I'm assuming
(02:21):
this upcoming offseason will be heavy defensive draft, maybe a
free agent signing or two. They did a little, but
it's pretty clear what their priorities were, and thus I
think this defense is turnovers aside. It's not Bengals level,
none are, but it's a work in progress. Let's say that.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah, it's not very intimidating, aside from the fact that
they will take the ball away a lot, but it's
definitely a side of the football that can be gettable.
The Bears on the hole, Matt, since we're kind of
looking big picture for them. They're seven to three and
they're winning the NSC North, but they kind of seem
a bit fake, a bit smoke and meary to me.
(03:03):
You look at their resume of wins and there really
isn't an impressive one on there. Their most impressive win
is probably against the Dallas Cowboys, who are still trying
to find their way back to five hundred. It's not
like they beat a juggernaut team.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Right, and a win's a win in this league. I
mean we say that on Mondays a lot when the
Steelers don't look their best. Don't get me wrong, but
I found it interesting that the Bears have a very
low average margin of victory. So in their wins, it's
very low amount. They've squeaked by some teams they yester
(03:41):
or they're you know, they beat the Bengals with a
big kickoff return very very late in the game and
then hit a long field goal. A lot of come
from behind victories. And yes, Caleb Williams has a lot
a ton of abilities, or he's the first overall pick,
and there is something to quote being clutch and all
those things. But they've also had some bounces, let's just
(04:04):
put it that way. And again, I don't think that's
been a murderer's over them either, no.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Question about that. You mentioned that average margin of victory.
It's at six points, which is only better than just
three teams in the NFL as our as a margin
of victory is concerned. So they are squeaking by, But
I will give them credit, Matt. And you're right, you know, clutch,
how do you measure that? And you are going to
get some favorable bounces and there's luck involved. But for
(04:31):
a long time, at least in my life, Matt thirty
one years old, the Bears were not getting the bounces,
and the culture of the Bears, the culture of the
Bears was kind of, Hey, we're going to keep things close,
and we'll always lose these field goals that we have
that we could make to win it. They're going to
joink off the upright, like it will always go bad
and enter Ben Johnson. And I think he's a phenomenal
(04:51):
head coach. He has really done a good job as
far as changing that culture and seeing results early as like,
hey we win close games now, like we're not just
the classic Bears just getting in our own way. How
do we close out games? We can't do it.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Exactly. You know, he comes from the Lions that are
extremely tough minded, go forward on fourth down. You know,
we're going to be aggressive. We're going to be the hammer,
not the nail. And I think the Bears, like you said,
I mean, I just want to reiterate what you said.
I mean, they're used to it going the wrong way.
Things are shaping up. And I mean you mentioned how
(05:29):
old you are. I'm fifty two and the Bears haven't
had a quarterback in my lifetime. They might even have
a quarterback now.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
They just might. Here's the serious history between these two
storied franchises, the Bears and the Steelers. First, started playing
in nineteen thirty four. Chicago bet Pittsburgh Pirates as it
was called back then the first six times these franchises met.
Then when the Pirates became the Steelers, they proceeded to
still lose the next four meetings to the Bears, and
that made the Bears ten and zero against the Steelers
(05:57):
before nineteen fifty. Since then, Chicago and this Doers have
only played eighteen times, and the Bears have gotten the
better of Pittsburgh during that stretch as well. Chicago leeds
this series nineteen eight and one, but the Steelers did
win the most recent meeting in twenty twenty one. Steelers
have had some struggles in Chicago over the years as well,
so you don't see this team very much, but they're
(06:18):
a bit of a tricky devil. You can't really take
anything from that. As we just mentioned, the last time
they met was in twenty twenty one. That was four
years ago. These teams have gotten complete facelifts since then,
but still not a favorable matchup, and usually that goes
in the Steelers' favor when you look at the rest
of the NFL.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Great point. Now we're recording this as we always do
on Tuesday evening. One guy that does kill the Bears, though,
is one Aaron Rodgers. I don't have his numbers in
front of me.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
I believe it's twenty five and four. It's his record
against the Bears all time.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Really, Yeah, okay, And I mean there's like legendary quotes
of him. I own the Bears, you know, I mean
that kind of stuff he does in a rothless Berger
versus Browns type fashion. Now, is Aaron Rodgers gonna play
this game that? I don't know?
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, let's talk about that a little bit, because we're
gonna look at the Bears defense here to kick things
off and the quarterback situation in flux for the Steelers.
It obviously just depends on if Rogers can tolerate the
pain and if he can take the snap right. Like
that's the biggest problem here. It's obviously his non throwing hands,
so there shouldn't be an issue as far as that's concerned.
(07:29):
But getting under center, which is such a big part
of Rogers's game and Arthur Smith's offense, you like to
incorporate that throughout the game plan, even catching a snap
from shotgun. You know, I hate to do this. Matt
Or maybe I don't because he went to Wells Virginia.
But Zach Frasier isn't the best at snapping the ball.
Sometimes you know, what if that thing's what if that
thing's low into the left and all of a sudden,
(07:49):
I got to use my broken wrist to try to
corral this thing that, to me is the biggest hang
up here? Am I wrong?
Speaker 1 (07:55):
I think? I mean our boy Wesley Yuler, who I
do the drive with, is the biggest West Virginia hank ever.
And he actually said freight. Fraser's done that as much
as he loves Fraser. Fraser's done that his whole WU
career too. So it's probably gonna be a wayward snap
here and there and shotgun until Fraser retires, so be it.
(08:17):
But yes, I think that's huge. I wonder about handoffs.
Would you rather be in shotgun? I would think the
answer is yes, unless there's a wayward one to your
left and then all of a sudden it's a fumble
and you're rolling around and it goes without saying too.
But this is true for any quarterback that he takes
a big shot on that hand, maybe he exits, you know,
(08:37):
in the first quarter or the first hit he hitted Diggs.
But that's not untrue for any quarterback. I mean, the
backup is going to have to be ready or the
backup might be starting, you know.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
And I'm on the fence as far as you know,
is this a good matchup for a backup quarterback to
have to play? Is it a bad matchup for the
backup quarterback to have to play? Now, the Steelers have
one of the best backup quarterbacks in football and Mason Rudoff,
and he did a really good job against the Bengals
in the second half. But here's why I'm on the fence.
Mat we mentioned it. They take the ball away a ton.
They have the most interceptions in football. You know. They
ballhawk even good starting quarterbacks. So now you have a
(09:09):
backup in that's obviously going to be vulnerable. But as
far as it being a favorable matchup, they allow a
lot of yards after the catch. Forty one point seven
percent of their passing yardage allowed is after the catch.
The Bears defense only three defenses are lower, and they
allow five point one nine yards per carry, which is
the fourth highest, So you should be able to get
(09:29):
the ball out. Rudolph Hans quick at the line of scrimmage,
high percentage passes, and you should be able to hand
it off to your running backs a lot in this game.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Yeah, and this is gonna sound negative towards Rogers, and
I only mean that one percent or two percent to
be negative towards Rogers. Would it be the worst thing
in the world in a non conference, non division game,
if you're on the fence, if he should play or
not at forty one years old, to give them a week?
(09:58):
And why I say that is I bet his knees, ankles, hamstring,
back blah blah blah, blah blah, all would say, thank you.
I love the bye week you just gave me late
in the year. I haven't had one in a long time.
Steelers had an early buye. And would it be terrible
for this passing game to game plan exclusively for a
(10:19):
different quarterback? And why I say that is so much
of what Rogers has done is predetermined at the line
of scrimmage, and so much is after the catch and
short of the sticks and get it out of your hand.
Let's just play the passing game somewhat different and see
(10:39):
how it goes. You know what I mean. Let's throw
to the mill field more, let's throw intermediate routes. More,
let's run the ball higher percentage of the time. And
then Rogers comes back, presumably the next week, and you
pick out two or three things that worked really well,
and you throw away two or three things that didn't.
And I just think the passing game could use a facelift,
(11:00):
and maybe this would be a good week to attempt that.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
No, I like where your head's at, and it is
another good favorable matchup to do that against when it
comes to this Bears defense, because this Bears defense faces
a time to throw of two point sixty nine seconds.
Only four defenses face a higher time to throw than
the Bears. And there are only two players on the
Bears that have more than three sacks, that's Gervin Dexter
(11:25):
and Montese Sweat. And the Bears did not record a
single sack last week. So they might be stealing some
of the Steelers sauce when it comes to picking the
ball off and taking the ball away, Matt, But they
are miles away as far as getting pressure on the
quarterback is concerned.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Oh right. I mean again, I think that'll be a
big offseason thing for them, is we need to find
more pass rushers. I'm glad you mentioned Dexter though he's
one of my favorite young d lineman in the league.
That he's ascending day.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
From the inside. So I mean him having four and
a half.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Yes, it's huge, that's a big accomplishment.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Yeah, and Montes' sweat is the name that everybody is
familiar with. Two. There's just not enough there for the Bears.
So to your point, you can sit in there. You've
got a quarterback that might be a little more willing
to sit into the pocket here and push the ball
downfield because he's younger, and you've got a good matchup
where there might not be that much pressure in Rudolph's
face anyway. And now I like where your head's at
when it comes to we can kind of do things
(12:18):
a little bit differently here with Rudolph. Prove that we
can do it, and then carry it into carry elements
of it into Rogers return, right.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Put it on tape at least, make people think about
it more, become a little less predictable, Steal a few
snippets out of there for when Rogers returns, and see
where it goes.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Now, I want to talk about some of the ball
hawking elements of this defense. Three players for the Bears
have at least four interceptions this year. Kevin Byron has
five and Sean Wright has four in that secondary. And
then how about the linebacker Tremaine Edmonds with four interceptions
as well. And then they have fifteen total as a team,
(13:01):
thirteen of them coming from just those three gentlemen. So
I'm sure you're keeping an eye on those three when
you're breaking the huddle and you're pacing Rootoph or if
you are Aaron Rodgers and you're scanning the defense.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Yeah, but I don't know that any of them are
superstar players. I mean, I think some of that, and
I think it's an opportunistic I think they're coached that way,
much like the Steelers, that we're gonna go crazy, go
overboard to try to take the ball away, and they'll
they'll do some things that can confuse you on the
(13:33):
back end, and they move pretty well collectively. Don't get
me wrong, But I don't think that there's a superstar
here that you have to be afraid of. You know.
Jalen Johnson, the Corners missed a lot of time. He's
a really good player. The slot Gordon's missed a lot
of time. I don't know if either one will even
play in this game. They're but really good players, But
(13:53):
I hear what you're saying. You know, you have to
be extremely, extremely conscious of their ability to take the
full ballway without a doubt.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
They're also so bad, as we mentioned, against the run
as a defense, an injury that you got to keep
an eye on if you're the Steelers this week. Not
just Aaron Rodgers, but Jalen Warren only playing three snaps
in the second half last week, but he was averaging
six point two yards per carry against the Bengals. It
looked like a more explosive running game against Cincinnati Matt
(14:23):
Pittsburgh's two point six percent explosive run rate is the
worst in the league. Chicago allows an explosive run rate
of six point six percent that is fifth highest in
the league. I already mentioned this, but they allow five
point one nine yards per carry, that's fourth highest. So,
whether it's Warren, whether it's gain Well, whether you want
to splash in some more Caleb Johnson, you got to
be able to run the ball against this team. You
(14:44):
remember how he said last week. If the Steelers offense
wasn't able to do this and that and the other thing.
We'd be worried about it. Because of how bad the
Bengals are. I'd be a little worried if they aren't
able to run the ball on this Bears defense, especially
when you're on the road. Yeah, the game just kind
of begs you to do it, you know, back up quarterback.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Maybe thousand percent in the Windy City, Yes, you know,
it's always a soft track, you know, like I would
imagine there's some kind of weather. It is going to
be late November in Chicago. And I didn't quite realize
this until I start digging into the stats, but there throw.
The Steelers are throwing the ball at the twelfth highest
(15:21):
rate in the league. That's too high for me. I
want to be the twelfth lowest rate in the league.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
That kind of comes with Rogers, though, doesn't it. That's
kind of the Rogers territory, because the Jets were, like, what,
the second or the most percentage team to throw the
football last year, and you were kind of like, what
the heck they shouldn't be doing that, And it's not
that drag here.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
They had the fewest rushing attempts in the league.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Yeah, so I think that might be a little bit
of the Rogers territory. But hey, like you said, maybe
this is an opportunity to throw it a little less
because you're game planning around a different quarterback with Mason
Rudolph probably in there. Let's slip it over to the
Bears side of the Bears offensive side of the ball,
they average five point eight yards per play. The Steelers
defense allows five point four yards per play, but it's
(16:03):
just four point eight over their past three games. And man,
I think that was something that was a little overshadowed
in the Bengals win because you got the big splash plays,
the two defensive scores, but you really shut down that
Bengals offense for the most part, a little shaky in
the run game. I think people are ignoring that a
little bit. There's a lot of holes there for the
Bengals to run through. But their past defense was phenomenal.
They really shut Chase down as best as you possibly can.
(16:27):
And when you think about it, Matt, the defense could
have won the game by themselves. They scored fourteen points,
they only gave up twelve. I mean, it was a
really just dominant performance more than just the defensive scores.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Yeah, I mean, it didn't allow a touchdown to a
great offense, a great passing game, you know, phenomenal wide receivers.
And I'm not going to fight you on the Chase
Brown stuff, but since the first game, Chase Brown's come
on pretty strong. I mean as a receiver. Yeah, It's
not the worst running game in the league anymore that
people remember, that's for sure. And if you watch the
(17:01):
All twenty two, the Steelers played a really really high
percentage of two high safeties. They played a lot of
two man coverage, so I'm not saying stopping the run
was an afterthought, but it wasn't priority number one, and
flat out it just worked. I mean, the game plan
was great.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
A big problem with the Steelers defense is forcing three
and outs. They forced the sixth. They forced the sixth
fewest three and outs per drive in Pittsburgh's opponent's average
six point seventy nine plays per drive. That is the
highest in the league. Hey, time of possession is a
problem for this team. They actually won the time of
position battle against the Bengals by ten seconds, so first,
since here's they finally got one woo in that category.
(17:44):
But that is a two way street. And I know
we think of it a lot as the offense, Matt,
but the defense is allowed to get off the field too.
And the Steelers' defense.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Oh yeah, I've been harping and I'm a the loan
here and it's low hanging fruit. The time of possession
is as big a problem as any on this team
from start to finish, from Week one until middle of
November now, and early on I thought a lot of
it was the defense's fault, you know, like Jets game
and things like that. They just couldn't get off the
(18:10):
field at all. Lately, I blame the offense more. Now again,
the Bengals defense is historically bad and they did barely, barely,
barely win the time possession battle finally, But there can
be misleading stats with time possession too. Is if you
score twice on defense, well you don't get a chance
(18:32):
to possess the football, you know. So, I mean like
when we previewed the Colts game, it's like, well, the
Colts are pretty mediocre in time and possession, maybe this
is the week the Steelers can control the football. Well,
the culture mediocre in time possession because they hand them
all Jonathan Taylor and he takes it eighty yards. You know,
So sometimes game flow can screw up time possession numbers,
(18:55):
and I felt like the Steelers controlled the game in
a encouraging fashion against the Bengals on both sides of
the ball for the first time in maybe all year.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Well, the Bears offense does a good job as far
as time of possession is concerned. Their fifth best in
the league, possess at thirty one minutes and forty three
seconds on average, and they only throw the ball on
fifty three point five percent of their snaps. Matt, only
seven offenses throw at a lower rate, and when they're
at home it's even lower. They only throw at fifty
one percent of the time when they're playing against in Chicago.
(19:27):
So not surprising, right, That's kind of what the Lions
where Bill Tomlin Ben Johnson was there a strong running
game that they relied on offensively, and he just carries
that over to Chicago.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Yeah, and a running quarterback helps. He's a very good runner.
He's fast as could be. He's an unbelievable athlete. And
what's funny is you might think, well, look, I mean,
this is a team that's in first place. As you mentioned,
they have a bunch of wins. Are they just closing
teams out, No, because every one of their games goes
down to the wire.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
I like his receiving cor Matt, but they're not really
catching on, are they. They didn't have a pass catcher
last week eclipsed forty five yards. Yeah, seven different pass
catchers with at least one hundred and ninety two receiving yards.
But I think it's a very defined room. I mean, Roma,
Dunza and DJ Moore are very solid one twos. I
think I like Burden as a rookie, Zakias has value.
(20:21):
Du Ferne is even a very nice depth piece. Like
I like this receiving room. It's weird that no one
is really separating, although maybe because it's so deep that
that's why you're seeing capable and spread it out a
little bit.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Yeah, and there's a little weirdness here too because just
watching tape and usage and all those things. Yeah, what
you said, it's one hundred percent right. But at Donsay
is clearly the one. You know, they scheme things up
for him. DJ Moore runs a lot of like go
routes to open up space for others. You know he
doesn't get featured as much. Burden all of a sudden
(20:56):
is coming on like Gangbusters and taking over that number
three roll. And they drafted a tight end in the
first round even though they had cole Kmet So part
of it is just a lot of mouse to feed.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
And Caleb Williams, we talked about him a little bit
at the beginning of the show. You can't really say
definitively one way or the other how he is in
the NFL. I think he's done a good job of
kind of avoiding being label to bust and we're kind
of moving past that now. He's an adequate NFL quarterback.
Now it's just about defining where that ceiling is. What
(21:29):
is he going to reach as far as the height
of his powers is concerned. And boy, you were talking
about a little bit there when you talk about his athleticism,
but he has every tool, Like if you want to
look at it from a baseball perspective, he's a five
tool player and he's got the great coach right now
and a commitment as you illustrated in this podcast, building
up the offensive side of the ball that I'm pretty
(21:50):
optimistic if I'm a Bears fan I'm feeling good about
the quarterback right now and the situation around him.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Yes, one thousand percent. I mean, as we laid out,
but even on a week the week basis, lately it's
getting better and better. Now he's had six games where
he has under a Six of his ten games he
is under a sixty percent completion rate, and he had
his lowest of the season this past week. So he
(22:17):
still misses throws. The big knock on him was he
took so many sacks, and that was even at USC
That was even you know, all through his college career.
Kind of thinks he's Lamar that can just extend to
you know, four or five seconds into the play. But
lately he's been extending but not taking the sacks. And
(22:40):
his athleticism is really really good, and his arm strength
and arm talent frankly is like Mahomesy in you know,
he'll miss more, but he makes throws that people should
throw this term around way too much that there's not
many guys in the league that can make that throw. Well,
you underestimate how many awesome quarterbacks in the league if
(23:00):
you say those things. But this guy is right there
with all of.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Them, and he's got a great running game to go
with it. Like we said, the Bears generated four point
eight five yards per rush, sixth most in the league.
Pittsburgh allows an explosive run rate of six point three
percent that is the seventh highest. Last week, the Bears
ran for one hundred and forty yards ninety by DeAndre Swift,
and that was Swift's first game of the season with
twenty plus carries in third game with ninety plus rushing yards.
(23:26):
But you hinted at the rookie Kyle Moong guy earlier,
Matt seventh round pick. He's really coming on, isn't he.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Yeah, he's a little more of the David Montgomery and
Swift is more of the Gibbs, you know. And that's
the light extreme example. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I take the
Lions guys a thousand times out of a thousand, but.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
It's the same thing. Ben Johnson's just kind of xerox
and over the philosophy.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Right, because it worked very, very well, and Swift has
been more reliable this year. You know. I think he's
a good back.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Yeah, I think DeAndre Switch is a good and solid back.
I think it's more scheme driven when it comes to
the Bears, though, Yeah, what I mean, it's not like
these superstar running backs that you have to worry about
them running down your throat no matter what. But it
is something that you have to worry about. You mentioned
Kayleb Williams doing a better job as far as extending
plays but not taking sacks. The Bears do take a
sack on four point three percent of their dropbacks. That
is the sixth highest rate in the league. Minnesota last
(24:23):
week blitz Kayleb Williams on sixty six point seven percent
of his dropbacks. How is he when he faces blitz?
Is he good now? Getting better at finding that weakness
in the secondary that's always there when a blitz comes.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
So I don't want to brush over the sixty six
percent blitz rate because that's like that's gonna lead any
game probably of any year. That's too Yeah, it's Flores
and that's him getting extreme. That's an extreme coordinator getting extreme.
So clearly a smart coordinator thought blitzing this guy is
(24:59):
the way to go, and that's also what the Vikings do.
But I think he handled it pretty well, and I
think he's getting better and better at dealing with pressure
and blitz and finding answers and his supporting cast helps,
including his coach, But he's not the best in the
league at it.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
You know, Let's take a look at some key matchups
that we have here in this game before we get
out of here. Looking at it from the Steelers' perspective.
Whoever plays quarterback Mason Rudolph or Aaron Rodgers versus that
Bear secondary. We named some of the players that have
a lot of interceptions, but this is a team that
leads the league in interceptions with fifteen. It's going to
(25:36):
be a day that the quarterbacks going to want to
protect the football make an emphasis on that.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Yeah, and I don't have much to add, I mean,
but they it's not a fluke that this team takes
a ball away like crazy. And you opened the show saying, well,
I mean, we didn't go down this road, but we
have before. When the Steelers win the turnover battle, they're
really hard to beat. And when they cause a turnover,
they've only lost one game. And all these stuff goes
(26:01):
hand in hand that these are the most these are
the two most turnover driven teams in the league.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
You mentioned too that the Bears spent a lot on
their offensive line this offseason, a lot of investment in
protecting Caleb Williams.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Well.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
One guy was a homegrown talent first round pick by
the Bears in twenty twenty three. Darnell Wright is our
other key matchup. He's the right tackle that'll be going
up against TJ. Watt. Almost always lean in the favor
of TJ. Watt in this and I have a feeling
you do too.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
I do, but this is one of my favorite young
linemen in the league. He is really coming on fast.
This is an extreme comparison, but he has a lot
of Penny soul to him, and they use them the
same way where they'll get him out in space, crushing
linebackers and defensive backs. He's a really, really good athlete.
(26:51):
He's gotten better and better. Usually offensive tackles as the
Steelers of Witness don't just come in the league and dominate,
and he didn't. But now he's really starting to hit
that strike for Broderick Jones's draft class and he's I
wonder how much they'll leave Watt alone on him because
he's a very, very rapidly ascending player.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Matt. You know what, Sometimes teams fall on a trap
though they think that their tackles great leave Watt on
an island. That's a favor for the Steelers. We've seen
that so many times.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Colts is the real reason, the reason, he's.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Got him right right.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Yeah, that's why we're paying a big buck. I think
you should chip.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
All right, that'll do it for us on this podcast,
but not for this week as far as Steelers Talk
is concerned. A ton more of that with Matt on
the Drive, myself on the Blitz, and then Matt and
I will reconvene on Sunday at nine am on DVE
to get our coverage started of Steelers and Bears one
o'clock kickoff in Chicago between two teams leading the AFC
(27:50):
and NFC North format. I'm Tom. Thanks for listening to
the Advanced Scout.
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