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Speaker 1: Please. He's the Drive with Dale Lolly and Matt Williamson

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

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Drive. I'm Dale Lilly. He is Matt Williamson.

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Speaker 1: It is a beautiful Wednesday here in Pittsburgh. And well, Matt,

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Speaker 1: we're not in Phoenix, which means we're not at the

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Speaker 1: super Bowl, which all the Steelers aren't in the Super

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Speaker 1: Bowl this year. But there are some things that they

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Speaker 1: did this year, um, particularly in the second half of

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Speaker 1: the season, that we're actually better than some of the

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Speaker 1: Super Bowl than the two Super Bowl teams. And the

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Speaker 1: biggest thing was converting third downs this year. Um. You

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Speaker 1: did a big study on that on d K Pittsburgh

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Speaker 1: Sports and obviously the Steelers led the league in in

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Speaker 1: third down conversions over the second half of the season.

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Speaker 1: What went into that map A lot of things. I

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Speaker 1: mean the article, the crux of the article is, boy,

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Speaker 1: they've built a good thing here and they found a foundation.

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Speaker 1: They poured the concrete. You know that Kenny Can certainly

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Speaker 1: is showing a propensity for third and longs making something

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Speaker 1: happen instructure without getting the ball downfield and converting. Um,

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Speaker 1: I think they're short yardage stuff is excellent. You know.

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Speaker 1: I cited the Football Outsiders metric that you bring up

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Speaker 1: a lot about how good deal line is and what

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Speaker 1: they call power situations, which is basically third and short,

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Speaker 1: you know, and they were the best in the league.

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Speaker 1: Harris is obviously a very good short yardage back. Kenny

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Speaker 1: as a short yardage sneak guy is very very valuable.

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Speaker 1: You know. That's a new wrinkle we haven't seen in

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Speaker 1: a while. However, what the crux of the article is,

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Speaker 1: that's great, but you can't count on it. You're not

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Speaker 1: gonna con VERTI of your third downs, you know. I mean,

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Speaker 1: that's four better than what the Bills did this year,

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Speaker 1: which is number one at like fifty. Like, if you're

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Speaker 1: hovering around fifty, that's phenomenal. And some of it is

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Speaker 1: by design in that we want long drives, we want

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Speaker 1: to get to third and short because we don't want

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Speaker 1: our defense on the field. And the corresponding number is

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Speaker 1: their time of possession was tremendous to during that stretch

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Speaker 1: that they found a formula that can win. I just

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Speaker 1: think the next step is now you have to be

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Speaker 1: more explosive. You need to get first downs on first

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Speaker 1: and second down, because counting on being to fifty conversion

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Speaker 1: rate on third downs is really unsustainable most likely. I mean,

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Speaker 1: that's the best in the league. And for this formula

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Speaker 1: to work, you have to be the best in the

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Speaker 1: league at that. So do you really need to be

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Speaker 1: the best or I mean again, if you convert already seven,

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Speaker 1: you know, between you forty seven and your third downs above,

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Speaker 1: you're going to be in the top ten in that statistics.

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Speaker 1: And that's you know, that's really good. You're staying on

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Speaker 1: the football field. But to your point, if you then

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Speaker 1: let's say it drops to next year over the course

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Speaker 1: of the season, but you're converting more big plays down

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Speaker 1: the field, the results should be better. I mean, the

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Speaker 1: Steelers led the league this year in field goal attempts, right, Okay,

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Speaker 1: I didn't actually know that that. That's interesting. I would

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Speaker 1: have thrown that in there, which is damn bad. You know,

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Speaker 1: complement you're getting there, you're you're you're taking the reservation,

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Speaker 1: but you're not filling it. You got to keep the reservation, right,

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Speaker 1: So and again, it's kind of like this this number

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Speaker 1: where the Chiefs and Steelers have the most ten plus

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Speaker 1: play drives in the league. Well, they're not built the same.

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Speaker 1: You know, that's the chiefs of the best offense it's

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Speaker 1: in the league this year. That's tremendous, But you're not

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Speaker 1: turning him into the most points in the league where

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Speaker 1: the chiefs are, you know what I mean? And what

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Speaker 1: I didn't know, which kind of blew me away, was

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Speaker 1: when I looked at the third down conversion rate for

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Speaker 1: the season, not the second half of the year or

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Speaker 1: the second half the year. They were tremendous at fifty four.

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Speaker 1: But as you'd imagine for the season, they were really

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Speaker 1: good too. They were seventh when it was all said

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Speaker 1: and done, seventeen games in the books. The six teams

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Speaker 1: ahead of them, we're almost inarguable are inarguably the six

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Speaker 1: best teams in the league. There are the two teams

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Speaker 1: that are left. There are the two teams that got

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Speaker 1: eliminated last week, and there but Bills and Cowboys. But

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Speaker 1: they were the six good teams. Well that's what gives you,

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Speaker 1: That's what gives you some hope. That's what I mean.

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Speaker 1: That's the future met And you know, I was actually

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Speaker 1: just reading an article on Football Football Outsiders before we

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Speaker 1: started the show here, and they talked about how Andy

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Speaker 1: Reid solved the bank goals uh in that in that

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Speaker 1: playoff game, and he did it by overloading. Of course,

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Speaker 1: the Bengals like to play a lot of too high

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Speaker 1: uh you know safety looks. And he said, you know,

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Speaker 1: read flooded one side of the zone or the other

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Speaker 1: with four with four receivers, and that just it's a

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Speaker 1: basic concept that you're using basketball against owned defenses. That's

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Speaker 1: using football against own defenses. You give that, you give

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Speaker 1: the defense one more guy than it can cover. Makes sense,

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Speaker 1: you know, like for example, if you're in a two

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Speaker 1: high shell and you run three verticals, well you've got

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Speaker 1: three verse two, you know, I mean right, and you

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Speaker 1: gotta try to split the difference or you know, diagnosed

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Speaker 1: one side or another and makes the idea with the

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Speaker 1: idea with that being now that the Steelers a have

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Speaker 1: the players who are capable of doing that. It's not

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Speaker 1: like the Chiefs outside of Kelsey, who's obviously all world

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Speaker 1: in Mahomes, who's the quarterback. I mean, if you were

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Speaker 1: matching up the Steelers wide receivers against the Chiefs wide receivers,

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Speaker 1: you take the steel he'd take the Steelers wide receivers.

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Speaker 1: I don't think it's even close. Honestly, I mean, Juju

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Speaker 1: would be the three here, about a scantly would be

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Speaker 1: the three here. Yeah, maybe sky More turners into something whatever,

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Speaker 1: But no, it's not closed and even different. And even

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Speaker 1: you know, looking at Harris and Warren out of the backfield,

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Speaker 1: I think they're superior receivers to the Checko or you know,

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Speaker 1: any of the other Chiefs. Yeah. So some of the

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Speaker 1: pieces are there, no question about it, and the old

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Speaker 1: lines already there for short yardage. Kelsey is different, of course,

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Speaker 1: he's he's an all time great tight end that's still

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Speaker 1: playing at that level. But Friar Muth is bad. I mean, yes,

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Speaker 1: he's not trying. He's not Kelsey, Okay, I mean that

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Speaker 1: if Friar Muth were on the Chiefs, he might be

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Speaker 1: their number two receiver. I think he would be. I

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Speaker 1: think they loved that. Then he would never leave the

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Speaker 1: field and he'd have a lot of production. Mahomes is irreplaceable,

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Speaker 1: right right, that's the difference that nobody has anything even

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Speaker 1: you know, there's some close stuff. I shouldn't say that,

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Speaker 1: but there's quarterbacks that are close. But Kelsey and Mahomes

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Speaker 1: are are probably the two best players in the league

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Speaker 1: at their positions. Yeah, and combined they're even better, you

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Speaker 1: know what I mean. Peanut butter plus jelly equals more

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Speaker 1: than peanut butter and plus you know what I mean.

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Speaker 1: But and ma Homes was taking himself to such a

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Speaker 1: new level too, because he's very content now with the

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Speaker 1: ten twelve play drive. It's not I'm getting Nancy. I

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Speaker 1: got a bomb one to see. That's the beauty. That's

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Speaker 1: the beauty of of of what the Steelers now have

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Speaker 1: with Picket is that he's already shown he's willing to

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Speaker 1: do that. Now the next step. Yeah, a lot of

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Speaker 1: young guys don't, They get anty and they want to

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Speaker 1: take the big play. So now the next step for

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Speaker 1: the for Picket and the Steelers offense is to take

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Speaker 1: you know, they I think it was forty four field

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Speaker 1: goal attempts this past season. Well next season if it's

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Speaker 1: instead of it's thirty four field goal attempts because you

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Speaker 1: scored ten more touchdowns. Now you've got something. Now you

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Speaker 1: have a top. Yeah, exactly. So I'm not sure which

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Speaker 1: i'd rather have. I mean, if you told me, boy,

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Speaker 1: they weren't as consistent and didn't con have a long drive.

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Speaker 1: But this is a really really explosive offense. I don't

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Speaker 1: know which one I'd rather start with, but I think

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Speaker 1: it's a great point about pick it because so many

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Speaker 1: young quarterbacks don't want to take the layups, you know,

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Speaker 1: like I gotta shoot at three. I'm losing my mind,

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Speaker 1: you know. You know, I didn't right from you know, right,

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Speaker 1: and he's already shown that, which is great. So I

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Speaker 1: don't know, I thought there was a lot to unpeel there.

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Speaker 1: I mean, in terms of explosive play plays, they're really

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Speaker 1: really low, you know, I mean, especially with some of

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Speaker 1: that was by design. Some of it's by design, some

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Speaker 1: of it's because they wanted to eat clock, I mean,

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Speaker 1: and some of it's because coach Tomlins a really good

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Speaker 1: coach and knows how to win this league and said

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Speaker 1: that that formula gives this team, the two thousand, twenty

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Speaker 1: two Steelers, the best chance to win. You know, let's

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Speaker 1: some kill that for a second, Matt, because I think

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Speaker 1: I think that gets overlooked a lot. I think people

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Speaker 1: look that the Steeler's offense, well, they only averaged you know,

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Speaker 1: nineteen points a game and over the course of the season,

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Speaker 1: and that's not good enough. And okay, I get it.

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Speaker 1: You'd like to average more than that, for sure, There's

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Speaker 1: no doubt it. Mike Tomlin, he wants to he wants

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Speaker 1: to play these close games. And I think he looked

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Speaker 1: at this. I think he would too. This is not

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Speaker 1: his preference, you know. They he has been a coach

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Speaker 1: who when when they had the offensive skill position players

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Speaker 1: to do it, when they had the killer Bees, was

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Speaker 1: putting up thirty points a game and showed that he

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Speaker 1: was perfectly I'm okay with doing that too. You know,

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Speaker 1: I can remember them, you know, beating the Indianapolis Colts

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Speaker 1: fifty something, the thirty something that was. You know. So

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Speaker 1: if he has wasn't three yards in a cloud of dust?

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Speaker 1: You know, again, as he always says, if you have

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Speaker 1: red paint, you paint the bard red. I think the

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Speaker 1: offense this year, with a rookie quarterback, with so many

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Speaker 1: young guys on offense, was looking at this and going, Okay,

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Speaker 1: we have a good defense, we have a running game.

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Speaker 1: We think we're gonna this is how we want to

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Speaker 1: play now. It didn't work out that way in the

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Speaker 1: first half of the season because there was some unsettledness

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Speaker 1: with the offensive line in the in the in you know,

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Speaker 1: in the quarterback situation and the defense and there, and

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Speaker 1: you're playing without t. J. Watt, your best player on defense.

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Speaker 1: But once they got that and they got the formula

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Speaker 1: that they that they that's what they had hoped to

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Speaker 1: play like all year long. You see, it still works

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Speaker 1: in the NFL. Mhm. I mean they were they weren't

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Speaker 1: the only team in the league playing that way. No.

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Speaker 1: I mean everyone wants to commend Belichick for he's a chameleon.

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Speaker 1: He changes year to year, a week to week. Well

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Speaker 1: tom One is doing that too, I mean, it's not

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Speaker 1: These things are hard to quantify and in this analytically

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Speaker 1: based world, well he should have went for it on

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Speaker 1: all these fourth downs, you know, to use the time outs, right,

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Speaker 1: But there's no way of saying. He knows what he

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Speaker 1: has in his building and on his roster better than

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Speaker 1: any human on the planet. And all he has is

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Speaker 1: red paint, so that barn is red. I mean, let's

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Speaker 1: get five coats are red, and it's keeping the weather

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Speaker 1: off the wood, and that's wonderful. But this year, if

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Speaker 1: they could pick up a little bit of green paint,

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Speaker 1: well they'll pick the shed, the shutters will be green

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Speaker 1: on and the rest is all red, you know what

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Speaker 1: I mean, Like it's gonna be prettier, but it takes

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Speaker 1: more than one off season two and I think you

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Speaker 1: mentioned it too. The offense doesn't lose anything. It's not like,

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Speaker 1: well gam Sutton and Edmonds, and then we go how

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Speaker 1: they can find those guys. They're bringing back the exact offense.

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Speaker 1: Zack Gentry to me is not enough to care one

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Speaker 1: way or another. They're bringing back to these accent guys

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Speaker 1: plus things. You know. So some of the meat of

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Speaker 1: the article wasn't flattering, but in the end there's a

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Speaker 1: foundation poured. The house is being built, right. Yeah, if

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Speaker 1: you can, if you can, if you can play that way,

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Speaker 1: and it's a very distinct way of playing, much like

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Speaker 1: you know, coming out in a spread offense and having

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Speaker 1: three receivers on the field all the time and just

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Speaker 1: doing that or running four. You know, it wasn't that

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Speaker 1: long ago the Steelers led the league in four receiver sets. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: because that's the way they were built to play. Well,

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Speaker 1: now they've adjusted that. I think I think over the

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Speaker 1: second half of the season met if they weren't number

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Speaker 1: one in twelve personnel, they were right near the top

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Speaker 1: they have to do to. I mean, for what three

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Speaker 1: years in a row they were one or two and

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Speaker 1: eleven personnel I mean, and even last year they were

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Speaker 1: top three. Yeah. Yeah, they've adjusted what they're doing and

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Speaker 1: how they're playing. Um. You know again, a large portion

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Speaker 1: of that is because of the quarterback situation. You don't

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Speaker 1: have Ben Roethlisberger there anymore. See, I think there's some

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Speaker 1: listeners going right now. Well, they were heavy and twelve

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Speaker 1: because they traded Clay Chase Claypool and they got an

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Speaker 1: offer they couldn't refuse. For yes, but the fact that

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Speaker 1: Chase Claypool was on the market shows that they wanted

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Speaker 1: to go to twelve because they don't want to live

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Speaker 1: in eleven, you know what I mean, Like, you never

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Speaker 1: make that move. It Chase was one of your best five,

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Speaker 1: so he's out there a lot. Okay, that makes perfect sense,

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Speaker 1: but you were better without him, and they probably knew

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Speaker 1: that pre trade, not they found it out after the trade,

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Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Yeah, without a doubt. And

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Speaker 1: so you know, I think again it shows not just

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Speaker 1: Tomlin's ability to change things up, but to a large degree,

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Speaker 1: Mike mc canada change things up as well. I mean,

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Speaker 1: certainly they ran a different offense this year than what

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Speaker 1: they ran. Oh yeah, it was night and day. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it was night and day. And clearly the offense and

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Speaker 1: I'm not just saying this because of the numbers and

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Speaker 1: the wins and losses, but the offense got noticeably better

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Speaker 1: and less predictable, and Canada got better at his job

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Speaker 1: as the season went on, too, Yeah, because it everybody

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Speaker 1: got more comfortable in their roles and what they were

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Speaker 1: doing and how they wanted to do it. And so

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Speaker 1: I I think it. You know, Mike Tomlin loves to

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Speaker 1: say all the time that one season doesn't carry over

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Speaker 1: into the next, but every offensive player that I spoke

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Speaker 1: every offensive player that I spoke to this year in

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Speaker 1: exit interviews and things of that nature, agree with your

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Speaker 1: statement that the foundation has been laid. Yeah, it's gonna

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Speaker 1: say the complete opposite. Look like, that's a great coach

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Speaker 1: thing to say next year. It doesn't granslated this year.

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Speaker 1: But when you're running back the exact same players of

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Speaker 1: the exact same coaching staff, and then you're just gonna

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Speaker 1: add some wet cream and sprinkles and cherries on top

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Speaker 1: or left tackle or whatever, you know what I mean.

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Speaker 1: Then now you're talking, you know. I mean again, that

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Speaker 1: doesn't mean they're gonna be top five offense or be

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Speaker 1: playing the time next year. But that's the plan, folks.

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Speaker 1: You know, like this didn't all didn't happen by happenstance,

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Speaker 1: you know, this was all in the mix. And this

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Speaker 1: is more of a draft topic, probably a different segment topic.

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Speaker 1: But I'm warming up more and more. Maybe they should

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Speaker 1: draft a tight end high. You know what, if you're

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Speaker 1: gonna stick with this, I mean, I'm not saying the

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Speaker 1: first pick, but there's so many good tight ends that

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Speaker 1: if you get one of those seven or so with

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Speaker 1: your second second round pick and he's gonna play fifty

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Speaker 1: snaps a game, I'm interested, you know what I mean,

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Speaker 1: Like washing, I mean, put it this way, if he

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Speaker 1: plays as many snaps as Gentry did last this past

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Speaker 1: season or the past two seasons. Really, I mean Gentry

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Speaker 1: has been a five hundred snap guy the last two years,

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Speaker 1: that's a pseudo starter, right. So yeah, I'm with you

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Speaker 1: on that. We're gonna take a break. He is Matt Williamson.

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Speaker 1: I am Dale Lawley. You're listening to the drive here

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Speaker 1: on Steelers Nation Radio, and Matt uh. If people know this,

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Speaker 1: they can. You can listen to Steelers Nation Radio anytime,

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Speaker 1: anywhere through your smart speaker. Just say Alexa, play Steelers

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Speaker 1: Nation Radio from my heart, and Alexa will take care

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Speaker 1: of the rest. We're gonna be back with segment two

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Speaker 1: right after this on the Drive on Steelers Nation Radio