December 17, 2024 • 25 mins
Matt and Tom break down the upcoming matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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. There's a tough one against the Philadelphia Eagles last week.
They dropped to ten and four. Now they go to
Baltimore to face the nine and five Ravens. If the
Steelers win, they get the AFC North and Matt before
we get to the Ravens matchup, the second Ravens matchup
of the season. The return trip for the Pittsburgh Steelers
down to Baltimore, and he thoughts about the Eagles game,
where is that one you kind of just you know,
(00:27):
crumple up and throw away and just say we win
this week, we win the North, and that's our main goal.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
I mean, I definitely think that's the approach. And I'm
not trying to make light of it. But like when
I did the pregame show with Tim Benz, he always
does a we opened the pre game pre pregame show
with globally speaking, you know, kind of a tomlinism, you know, right,
and what you're globally speaking going into this game, and
my globally speaking going to the Eagles game was beat
(00:54):
the Ravens. I like it, you know, what I mean, Like,
I'm not saying nobody cares about the Eagles game or
you're punting, But I'm also not one hundred percent certain
if that's the super Bowl that elliot og and Joby
and Pickens don't play. You know, like the goal has
to be to win the super Bowl, and your best
chance of doing that is winning the division, and your
best chance of doing that is beating the Ravens this week.
(01:16):
And if you happen to lose an NFC game and
it's not pretty, it really is a blip on the radar. Yeah, Now,
there's certainly things that happened that game that I don't
love and don't paint the Steelers in a great light.
I mean, hardly snapping the ball in the second half
isn't wonderful, you know, I mean they were the inferior team.
But I do think the organization, Tomlin, they'll never admit
(01:37):
this should and would and I would beat the Ravens.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I think I think that should be the mindset too, right,
because someone might play Devil's Advocate to both of us
because we share the same mindset and say, oh, I
mean you're just giving up on the two seed? What
about the two seed. What about the two seed? Bill's
beating Detroit in Detroit pretty much side sealed and delivered
that thing for that now, not losing to the Patriots
or the Jets, which is all they have left on
their schedules. So right, you're stuck in the three seed.
(02:03):
You're not moving up to two or one.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
And too much difference between three and two when it depends.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
On if you're going to Buffalo or Buffalo's coming here, and.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Someone can knock both you true too, I mean, I
don't know that I'm putting hamstring, George Pickens hamstring in
the way.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Of that a fleeting chance to get the number two
seeds exactly all right, Well, the rain making light of
that loss, I mean, it was not pretty. The Ravens
now welcome the Steelers to town, and they need to
get a win or else the AFC North is out
of their grass this year. The Steelers take it. Here's
a stat that you have that really puts into perspective
on how great the Ravens are. They have produce fifteen
(02:38):
more touchdowns, one hundred and fifteen more rush attempts, three
and sixty eight more rushing yards. That's insane.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
That's insane.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Sixty seven more rushing first downs, also insane, two point
two more yards per rush attempts, one point four more
yards per pass attempt ten more passing touchdowns, and their
defense is twenty two more sacks than they have allowed.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Like it would be understandable if it was boy, this
is the best running team in the league and they
stopped the run really well and that's all they do.
But then all that passing stuff on top and sacks
and it's like, wow.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Your stat pack is full of statistics that make the
Ravens out to be an elite team in the NFL. Yeah,
they are. They are legitimate Super Bowl contender, should be
in the class with Buffalo, maybe Philadelphia, Detroit, Like their
numbers are right there. I think it's hard for the
Steelers but.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
The Raiders, Yes, But it's also hard.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
For I think us Steelers fans to kind of wrap
our head around that because we own them so much.
We just dominate the Ravens like they can't beat that good.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
They can't beat us, right, I mean I understand, like
in power ranks, who should be ahead of each other?
Steven Steelers are the Ravens. I'm sure people outside of
Pittsford like, Baltimore's definitely a better team, and I think
Baltimore on their best day against Joe neutral team is better.
It's better than maybe anyone in the league. I don't
want to get too nerdy, but Dvoa that used to
(03:55):
be football outsiders, they have Baltimore number one by their
metric in the whole league, and I kind of understand it.
But they find ways to lose games. Their kickers aren't
very good. They lead the league in penalties. You can
see some things that you know, cause losses.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
I was just going to bring the penalty thing up too.
A lot of Steelers Nation is upset about how the
game was officiated in Philadelphia. It was rather one sided.
Let's just put it that way.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
There were a couple of players that were really poor, yes, But.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
The Ravens, on the other hand, you know, you might
get a little karma back in your direction Steelers Nation
this week, because they're just an incredibly undisciplined football team
over in Baltimore. In Week eleven against the Steelers, twelve
penalties for eighty yards. They were big penalties too. Yeah,
last week they committed twelve penalties for one hundred and
twelve yards. They were playing the Giant. Why are you
committing penalties like that against the Absolutely it is in
(04:43):
their DNA to commit these penalties. It's not something that
they fleshed out of their system at the bye week.
They I'm sure they spent a lot of time focusing
on it, but for whatever reason, they can't get it
out of them.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
I know. And it's Steelers are so good at winning
in the margins, you know, turnover, differential penalty, Yeah, special teams,
your kicker. The Ravens have been the options are missing
all of that.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
It might be their undoing. This is the set that
we have said before about the rest that the Ravens have,
But really it really rings true when you're in the
eleven day stretch of three games, because.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
It doesn't have played apply to these couple weeks. Four
teams are on the.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Savens are in the same track. Eleven games are sorry,
three days in three three games in eleven days. But
for the entire schedule, the Ravens have sixteen more days
of rest than their opponents. That is the greatest rest
advantage in the NFL since nineteen ninety that's when they
began to track this stuff.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
So it's likely the most ever since, the.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Biggest rest advantage since the Super Bowl era, and furthermore
mat on top of that. I know we just said
that it's equal now, but it's really not equal because
the Chiefs and the Steelers and I might be speaking
ignorant here, but I don't think the Texans had bye
weeks before this stretch.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Run hit that Houston had the same week.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Okay, so they're coming off rather fresh. Yeah, yeah, you know,
they're looking rather fresh for the stretch of three games,
whereas Pittsburgh Kansas City is not.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
No, no, it's not.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
That's pretty wonky that the NFL did that.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Yeah, and again that's un necessarious Steeler thing. But it
makes me mad that any team, I don't care if
it's the Ravens, but especially the Ravens, it gets such
a huge rest advantage over their opponents. That's something that
they need to address. Next schedule comes around.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
A quick refresher on the series history between these two teams.
This rivalry started in ninety six nineteen ninety six, when
the Ravens joined the NFL. Since then, Pittsburgh leads the
series thirty six to twenty five, including four playoff matchups
in the playoffs. The Steelers have lost just once against
the Baltimore Ravens. Pittsburgh won six of the first seven meetings.
They've also won eight of the last nine. Steelers have
swept Baltimore in three of the past four seasons and
(06:35):
look to do so again after winning at home earlier
this season. Mike Tomlin is twenty two and sixteen against
the Ravens. John Harbaugh is fifteen and twenty one against
the Steelers. Those records were really close to each other
until these past nine games, where every one has just
been running it up on him. You know, that's so
lopsided in a rivalry like this. Matt I keep I
said the lassination. I said this in week eleven too.
(06:55):
It's due the Bills do They're gonna beat the Steelers.
They have to beat the Steelers. It's coming. It's coming.
It didn't and now I feel the same way about
this one, like the pendulum has to swing back in
that direction eventually. The Ravens are too good for it
not to. This isn't Packers Bears. Where the Bears are
so miserable right where the other team is so miserable
they have no check. The Ravens are good to great
during this entire stretch.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
And I even want to take a step further, Like, Okay,
I give the Steelers all the credit in the world
for being Lamar's kryptonite, but is that going to keep
up for the next ten years?
Speaker 2 (07:27):
I can't imagine, you know what I mean? Like, this
guy's too good, way too good.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Some of his numbers are bulgers, like all time stuff
for a twenty seven year old.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Yeah, let's skip ahead to the Baltimore offense since you
brought that up, Because Lamar Jackson really is impressive, and
I think Josh Allen's running away with the MVP. Yeah,
but you look at the stats. Jackson's playing better than
Alan and a lot of statistical categories.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Put this way, man, Jackson's playing better than you read
last year when he won it.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Yes, better. He has two less touchdown passes than Joe Burrow,
who's waking for touchdown passes every game, and he has
three interceptions. That's it. On the entire bad play one
twenty passer rating for Jackson the best in football by
like ten to fifteen points.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Yes, it's insane.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Uh so the Ravens offense. Speaking of insane, six point
nine yards per play. That's the best in the NFL
by point six yards.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
That's a massive discression.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Huge. Last week they put up seven point five yards
per play against the horrendous Right, that's still impressed.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Every team plays bad teams.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
In Week eleven against the Steelers, they produce six point
one yards per play. They could move the ball against
the Steelers in.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Week nice junk every time he snapped the ball.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Pittsburgh's defense gives up five point three yards per play.
They're third in points per game. The Ravens offense to
twenty nine point nine, and they are first in yards
per game at four hundred and twenty four point one.
Only the lines and Bills have scored more than the
fifty one touchdowns that the Ravens have scored. And the
Ravens turn a set of downs into a new set
of downs or a touchdown at a seventy eight percent clip. Gee,
(08:51):
only the Bills and the lines are better. So that's
what I was saying, Like they.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Are in the catch so many sentences. Only one thing
better best in the league, you know, right.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Right, But it's always the big three in the like.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
It doesn't matter what it is, it's not like just
the running game or rushing quarterbacks. I mean, it doesn't
matter what category it is, they're at the top.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Is the difference this year obviously what we illustrated with
Lamar passing the football but then pushing the ball down
the field to eight point one yards per pass attempt.
I think are the only offense in the league that's
over eight yards on a passage.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Which is crazy. I also think they're just one year
more comfortable in Todd Monkins offense too, and they have
really good weapons. And people don't like to give Lamar credit,
but he gets better every year. I mean as a passer,
remember when he would only throw in the middle of
the field, or he's not that good from the pocket.
All those things are long.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Titans destroyed him in his first ever playoff game because
he just took the middle of the field away. He
couldn't do anything.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Against best of luck doing that.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
He only had four incomplete passes on twenty five attempts
against the Giants. Last week, Lamar Jackson did. He threw
for five touchdown passes. Due the math at home runs
pretty good. That's more touchdown passes than incompletions. That was
Jackson's fifth career game with at least five touchdown passes
in five four is insane. It's gonna be my Matt stats.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah, No one else has more than three of those games.
Fifth career game with at least five touchdowns and five
or fewer incompletions. No one else more than three. This
was also Jackson's sixth career five touchdowns, zero interception game.
Tom Brady and Drew Brees are the only two quarterbacks
with more such games. And we've played those are running
backs right like classic you know, all typical running back
quarterbacks like Lamar Jackson gets the stigma.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Of Yeah, and I think Brady and Breeze played a
few more games of.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Them, maybe a little bit. This might be the most
impressive online.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
This was also Jackson's fourth career game with five or
more passing touchdowns and fifty plus rushing yards. The rest
of the NFL in the history of the league, no
Super Bowl era, none of that in the history of
the league also has four combined. So Jackson has tied
the rest of the NFL with games with five or
more passing touchdowns and fifty plus rushing yards. And he's
only twenty seven years old. It's like two years older
(10:53):
than Canny Pickett.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Yeah, he's two MVPs. Right, it's a remarkable career.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Now let me ask you this, does he get maybe
the MVP swung back in his direction if they do
win the AFC North.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
He's deserving. I mean, I would vote for Allan.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Feels like it's his year, he's due. They like to
spread that around.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
It don't lose the Raiders and things like that, and
he's having every bit as good a year. Maybe it's
not as pretty statistically, but I.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Think they get a little fatigueish when it comes to
like Lamar again.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Yeah, I don't know. I think there's definitely some of that.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Although Lamar did smoke Josh Allen in their one meeting
this year, so he's got that going for him.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
We're right too, right.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Jackson leads the league in yards per drop back as
well as passer rating. He's a league high twenty two
touchdowns thrown on past his ten or more yards down
the field. So this isn't just drop it off to
Zay Flowers and he takes it to the house. He's
throwing the ball down the field and he's doing it
efficiently and effectively.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
And it's not even like they're awesome after the catch.
It's not like Perty's hitting Samuel and Ayuk for all
these big gains. I mean's him throwing the ball down
the field. It's almost monotonous to his stats.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
What do you think about Bateman last week? Kind of
breaking out with the two touchdowns yea twenty plus yards each.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yeah, I played.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Better since they traded for Deontay Johnson and Deantay hasn't
got on the field, but like Bateman almost took that
as like a wake up call and he delivered big
time and good for the Ravens because Johnson is tad
he's ever So I.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Think Bateman's a high quality number two. I liked him
coming out of school. His first round pick. Had some
injuries and stuff, but he's a quality player.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Mark Andrews received just eight point three percent target share
against the Giants. That's his lowest in this week four. However,
this was the first game of the season in which
Andrews eclipse to seventy five percent route participation seventy nine
percent when Isaiah Likely was active, So.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
That's a little misleading because they were winning so much too.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
And Andrews has been a huge part of the offense. Yeah,
he had a little bit of a slow start to
the season, but he's a touchdown merchant now, like he
just gets in the end zone.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
You're too old or too young. But I always used
the mister mom reference. It's his wooby.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
I know Michael Keaton was in that movie.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
He was in that movie, but his kid had this
blanky that he always his wooby would never let go of.
And Adam or Andrews and Jackson have grown up in
the NFL together, and I think the Steelers one of
the reasons they have a lot of success against Jackson
is they'll put Menka on Andrews. They'll they take me
away a little bit, you know, and Andrews. It might
be their most import important pass catcher.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
The Ravens three point one four seconds of average time
to throw is the highest in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Yeah, this is a little disheartening too.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Still, only the Bills, Broncos and Packers have taken fewer
sacks than Baltimore twenty two and the Ravens are being
blitzed at the league's highest rate thirty four point two percent,
tied with Carolina. I get that stat though he's Lamar Jackson.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
He's mar Jackson.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
He creates three point one four seconds of times in
yes the ball because he just this escapability is unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
So I just finished recording the Drive with Dale and
he had Lamar blitz versus not blitz. He destroys the blitz.
But for whatever reason, the league is blitzing him at
the highest rate and use the Steelers won't.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Well, I was just gonna say, you'd think they'd be
watching some film on how the Steelers play him and
realize that never blitz Lamar Jackson. It's all about contained,
contain you most.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
You over front four like Cam. That's true, you know, And.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
You got to give credit to Watt here. You have
done this so much. Matt to the unselfishness that he
plays with when he plays Lamar Jackson. It's astounding. Not
a lot of pass rushers will be wired that way.
I'm getting my sacks right, I'm going to get my
pressure like I'm not going to I'm not going to
take a game off where I kind of just you know,
play cat and mouse.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
With Rosen and keep. Yeah, that's an organizational strength of
the Steelers that really works in their favorite against Lamar.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Now you still have to stop Derrick Henry even though
you did it the first time against them, or did you,
Matt He had sixty five yards on thirteen carries in
that first game. That's a pretty good take, right, No,
I'm saying for Henry, like thirteen carries to get to
sixty five yards is good. Like He's right, They just
stop giving him the football for whatever reason a game,
in a game that was within a touchdown the entire time.
It wasn't like they were losing by a lot and
(14:46):
they needed to pass.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
I do think Harbaugh can outsmart himself a little bit
in Steeler games.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I think that is the biggest thing when it comes
to this game. It's Harball going to get down into
Tomlin's level, because you know Tom was going to try
to bring him down into that. Especially Pick is limited
or not playing like it's going to be another eighteen
to sixteen game. It's honestly on Harbaugh to either say, okay,
we'll we'll do what you want Pittsburgh and play that
game and see if we can grind it out this time.
(15:11):
And I've got a kicker that's missing a lot of
field goals, which doesn't bode well in games like that,
or I'm just gonna throw for five touchdown passes with
my quarterback and you're gonna have to beat us like
you beat Cincinnati earlier this year.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Yeah. I have two notes on that is. First off,
I do believe Harbaugh overthinks or really gets in his
own head. When he plays Burrow, he knows it's a race,
opens it up right. When he plays the Steelers, he
plays like it's a race to thirteen.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
I feel like he plays like it's a race to
thirty five against everybody else in the NF maybe. I mean,
like even in the Giants game. I mean, yeah, they stink,
but he was still throwing the ball a ton during
the football game. I don't know something about this Steelers matchup,
and now that it's gaining more and more momentum, another
one where the Steelers want gets in your head. I
(16:00):
think it's in the Ravens head big time.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Like I don't know, horriball, but I have great respect
for him as a coach. But like he was the
guy that had to go undefeated in the in the preseason,
you know, like that kind of stuff matters to him.
Like he's very aware of this stuff, no doubt in
the last note on Henry, it's a lot like Barkley, like,
just don't let him bust the eighty yarder, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Well, Henry only needs twenty six more rushing yards. He's
going to get that to reach his fourth career season
with fifteen hundred plus on the ground. Barry Sanders with
five is the only one who has more, and his
fourth such season with Tye Henry, with Walter Payton, Eric Dickerson,
and Edrin James pretty good. Henry also needs just twenty
four rushing guards to hit one eleven thousand for his
career and one rushing yard to tie John Riggins with
(16:41):
the seventh most in NFL history. Henry's going to the
Hall of Fame. I mean, it's he's just a lot
of game. Yes, he's at that point in his career now.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Yeah, he's.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Rising up the rushing charts.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Ye, yep, easy, Hall of Famer.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Now, this Ravens defense, Matt switching our attention to that
side of the ball. I think that's again we said
this in the first meeting and it didn't turn out
to be because it was eighteen to sixteen. This is
where you attack them, This is where you have an
advantage against them. Pickens be damned. We don't know what
his status is going to be while we record this
on Tuesday.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
I'm betting you see him.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
You think he's gonna play.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
I think everybody play.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
It's just a weak defense, to be honest with you.
Aside from the running defense, it's a great running defense.
They can make you one dimensional, but you should allow
them to make you one dimensional because they're so bad
against that dimension. And I'm of course talking about a
pass defense that gives up more passing yards per game
or excuse me, Jacksonville is the only defense that gives
up more passing yards per game than this. Ravens passing
tams to give up tw hundred and fifty nine yards
(17:32):
per game through the air.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Yeah, and some of its teams coming back in garbage time,
of course. And the one counter I will say, borrow.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Rose that hint had avertises time with those two games.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
So the one thing they have gotten better at I
don't know if you caught this or not, is they
allowed so many big plays the first ten weeks or
so over the season, and it's gotten much much better.
But the teams they play have been like the Giants
a bye week. The Eagles who are just running, I
mean they that has something to do with it. But
at least they're not allowing the breakdowns. And I also
(18:06):
think that was a lot of their penalty stuff was
these corners are all highly penalized because they were blowing
coverages and dragging guys down. That's that's a little bit.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Well, that's why Pickens is such a big deal. Absolutely,
you saw it in the first They couldn't handle them right. Absolutely,
he can draws the but hey, what's going on with
Marcus Williams. Marcus Williams for the Ravens, the safety.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Oh, he's gotten healthy, scratch, he's getting bench. Yeah, that's crazy.
They're middle of the field, Minka and I think.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
They traded for him just two years ago and he
was a huge addition to that second great player out.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
So now they're playing Washington there it was like five
eight or Hamilton plays there some No, it screwed him
up a little bit. They counted on them.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
They're extremely healthy though, Baltimore like, there's no injury that
you really have to deal with when it comes to
this game, whereas stee Whats are dealing with a lot.
But as you said, it seems like the momentum is
going at least on Tuesday, that everybody's going to be
playing for the Pittsburgh That Baltimore was giving up thirty
six touchdowns this season, only seven teams have allowed more.
So they're giving up touchdowns. You can throw the ball
(19:08):
on them. None of this translated the first time the
Steelers met them, though, because they didn't score a damn
touchdown and they couldn't throw the ball at all. They
scored eighteen points.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
And maybe none of the stuff we're talking about translates
at all because of Steelers Ravens period.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
You know what I mean, how this game goes.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
There's some amazing stats and every time I dig into it,
I find more and maybe none of it matters at all.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Last week, with Pickens on the sidelines, Austin led the
Steelers receivers with five catches for sixty five yards. It's
a pretty solid game for mister Calvin Austin.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Yeah, real quick. I hope that he's established himself now
that a very high percentage of snaps with two receivers
on the field is Austin and Pickens. I like that. Yeah,
there are your two, you know, like, let's.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Russ likes him rust thros and ball, He's on that asset,
he's getting open.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Yes, yes, yes, No.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Other pass catcher had more than twenty two receiving yards
though the spike cal Austin emerging throughout this season and
even a little bit last week. That's just the offense
was a non threat for those Philadelphia Eagles.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
I mean they did, that's true, like forty three snaps.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Huh, you're right, and Russ has shown an ability to
get better as the game went on. I've kind of
over seen that. I gotta say this, though, Matt, I
just popped into my head. We're talking about Austin. We're
talking about Russ. The flea flicker play. If that's better
arm strength, if that's throat, if that's a younger Russell Wilson,
that's that's six points. I mean he was open. It
was way open. I mean I see Ben Roethlisberger's deep
(20:32):
bomb just like Austin could have run for twenty more
yards yeap and just falling right under it. So great,
great play that they needed in the moment, and I
give Austin a lot of credit for adjusting back to it.
But it was left on the table and Nause fumbles
fast forward a couple of plays later. Agreed of the
Ravens had forty four sacks this year. That is only
behind the Broncos and the Texans. But the Ravens only
(20:53):
blitz on twenty point eight percent of opposing drop backs,
the seventh lowest in the league. So how are they
doing it?
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Well?
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Forty four of their sacks excuse me, twenty two of
their forty four sacks are by Kyle van Noy who
has nine, Odefe Oway who has eight, and Mattabuque has
five from the interior. So those are your big three
when it comes to getting sacks, and there's a lot
of balance there when it comes to those three. And
I remember doing this week eleven, there wasn't that much balance,
And that's kind of Van Noy doing a lot of
the heavy lifting there. But he's found some partners.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
In that always growing up. Yeah, if you remember, he
came out of Penn State with zero sacks. He's a
combine freak and pause player.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Yeah, five is really good for him. He'll probably he'll
seven something like that at the end of the season,
which is solid for his position.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Real quick on Van Neyd, Like if he was a Steeler,
so many of you listening would have van Neyd jerseys,
Like he is a do it all Belichick, you know,
vrable type player.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
But dude was on his couch last year halfway through
the season.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
But he's not her Big or high Smith or wat like.
I don't even know how many snaps you'd play here.
And I really respect him as a player, but he's
not a twitchy pass rusher. Yeah, Like he's smart, he's
technically sound. He's a really good player, but he's not
Von Miller come off the edge or something.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
You know, there's a reason why he was on his
couch staring at retirement at some point last year. And
that comes on the Ravens does good at the end
of the last season. This year, his career has been extended.
But yeah, it's not like he was an easy side
for everybody. No Philadelphia, how about this blitzed Wilson just
once in fifteen. They were all over him too. So
that's that's very discouraging to hear.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Don't love that, No, I do not.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Naji Harris one last note before we get to our matchups.
Harris just hasn't been very effective the running game in
general just hasn't been very effective at all.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Three nine is not going to cut it.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
He played sixteen snaps in week fifteen, Harris did. That
is a career low. But they had no snaps in
the second half.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
They were coming back and Warren so healthy.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Let me ask you this. You think he was benched
for the entire game or just a series? Sure, hope,
not just the series, you think, and it just came
back to bite him where they didn't have another series
after that.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
I think so. I assume that's what happened.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
I believe you're right. I want you to be right.
I even don't like him being benched for that one series.
In a game like that, he never fumbled.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
I would never be critical of him. I wouldn't mention
it all week, you know I would. It was a
bad play.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
It's such a fluke fumble too. He didn't get the
ball peanut punched out of his nose. Did like I
get off the ball for a second. It was a brain.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Fart punter fumbling a snap or something. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Since Week ten, Harris has a fifty one percent rush
share and a thirty one percent route participation, So it's
like a pretty good fifty fifty split between him and Warren.
Ever since we got.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Help frinkling little Patterson and all of a sudden, Harris.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
That's not sprinkling.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Done that.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Yeah, I've been about done with that, but it was
overkill last week. He was out there for that series. Yeah,
he looks like he just got off playing at the
YMCA or something like that.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
He looks too heavy and maybe too old.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
All right, let's get to the key matchups here, the
biggest key matchup.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
I mean, they're like some of them are just so obvious, but.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Well, this is a matchup that the Steelers have been
amazing at. Yeah, and that's Lamar Jackson versus the past
rush plan because it's not just you know, pen your
years back and get after him. It is a specific
plan like we will victim. We saw in Hard Knocks
before the Bengals game, Tomlin alluded to when he was
meeting with the team. We have the Lamar Jackson plan
and then you put on the PowerPoint. Well, let's talk
about our Joe Burrow plan. Like I can't wait to
(24:06):
see if I can't wait to see next not this week,
but next week's Hard Knocks. When they're doing the Ravens stuff.
That's the Lamar Jackson plan, giving a little inside look
on what this team does so well against him. But
that past verse discipline is a big part of it.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
It's massive. That's where it starts.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
And then you went with the quarterback. On the Steelers
side of things too, it's it's Russell Wilson versus Roquan Smith.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
I don't think they're gonna have a corner following Pickens.
They don't have a Garrett versus more situations. I don't
really know what to go with.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Roquan had a little trouble getting up to speed this
year without Patrick Queen, and we saw Queen have trouble
without Roquan Queen.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
They just bend Simpson, Okay.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Queen has come on great for the Steelers. Yeah, he's
been everything you want from him. Now. Roquan's starting to
figure things out with himself, and.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
That's one of my projects for tonight. I want to
look at like the last he done or so with
Roquan because last time they played wash he's not quite
the four seas right right.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Right, Steelers and Ravens at four thirty pm on Saturday.
It is a short week for your Pittsburgh Steelers. They
go to the Baltimore Ravens Stadium to try to win
the AFC North against them. We will start our local
coverage at twelve thirty and that's with Matt Williamson and
Tim Benz and then at two thirty Steel's Audio network
(25:15):
picks up with Jerry Dulac, Mike Perzuda and Bob Labriola.
Thanks always for giving us a listen, and this has
been 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. There's a tough one against the Philadelphia Eagles last week.
They dropped to ten and four. Now they go to
Baltimore to face the nine and five Ravens. If the
Steelers win, they get the AFC North and Matt before
we get to the Ravens matchup, the second Ravens matchup
of the season. The return trip for the Pittsburgh Steelers
down to Baltimore, and he thoughts about the Eagles game,
where is that one you kind of just you know,
(00:27):
crumple up and throw away and just say we win
this week, we win the North, and that's our main goal.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
I mean, I definitely think that's the approach. And I'm
not trying to make light of it. But like when
I did the pregame show with Tim Benz, he always
does a we opened the pre game pre pregame show
with globally speaking, you know, kind of a tomlinism, you know, right,
and what you're globally speaking going into this game, and
my globally speaking going to the Eagles game was beat
(00:54):
the Ravens. I like it, you know, what I mean, Like,
I'm not saying nobody cares about the Eagles game or
you're punting, But I'm also not one hundred percent certain
if that's the super Bowl that elliot og and Joby
and Pickens don't play. You know, like the goal has
to be to win the super Bowl, and your best
chance of doing that is winning the division, and your
best chance of doing that is beating the Ravens this week.
(01:16):
And if you happen to lose an NFC game and
it's not pretty, it really is a blip on the radar. Yeah, Now,
there's certainly things that happened that game that I don't
love and don't paint the Steelers in a great light.
I mean, hardly snapping the ball in the second half
isn't wonderful, you know, I mean they were the inferior team.
But I do think the organization, Tomlin, they'll never admit
(01:37):
this should and would and I would beat the Ravens.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I think I think that should be the mindset too, right,
because someone might play Devil's Advocate to both of us
because we share the same mindset and say, oh, I
mean you're just giving up on the two seed? What
about the two seed. What about the two seed? Bill's
beating Detroit in Detroit pretty much side sealed and delivered
that thing for that now, not losing to the Patriots
or the Jets, which is all they have left on
their schedules. So right, you're stuck in the three seed.
(02:03):
You're not moving up to two or one.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
And too much difference between three and two when it depends.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
On if you're going to Buffalo or Buffalo's coming here, and.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Someone can knock both you true too, I mean, I
don't know that I'm putting hamstring, George Pickens hamstring in
the way.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Of that a fleeting chance to get the number two
seeds exactly all right, Well, the rain making light of
that loss, I mean, it was not pretty. The Ravens
now welcome the Steelers to town, and they need to
get a win or else the AFC North is out
of their grass this year. The Steelers take it. Here's
a stat that you have that really puts into perspective
on how great the Ravens are. They have produce fifteen
(02:38):
more touchdowns, one hundred and fifteen more rush attempts, three
and sixty eight more rushing yards. That's insane.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
That's insane.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Sixty seven more rushing first downs, also insane, two point
two more yards per rush attempts, one point four more
yards per pass attempt ten more passing touchdowns, and their
defense is twenty two more sacks than they have allowed.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Like it would be understandable if it was boy, this
is the best running team in the league and they
stopped the run really well and that's all they do.
But then all that passing stuff on top and sacks
and it's like, wow.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Your stat pack is full of statistics that make the
Ravens out to be an elite team in the NFL. Yeah,
they are. They are legitimate Super Bowl contender, should be
in the class with Buffalo, maybe Philadelphia, Detroit, Like their
numbers are right there. I think it's hard for the
Steelers but.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
The Raiders, Yes, But it's also hard.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
For I think us Steelers fans to kind of wrap
our head around that because we own them so much.
We just dominate the Ravens like they can't beat that good.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
They can't beat us, right, I mean I understand, like
in power ranks, who should be ahead of each other?
Steven Steelers are the Ravens. I'm sure people outside of
Pittsford like, Baltimore's definitely a better team, and I think
Baltimore on their best day against Joe neutral team is better.
It's better than maybe anyone in the league. I don't
want to get too nerdy, but Dvoa that used to
(03:55):
be football outsiders, they have Baltimore number one by their
metric in the whole league, and I kind of understand it.
But they find ways to lose games. Their kickers aren't
very good. They lead the league in penalties. You can
see some things that you know, cause losses.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
I was just going to bring the penalty thing up too.
A lot of Steelers Nation is upset about how the
game was officiated in Philadelphia. It was rather one sided.
Let's just put it that way.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
There were a couple of players that were really poor, yes, But.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
The Ravens, on the other hand, you know, you might
get a little karma back in your direction Steelers Nation
this week, because they're just an incredibly undisciplined football team
over in Baltimore. In Week eleven against the Steelers, twelve
penalties for eighty yards. They were big penalties too. Yeah,
last week they committed twelve penalties for one hundred and
twelve yards. They were playing the Giant. Why are you
committing penalties like that against the Absolutely it is in
(04:43):
their DNA to commit these penalties. It's not something that
they fleshed out of their system at the bye week.
They I'm sure they spent a lot of time focusing
on it, but for whatever reason, they can't get it
out of them.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
I know. And it's Steelers are so good at winning
in the margins, you know, turnover, differential penalty, Yeah, special teams,
your kicker. The Ravens have been the options are missing
all of that.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
It might be their undoing. This is the set that
we have said before about the rest that the Ravens have,
But really it really rings true when you're in the
eleven day stretch of three games, because.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
It doesn't have played apply to these couple weeks. Four
teams are on the.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Savens are in the same track. Eleven games are sorry,
three days in three three games in eleven days. But
for the entire schedule, the Ravens have sixteen more days
of rest than their opponents. That is the greatest rest
advantage in the NFL since nineteen ninety that's when they
began to track this stuff.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
So it's likely the most ever since, the.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Biggest rest advantage since the Super Bowl era, and furthermore
mat on top of that. I know we just said
that it's equal now, but it's really not equal because
the Chiefs and the Steelers and I might be speaking
ignorant here, but I don't think the Texans had bye
weeks before this stretch.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Run hit that Houston had the same week.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Okay, so they're coming off rather fresh. Yeah, yeah, you know,
they're looking rather fresh for the stretch of three games,
whereas Pittsburgh Kansas City is not.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
No, no, it's not.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
That's pretty wonky that the NFL did that.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Yeah, and again that's un necessarious Steeler thing. But it
makes me mad that any team, I don't care if
it's the Ravens, but especially the Ravens, it gets such
a huge rest advantage over their opponents. That's something that
they need to address. Next schedule comes around.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
A quick refresher on the series history between these two teams.
This rivalry started in ninety six nineteen ninety six, when
the Ravens joined the NFL. Since then, Pittsburgh leads the
series thirty six to twenty five, including four playoff matchups
in the playoffs. The Steelers have lost just once against
the Baltimore Ravens. Pittsburgh won six of the first seven meetings.
They've also won eight of the last nine. Steelers have
swept Baltimore in three of the past four seasons and
(06:35):
look to do so again after winning at home earlier
this season. Mike Tomlin is twenty two and sixteen against
the Ravens. John Harbaugh is fifteen and twenty one against
the Steelers. Those records were really close to each other
until these past nine games, where every one has just
been running it up on him. You know, that's so
lopsided in a rivalry like this. Matt I keep I
said the lassination. I said this in week eleven too.
(06:55):
It's due the Bills do They're gonna beat the Steelers.
They have to beat the Steelers. It's coming. It's coming.
It didn't and now I feel the same way about
this one, like the pendulum has to swing back in
that direction eventually. The Ravens are too good for it
not to. This isn't Packers Bears. Where the Bears are
so miserable right where the other team is so miserable
they have no check. The Ravens are good to great
during this entire stretch.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
And I even want to take a step further, Like, Okay,
I give the Steelers all the credit in the world
for being Lamar's kryptonite, but is that going to keep
up for the next ten years?
Speaker 2 (07:27):
I can't imagine, you know what I mean? Like, this
guy's too good, way too good.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Some of his numbers are bulgers, like all time stuff
for a twenty seven year old.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Yeah, let's skip ahead to the Baltimore offense since you
brought that up, Because Lamar Jackson really is impressive, and
I think Josh Allen's running away with the MVP. Yeah,
but you look at the stats. Jackson's playing better than
Alan and a lot of statistical categories.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Put this way, man, Jackson's playing better than you read
last year when he won it.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Yes, better. He has two less touchdown passes than Joe Burrow,
who's waking for touchdown passes every game, and he has
three interceptions. That's it. On the entire bad play one
twenty passer rating for Jackson the best in football by
like ten to fifteen points.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Yes, it's insane.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Uh so the Ravens offense. Speaking of insane, six point
nine yards per play. That's the best in the NFL
by point six yards.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
That's a massive discression.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Huge. Last week they put up seven point five yards
per play against the horrendous Right, that's still impressed.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Every team plays bad teams.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
In Week eleven against the Steelers, they produce six point
one yards per play. They could move the ball against
the Steelers in.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Week nice junk every time he snapped the ball.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Pittsburgh's defense gives up five point three yards per play.
They're third in points per game. The Ravens offense to
twenty nine point nine, and they are first in yards
per game at four hundred and twenty four point one.
Only the lines and Bills have scored more than the
fifty one touchdowns that the Ravens have scored. And the
Ravens turn a set of downs into a new set
of downs or a touchdown at a seventy eight percent clip. Gee,
(08:51):
only the Bills and the lines are better. So that's
what I was saying, Like they.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Are in the catch so many sentences. Only one thing
better best in the league, you know, right.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Right, But it's always the big three in the like.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
It doesn't matter what it is, it's not like just
the running game or rushing quarterbacks. I mean, it doesn't
matter what category it is, they're at the top.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Is the difference this year obviously what we illustrated with
Lamar passing the football but then pushing the ball down
the field to eight point one yards per pass attempt.
I think are the only offense in the league that's
over eight yards on a passage.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Which is crazy. I also think they're just one year
more comfortable in Todd Monkins offense too, and they have
really good weapons. And people don't like to give Lamar credit,
but he gets better every year. I mean as a passer,
remember when he would only throw in the middle of
the field, or he's not that good from the pocket.
All those things are long.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Titans destroyed him in his first ever playoff game because
he just took the middle of the field away. He
couldn't do anything.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Against best of luck doing that.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
He only had four incomplete passes on twenty five attempts
against the Giants. Last week, Lamar Jackson did. He threw
for five touchdown passes. Due the math at home runs
pretty good. That's more touchdown passes than incompletions. That was
Jackson's fifth career game with at least five touchdown passes
in five four is insane. It's gonna be my Matt stats.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah, No one else has more than three of those games.
Fifth career game with at least five touchdowns and five
or fewer incompletions. No one else more than three. This
was also Jackson's sixth career five touchdowns, zero interception game.
Tom Brady and Drew Brees are the only two quarterbacks
with more such games. And we've played those are running
backs right like classic you know, all typical running back
quarterbacks like Lamar Jackson gets the stigma.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Of Yeah, and I think Brady and Breeze played a
few more games of.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Them, maybe a little bit. This might be the most
impressive online.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
This was also Jackson's fourth career game with five or
more passing touchdowns and fifty plus rushing yards. The rest
of the NFL in the history of the league, no
Super Bowl era, none of that in the history of
the league also has four combined. So Jackson has tied
the rest of the NFL with games with five or
more passing touchdowns and fifty plus rushing yards. And he's
only twenty seven years old. It's like two years older
(10:53):
than Canny Pickett.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Yeah, he's two MVPs. Right, it's a remarkable career.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Now let me ask you this, does he get maybe
the MVP swung back in his direction if they do
win the AFC North.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
He's deserving. I mean, I would vote for Allan.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Feels like it's his year, he's due. They like to
spread that around.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
It don't lose the Raiders and things like that, and
he's having every bit as good a year. Maybe it's
not as pretty statistically, but I.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Think they get a little fatigueish when it comes to
like Lamar again.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Yeah, I don't know. I think there's definitely some of that.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Although Lamar did smoke Josh Allen in their one meeting
this year, so he's got that going for him.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
We're right too, right.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Jackson leads the league in yards per drop back as
well as passer rating. He's a league high twenty two
touchdowns thrown on past his ten or more yards down
the field. So this isn't just drop it off to
Zay Flowers and he takes it to the house. He's
throwing the ball down the field and he's doing it
efficiently and effectively.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
And it's not even like they're awesome after the catch.
It's not like Perty's hitting Samuel and Ayuk for all
these big gains. I mean's him throwing the ball down
the field. It's almost monotonous to his stats.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
What do you think about Bateman last week? Kind of
breaking out with the two touchdowns yea twenty plus yards each.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yeah, I played.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Better since they traded for Deontay Johnson and Deantay hasn't
got on the field, but like Bateman almost took that
as like a wake up call and he delivered big
time and good for the Ravens because Johnson is tad
he's ever So I.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Think Bateman's a high quality number two. I liked him
coming out of school. His first round pick. Had some
injuries and stuff, but he's a quality player.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Mark Andrews received just eight point three percent target share
against the Giants. That's his lowest in this week four. However,
this was the first game of the season in which
Andrews eclipse to seventy five percent route participation seventy nine
percent when Isaiah Likely was active, So.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
That's a little misleading because they were winning so much too.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
And Andrews has been a huge part of the offense. Yeah,
he had a little bit of a slow start to
the season, but he's a touchdown merchant now, like he
just gets in the end zone.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
You're too old or too young. But I always used
the mister mom reference. It's his wooby.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
I know Michael Keaton was in that movie.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
He was in that movie, but his kid had this
blanky that he always his wooby would never let go of.
And Adam or Andrews and Jackson have grown up in
the NFL together, and I think the Steelers one of
the reasons they have a lot of success against Jackson
is they'll put Menka on Andrews. They'll they take me
away a little bit, you know, and Andrews. It might
be their most import important pass catcher.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
The Ravens three point one four seconds of average time
to throw is the highest in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Yeah, this is a little disheartening too.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Still, only the Bills, Broncos and Packers have taken fewer
sacks than Baltimore twenty two and the Ravens are being
blitzed at the league's highest rate thirty four point two percent,
tied with Carolina. I get that stat though he's Lamar Jackson.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
He's mar Jackson.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
He creates three point one four seconds of times in
yes the ball because he just this escapability is unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
So I just finished recording the Drive with Dale and
he had Lamar blitz versus not blitz. He destroys the blitz.
But for whatever reason, the league is blitzing him at
the highest rate and use the Steelers won't.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Well, I was just gonna say, you'd think they'd be
watching some film on how the Steelers play him and
realize that never blitz Lamar Jackson. It's all about contained,
contain you most.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
You over front four like Cam. That's true, you know, And.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
You got to give credit to Watt here. You have
done this so much. Matt to the unselfishness that he
plays with when he plays Lamar Jackson. It's astounding. Not
a lot of pass rushers will be wired that way.
I'm getting my sacks right, I'm going to get my
pressure like I'm not going to I'm not going to
take a game off where I kind of just you know,
play cat and mouse.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
With Rosen and keep. Yeah, that's an organizational strength of
the Steelers that really works in their favorite against Lamar.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Now you still have to stop Derrick Henry even though
you did it the first time against them, or did you,
Matt He had sixty five yards on thirteen carries in
that first game. That's a pretty good take, right, No,
I'm saying for Henry, like thirteen carries to get to
sixty five yards is good. Like He's right, They just
stop giving him the football for whatever reason a game,
in a game that was within a touchdown the entire time.
It wasn't like they were losing by a lot and
(14:46):
they needed to pass.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
I do think Harbaugh can outsmart himself a little bit
in Steeler games.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I think that is the biggest thing when it comes
to this game. It's Harball going to get down into
Tomlin's level, because you know Tom was going to try
to bring him down into that. Especially Pick is limited
or not playing like it's going to be another eighteen
to sixteen game. It's honestly on Harbaugh to either say, okay,
we'll we'll do what you want Pittsburgh and play that
game and see if we can grind it out this time.
(15:11):
And I've got a kicker that's missing a lot of
field goals, which doesn't bode well in games like that,
or I'm just gonna throw for five touchdown passes with
my quarterback and you're gonna have to beat us like
you beat Cincinnati earlier this year.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Yeah. I have two notes on that is. First off,
I do believe Harbaugh overthinks or really gets in his
own head. When he plays Burrow, he knows it's a race,
opens it up right. When he plays the Steelers, he
plays like it's a race to thirteen.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
I feel like he plays like it's a race to
thirty five against everybody else in the NF maybe. I mean,
like even in the Giants game. I mean, yeah, they stink,
but he was still throwing the ball a ton during
the football game. I don't know something about this Steelers matchup,
and now that it's gaining more and more momentum, another
one where the Steelers want gets in your head. I
(16:00):
think it's in the Ravens head big time.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Like I don't know, horriball, but I have great respect
for him as a coach. But like he was the
guy that had to go undefeated in the in the preseason,
you know, like that kind of stuff matters to him.
Like he's very aware of this stuff, no doubt in
the last note on Henry, it's a lot like Barkley, like,
just don't let him bust the eighty yarder, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Well, Henry only needs twenty six more rushing yards. He's
going to get that to reach his fourth career season
with fifteen hundred plus on the ground. Barry Sanders with
five is the only one who has more, and his
fourth such season with Tye Henry, with Walter Payton, Eric Dickerson,
and Edrin James pretty good. Henry also needs just twenty
four rushing guards to hit one eleven thousand for his
career and one rushing yard to tie John Riggins with
(16:41):
the seventh most in NFL history. Henry's going to the
Hall of Fame. I mean, it's he's just a lot
of game. Yes, he's at that point in his career now.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Yeah, he's.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Rising up the rushing charts.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Ye, yep, easy, Hall of Famer.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Now, this Ravens defense, Matt switching our attention to that
side of the ball. I think that's again we said
this in the first meeting and it didn't turn out
to be because it was eighteen to sixteen. This is
where you attack them, This is where you have an
advantage against them. Pickens be damned. We don't know what
his status is going to be while we record this
on Tuesday.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
I'm betting you see him.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
You think he's gonna play.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
I think everybody play.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
It's just a weak defense, to be honest with you.
Aside from the running defense, it's a great running defense.
They can make you one dimensional, but you should allow
them to make you one dimensional because they're so bad
against that dimension. And I'm of course talking about a
pass defense that gives up more passing yards per game
or excuse me, Jacksonville is the only defense that gives
up more passing yards per game than this. Ravens passing
tams to give up tw hundred and fifty nine yards
(17:32):
per game through the air.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Yeah, and some of its teams coming back in garbage time,
of course. And the one counter I will say, borrow.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Rose that hint had avertises time with those two games.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
So the one thing they have gotten better at I
don't know if you caught this or not, is they
allowed so many big plays the first ten weeks or
so over the season, and it's gotten much much better.
But the teams they play have been like the Giants
a bye week. The Eagles who are just running, I
mean they that has something to do with it. But
at least they're not allowing the breakdowns. And I also
(18:06):
think that was a lot of their penalty stuff was
these corners are all highly penalized because they were blowing
coverages and dragging guys down. That's that's a little bit.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Well, that's why Pickens is such a big deal. Absolutely,
you saw it in the first They couldn't handle them right. Absolutely,
he can draws the but hey, what's going on with
Marcus Williams. Marcus Williams for the Ravens, the safety.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Oh, he's gotten healthy, scratch, he's getting bench. Yeah, that's crazy.
They're middle of the field, Minka and I think.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
They traded for him just two years ago and he
was a huge addition to that second great player out.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
So now they're playing Washington there it was like five
eight or Hamilton plays there some No, it screwed him
up a little bit. They counted on them.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
They're extremely healthy though, Baltimore like, there's no injury that
you really have to deal with when it comes to
this game, whereas stee Whats are dealing with a lot.
But as you said, it seems like the momentum is
going at least on Tuesday, that everybody's going to be
playing for the Pittsburgh That Baltimore was giving up thirty
six touchdowns this season, only seven teams have allowed more.
So they're giving up touchdowns. You can throw the ball
(19:08):
on them. None of this translated the first time the
Steelers met them, though, because they didn't score a damn
touchdown and they couldn't throw the ball at all. They
scored eighteen points.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
And maybe none of the stuff we're talking about translates
at all because of Steelers Ravens period.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
You know what I mean, how this game goes.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
There's some amazing stats and every time I dig into it,
I find more and maybe none of it matters at all.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Last week, with Pickens on the sidelines, Austin led the
Steelers receivers with five catches for sixty five yards. It's
a pretty solid game for mister Calvin Austin.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Yeah, real quick. I hope that he's established himself now
that a very high percentage of snaps with two receivers
on the field is Austin and Pickens. I like that. Yeah,
there are your two, you know, like, let's.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Russ likes him rust thros and ball, He's on that asset,
he's getting open.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Yes, yes, yes, No.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Other pass catcher had more than twenty two receiving yards
though the spike cal Austin emerging throughout this season and
even a little bit last week. That's just the offense
was a non threat for those Philadelphia Eagles.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
I mean they did, that's true, like forty three snaps.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Huh, you're right, and Russ has shown an ability to
get better as the game went on. I've kind of
over seen that. I gotta say this, though, Matt, I
just popped into my head. We're talking about Austin. We're
talking about Russ. The flea flicker play. If that's better
arm strength, if that's throat, if that's a younger Russell Wilson,
that's that's six points. I mean he was open. It
was way open. I mean I see Ben Roethlisberger's deep
(20:32):
bomb just like Austin could have run for twenty more
yards yeap and just falling right under it. So great,
great play that they needed in the moment, and I
give Austin a lot of credit for adjusting back to it.
But it was left on the table and Nause fumbles
fast forward a couple of plays later. Agreed of the
Ravens had forty four sacks this year. That is only
behind the Broncos and the Texans. But the Ravens only
(20:53):
blitz on twenty point eight percent of opposing drop backs,
the seventh lowest in the league. So how are they
doing it?
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Well?
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Forty four of their sacks excuse me, twenty two of
their forty four sacks are by Kyle van Noy who
has nine, Odefe Oway who has eight, and Mattabuque has
five from the interior. So those are your big three
when it comes to getting sacks, and there's a lot
of balance there when it comes to those three. And
I remember doing this week eleven, there wasn't that much balance,
And that's kind of Van Noy doing a lot of
the heavy lifting there. But he's found some partners.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
In that always growing up. Yeah, if you remember, he
came out of Penn State with zero sacks. He's a
combine freak and pause player.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Yeah, five is really good for him. He'll probably he'll
seven something like that at the end of the season,
which is solid for his position.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Real quick on Van Neyd, Like if he was a Steeler,
so many of you listening would have van Neyd jerseys,
Like he is a do it all Belichick, you know,
vrable type player.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
But dude was on his couch last year halfway through
the season.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
But he's not her Big or high Smith or wat like.
I don't even know how many snaps you'd play here.
And I really respect him as a player, but he's
not a twitchy pass rusher. Yeah, Like he's smart, he's
technically sound. He's a really good player, but he's not
Von Miller come off the edge or something.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
You know, there's a reason why he was on his
couch staring at retirement at some point last year. And
that comes on the Ravens does good at the end
of the last season. This year, his career has been extended.
But yeah, it's not like he was an easy side
for everybody. No Philadelphia, how about this blitzed Wilson just
once in fifteen. They were all over him too. So
that's that's very discouraging to hear.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Don't love that, No, I do not.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Naji Harris one last note before we get to our matchups.
Harris just hasn't been very effective the running game in
general just hasn't been very effective at all.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Three nine is not going to cut it.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
He played sixteen snaps in week fifteen, Harris did. That
is a career low. But they had no snaps in
the second half.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
They were coming back and Warren so healthy.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Let me ask you this. You think he was benched
for the entire game or just a series? Sure, hope,
not just the series, you think, and it just came
back to bite him where they didn't have another series
after that.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
I think so. I assume that's what happened.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
I believe you're right. I want you to be right.
I even don't like him being benched for that one series.
In a game like that, he never fumbled.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
I would never be critical of him. I wouldn't mention
it all week, you know I would. It was a
bad play.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
It's such a fluke fumble too. He didn't get the
ball peanut punched out of his nose. Did like I
get off the ball for a second. It was a brain.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Fart punter fumbling a snap or something. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Since Week ten, Harris has a fifty one percent rush
share and a thirty one percent route participation, So it's
like a pretty good fifty fifty split between him and Warren.
Ever since we got.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Help frinkling little Patterson and all of a sudden, Harris.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
That's not sprinkling.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Done that.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Yeah, I've been about done with that, but it was
overkill last week. He was out there for that series. Yeah,
he looks like he just got off playing at the
YMCA or something like that.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
He looks too heavy and maybe too old.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
All right, let's get to the key matchups here, the
biggest key matchup.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
I mean, they're like some of them are just so obvious, but.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Well, this is a matchup that the Steelers have been
amazing at. Yeah, and that's Lamar Jackson versus the past
rush plan because it's not just you know, pen your
years back and get after him. It is a specific
plan like we will victim. We saw in Hard Knocks
before the Bengals game, Tomlin alluded to when he was
meeting with the team. We have the Lamar Jackson plan
and then you put on the PowerPoint. Well, let's talk
about our Joe Burrow plan. Like I can't wait to
(24:06):
see if I can't wait to see next not this week,
but next week's Hard Knocks. When they're doing the Ravens stuff.
That's the Lamar Jackson plan, giving a little inside look
on what this team does so well against him. But
that past verse discipline is a big part of it.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
It's massive. That's where it starts.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
And then you went with the quarterback. On the Steelers
side of things too, it's it's Russell Wilson versus Roquan Smith.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
I don't think they're gonna have a corner following Pickens.
They don't have a Garrett versus more situations. I don't
really know what to go with.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Roquan had a little trouble getting up to speed this
year without Patrick Queen, and we saw Queen have trouble
without Roquan Queen.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
They just bend Simpson, Okay.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Queen has come on great for the Steelers. Yeah, he's
been everything you want from him. Now. Roquan's starting to
figure things out with himself, and.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
That's one of my projects for tonight. I want to
look at like the last he done or so with
Roquan because last time they played wash he's not quite
the four seas right right.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Right, Steelers and Ravens at four thirty pm on Saturday.
It is a short week for your Pittsburgh Steelers. They
go to the Baltimore Ravens Stadium to try to win
the AFC North against them. We will start our local
coverage at twelve thirty and that's with Matt Williamson and
Tim Benz and then at two thirty Steel's Audio network
(25:15):
picks up with Jerry Dulac, Mike Perzuda and Bob Labriola.
Thanks always for giving us a listen, and this has
been the Advanced Scout
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.