October 15, 2024 • 25 mins
Matt Williamson and Tom Opferman break down the upcoming matchup between the Steelers and Jets
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We got some work to do. This is the Advanced
Scout with Tom Opferman and Mac Williamson. Stealers broke their
two game losing streak with a win over the Vegas Raiders,
a convincing nineteen point victory. So they are four and two.
They welcome the New York Jets to town for Sunday
Night football. The Jets are two and four after falling
(00:21):
to the Buffalo Bills. Matt, this is the point in
the advanced scout where we usually, you know, talk about
what happened in the Vegas game and share a quick
thought before we get into the Jets. But I say
we just burn that Vegas game right up, because there's
too much stuff to talk about right now. Yes, Russell
Wilson's going to get the start, most likely, but that
is what's going to happen. And DeVante Adams is now
(00:43):
in the fold with the New York Jets. So my
question to you to start, Matt, is which one of
those big moves is going to have the most immediate
impact on Sunday Night.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Hmmm, Well, I wonder how many snaps Adams plays. He
might be full time, he might be fifty.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Percent shoulder fade that him and Rogers did for years.
Oh it's gonna work, no matter.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
It was pretty lethal. Yeah, that's a big move.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I mean, like I said today on different podcasts that
I think the Jets now have the best skill position players.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
In the league.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
You know, like if Conklin and Mike Williams and Brayen
Allen are all like, well down the list, now you're
doing all right. Your top three are really really good,
including Breese Hall. But the other one's a quarterback who's
I'm really excited about.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
So I'm going to pick.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
I'm not gonna pick which one is a bigger deal,
but it's both are huge deals, all right.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
I'll let you cop out like that.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
I totally coughed out, totally caught out.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
I'm with you. I'm with you on the excitement though. Yeah,
we've both we've both been in Russ's camp for a while.
Impressed with what Fields has done. For sure, don't get
it twisted. He's not one or the other exactly right,
but want to see what Russ can bring to the
table after seeing six games of what Fields can bring
to the table. So the Steelers will get that on
(02:02):
Sunday against the New York Jets. Here's some serious history
between these two. The first game between these two teams
took place in November of nineteen seventy, with Pittsburgh prevailing
in that matchup. It began a nine game winning streak
for Pittsburgh against the Jets, who finally got their first
victory over the Steelers in nineteen eighty eight. But after
falling to New York in nineteen eighty eight, the Steelers
went on another winning streak. This time it was a
(02:24):
five game winning streak. So Pittsburgh won fourteen of these
teams first fifteen meetings. The most recent matchup between the
Jets and Steelers took place in twenty twenty two, with
New York winning that game twenty four to twenty. Overall,
Pittsburgh leads the series twenty to seven, including their two
postseason matchups. The Steelers won both of those playoff games
against New York, and we all remember the AFC Championship
(02:45):
Game in the twenty ten season. That was the last
time the Jets went to the postseason. By the way,
was when the Steelers beat Mark Sanchez and Rex Ryan
in their second straight trip to the AFC Championship Game.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
I know so I don't think this is included in
the version I sent you my packet. And because I
went and looked, I'm like, is that the longest streak
of a playoff drought? It is, right, It's not even close.
It's thirteen years. That's the longest streak in the league.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Denver Sever's next, and that was when they won the
Super Bowl, right.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
And that was eight years we did this, Yeah, one,
and then there's Atlanta and Carolina was six, and no one.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Else is more than three. Like, this league is designed.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
To get in fast, right, It's been twelve thirteen years,
which frankly, I think contributes to the Devonte Adams trad
like we didn't need to at least make the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Here, guys, despiration of firing the head coach.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
To firing the head coach. You got a three game
losing streak.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
You haven't been the playoffs in thirteen years, Your quarterbacks
a million years old.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
You know, like, we got to do it now or never.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Well, speaking of making the playoffs, here's a great stat
that Steelers fans would like to hear. Steeers have made
the playoffs the last seven times when they've started the
season at four and two or better since twenty ten.
So looks like they're going to make the playoffs this year.
Here's a good Russell Wilson's stat. Russell Wilson has a
career Your touchdown to interception ratio of three point two
to one is the good that is? Well, let me
(04:05):
tell you how good it is. It's the third highest
an NFL history, behind the guy he's playing on Sunday,
Aaron Rodgers, and the best quarterback in the world currently
right now, maybe the best of all time when it's
all said and done, Patrick Mahomes.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yes, so I think Mahomes the best quarterback I've ever seen.
And I said that about Rob.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Rodgers years Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
And Russell Wilson's third touchdown interception ratio the most important
thing that you can pretty important starting quarterback in the NFL.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
I mean, he has his worts and a lot of
that happened years ago.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
But I think the touchdown passes are going to go up,
and I don't think the interceptions are going to go
up either.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
You know.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Well, we'll get into the offense in russ in just
a second. But one other glaring advantage here is the coaching.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
How about this is a crazy one too.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
The coaching ten years between these two guys. Last week
was Jeff Ulbricks's first game as an NFL head coach.
Took over for Robert Sola. He's good for him decoordinator
under Sala, and then went into that interim role. Last
week was Mike Tomlin's two and ninety nine game including
the postseason. This will be number three hundred for coach
t Yeah, coming up against the Jets. Pretty big.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Uh yeah, good game advantage, experience.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Some wisdom gaps there or two.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
I hope for all Brick's sake he coaches three hundred
more games, but he'll be a much different coach if
he does.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
From what I can tell, he's really well liked and
people thought he was going to be up sooner rather
than later.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
He's a bright and shining star. But I mean, I'm
sure he's still swimming like crazy.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Oh I bet. Yeah. The Jets are super talented, though,
or at least have guys that had had high pedigrees.
Fourteen former first round picks are on their current roster.
That'll be most in the NFL.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
They're not all drafted by them and hors Rodgers right,
and there's a.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
I actually looked at him like there's two or three
that you wouldn't come up with, like tack McKinley and
Kinlaw is a starting defensive tackle.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
But it's a high, high pedigree roster.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Now that doesn't include Devontae Adams, who's not a first
round pick, but I mean they they bring in a
lot of guys that were very.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Talented, you know, no question.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
So it's a very unique roster build in terms of
age and in it to win it and all that stuff.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
We'll start by looking at the defensive side of the
ball for the Jets because that way we can talk
about Russell Wilson right now off the bat, because it's
all I want to talk about. And one of the bigger,
big differences I think that I've looked at mat between
Russ and Fields is Fields has been able to run
the ball into the end zone and do that in
the red zone from time to time. But they have
(06:32):
a fifty percent red zone to touchdown conversion rate. Right now,
that's not good enough. That's Russ's bread and butter in
the red zone, especially times he did twenty of them
last year for just in the resver. So I think
that's going to be a huge difference and that ups
your points per game. And to be quite frank, I
think Fields has been really good at running the ball.
(06:53):
You don't lose that. By the way, when Russ goes in,
you can still have some packages for Fields.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
That's one thing that makes me crazy about this whole
is done. Like you can't bring off the Matt Ryan
in his last year.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Even though what you're talking about Will Wilson, Well, I'm
going even with people saying, well, you can't lose Fields.
His ability to run Fields can come off the bench
in especialty packaging football. He's going to play. That was
the plan before Russ blew his calf up in training camp.
That was everybody was kind of telling you, yeah, there's
gonna be some stuff for Fields. Would be crazy not
to use him.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
And I think Tomlin even said that today that someone
asked him. He's like, oh, that very well could be
in the car or something along those lines.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
You know.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
But throwing the football just isn't good for justin fields.
I mean not good enough no the moment, and I
don't think the Steelers are ready to give the time
to grow. This isn't developed during this season r Yes.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
I mean you're you're in first place. You know, that's
not That's not where this franchise is. They're into I mean,
like it or not, folks, I mean, this franchise looks
at how.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Do I beat the Jets? How do I win today?
You know?
Speaker 2 (07:54):
I mean they're not in it for let's tank and
get a good pick and develop guy.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
You know, that's just the way it is.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
And I also think you're kind of looking at the
forest slightly through the trees here because you're also looking
at that other half of the schedule, and you're like,
I can't beat the Ravens just trying to run the ball.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Yeah, you're actual talking about that.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Fields isn't going to be able to do that, right.
The Ravens eat the run alive, no matter if it's
the quarterback running and running, but whatever, they're gonna crush you.
So you need to throw the ball against these teams.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
One last note that also is the red zone stuff
is a tremendous point by you, but you face so
many loaded boxes. You have to hit the deep balls,
you know, at least at a higher rate than they have.
Like two weeks ago, he was zero for six and
anything over twenty yards.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
That's a touchdown to Pickens last week if he didn't
underthrow it right.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
And say, we going about Ross, He's always been a
great deep ball thrower.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
He's always been a great red zone thrower. Those are
two things they are lacking.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
So what's the test going to be like for us?
In his Steelers' debut, New York is giving up eighteen
points per game? Only the Charger, Steelers, Vikings, Broncos, Bears,
and Chiefs, all very good defense that I just named,
are better than the Jets. So the Jets are playing
some pretty good defense. It's not gonna be the the
easiest game for us.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
No, No, this is a This is an underachieving, talented
football team that maybe not all those former first round
picks or stars anymore, you know, Mike Williams, et cetera,
but a lot of them are really really talented dudes
and Sauce Gardner and you know the Williams brothers. I mean,
this is a good football team, especially on PAP.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
They're kind of banged up in their secondary though.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Yeah, I'm curious what Reid situation is. He's a number
two corner, very good number two corner, very.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Good number two corner and Clark the safety got it
went on an ir today.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
That's a good sign for the Steelers. He won't be
playing Michael Carter's banged up to their nickel corner. The
Williams brothers are phenomenal at both yes levels, the d
line and linebacker's position, both defensive Player of the Year
caliber players. Those two plus Sauce really make up the
star power on that defense. Am I forgetting somebody else?
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Moseley is a really good established leader around the block.
He got drafted like two picks behind right next to
jay Z.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
He was brought in, if I'm not mistaken, the same
year they brought in Le'Veon Bell. It's been a while
at the Jets. Yeah, I remember Mosley got hurt that
year too, and it was kind of like, great, we
got these two prize fighters.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Coming in and they get done too.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
But Mosley has been great ever since that ye coming
back from that injury and been a solid player for them.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Sauce and Quinn Williams the defensive tackle or their two
best defensive players, and they're in contention for best of
their position. I mean they're not far off.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Well. That leads me to this how do the Steelers
manage quinnin with Zach Fraser? Probably no, Zach Fraser will
not be playing on this game. Yeah, he's weak to week.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
It's a problem. I mean the O line across the board.
The Jets are built like the Niners. That's how Robert
Sala came from. And they want defensive lineman galore in
hockey waves, you know, like hockey lines, and they're a
little lacking in that, especially with Reddick sitting out. Who knows,
maybe something happened to him in the next couple of
days after the Adams move. But still a talented defensive line.
There's a lot of first round picks in the front.
(10:56):
They do have a couple of injuries. McDonald has a
bunch of sacks. Who I just the Steelers OH line
in general is probably in for a long day.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Yeah. McDonald has four and a half more sacks than
any other Jets player. But eleven defenders have a sack
this season. McDonald has a sack and at least he
is at least one sack in four of his past
five games. His seven sacks overall this season his second
most in the league behind Aiden Hutchinson, and boy, that's
a tough blow that Aid had to take it. TJ.
(11:25):
Watts the favorite to win Defensive Player of the Year,
and he's gonna win Defensive player. There, I'm just gonna
speak that into existence. But Aiden was the one that
was given a pretty stiff resistance to at the start
of the season. Dude, mister Hutchinson was edging in front
a lot, right. Yeah, he's been unbelievable for Detroit.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Yeah it was great. That's great, a huge loss. But
real quick on McDonald.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Yeah, McDonald right behind him in the sack total.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yeah, he's more of a specialty. You know, he won't
play every down. But if you might remember, the Steelers
leap frog the Jets to take Roderick Jones in the
first round and as much thought of that, the Jets
would have taken Jones took a tackle the year after
in the first round, and then they took McDonald instead.
So he's in his second year as a mid first
round pick and it's really exploded.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
No doubt he's having a great season this year. Maybe
he and Broderick will do they move him around or
is he pretty.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Much move around?
Speaker 1 (12:14):
He'll Broderick braces McDonald's battle between the two draft picks.
They are interesting. Trying to see what else I thought
about on the Jets defensive front here New York.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Real quick Sauce is not a traveler most of the time.
Why don't they do that because they like read.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
I mean they left right it and so.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
They just take a side of the field out of
the Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
And but I wonder if Reid's out.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
I mean, he has done it, and it's only Pickens
and it's only pickensick, Like, I know, we'll get the
other side of the ball. But I wonder if Porter travels.
I think he would have traveled with Wilson, but now
with Adams and will two ones, maybe you just stay
left right and Jackson's okay, you know.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
So the one thing I wanted to mention before I
moved on to Jets. Offensively, Steelers are throwing the ball
in forty seven point one percent of their dropbacks and
other snaps. It's exactly what I was going to say.
Do you think that's going to go up? Now?
Speaker 3 (13:08):
With Russ there's nowhere to go but up?
Speaker 1 (13:10):
But yeah, only Baltimore throws it less. Yeah, that's because Baltimore,
why would you throw the ball? And they play in
the fourth quarter.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
They grind people out, and you know, so I think
it does go up, yes, because they'll be definitely less designed.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
There'll be fewer quarterback rushing attempts for sure.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Only seventy five percent of the Steelers dropbacks result in
a target to a receiver that's got to go up too.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
That's got to go up.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
That's not as insanely low as it sounds. But the
correlation there is eight percent. You know, there's another twenty
five percent. A lot of them are scrambles, but eight
percent of them are sacks. And people don't think about
the Steelers getting sacked a lot, but that's a very
high sacked percentage. They don't throw a lot, so they
don't have a ton of sacks.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Like, well, that's weird because people keep telling me on
the internet that Russell Wilson's just going to get sacked
a lot when he goes in there fields has been
getting sacked a lot.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
All I hear is Wilson's gonna fumble left and right,
and he's sacked a million times.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
And you're like, what are you watching that? I'm not
leads the.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
League in fumbles and there have an eight percent sack
rate which is like fourth highs.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Yeah, Fields has four fumbles, but he has lost none
of them, so he's been very lucky.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
And that doesn't count to two snaps.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Really six it is the most in the league now,
so that's not good. And then New York opponents are
getting the ball out in two point nine three seconds
on average. Only the Saints are facing a higher average
time to throw. We just talked about McDonald getting home,
(14:37):
so yeah, that doesn't add up to sacks. But there's
not much pressure in Russell Wilson's for this in a
weird way. If that holds up and there's two point
nine three seconds on average to throw, that's beautiful for us. Yeah,
Russell camp out back there and he'll pick you apart.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
No fine stuff.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I mean, it's just hard to cover for that long,
no matter what advantages you have.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Do you think that there's a chance I'm not gonna
make Van Jefferson out to be anything that he is
right now, But there's a chance that I think people
are like, oh, George will explode now potentially with Russ,
but I think the other ones might have a better
outing than we've seen too.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah, we've talked about this a fair amount of the
drive too. It's just kind of a veteran quarterback thing
to do is get everyone on the field involved early,
you know, like get a feel for who's hot, who's not,
who's got matchups, get them the ball early to make
them involved. You know, they're not as good as Pickens,
we know that, but I think that's possible.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
And I think with Pickens as far as getting him
the ball early, I think Russ knows what a lot
of great veteran quarterbacks know is you get that number
one guy like a nice screen, a little quick pop slam,
yeah right away, just get him checked into the game.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
And I think Arthur Smith has done very nice job,
even going back to the preseason of scheming Pickens up
is a true number one.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Like we said, that's a touchdown that he had this.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Yeah, you can't leave those guys that on the field.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Let's look at the Jets offense. They average six point
seven your hearts per play last week. It's unbelievable, but
their season now long average is four point nine, and
the Steelers surrender four point eight yards per play. Only
six defenses are better. The Steelers defenses allowing just fourteen
point eight points per game only the Chargers are better
as far as team points allowed is concerned. Another week, though, Matt,
(16:15):
you're facing a ton.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Of passes, heavy, heavy pass.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Throw the ball sixty four point three percent of their snaps.
Seattle and Dallas throw it more. I know Vegas is
right up there too. Remember reading that in our stat
pack last week. And in the last three games, New
York has thrown it on seventy one percent of their
offensive plays. They've lost three straight games. Maybe start running
the ball a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
And there's a new coaches or nine new coaches after
there's a coaching change, and just watching the Monday night.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Game, Yall was more involved.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Yeah, I think that was an objection. You mention.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
The number one is Brestall's really good. We're going to
get him. He's gonna be the focal point. But then
they go trade for Devonte Adams, so they're a hard
game of predict.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
You still gotta lean more into the running games from
the Jets, great old Rogers.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Yeah, he's been taking some hits.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
This week. Good luck against TJ And looks like Alex
is going to be back as well. It's gonna be
tough for him if he has to pass a ton.
If you're not going to keep the Steelers pass rushers
at bay by running the ball, it could be a
long day for Aaron.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
And Rogers is still playing well. But much like even
Ben at the end, but Breeze and Eli and Ryan and.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
All those dudes at the end, they didn't like getting
hit in their forty you know, like it just hurts more,
you know.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
In week six, Bristol had twenty three rushing yards. In
week five, he had just four rushing yards. Before last week,
Hall was averaging thirty nine point four rushing yards per game.
And then, as we mentioned, against the Bills on Monday Night,
Haul had forty four rushing yards in just the first
quarter and he finished the game with one hundred and
thirteen yards on the ground. He had two hundred and
twenty total yards from scrimmage. All received eighteen of a
possible twenty one rushing attempts on Monday Night.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Pact giving him the ball yep as a feature change.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Then, Yeah, brayln Allen was getting some play and he's
got some carries away from Hall. Youngest player in the NFL.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Yeah, yeah, and he is, but Haul's superstar. Yeah, he's
a first run fantasy guy. I mean, like, give them ball.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Do you have him on your team? Is that why
you're saying give them the ball? Are you a little
that they haven't been?
Speaker 3 (18:09):
But I wish I would have on Draft Day, I
wish I would have gotten them.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
New York has thirteen rushes of ten plus yards. Only
the Chiefs, Rams, and Cowboys have fewer. Pittsburgh has only
allowed fifteen such runs. Only six defenses are better. A
nineteen point six percent of runs against the Steelers have
resulted in a loss of yardage or no gain. That's
six best in the league. Twenty percent of the time
when teams run it, Steelers stuff it, there's the line
of scrimmage or better.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
But Hall was very explosive and combust long ones. We
saw that on Monday night.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
I think Alex Hihsmith returning helps huge, immensely in the
running game.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
I would have ran at those guys this week, in particular,
you know the replacement level dudes, if rates.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Were still out. Yeahs had nothing in the raid, even
less than the Cowboys.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Yeah, Raiders couldn't do that, but the Jets could.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Yeah, And I think the Jets will try. But like
I said, I I saw such a drop off in
rush defense the Raiders game excluded in those two games
that Smith missed.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Yes, yeah, they just keep doing great edgeeter.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Yeah, Aaron Rodgers you said, doesn't necessarily have all of
his superpowers still, but he's still a very good quarterback.
He has two or more touchdown passes in four of
his past five games. He threw for two hundred and
ninety four yards last week, which is his highest total
in a Jets uniform. His six point four yards per
attempt is only higher than six qualified quarterbacks. And this
is the very non rogers e stat that you have here.
(19:26):
His sixty one point eight percent completion percentage is only
better than five passers. I know, fields is even completion
percentage is higher than that right now noticeably. I mean,
this guy is usually a surgeon. I mean, you're you're
creeping towards the seventies when it comes to his completion percentage.
What do you think that's? Is that the offensive line
he doesn't have much time?
Speaker 3 (19:43):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
I do think he gets a little more skittish back there,
but boy, he still makes some throws the things. Here's
what real quick, here's what I think it's changed about
Rogers from in his prime. He was never the best athlete,
but he was always a very twitchy.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
I thought he was underrated.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Yeah, and that's kind of gone.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
And one thing I always said about Rogers was, and
I've used this, I've said this many times, but of
all the Hall of Fame type quarterbacks, if I put
all their highlight tapes together, this is good as Eddie.
But if I put all their low light tapes together,
his might be the best. And now he's adding to
the low light tape. Like he never touched on the
interception ratio. I mean history, right, I mean, now he's
(20:24):
making more mistakes.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
I remember, like in his MVP year he had two
interceptions something like that.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
It was some crazy streak. He went like twenty games
without throwing an interception.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
And it wasn't like I just throw screens and dump off.
He has like ten yards down the field stretching things yet, right,
So he was remarkable. Yeah, he's a first ballot Hall
of Famer, no doubt. Two hundred and forty one drop backs,
so the fifth most in the league this year. His
two point five to five second average time to throw
is only higher than Baker Mayfield and Andy Dalton. Can
(20:54):
we get Andy Dalton some part like why is that
old man getting beat up so fast? He's got two
point five seconds back there. Baker can handle it, he's young,
but that ain't good for an old guy like Rogers
to be.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
In that category.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
And back to the Breessee Hall stuff, It's like, we
can't have this guy dropping back as much as anyone
in the league.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
If he's only going to have two and a half seconds.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
And that's it's a little bit of end of career
ben Ben Was it one of the quickest time to
throws in the league because I don't want to get hit,
you know, I'm getting it out.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Do you think that plays into it too, not just
the offensive line.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Being Yeah, I think it's all the above, and he
knows it.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
He might have like a zero point two more second
that he really does, and he just doesn't want to
hold onto the ball for that extra.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
I think it hurts might get too, yeah, yeah, I
mean just even that Bills game, he gets a little grumpy.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Over the past three games, Rogers has been sacked eleven times,
so he has been getting hit and it doesn't get
any easier for him. This week against Pittsburgh short week,
Pittsburgh is blitzing on twenty point four percent of opposing dropbacks,
six lowest in the NFL. Do you see more blitzes
last week against the Raiders in the absence of Herbert?
Speaker 3 (21:52):
I think it was up.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
I need to double check on that one, but I
think it was higher than that.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Though.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
What was so good it didn't really even matter. You're right,
and they the Raiders weren't letting O'Connell stand back there
for more than what one Secondly, the ball was out.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Immediately and he was unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
He still touched you out. Yeah, So that I think
is gonna be a big key in this game. Is
you you rattle Rogers, you get him on the ground early,
you hit him hard, he'll fold.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
This is a really interesting matchup though, I mean.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Yeah, we gotta talk about the receivers real quickly. You
get out of here. Like Adam's now added to the mix.
He's gonna play. Yeah. Like I said, that backshoulder fade
works no matter what.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
The playbook here, He'll be really good.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
They now have one of the best receiving cores in football. Yes,
do you move on from Mike Williams or do you
keep a third kind of I think player Loazard has
five touchdowns this year.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Lazard's is guy, He's the three.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
I bet they shop Williams.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Yeah, and I'm sure some Steeler fans are like, well,
I mean i'd give you like.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
A seventh one of them, Yeah, sixth rounder, get you'd
get him?
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Really, they got no leverage, right, and he's I know
the Steelers were interested when he was in free agency.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Well, one of your key matchups is the wide receiver matchup.
Actually on both sides of the ball, it's the wide
receiver matchups. Garrett Wilson versus Joey Porter Junior. Let's throw
Adams in there too. Adams versus the Steelers Jackson and
Porter is a huge matchup.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
And we kind of mentioned I don't know if Porter
will travel because there's really that much of a difference
either way.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Jackson's going to have to have a big game.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Yeah, tough, and he's been really good. I mean he
has three picks. He's been really really good.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
And then on the other side of things, it's George
versus Sauce Gardner, maybe the best corner in football versus
a guy who went up against someone who has a
claim to be the best corner of football and pascertain
and kind of handled him pretty well.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Yeah, he did.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
So there's another big test for George. Let's see what
he does with a new quarterback too.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Yeah, and teams that don't travel will travel with against
the Steelers more than you know.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Do you bet Sauce travels this week?
Speaker 3 (23:48):
If reads out, I bet yes, if reads in.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
They probably stayed left right. It's just a little easier
communication wise.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
And Rush just ignores Sauce if it's Van over there
or somebody like that.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
More or less they do. One note about them is
they're really bad with penalties as a team.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Yeah, they had eleven in that game of Monday night,
contributing to the twenty two.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Right, but they're by far the most defensive passing interferences
in the league.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
So just something to note. How about that one I.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Get Russ throws the ball deep?
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Yeah, pickens is great.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
That's the other thing that you know, good passing quarterbacks
can do. Just because a guy's not open doesn't mean
I'm not going to throw a bomb down there. Because
this corner, I can see this corner struggling to keep
up stride for stride, He's probably gonna grab.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
My pickens is great to grab it drawing right.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Yeah, exactly, so that might be a little hidden thing.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Play from the Steelers there.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
And their field goal kickers a not very good. Steelers
are much better on specialty.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Huge advantage there and Waveman's not being bad, not being great,
but not been terrible, not at all.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
But Seers are a big special teams advantage and penalty advantage.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Eight twenty kickoff back to back Sunday night football games
at Akroscher Stadium.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
I think this would be really good.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
It's going to be awesome.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Did you see the uniforms, Yes, I mean the fiftieth
anniversary face man.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Very cool, Yeah, very cool, very cool. And the Jets
are gonna play really well off of that too, their
white uniforms with the green helmets, they're kind of retro.
You look into it's it's gonna be a great game.
It's gonna be an awesome environment. And the Steelers have
a chance to get to five and two. If they're
going to two and five after getting Adams, it's all
for nothing. Yeah, so you're gonna get a desperate Jets team.
(25:21):
Hopefully the Steelers match that intensity and get out of
there with a win. He's Matt Williamson. I'm Tom Opferman.
Thanks as much for listening. We'll be back again next
week on the Advanced Scout to preview the New York Giants.
We got some work to do. This is the Advanced
Scout with Tom Opferman and Mac Williamson. Stealers broke their
two game losing streak with a win over the Vegas Raiders,
a convincing nineteen point victory. So they are four and two.
They welcome the New York Jets to town for Sunday
Night football. The Jets are two and four after falling
(00:21):
to the Buffalo Bills. Matt, this is the point in
the advanced scout where we usually, you know, talk about
what happened in the Vegas game and share a quick
thought before we get into the Jets. But I say
we just burn that Vegas game right up, because there's
too much stuff to talk about right now. Yes, Russell
Wilson's going to get the start, most likely, but that
is what's going to happen. And DeVante Adams is now
(00:43):
in the fold with the New York Jets. So my
question to you to start, Matt, is which one of
those big moves is going to have the most immediate
impact on Sunday Night.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Hmmm, Well, I wonder how many snaps Adams plays. He
might be full time, he might be fifty.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Percent shoulder fade that him and Rogers did for years.
Oh it's gonna work, no matter.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
It was pretty lethal. Yeah, that's a big move.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I mean, like I said today on different podcasts that
I think the Jets now have the best skill position players.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
In the league.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
You know, like if Conklin and Mike Williams and Brayen
Allen are all like, well down the list, now you're
doing all right. Your top three are really really good,
including Breese Hall. But the other one's a quarterback who's
I'm really excited about.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
So I'm going to pick.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
I'm not gonna pick which one is a bigger deal,
but it's both are huge deals, all right.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
I'll let you cop out like that.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
I totally coughed out, totally caught out.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
I'm with you. I'm with you on the excitement though. Yeah,
we've both we've both been in Russ's camp for a while.
Impressed with what Fields has done. For sure, don't get
it twisted. He's not one or the other exactly right,
but want to see what Russ can bring to the
table after seeing six games of what Fields can bring
to the table. So the Steelers will get that on
(02:02):
Sunday against the New York Jets. Here's some serious history
between these two. The first game between these two teams
took place in November of nineteen seventy, with Pittsburgh prevailing
in that matchup. It began a nine game winning streak
for Pittsburgh against the Jets, who finally got their first
victory over the Steelers in nineteen eighty eight. But after
falling to New York in nineteen eighty eight, the Steelers
went on another winning streak. This time it was a
(02:24):
five game winning streak. So Pittsburgh won fourteen of these
teams first fifteen meetings. The most recent matchup between the
Jets and Steelers took place in twenty twenty two, with
New York winning that game twenty four to twenty. Overall,
Pittsburgh leads the series twenty to seven, including their two
postseason matchups. The Steelers won both of those playoff games
against New York, and we all remember the AFC Championship
(02:45):
Game in the twenty ten season. That was the last
time the Jets went to the postseason. By the way,
was when the Steelers beat Mark Sanchez and Rex Ryan
in their second straight trip to the AFC Championship Game.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
I know so I don't think this is included in
the version I sent you my packet. And because I
went and looked, I'm like, is that the longest streak
of a playoff drought? It is, right, It's not even close.
It's thirteen years. That's the longest streak in the league.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Denver Sever's next, and that was when they won the
Super Bowl, right.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
And that was eight years we did this, Yeah, one,
and then there's Atlanta and Carolina was six, and no one.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Else is more than three. Like, this league is designed.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
To get in fast, right, It's been twelve thirteen years,
which frankly, I think contributes to the Devonte Adams trad
like we didn't need to at least make the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Here, guys, despiration of firing the head coach.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
To firing the head coach. You got a three game
losing streak.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
You haven't been the playoffs in thirteen years, Your quarterbacks
a million years old.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
You know, like, we got to do it now or never.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Well, speaking of making the playoffs, here's a great stat
that Steelers fans would like to hear. Steeers have made
the playoffs the last seven times when they've started the
season at four and two or better since twenty ten.
So looks like they're going to make the playoffs this year.
Here's a good Russell Wilson's stat. Russell Wilson has a
career Your touchdown to interception ratio of three point two
to one is the good that is? Well, let me
(04:05):
tell you how good it is. It's the third highest
an NFL history, behind the guy he's playing on Sunday,
Aaron Rodgers, and the best quarterback in the world currently
right now, maybe the best of all time when it's
all said and done, Patrick Mahomes.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yes, so I think Mahomes the best quarterback I've ever seen.
And I said that about Rob.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Rodgers years Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
And Russell Wilson's third touchdown interception ratio the most important
thing that you can pretty important starting quarterback in the NFL.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
I mean, he has his worts and a lot of
that happened years ago.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
But I think the touchdown passes are going to go up,
and I don't think the interceptions are going to go
up either.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
You know.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Well, we'll get into the offense in russ in just
a second. But one other glaring advantage here is the coaching.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
How about this is a crazy one too.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
The coaching ten years between these two guys. Last week
was Jeff Ulbricks's first game as an NFL head coach.
Took over for Robert Sola. He's good for him decoordinator
under Sala, and then went into that interim role. Last
week was Mike Tomlin's two and ninety nine game including
the postseason. This will be number three hundred for coach
t Yeah, coming up against the Jets. Pretty big.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Uh yeah, good game advantage, experience.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Some wisdom gaps there or two.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
I hope for all Brick's sake he coaches three hundred
more games, but he'll be a much different coach if
he does.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
From what I can tell, he's really well liked and
people thought he was going to be up sooner rather
than later.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
He's a bright and shining star. But I mean, I'm
sure he's still swimming like crazy.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Oh I bet. Yeah. The Jets are super talented, though,
or at least have guys that had had high pedigrees.
Fourteen former first round picks are on their current roster.
That'll be most in the NFL.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
They're not all drafted by them and hors Rodgers right,
and there's a.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
I actually looked at him like there's two or three
that you wouldn't come up with, like tack McKinley and
Kinlaw is a starting defensive tackle.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
But it's a high, high pedigree roster.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Now that doesn't include Devontae Adams, who's not a first
round pick, but I mean they they bring in a
lot of guys that were very.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Talented, you know, no question.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
So it's a very unique roster build in terms of
age and in it to win it and all that stuff.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
We'll start by looking at the defensive side of the
ball for the Jets because that way we can talk
about Russell Wilson right now off the bat, because it's
all I want to talk about. And one of the bigger,
big differences I think that I've looked at mat between
Russ and Fields is Fields has been able to run
the ball into the end zone and do that in
the red zone from time to time. But they have
(06:32):
a fifty percent red zone to touchdown conversion rate. Right now,
that's not good enough. That's Russ's bread and butter in
the red zone, especially times he did twenty of them
last year for just in the resver. So I think
that's going to be a huge difference and that ups
your points per game. And to be quite frank, I
think Fields has been really good at running the ball.
(06:53):
You don't lose that. By the way, when Russ goes in,
you can still have some packages for Fields.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
That's one thing that makes me crazy about this whole
is done. Like you can't bring off the Matt Ryan
in his last year.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Even though what you're talking about Will Wilson, Well, I'm
going even with people saying, well, you can't lose Fields.
His ability to run Fields can come off the bench
in especialty packaging football. He's going to play. That was
the plan before Russ blew his calf up in training camp.
That was everybody was kind of telling you, yeah, there's
gonna be some stuff for Fields. Would be crazy not
to use him.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
And I think Tomlin even said that today that someone
asked him. He's like, oh, that very well could be
in the car or something along those lines.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
You know.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
But throwing the football just isn't good for justin fields.
I mean not good enough no the moment, and I
don't think the Steelers are ready to give the time
to grow. This isn't developed during this season r Yes.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
I mean you're you're in first place. You know, that's
not That's not where this franchise is. They're into I mean,
like it or not, folks, I mean, this franchise looks
at how.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Do I beat the Jets? How do I win today?
You know?
Speaker 2 (07:54):
I mean they're not in it for let's tank and
get a good pick and develop guy.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
You know, that's just the way it is.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
And I also think you're kind of looking at the
forest slightly through the trees here because you're also looking
at that other half of the schedule, and you're like,
I can't beat the Ravens just trying to run the ball.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Yeah, you're actual talking about that.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Fields isn't going to be able to do that, right.
The Ravens eat the run alive, no matter if it's
the quarterback running and running, but whatever, they're gonna crush you.
So you need to throw the ball against these teams.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
One last note that also is the red zone stuff
is a tremendous point by you, but you face so
many loaded boxes. You have to hit the deep balls,
you know, at least at a higher rate than they have.
Like two weeks ago, he was zero for six and
anything over twenty yards.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
That's a touchdown to Pickens last week if he didn't
underthrow it right.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
And say, we going about Ross, He's always been a
great deep ball thrower.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
He's always been a great red zone thrower. Those are
two things they are lacking.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
So what's the test going to be like for us?
In his Steelers' debut, New York is giving up eighteen
points per game? Only the Charger, Steelers, Vikings, Broncos, Bears,
and Chiefs, all very good defense that I just named,
are better than the Jets. So the Jets are playing
some pretty good defense. It's not gonna be the the
easiest game for us.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
No, No, this is a This is an underachieving, talented
football team that maybe not all those former first round
picks or stars anymore, you know, Mike Williams, et cetera,
but a lot of them are really really talented dudes
and Sauce Gardner and you know the Williams brothers. I mean,
this is a good football team, especially on PAP.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
They're kind of banged up in their secondary though.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Yeah, I'm curious what Reid situation is. He's a number
two corner, very good number two corner, very.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Good number two corner and Clark the safety got it
went on an ir today.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
That's a good sign for the Steelers. He won't be
playing Michael Carter's banged up to their nickel corner. The
Williams brothers are phenomenal at both yes levels, the d
line and linebacker's position, both defensive Player of the Year
caliber players. Those two plus Sauce really make up the
star power on that defense. Am I forgetting somebody else?
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Moseley is a really good established leader around the block.
He got drafted like two picks behind right next to
jay Z.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
He was brought in, if I'm not mistaken, the same
year they brought in Le'Veon Bell. It's been a while
at the Jets. Yeah, I remember Mosley got hurt that
year too, and it was kind of like, great, we
got these two prize fighters.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Coming in and they get done too.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
But Mosley has been great ever since that ye coming
back from that injury and been a solid player for them.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Sauce and Quinn Williams the defensive tackle or their two
best defensive players, and they're in contention for best of
their position. I mean they're not far off.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Well. That leads me to this how do the Steelers
manage quinnin with Zach Fraser? Probably no, Zach Fraser will
not be playing on this game. Yeah, he's weak to week.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
It's a problem. I mean the O line across the board.
The Jets are built like the Niners. That's how Robert
Sala came from. And they want defensive lineman galore in
hockey waves, you know, like hockey lines, and they're a
little lacking in that, especially with Reddick sitting out. Who knows,
maybe something happened to him in the next couple of
days after the Adams move. But still a talented defensive line.
There's a lot of first round picks in the front.
(10:56):
They do have a couple of injuries. McDonald has a
bunch of sacks. Who I just the Steelers OH line
in general is probably in for a long day.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Yeah. McDonald has four and a half more sacks than
any other Jets player. But eleven defenders have a sack
this season. McDonald has a sack and at least he
is at least one sack in four of his past
five games. His seven sacks overall this season his second
most in the league behind Aiden Hutchinson, and boy, that's
a tough blow that Aid had to take it. TJ.
(11:25):
Watts the favorite to win Defensive Player of the Year,
and he's gonna win Defensive player. There, I'm just gonna
speak that into existence. But Aiden was the one that
was given a pretty stiff resistance to at the start
of the season. Dude, mister Hutchinson was edging in front
a lot, right. Yeah, he's been unbelievable for Detroit.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Yeah it was great. That's great, a huge loss. But
real quick on McDonald.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Yeah, McDonald right behind him in the sack total.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yeah, he's more of a specialty. You know, he won't
play every down. But if you might remember, the Steelers
leap frog the Jets to take Roderick Jones in the
first round and as much thought of that, the Jets
would have taken Jones took a tackle the year after
in the first round, and then they took McDonald instead.
So he's in his second year as a mid first
round pick and it's really exploded.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
No doubt he's having a great season this year. Maybe
he and Broderick will do they move him around or
is he pretty.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Much move around?
Speaker 1 (12:14):
He'll Broderick braces McDonald's battle between the two draft picks.
They are interesting. Trying to see what else I thought
about on the Jets defensive front here New York.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Real quick Sauce is not a traveler most of the time.
Why don't they do that because they like read.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
I mean they left right it and so.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
They just take a side of the field out of
the Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
And but I wonder if Reid's out.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
I mean, he has done it, and it's only Pickens
and it's only pickensick, Like, I know, we'll get the
other side of the ball. But I wonder if Porter travels.
I think he would have traveled with Wilson, but now
with Adams and will two ones, maybe you just stay
left right and Jackson's okay, you know.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
So the one thing I wanted to mention before I
moved on to Jets. Offensively, Steelers are throwing the ball
in forty seven point one percent of their dropbacks and
other snaps. It's exactly what I was going to say.
Do you think that's going to go up? Now?
Speaker 3 (13:08):
With Russ there's nowhere to go but up?
Speaker 1 (13:10):
But yeah, only Baltimore throws it less. Yeah, that's because Baltimore,
why would you throw the ball? And they play in
the fourth quarter.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
They grind people out, and you know, so I think
it does go up, yes, because they'll be definitely less designed.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
There'll be fewer quarterback rushing attempts for sure.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Only seventy five percent of the Steelers dropbacks result in
a target to a receiver that's got to go up too.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
That's got to go up.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
That's not as insanely low as it sounds. But the
correlation there is eight percent. You know, there's another twenty
five percent. A lot of them are scrambles, but eight
percent of them are sacks. And people don't think about
the Steelers getting sacked a lot, but that's a very
high sacked percentage. They don't throw a lot, so they
don't have a ton of sacks.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Like, well, that's weird because people keep telling me on
the internet that Russell Wilson's just going to get sacked
a lot when he goes in there fields has been
getting sacked a lot.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
All I hear is Wilson's gonna fumble left and right,
and he's sacked a million times.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
And you're like, what are you watching that? I'm not
leads the.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
League in fumbles and there have an eight percent sack
rate which is like fourth highs.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Yeah, Fields has four fumbles, but he has lost none
of them, so he's been very lucky.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
And that doesn't count to two snaps.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Really six it is the most in the league now,
so that's not good. And then New York opponents are
getting the ball out in two point nine three seconds
on average. Only the Saints are facing a higher average
time to throw. We just talked about McDonald getting home,
(14:37):
so yeah, that doesn't add up to sacks. But there's
not much pressure in Russell Wilson's for this in a
weird way. If that holds up and there's two point
nine three seconds on average to throw, that's beautiful for us. Yeah,
Russell camp out back there and he'll pick you apart.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
No fine stuff.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I mean, it's just hard to cover for that long,
no matter what advantages you have.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Do you think that there's a chance I'm not gonna
make Van Jefferson out to be anything that he is
right now, But there's a chance that I think people
are like, oh, George will explode now potentially with Russ,
but I think the other ones might have a better
outing than we've seen too.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah, we've talked about this a fair amount of the
drive too. It's just kind of a veteran quarterback thing
to do is get everyone on the field involved early,
you know, like get a feel for who's hot, who's not,
who's got matchups, get them the ball early to make
them involved. You know, they're not as good as Pickens,
we know that, but I think that's possible.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
And I think with Pickens as far as getting him
the ball early, I think Russ knows what a lot
of great veteran quarterbacks know is you get that number
one guy like a nice screen, a little quick pop slam,
yeah right away, just get him checked into the game.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
And I think Arthur Smith has done very nice job,
even going back to the preseason of scheming Pickens up
is a true number one.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Like we said, that's a touchdown that he had this.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Yeah, you can't leave those guys that on the field.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Let's look at the Jets offense. They average six point
seven your hearts per play last week. It's unbelievable, but
their season now long average is four point nine, and
the Steelers surrender four point eight yards per play. Only
six defenses are better. The Steelers defenses allowing just fourteen
point eight points per game only the Chargers are better
as far as team points allowed is concerned. Another week, though, Matt,
(16:15):
you're facing a ton.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Of passes, heavy, heavy pass.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Throw the ball sixty four point three percent of their snaps.
Seattle and Dallas throw it more. I know Vegas is
right up there too. Remember reading that in our stat
pack last week. And in the last three games, New
York has thrown it on seventy one percent of their
offensive plays. They've lost three straight games. Maybe start running
the ball a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
And there's a new coaches or nine new coaches after
there's a coaching change, and just watching the Monday night.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Game, Yall was more involved.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Yeah, I think that was an objection. You mention.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
The number one is Brestall's really good. We're going to
get him. He's gonna be the focal point. But then
they go trade for Devonte Adams, so they're a hard
game of predict.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
You still gotta lean more into the running games from
the Jets, great old Rogers.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
Yeah, he's been taking some hits.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
This week. Good luck against TJ And looks like Alex
is going to be back as well. It's gonna be
tough for him if he has to pass a ton.
If you're not going to keep the Steelers pass rushers
at bay by running the ball, it could be a
long day for Aaron.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
And Rogers is still playing well. But much like even
Ben at the end, but Breeze and Eli and Ryan and.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
All those dudes at the end, they didn't like getting
hit in their forty you know, like it just hurts more,
you know.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
In week six, Bristol had twenty three rushing yards. In
week five, he had just four rushing yards. Before last week,
Hall was averaging thirty nine point four rushing yards per game.
And then, as we mentioned, against the Bills on Monday Night,
Haul had forty four rushing yards in just the first
quarter and he finished the game with one hundred and
thirteen yards on the ground. He had two hundred and
twenty total yards from scrimmage. All received eighteen of a
possible twenty one rushing attempts on Monday Night.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Pact giving him the ball yep as a feature change.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Then, Yeah, brayln Allen was getting some play and he's
got some carries away from Hall. Youngest player in the NFL.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Yeah, yeah, and he is, but Haul's superstar. Yeah, he's
a first run fantasy guy. I mean, like, give them ball.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Do you have him on your team? Is that why
you're saying give them the ball? Are you a little
that they haven't been?
Speaker 3 (18:09):
But I wish I would have on Draft Day, I
wish I would have gotten them.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
New York has thirteen rushes of ten plus yards. Only
the Chiefs, Rams, and Cowboys have fewer. Pittsburgh has only
allowed fifteen such runs. Only six defenses are better. A
nineteen point six percent of runs against the Steelers have
resulted in a loss of yardage or no gain. That's
six best in the league. Twenty percent of the time
when teams run it, Steelers stuff it, there's the line
of scrimmage or better.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
But Hall was very explosive and combust long ones. We
saw that on Monday night.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
I think Alex Hihsmith returning helps huge, immensely in the
running game.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
I would have ran at those guys this week, in particular,
you know the replacement level dudes, if rates.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Were still out. Yeahs had nothing in the raid, even
less than the Cowboys.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Yeah, Raiders couldn't do that, but the Jets could.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Yeah, And I think the Jets will try. But like
I said, I I saw such a drop off in
rush defense the Raiders game excluded in those two games
that Smith missed.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Yes, yeah, they just keep doing great edgeeter.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Yeah, Aaron Rodgers you said, doesn't necessarily have all of
his superpowers still, but he's still a very good quarterback.
He has two or more touchdown passes in four of
his past five games. He threw for two hundred and
ninety four yards last week, which is his highest total
in a Jets uniform. His six point four yards per
attempt is only higher than six qualified quarterbacks. And this
is the very non rogers e stat that you have here.
(19:26):
His sixty one point eight percent completion percentage is only
better than five passers. I know, fields is even completion
percentage is higher than that right now noticeably. I mean,
this guy is usually a surgeon. I mean, you're you're
creeping towards the seventies when it comes to his completion percentage.
What do you think that's? Is that the offensive line
he doesn't have much time?
Speaker 3 (19:43):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
I do think he gets a little more skittish back there,
but boy, he still makes some throws the things. Here's
what real quick, here's what I think it's changed about
Rogers from in his prime. He was never the best athlete,
but he was always a very twitchy.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
I thought he was underrated.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Yeah, and that's kind of gone.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
And one thing I always said about Rogers was, and
I've used this, I've said this many times, but of
all the Hall of Fame type quarterbacks, if I put
all their highlight tapes together, this is good as Eddie.
But if I put all their low light tapes together,
his might be the best. And now he's adding to
the low light tape. Like he never touched on the
interception ratio. I mean history, right, I mean, now he's
(20:24):
making more mistakes.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
I remember, like in his MVP year he had two
interceptions something like that.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
It was some crazy streak. He went like twenty games
without throwing an interception.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
And it wasn't like I just throw screens and dump off.
He has like ten yards down the field stretching things yet, right,
So he was remarkable. Yeah, he's a first ballot Hall
of Famer, no doubt. Two hundred and forty one drop backs,
so the fifth most in the league this year. His
two point five to five second average time to throw
is only higher than Baker Mayfield and Andy Dalton. Can
(20:54):
we get Andy Dalton some part like why is that
old man getting beat up so fast? He's got two
point five seconds back there. Baker can handle it, he's young,
but that ain't good for an old guy like Rogers
to be.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
In that category.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
And back to the Breessee Hall stuff, It's like, we
can't have this guy dropping back as much as anyone
in the league.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
If he's only going to have two and a half seconds.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
And that's it's a little bit of end of career
ben Ben Was it one of the quickest time to
throws in the league because I don't want to get hit,
you know, I'm getting it out.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Do you think that plays into it too, not just
the offensive line.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Being Yeah, I think it's all the above, and he
knows it.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
He might have like a zero point two more second
that he really does, and he just doesn't want to
hold onto the ball for that extra.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
I think it hurts might get too, yeah, yeah, I
mean just even that Bills game, he gets a little grumpy.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Over the past three games, Rogers has been sacked eleven times,
so he has been getting hit and it doesn't get
any easier for him. This week against Pittsburgh short week,
Pittsburgh is blitzing on twenty point four percent of opposing dropbacks,
six lowest in the NFL. Do you see more blitzes
last week against the Raiders in the absence of Herbert?
Speaker 3 (21:52):
I think it was up.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
I need to double check on that one, but I
think it was higher than that.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Though.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
What was so good it didn't really even matter. You're right,
and they the Raiders weren't letting O'Connell stand back there
for more than what one Secondly, the ball was out.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Immediately and he was unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
He still touched you out. Yeah, So that I think
is gonna be a big key in this game. Is
you you rattle Rogers, you get him on the ground early,
you hit him hard, he'll fold.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
This is a really interesting matchup though, I mean.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Yeah, we gotta talk about the receivers real quickly. You
get out of here. Like Adam's now added to the mix.
He's gonna play. Yeah. Like I said, that backshoulder fade
works no matter what.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
The playbook here, He'll be really good.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
They now have one of the best receiving cores in football. Yes,
do you move on from Mike Williams or do you
keep a third kind of I think player Loazard has
five touchdowns this year.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Lazard's is guy, He's the three.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
I bet they shop Williams.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Yeah, and I'm sure some Steeler fans are like, well,
I mean i'd give you like.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
A seventh one of them, Yeah, sixth rounder, get you'd
get him?
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Really, they got no leverage, right, and he's I know
the Steelers were interested when he was in free agency.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Well, one of your key matchups is the wide receiver matchup.
Actually on both sides of the ball, it's the wide
receiver matchups. Garrett Wilson versus Joey Porter Junior. Let's throw
Adams in there too. Adams versus the Steelers Jackson and
Porter is a huge matchup.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
And we kind of mentioned I don't know if Porter
will travel because there's really that much of a difference
either way.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Jackson's going to have to have a big game.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Yeah, tough, and he's been really good. I mean he
has three picks. He's been really really good.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
And then on the other side of things, it's George
versus Sauce Gardner, maybe the best corner in football versus
a guy who went up against someone who has a
claim to be the best corner of football and pascertain
and kind of handled him pretty well.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Yeah, he did.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
So there's another big test for George. Let's see what
he does with a new quarterback too.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Yeah, and teams that don't travel will travel with against
the Steelers more than you know.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Do you bet Sauce travels this week?
Speaker 3 (23:48):
If reads out, I bet yes, if reads in.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
They probably stayed left right. It's just a little easier
communication wise.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
And Rush just ignores Sauce if it's Van over there
or somebody like that.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
More or less they do. One note about them is
they're really bad with penalties as a team.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Yeah, they had eleven in that game of Monday night,
contributing to the twenty two.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Right, but they're by far the most defensive passing interferences
in the league.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
So just something to note. How about that one I.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Get Russ throws the ball deep?
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Yeah, pickens is great.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
That's the other thing that you know, good passing quarterbacks
can do. Just because a guy's not open doesn't mean
I'm not going to throw a bomb down there. Because
this corner, I can see this corner struggling to keep
up stride for stride, He's probably gonna grab.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
My pickens is great to grab it drawing right.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Yeah, exactly, so that might be a little hidden thing.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Play from the Steelers there.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
And their field goal kickers a not very good. Steelers
are much better on specialty.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Huge advantage there and Waveman's not being bad, not being great,
but not been terrible, not at all.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
But Seers are a big special teams advantage and penalty advantage.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Eight twenty kickoff back to back Sunday night football games
at Akroscher Stadium.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
I think this would be really good.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
It's going to be awesome.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
Did you see the uniforms, Yes, I mean the fiftieth
anniversary face man.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Very cool, Yeah, very cool, very cool. And the Jets
are gonna play really well off of that too, their
white uniforms with the green helmets, they're kind of retro.
You look into it's it's gonna be a great game.
It's gonna be an awesome environment. And the Steelers have
a chance to get to five and two. If they're
going to two and five after getting Adams, it's all
for nothing. Yeah, so you're gonna get a desperate Jets team.
(25:21):
Hopefully the Steelers match that intensity and get out of
there with a win. He's Matt Williamson. I'm Tom Opferman.
Thanks as much for listening. We'll be back again next
week on the Advanced Scout to preview the New York Giants.
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