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Speaker 1: This is the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamson

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Speaker 1: on you Home of the Black and Gold Steelers Nation Radio.

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Speaker 1: M h he faded the music out on me. Kelln Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I like that too. Could get to the total guitar

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Speaker 1: solo there swing is that's one of the cleanest guitar

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Speaker 1: solos that you like? Is that a steel guitar they play?

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Speaker 1: He has a different sound, and I think it's just

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Speaker 1: how he has it. On the cover of brother at Arms,

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Speaker 1: I think is a steel guitar? Usually know, if that's

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Speaker 1: not brothers are, that's that's from that. That's the early

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Speaker 1: dire streets. Okay, yeah, alright, fair enough in dire streets.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, so, uh, Naja Harris, We've talked, sure, we've

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Speaker 1: We've spent hours talking about Naja before he was even

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Speaker 1: a Steeler, Before he was even a Steeler, we talked

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Speaker 1: about Naja Harris. Uh touchdown where has a? This was

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Speaker 1: pretty good. It looked like, Yeah, I'm gonna dig into

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Speaker 1: it more tonight. But it's a piece on his title,

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Speaker 1: how Nase Harris will be successful Behind the Steelers Redefined

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Speaker 1: offensive Line. The writer is Lori Fitzpatrick. I'm not I'm

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Speaker 1: not familiar with her. I actually used to write for

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Speaker 1: these guys. Doug Ferrars in charge. Um, he does great work.

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Speaker 1: And his number one dude is Mark Scofield, who I

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Speaker 1: know real well. He does great work. So I respect them.

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Speaker 1: I'm interested to learn more about her because this is

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Speaker 1: a good piece and she's good people that have hired

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Speaker 1: her obviously. Yeah, um, the only thing, the only thing

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Speaker 1: that I would mention on this, she says. She said

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Speaker 1: the Steelers lost three starters from the in the off season,

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Speaker 1: of course from center left. Yes, so she says, right, now,

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Speaker 1: here's the offensive line and she has hass and Our

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Speaker 1: starting at center, which isn't gonna happen. That's I'm sorry, Laurie,

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Speaker 1: but that's not gonna happen. I mean, he's gonna be

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Speaker 1: the third guy. He's only be the one, I would think,

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Speaker 1: so I think, And there's a chance that somebody, you know,

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Speaker 1: pushes him right out of the old equation in general.

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Speaker 1: But anyway, so it's it's choos a core for Kevin Dotson,

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Speaker 1: probably b J Finney to start the season, but we'll

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Speaker 1: see that's to be determined. But right, uh, David de

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Speaker 1: Castro at right guard and Zack Banner at right tackle.

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Speaker 1: I mean, especially early or especially this season, center worries

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Speaker 1: me the most. Yeah, you know, but I have a

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Speaker 1: lot of hope for Green, but he's the third Rumpick.

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Speaker 1: She's a bit of an understatement to say the offensive

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Speaker 1: line will being unknown this year. That's true. I think

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Speaker 1: that's true. Uh last year. Since the run game wasn't effective,

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Speaker 1: Ben Roethlisberger focused on getting the ball up quick and

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Speaker 1: so he led the NFL in at quickest average time

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Speaker 1: to throw at two point one seven seconds. You're not

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Speaker 1: gonna get home. I'm not get home. Let's say. I

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Speaker 1: mean they were better in protection in the run game,

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Speaker 1: but they weren't asked to protect long. That's that's certainly true. Um.

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Speaker 1: One note about the old line, and we've talked about this,

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Speaker 1: and it sounds like they're even kicking the tires on

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Speaker 1: other dudes. I think it's a deep bo line. There's questions,

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Speaker 1: but lacking his star power, but not depth. I don't

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Speaker 1: think the second team old line is particularly bad. In fact,

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Speaker 1: I think, compared to the rest of the league, is

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Speaker 1: pretty good. Yeah, you know, whoever that ends up being

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Speaker 1: in something regard, Um says James Conner had some issues

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Speaker 1: last year where he wasn't able to see the gaps,

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Speaker 1: get skinny nor run behind his pads. I agree with

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Speaker 1: that one. And he was their best guy, and he

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Speaker 1: was by far the best guy. Like I think we

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Speaker 1: talked about this yesterday. I thought it was obvious when

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Speaker 1: he was even at his best, how much better he

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Speaker 1: was than the other guys. But compare him to high

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Speaker 1: quality backs, it's still night and day. I mean, the

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Speaker 1: gap from not even talking about Nagy, the gap from

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Speaker 1: I don't know, Kareem Hunt, let's Hunt eleven or twelve

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Speaker 1: back in the league. He's not the best, but he's

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Speaker 1: good to the best version of Connor was significant to me.

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Speaker 1: And the gap from Connor to everything else on the

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Speaker 1: team was significant to me. Yeah, so you could go

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Speaker 1: up several levels of that position with Nazi compared to

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Speaker 1: what they've been playing with the last two years. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And she she has some videos here attached with the story.

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Speaker 1: This is great. This is one of the great things

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Speaker 1: about the internet. Is one of the things we do

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Speaker 1: with d K Pittsburgh Sports. Um, you know, when Chris

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Speaker 1: Carter's analyzing something, he could show you the play. You

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Speaker 1: don't have to you know, it's so different than when

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Speaker 1: you're reading newspaper, which is visualizing in your head or whatever. Right,

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Speaker 1: you actually have plays that you can diagram what you're

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Speaker 1: talking about. Here, watch this play and see and watch

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Speaker 1: how he does it. So there's several videos here of

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Speaker 1: naj Harris um getting down that you can really make

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Speaker 1: your point sound better by two plays. Absolutely, yeah, you can.

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Speaker 1: You can pick out that. Yeah, but the ones that

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Speaker 1: really didn't you know, this really worked well. But watching him, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, stick his foot in the ground and go

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Speaker 1: on a dime. I don't care. We don't know what

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Speaker 1: his forty time really is because he didn't don't really

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Speaker 1: care to be honest with you. He looks more than

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Speaker 1: fast enough. Speed's fine, it's not gonna be a strength. Um,

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Speaker 1: you know, maybe he doesn't break off sixty yard ors.

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Speaker 1: Neither did Levy on Bell. No, what they did was

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Speaker 1: hit the hole correctly. I mean, more you think about it,

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Speaker 1: Neither did Franco Berry, Foster or Beddest or just decisive runners.

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Speaker 1: And I think that's the thing that was lacking the

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Speaker 1: most sometimes with Connor. I don't think he trusted what

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Speaker 1: he saw a lot of times. I think there's some

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Speaker 1: truth to that. I'm sure his body failed him at

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Speaker 1: times as well. Um, one thing, Harris is really good

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Speaker 1: at that. Connor's okay, but and it's a hard thing

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Speaker 1: to see and sometimes you just slow down the tape.

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Speaker 1: It's just some subtle moves so that he grazes off

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Speaker 1: tackles instead of getting hit full speed. Um, you know

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Speaker 1: there's an art to that with smaller backs, bigger backs.

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Speaker 1: I mean, sure, Jerome could you know really and for

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Speaker 1: bring a blow, but he was also nuanced enough as

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Speaker 1: a left right runner and he knew enough. Bill Carols

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Speaker 1: used to talk about Jerome bettis getting skinny in the

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Speaker 1: hole right right. You can't even imagine. The skinny is

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Speaker 1: not an adjective you use with But it's the ability

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Speaker 1: to slide through a gap that's not big enough for

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Speaker 1: you to slide through, and that doesn't see that gap

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Speaker 1: right right. That doesn't mean you're turning your shoulders perpendicular

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Speaker 1: line of swimmage and inching through like you're on an

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Speaker 1: elevator too many people or something. It's more like I

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Speaker 1: can get through this thing just suddenly moving my body

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Speaker 1: to get with some momentum, moving forward with outside of

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Speaker 1: my feet and it Smith's a great example. Like Smith

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Speaker 1: was a four six guy slow, he didn't run away

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Speaker 1: from anybody, but he always got what was there and

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Speaker 1: more always vision, you know, taking glancing blows instead of

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Speaker 1: huge ones, but could still be very physical, you know.

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Speaker 1: So that's a skill. And Marcus Allen is not the fastest,

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Speaker 1: but he was great in short yardage. You know, it

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Speaker 1: wasn't the most physical, you know. So a lot of

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Speaker 1: these backs that those type of skills are really more important. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and she has some some again videos of here of

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Speaker 1: Naja Harris getting skinny or bouncing off tacklers or knowing

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Speaker 1: just pinballing his way down the field like Okay, I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna left and I'm gonna go right. Then I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: go left and I go right, and got guys are

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Speaker 1: bouncing off. He doesn't go down with the first contact

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Speaker 1: right right, Um, Chubb and Cleveland reminds me that way too,

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Speaker 1: Like his highlight tape isn't gonna remind you of Barry

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Speaker 1: Sanders or you know it's not jaw dropping. Was Barry

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Speaker 1: Sanders to me is the best running back in NFL history.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna go Jim Brown, but Sanders b my two.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I want look, if I have you, give

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Speaker 1: me a uh sit down, give me some popcorn. Who

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Speaker 1: you want to watch? Oh, he's number one. I'm watching

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Speaker 1: Barry Sanders all day long. Because you may still remember

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Speaker 1: one of my fantasy leagues when you're we're talking in

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Speaker 1: the draft, um and some the one guy was was drafting,

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Speaker 1: he passed on Barry Sanders. And I'm like, how can

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Speaker 1: you pass on Barry Sanders? And he says, oh, he's

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Speaker 1: still getting too inconsistent, this after a season in which

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Speaker 1: I believe he had ten consecutive hundred yard games during

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Speaker 1: the previous season. Like inconsistent. He might be inconsistent. Carry

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Speaker 1: to carry right, but the production is going to It's

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Speaker 1: one point. If you give the ball to Barry Sanders

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Speaker 1: twenty times, good things that have happened of them, and

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Speaker 1: something remarkable would happened in three of them. Yeah, you

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Speaker 1: know what I mean. I mean where he's just getting

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Speaker 1: his highlight film. It's I mean, some of the runs

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Speaker 1: in the ability, it's like a cat. It's like watching

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Speaker 1: a cat. You know, you're right. But my point with

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Speaker 1: like Nick Chubb is his doesn't look like that. And

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Speaker 1: I think Harris is closer to the Chubb mold, you

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Speaker 1: know where he's gonna do spectacular things, particularly as a

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Speaker 1: receiver in my opinion, But I don't know that his

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Speaker 1: runs are gonna be super jaw dropping. When his highlight

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Speaker 1: tape gets put together, it's gonna be really good. But

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Speaker 1: I think it'll be closer to Emmett or Chubb, you know,

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Speaker 1: those type of guys. Bell. What I don't expect is

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Speaker 1: a lot of tackles for losses. No, I think that's huge.

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Speaker 1: I think I think he's going to get you if

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Speaker 1: there's nothing there, he's gonna get you two yards back

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Speaker 1: to the point she made to begin with a million

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Speaker 1: different people too. But the line is so bad. Okay,

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Speaker 1: let's say the line's awful. I still think he's going

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Speaker 1: to get back to the line of scrimmage and maybe

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Speaker 1: get one or two when nothing as opposed to getting

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Speaker 1: dropped for a two yard loss exactly exactly. Yeah, that's

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Speaker 1: a huge difference, and I think that's one of the

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Speaker 1: reasons why I don't think Ben Roethlisberger trusted their running

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Speaker 1: game last year, and so I think a lot of times, okay,

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Speaker 1: they gotta run pass option called it was really a

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Speaker 1: pass option because he says, I can throw this four

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Speaker 1: yard pass here, or I can give it to the

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Speaker 1: back and maybe he gets dropped for a two yard loss.

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Speaker 1: It's a six yard difference. Six yard difference, and I

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Speaker 1: know I'm gonna complete the pass. Yeah, you know, right,

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Speaker 1: and yeah exactly. Yeah. I do think there's a trust

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Speaker 1: factor there, and hopefully Ben quickly trusts Harris, much like

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Speaker 1: Elway with d Davis. And you know those type of

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Speaker 1: things too. Um the other thing and move references a

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Speaker 1: couple of times, and Ian Hards from Pro Football Focus

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Speaker 1: brings it up a ton because he's their fantasy guy.

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Speaker 1: And some of the best production from running backs last year.

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Speaker 1: We're from the worst offensive lines in Minnesota is a

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Speaker 1: great example, like some of several of the top scoring

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Speaker 1: fantasy backs came from really bad blocking situations. And you

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Speaker 1: say this all the time, Greg go Seltz is all

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Speaker 1: the time. The back makes the line as much as

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Speaker 1: vice versa. So you really think the Vikings would have

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Speaker 1: ran the ball well with Madison all year? No, I

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Speaker 1: mean I went back and looked at it. I mean

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Speaker 1: they didn't they. Madison in his starts average three point

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Speaker 1: nine yards to carry, right, you know the upgraded with

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Speaker 1: the who's carrying the ball matters. I know that there's

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Speaker 1: some analytic folks that don't think it does. And frankly,

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Speaker 1: I'd rather have a great offensive line than a great back.

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Speaker 1: But it's also harder to find five great offensive lineman's

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Speaker 1: much easier to find that back. I mean, it's it's

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Speaker 1: that conversation we had pre drafted. If I want to

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Speaker 1: fix this thing, I want to fix the running game. Well,

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Speaker 1: the running back is a good place to start, because

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Speaker 1: that's an easier fix. And to be very honest, doesn't

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Speaker 1: mean you ignore the other part of it, of course not.

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Speaker 1: But if the Steelers were picking ten twelve, yeah, I

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Speaker 1: don't think I'm taking a running back, right, I think

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Speaker 1: I'm taking a premier blocker of some sort. And because

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Speaker 1: you also then would have had a chance to get

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Speaker 1: one of those others, the top three running backs in

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Speaker 1: the second round, second round, and maybe you got Rashaun

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Speaker 1: Slater in the first or something like that. Okay, that's

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Speaker 1: different story. That's a different story. And maybe the days

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Speaker 1: of s Quan and Zeke and for Net going in

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Speaker 1: the top five or ten are gone, but the first

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Speaker 1: round running back is not gone. And We've talked about

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Speaker 1: this a million times. Maybe there's fifteen first round picks

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Speaker 1: in every draft or blue chip guys. You're not on

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Speaker 1: even blue chip, but sure fire first rounders. Maybe I'm

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Speaker 1: not taking a running back in that group. But when

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Speaker 1: you're consistently picking outside of that and you get nause

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Speaker 1: the best back in any draft. And this, I guess

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Speaker 1: this applies to Kansas City last year too. For four

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Speaker 1: years that's extremely cost conserved, you know, costs controlled, a

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Speaker 1: franchise year where he's really in his prime, and maybe

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Speaker 1: even a second franchise year. That's six pretty cheap years

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Speaker 1: of what you think is one of the best backs

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Speaker 1: in the league, which is gonna for realistically, you're gonna

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Speaker 1: be talking about six years at forty million dollars somewhere

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Speaker 1: in that range for all six years combined, less and

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Speaker 1: a decent signing bonus, but no signing bonus in your

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Speaker 1: five or six Okay, forty million dollars for a top

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Speaker 1: ten let alone, maybe even better back for six years,

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Speaker 1: and then do it again after that, you know, to

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Speaker 1: make the back to the well after that. Okay, Hey,

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Speaker 1: they as they say, you can find running backs anywhere, right, Yeah, exactly, right.

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Speaker 1: Maybe maybe you know when you get you get the

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Speaker 1: I mean the Steelers did this with Levy on Bell

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Speaker 1: and James Conner. You get to that fifth year and

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Speaker 1: you say, Okay, we're gonna we're gonna draft another one

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Speaker 1: in the third round. Right, Maybe he hits, you know,

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Speaker 1: maybe he doesn't, but we're gonna take a shot at

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Speaker 1: it here. And you know, they got a Pro Bowl

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Speaker 1: year at a Conner. And I do think if Kevin

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Speaker 1: was sitting here, and you can give them truth serum,

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Speaker 1: I think he had a plan to take a running

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Speaker 1: back higher the last two drafts and it didn't quite

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Speaker 1: work out, or they didn't think Claypool would make it,

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Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Like not that they can't,

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Speaker 1: I mean they made the right choice. I mean he's

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Speaker 1: gonna be a foundational player for a long time. Um.

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Speaker 1: Not that they're unhappy with mc marland or snell. I

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Speaker 1: still have a lot of hope for McFarland. But I

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Speaker 1: think they planned on maybe a higher draft resources in

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Speaker 1: those drafts. And you can plan it out all you want,

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Speaker 1: you can't always play. I mean it's the same thing

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Speaker 1: at like tight end and some of them. I think

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Speaker 1: it really stands out so what they do this this year,

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Speaker 1: they said, the heck with it. We're we're not doing

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Speaker 1: that anymore. We're gonna go get those two positions that

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Speaker 1: we've kind of short changed ourselves a little at. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: one of the things that you sent me was one

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Speaker 1: of your little nerd things that you got into. Yeh,

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Speaker 1: your nerdy spreadsheets offensive place per game. Yeah, you brought

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Speaker 1: this up yesterday. Coincidentally, we hadn't compared notes on We

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Speaker 1: had the conversation about how Nase Harris can help the

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Speaker 1: Steelers possess the football. Well, the Steers possessions real quick

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Speaker 1: time possession is wonderful and it's a really good indicator.

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Speaker 1: But if you come up the line of scrimmage slow

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Speaker 1: and the clock stop and you know, the clocks still running,

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Speaker 1: that's different than the team that plays fast. I mean

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Speaker 1: a play, a NFL play to me means more than

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Speaker 1: twenty seconds of possession because maybe I've run two plays

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Speaker 1: in that time or one, you know. I mean it's

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Speaker 1: a physical pounding. I mean those center had to snap

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Speaker 1: the ball and block somebody every one of those plays.

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Speaker 1: To your point with that, Baltimore is actually one of

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Speaker 1: the worst teams in in plays run per game because

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Speaker 1: the clock never stop. The clock never stops. They just

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Speaker 1: you know, they don't rush to get plays off. They

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Speaker 1: just kind of go up and okay, we're gonna run

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Speaker 1: what we run. It's usually a run. New England's pretty

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Speaker 1: low too, aren't they New England was? And my point

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Speaker 1: with the Patriots is, yeah, they were sixty one point

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Speaker 1: to Baltimore sixty two point eight. I'd like to use

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Speaker 1: this example. I might be able to beat Lebron James

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Speaker 1: in a three point contest if it's the first one

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Speaker 1: to two. If it's the first one to a hundred,

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Speaker 1: I'm not going to win it. Ever, could probably tell

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Speaker 1: you that in a three point contest, if he's guarding you,

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Speaker 1: you're not getting shot up. No, we're just we're just

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Speaker 1: shooting like Larry Bird. The chance I win maybe one,

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Speaker 1: I have a hundred times. If it's still a hundred,

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Speaker 1: never gonna win it. But the Patriots I think are

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Speaker 1: really they played slow because they knew they didn't have

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Speaker 1: the offices, don't have any good players, you know, so

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Speaker 1: we're gonna if we shortened this game and run less plays,

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Speaker 1: we have a better chance of hanging around. And to me,

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Speaker 1: that's a Belichick type of thing. So the Steelers not

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Speaker 1: what the Ravens didn't play a different style. Yeah, the

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Speaker 1: Steelers last year ran sixty six point three plays per game.

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Speaker 1: That was one of the top numbers in the NFL.

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Speaker 1: They threw a lot despite throwing a lot, not running

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Speaker 1: the ball at all, right, right, right, right, um the things,

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Speaker 1: and they were successful for much of the year when

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Speaker 1: people tend to forget they had a lot of first

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Speaker 1: down that's the thing again. You know, the Steelers went

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Speaker 1: twelve and four last year. You think they went four

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Speaker 1: and twelve the way people talk about like it's the

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Speaker 1: Jets offense Jacksonville's I mean, look at the plays for

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Speaker 1: game that those garbage teams ran. Yeah, they were three

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Speaker 1: and out all the time. Defensively, they had sixty two

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Speaker 1: point four plays per game run against him on average,

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Speaker 1: right right, which again was one of the tops in

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Speaker 1: the league. They were one of the teams that were

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Speaker 1: good in both categories. Yeah, so they're they're plays per

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Speaker 1: game differential was three point nine. That was tied for

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Speaker 1: third best in the league with the New Orleans Saints.

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Speaker 1: So what that means, folks, is on average over a

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Speaker 1: sixteen game season, essentially running four more than their opponent,

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Speaker 1: which is a ton. It doesn't sound like much, but

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Speaker 1: the leaders are at like seven or eight, and there's

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Speaker 1: only one or two of those type of teams. It

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Speaker 1: was the Chargers at eight. Shocky, was the Chargers an

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Speaker 1: odd finding? But you know, such as life they were?

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Speaker 1: Maybe they played I mean, there could be something skewing it.

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Speaker 1: Did they played more overtime games? Yeah? I don't know something,

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Speaker 1: but anyway, the Steelers were amongst the best in the

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Speaker 1: league in plays per game differential. That's what I was

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Speaker 1: doing here. And your point with your article yesterday was

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Speaker 1: what if nausey? And I'm not sure you even knew

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Speaker 1: those stats when I didn't. It was, well, Cannaji get

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Speaker 1: the defense to play two or three less plays just

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Speaker 1: because of his presence, and the offense to play two

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Speaker 1: or three more, you know, more plays just because of

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Speaker 1: his presence. And I think the answer is yes. But

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Speaker 1: you're already good at it, right, So now it's even, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: now it's even, and you have an elite defense you

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Speaker 1: do right, So now that elite defense is playing fewer snaps,

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Speaker 1: maybe that leads to I worry about the defensive depth,

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Speaker 1: but less of an issue less of an issue because

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Speaker 1: you're not you're not using that depth as much and

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Speaker 1: you're a really good pass rushing team that gets off

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Speaker 1: the ball a little bit better now and you're a

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Speaker 1: little fresher. And we've certainly seen this true for the

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Speaker 1: Steeler defense the last couple of years. But with every defense,

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Speaker 1: more defense is bad defense. Yeah, fourth quarters go poorly

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Speaker 1: for NFL defenses across. It doesn't matter who it is.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't matter who it is, because sooner or later,

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Speaker 1: the other team is going to figure out what you're

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Speaker 1: doing and what it needs to do to beat you,

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Speaker 1: and the rules are set up for you to fail.

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Speaker 1: It's hard to hold on. Yeah, it's hard, Huan passing

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Speaker 1: interference penalties they don't call holding, roughing the pass or

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Speaker 1: defensive holding. There's so many coverages we can run well

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Speaker 1: and they know them all, you know, and sooner or

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Speaker 1: later they're going to figure it out. You know, you're

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Speaker 1: playing Philip Rivers, or you're playing Tom Brady, or you

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Speaker 1: whoever it is. I think about the Niners in the

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Speaker 1: Super Bowl against the Chiefs. You know, they played a

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Speaker 1: great defensive game for three quarters and then they're holding

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Speaker 1: on for dear life and they couldn't. And this is

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Speaker 1: an extreme example, but the Falcons defense in their massive

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Speaker 1: collapse against the Patriots, they were very vanilla defense that

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Speaker 1: was execution based and not that they got totally figured out,

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Speaker 1: because the Patriots hurt themselves a lot with unforced airs

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Speaker 1: in that game. But you knew what the defense is

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Speaker 1: gonna do every snap. Brady's gonna kill that. Look at

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Speaker 1: the look at the Steelers game last year against the Bills.

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Speaker 1: The Bills did nothing offensively in the first half of

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Speaker 1: that game. The Steelers gave them a gift touchdown at

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Speaker 1: the end of the half that made that a ten

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Speaker 1: ten game if I remember correctly, at the half or

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Speaker 1: thirteen ten the Bills, and we're leading because of the touchdown.

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Speaker 1: It was in interception for a touchdown. And then you're

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Speaker 1: asking your defense to do too much in the fourth course. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and they gave them. They gave him points in the

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Speaker 1: first half on a fumble. You know, they's just all

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Speaker 1: kinds of stuff. Dropped passes, kept shooting themselves in the

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Speaker 1: foot Offensively, defensively, they shut them shut down one of

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Speaker 1: the NFL's best offenses for a half. Realistically, you should

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Speaker 1: look at I said we should be up seventeen to

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Speaker 1: three or something like that. And if you're up seventeen

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Speaker 1: to three, it changes completely, changes the complexion of the

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Speaker 1: second half. T J. Watts firing off the ball, not worried.

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Speaker 1: You know, everything changes. Of course, playing with the leads huge.

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Speaker 1: The Ravens are the best example ever. But the Bills

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Speaker 1: kind of figured that. The Bills went in a half time,

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Speaker 1: said hey, we get stuff on Diggs, let's try to

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Speaker 1: feature him here. And they come out and bing bing

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Speaker 1: bing bing bing right down the field, and all of

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Speaker 1: a sudden, the Steelers in a hole in the game.

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Speaker 1: You know. But if if it's seventeen three and and

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Speaker 1: Buffalo does that offensively, you can still do what you

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Speaker 1: were doing. Well, we could have handed it the Naji.

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Speaker 1: Right of a sudden, you're playing more snap now the

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Speaker 1: fourth now that now the third quarters over, you're punching

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Speaker 1: the ball in for a school we're a field goal

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Speaker 1: and make it twenty to ten. Different ball game. You're

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Speaker 1: running more plays, the clocks ticking, and they have less

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Speaker 1: time to do that. Yeah, you know again, I mean

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Speaker 1: every team, you know, it's one of the things that

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Speaker 1: you do to beat Tom Brady is you start shortening

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Speaker 1: the game on him right right, Like you make him

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Speaker 1: stand on the sideline where you're out there possessing the football,

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Speaker 1: and he starts looking at the at the clock, going okay,

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Speaker 1: I got maybe two three possessions left in this game

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Speaker 1: and we're down two scores here, I gotta go out.

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Speaker 1: And so maybe the quarterback then forces something that he

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Speaker 1: wouldn't necessarily do. You know, people think a week is

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Speaker 1: a long time to prepare for a game, and you

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Speaker 1: can install all these things compared to baseball and basketball. Yes,

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Speaker 1: it's a long time to prepare, but you gotta get

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Speaker 1: eleven people coordinated, is one. It's really hard to install

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Speaker 1: a new a new coverage because Brady's coming to town

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Speaker 1: or whatever it is. I mean, it's one of the

425
00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:50,920
Speaker 1: things Making Fitzpatrick talked about when we spoke to him

426
00:21:51,040 --> 00:21:53,520
Speaker 1: last week at minicamp. You know that they don't want

427
00:21:53,560 --> 00:21:56,560
Speaker 1: you know, they they gotta have everybody in the same page.

428
00:21:56,600 --> 00:21:59,600
Speaker 1: That's the biggest task ahead of them. With new guys

429
00:21:59,600 --> 00:22:02,320
Speaker 1: stepping and in the secondary of new roles, he's making

430
00:22:02,320 --> 00:22:05,880
Speaker 1: sure everybody's on the same page. Because if three guys

431
00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:08,000
Speaker 1: are playing one thing and the fourth guys playing another.

432
00:22:09,280 --> 00:22:13,040
Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's your Already Burns problem exactly. It

433
00:22:13,080 --> 00:22:15,240
Speaker 1: wasn't to me that Already Burns couldn't play the game

434
00:22:15,280 --> 00:22:18,720
Speaker 1: of football. It's that he didn't always do what he

435
00:22:18,800 --> 00:22:22,639
Speaker 1: was supposed to do. That's a problem. It's a big problem.

436
00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:24,760
Speaker 1: You know, when three guys are playing zone and one's

437
00:22:24,760 --> 00:22:27,439
Speaker 1: playing man, guess what happens. Guys are running open for

438
00:22:27,520 --> 00:22:31,040
Speaker 1: touchdowns and multiplied times ten if it's in the secondary

439
00:22:31,480 --> 00:22:34,879
Speaker 1: or oh line, Yeah, you know, the problems are going

440
00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:37,720
Speaker 1: to be great. You just can't have it. Um, where

441
00:22:37,720 --> 00:22:40,760
Speaker 1: are we going here? But even like that Niners Super Bowl,

442
00:22:40,800 --> 00:22:43,119
Speaker 1: that was a great defense. That's Nick Bosa and I

443
00:22:43,200 --> 00:22:47,240
Speaker 1: mean an elite at their height of their powers, right,

444
00:22:47,880 --> 00:22:51,800
Speaker 1: and you mentioned Brady. I mean, if Peyton Manning can

445
00:22:51,840 --> 00:22:57,320
Speaker 1: play sixty snaps of offense against the steel curtain, he's

446
00:22:57,320 --> 00:22:59,720
Speaker 1: gonna figure it out. The last twenty are gonna be okay.

447
00:22:59,760 --> 00:23:03,640
Speaker 1: I know, there's only so many defensive places you can run.

448
00:23:04,119 --> 00:23:06,640
Speaker 1: And as we talked about with that defense, they only

449
00:23:06,720 --> 00:23:08,719
Speaker 1: ran two or three plays, They had two or three

450
00:23:08,760 --> 00:23:11,000
Speaker 1: defensive calls. That was it. That was it. They were

451
00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:13,359
Speaker 1: just better. And that doesn't mean you can block Joe Green.

452
00:23:13,640 --> 00:23:15,760
Speaker 1: You know, I mean, obviously the Chiefs had that problem,

453
00:23:15,800 --> 00:23:18,320
Speaker 1: but you could figure out ways. I know I'm gonna

454
00:23:18,320 --> 00:23:21,520
Speaker 1: attack them now, and I know that I can. You know,

455
00:23:21,560 --> 00:23:24,040
Speaker 1: whatever it is, I've adjusted throughout the game, and the

456
00:23:24,080 --> 00:23:26,320
Speaker 1: defense only has so many adjustments they can make. The

457
00:23:26,359 --> 00:23:29,879
Speaker 1: offense can adjust more, and the quarterback gets the field

458
00:23:29,960 --> 00:23:32,800
Speaker 1: I mean late in the game's really favor the offense

459
00:23:32,800 --> 00:23:34,840
Speaker 1: in today's NFL. That's one of the things that drives

460
00:23:34,880 --> 00:23:38,840
Speaker 1: me crazy. But like, um, I'll get the comments sometimes

461
00:23:38,880 --> 00:23:41,520
Speaker 1: that well the Steelers did you know the Steelers didn't

462
00:23:41,560 --> 00:23:46,800
Speaker 1: make any defensive halftime adjustments. People would never know if

463
00:23:46,840 --> 00:23:49,159
Speaker 1: they did, right. But the other part of it is

464
00:23:49,160 --> 00:23:52,080
Speaker 1: if you, for example, that game against the Bills, Yeah,

465
00:23:52,520 --> 00:23:54,239
Speaker 1: you can't. You went out there and you shut them

466
00:23:54,320 --> 00:23:57,639
Speaker 1: down in the first half the Bill, the Bills weren't

467
00:23:57,640 --> 00:23:59,880
Speaker 1: moving the football. You played very good defense. You played

468
00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:03,640
Speaker 1: very good defense. What adjustments are you making in halftime

469
00:24:04,359 --> 00:24:08,960
Speaker 1: when you just shut them down? Not to mention, defensive

470
00:24:08,960 --> 00:24:13,000
Speaker 1: adjustments sound great, but how long is halftime twelve minutes

471
00:24:13,080 --> 00:24:17,159
Speaker 1: or something. Somebody's got to use the bathroom, get some water,

472
00:24:18,160 --> 00:24:23,080
Speaker 1: maybe an ivy, maybe an ivy check out an injury. Okay,

473
00:24:23,280 --> 00:24:27,440
Speaker 1: you're not gonna install cover two buzz blah blah blah

474
00:24:27,640 --> 00:24:29,879
Speaker 1: during those twelve minutes because of what you saw in

475
00:24:29,880 --> 00:24:32,800
Speaker 1: the first thirty minutes of the game. Well, that takes

476
00:24:32,800 --> 00:24:34,679
Speaker 1: a whole week to get install these things. You're not

477
00:24:34,680 --> 00:24:37,560
Speaker 1: gonna just whip up a new defense. You may say,

478
00:24:37,720 --> 00:24:40,080
Speaker 1: you know your corner alignment, you should shade in a

479
00:24:40,119 --> 00:24:43,640
Speaker 1: little bit more, because those are the adjustments. The adjustments.

480
00:24:43,680 --> 00:24:46,640
Speaker 1: You're not going to rewrite a whole playbook whole minutes.

481
00:24:47,080 --> 00:24:49,080
Speaker 1: I mean, if you're gonna you're gonna switch to something

482
00:24:49,119 --> 00:24:54,080
Speaker 1: else that you've done before, and in all likelihood the

483
00:24:54,119 --> 00:24:56,840
Speaker 1: other team has seen that or hey because they had

484
00:24:56,880 --> 00:25:00,520
Speaker 1: the video. It's not you're not throwing in something new, right.

485
00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:02,960
Speaker 1: I mean, we practice this stuff all week. We haven't

486
00:25:03,080 --> 00:25:05,640
Speaker 1: used this yet because we haven't had to. We're gonna

487
00:25:05,640 --> 00:25:07,840
Speaker 1: spring it on them now, you know. Great, okay, but

488
00:25:07,920 --> 00:25:10,199
Speaker 1: sometimes that book has already been burned, you know, like

489
00:25:10,240 --> 00:25:13,520
Speaker 1: you've you've sprung all you're gonna spring, and you're still

490
00:25:13,560 --> 00:25:16,119
Speaker 1: just keeping your head above water, you know. So again,

491
00:25:16,240 --> 00:25:19,920
Speaker 1: this goes back to my dorky nerd spreadsheet in your

492
00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:22,920
Speaker 1: dirky dorky Nerd article that if you can still play,

493
00:25:22,960 --> 00:25:25,520
Speaker 1: if you can play more snaps than your opponent, and

494
00:25:25,560 --> 00:25:28,200
Speaker 1: they already did last year, if they can even get

495
00:25:28,200 --> 00:25:31,160
Speaker 1: better at that, that's gonna be massive for anything. I mean,

496
00:25:31,480 --> 00:25:34,159
Speaker 1: you know, I would think their third down percentage should

497
00:25:34,200 --> 00:25:37,200
Speaker 1: go up. Um, you know they'll convert more of those

498
00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:39,360
Speaker 1: third and ones, third and two's because I think their

499
00:25:39,400 --> 00:25:42,199
Speaker 1: short yardage almost has to be better, I would think so.

500
00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:43,639
Speaker 1: I mean, it can't, it can't. I don't know if

501
00:25:43,640 --> 00:25:47,280
Speaker 1: they'll be better on third down percentage, but I bet

502
00:25:47,320 --> 00:25:49,600
Speaker 1: on third and one and fourth and one they are

503
00:25:49,640 --> 00:25:52,520
Speaker 1: better on in short yardage, I mean, ideally you don't

504
00:25:52,520 --> 00:25:56,080
Speaker 1: even get to third down. Well, of course you're, yeah,

505
00:25:56,119 --> 00:25:58,360
Speaker 1: you're it's gonna happen. But if you have a much

506
00:25:58,400 --> 00:26:03,160
Speaker 1: better chance, even just the presence of a guy like that, yeah, okay,

507
00:26:03,240 --> 00:26:05,280
Speaker 1: now you know it's third and one before Okay, Well,

508
00:26:05,320 --> 00:26:07,760
Speaker 1: they got Benny Snow in the backfield. Uh, you know,

509
00:26:07,760 --> 00:26:10,720
Speaker 1: if we play this straight up, we probably stop him.

510
00:26:10,840 --> 00:26:13,119
Speaker 1: Now it snag Harris in the backfield. We got attack

511
00:26:13,160 --> 00:26:16,080
Speaker 1: the line of scrimmage because he's more elusive and he's

512
00:26:16,160 --> 00:26:19,640
Speaker 1: more subtle ronnery. He's not just gonna bang right ahead

513
00:26:19,680 --> 00:26:21,480
Speaker 1: into the wall. You know, who were the teams that

514
00:26:21,480 --> 00:26:23,400
Speaker 1: were the bottom of that list, And I think it's

515
00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:29,560
Speaker 1: the Jets and Jags, Jaguars, Detroit, the Giants, Seattle. Seattle's

516
00:26:29,680 --> 00:26:33,320
Speaker 1: shocking Houston and the Jets. And Seattle's on that list

517
00:26:33,440 --> 00:26:36,720
Speaker 1: because their defense by far played the most snaps in

518
00:26:36,760 --> 00:26:39,520
Speaker 1: the league sixty nine point six snaps defensively per game.

519
00:26:39,520 --> 00:26:42,679
Speaker 1: And they you know, all the let Russ cook stuff

520
00:26:43,280 --> 00:26:45,600
Speaker 1: is wonderful. Midway through the season, they scrapped it because

521
00:26:45,960 --> 00:26:48,199
Speaker 1: defense is just getting gas. Yeah, you know that. That's

522
00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:51,320
Speaker 1: what I'm gonna say, is we can say Pete Carroll's ancient,

523
00:26:51,560 --> 00:26:54,760
Speaker 1: and but he's looking at the whole picture, not Russ's

524
00:26:54,800 --> 00:26:57,920
Speaker 1: fantasy numbers. You know, he's saying, my defense is on

525
00:26:57,960 --> 00:27:00,800
Speaker 1: the field forever. We're scoring third probably, but we're gonna

526
00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:03,440
Speaker 1: give up thirty five because the defense can't stop anybody. Yeah.

527
00:27:04,080 --> 00:27:07,160
Speaker 1: So that's a great example. They really stood out. Obviously,

528
00:27:07,160 --> 00:27:08,439
Speaker 1: the bad teams are gonna be the ball on the

529
00:27:08,440 --> 00:27:11,159
Speaker 1: list there, but Seattle's a good team that had a

530
00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:14,480
Speaker 1: real problem was the defense is running way too many snaps.

531
00:27:14,560 --> 00:27:16,919
Speaker 1: One really interesting team here that's at the ball. Actually

532
00:27:16,920 --> 00:27:21,120
Speaker 1: two Cleveland sixty three point they were minus two. Yeah,

533
00:27:21,160 --> 00:27:23,160
Speaker 1: that was a little shock. In Tennessee was minus three

534
00:27:23,200 --> 00:27:26,080
Speaker 1: point six. They're right down there with the Jacksonville's and

535
00:27:26,119 --> 00:27:29,240
Speaker 1: the Carolinas and the Detroits. There was two at the

536
00:27:29,280 --> 00:27:31,920
Speaker 1: top that was a little shocked about. Two was San

537
00:27:31,960 --> 00:27:37,240
Speaker 1: Francisco and Dallas actually weren't so bad despite the unbelievable

538
00:27:37,280 --> 00:27:39,640
Speaker 1: problems they had with injuries and stuff. I think San

539
00:27:39,640 --> 00:27:42,800
Speaker 1: Francisco because he's run the ball so much, right, um,

540
00:27:43,359 --> 00:27:45,679
Speaker 1: I think that's promising for those two teams, you know,

541
00:27:45,680 --> 00:27:49,160
Speaker 1: because they overcame a lot. They probably overcame more hardships

542
00:27:49,160 --> 00:27:50,639
Speaker 1: than they're gonna have to deal with next year, you

543
00:27:50,640 --> 00:27:52,800
Speaker 1: would think. So, you would think Doc and all the

544
00:27:52,800 --> 00:27:54,840
Speaker 1: guys have been they were injured for those teams. Yeah,

545
00:27:54,840 --> 00:27:56,960
Speaker 1: but that's gonna do it for this show. So from

546
00:27:57,040 --> 00:28:00,600
Speaker 1: my partner Matt Williamson for Kellen here on site keeping

547
00:28:00,680 --> 00:28:02,760
Speaker 1: us on the air, I'm Dale Lally. We thank you

548
00:28:02,800 --> 00:28:05,800
Speaker 1: for listening to this edition of The Drive on Steelers

549
00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:10,280
Speaker 1: Nation Radio. H