The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Tim Benz: Tomlin Only Has Two 3-0 Starts So There Is Some Vulnerability

Episode Date: September 25, 2020

Tim Benz: Tomlin Only Has Two 3-0 Starts So There Is Some Vulnerability

is the Matt Thomas show. 101, Sports Talk 790, hour two with you from the Tartar Center for the Rockets voter registration. Get together. You've still got another hour or so if you want to come on by and if you have not registered a vote, do so. Clutch, I think, is taking a lunch break and still Rocket T-shirts have been giving away. Other swag and the discounts inside the rocket store. So you want to come on by and say hi. The weather's actually very nice.

Ross is going over to get us some margarages right now over at Papacitos. It's walking this in sports RV, just saying. Let's say hi to a man who's been with us a couple of times here on the radio show. I was with him yesterday on his site. He is a Tribune Sports columnist in Pittsburgh for the Tribune Review. He is also the pregame host for the Pittsburgh Steelers on their radio network. Tim Ben's longtime Pittsburgh resident with us here on the Matt Thomas show.

I teased you yesterday about the Texans in my mind being O&O. and you thought the Steelers could do the same thing, having those first two games not going against world beaters in Denver and the New York Giants. So, Tim, where is the squad that you cover through the first two games of the year? Yeah, I like the way that you set that up, and if you kind of view it through the other lens, I think you can see a pretty good image of the Steelers.

You know, your logic is, hey, whatever you're predicting for the Texans, you likely predicted them at 0 and 2 to start. So if you said Texans 9 and 7 and they still probably got 9 wins in them, I'm kind of the same way with the Steelers. I think somebody who predicted them 10 and 6. I think a lot more people in Pittsburgh were more aggressive with their selection. So if you're like me and you had them at 10 and 6, two of your 10 wins were against New York and Denver to start. And I bet anybody who had them at 11 and 5 or 12 and 4 thought the same thing. I think these next two games that they've got against the AFC South teams,

Houston and Tennessee are swing games and not just swing games between, are they 10 and 6 and 11 and 5, 11 and 5 and 12 and 4, but I also think that there's swing games potentially the way a lot of people sort of checked off their wins and losses. Some people thought they beat the Texans and lose to the Titans, and I'm one of those, and I think others had it vice versa. So I kind of view them getting off to the start that they should have gotten off to, I would have preferred to see them play better in game two than they did in game one just to show improvement going into game three. But I do think they were sharper overall in game one against the Giants, especially the last 32 minutes.

Tim, a lot of coach speak coming from Houston on how ferocious and physical and intimidating that Pittsburgh Steelers defense is. So let's start with, I think, a huge concern for the Texans would be protecting against that front seven. How ferocious, in your words? had the techs, as the Steelers' defense, been so far through the first two games? Well, the front seven has been excellent. You know, they were overwhelming against the Giants, especially when it came to the Giants trying around with Seekwon Barkley. They beat up the line of scrimmage of the Giants,

and they also managed to do so without getting out of their lanes so that Sequin could expose them, you know, by only having a few guys back. I mean, they made all the tackles they needed to make so that if Sequan shook one, you know, he could have gone for 70, but they just never gave them. that chance. So they're phenomenal against the run.

They were very good against the past. They got seven sacks last week. Some of those were on Driscoll because he got confused and overwhelmed. I thought once you got in the game for Drew Locke, I would probably say against a starting quarterback that wasn't playing catch-up the whole time. Maybe they get four or five, but still overwhelming. And I really do think that the matchup to watch in that context is T.J. Watt on the left side of the Steelers defense against the right side of the Texans offensive line.

I heard from you, Matt, yesterday. It seems a job with everything else that I've heard from you at is that that's the softer spot to attack on the Texans O line. Similar to the Steelers right now. We'll see about David DeCastro coming back. I think he should. If he does, then that should shore things up. But, you know, the right side of the Texans O line, if that's where T.J. Watt lines up most of the time. I think you will.

That's the spot to expose. The secondary for the Steelers hasn't been quite as good as it was last year to start. Sort of by design with how much they've been attacking. but the secondary was such a bright spot last year that the best secondary work we've seen in years in Pittsburgh and it's been a little bit more inconsistent so far to start 2020 Tim Benz joining us from Pittsburgh he hosts the pregame show on the Steelers Radio Network

Tim who has the best watt on the football field this Sunday who is it going to be? I think right now based on what I've seen you know over the last couple years especially with injury considerations TJ, but I guess JJ at two sacks last week. You know, I've got some hometown bias. I've got some regional bias

how much I've seen Watt. I thought Watt was great last week. It deserved player the week, and I thought his stat line was not indicative of how great he was in week number one, along with Bud Vucree. Now, he's being help from Bud that maybe JJ isn't getting in Houston, but I'll go

with T.J. All right. So that being said, how much fun could JJ have against the Steelers' offensive line. I'm curious because I feel like if there's any vulnerability, it might be with the pass for us that the Texans need to get going, which they have not done so far in the first two weeks. Yeah, I think that's a fair concern.

You know, if the Steelers go about operations the way that we have been led to believe, and if De Castro comes back, certainly that helps. He's an all-pro. It's been hurt the first two weeks. should be rusty, but I'd rather have them than not. They're going to have Matt Filer then play left guard and shoots a core for who barely has any playing time in the National Football League play right tackle. And he wasn't bad last week.

I thought the better player was the rookie right guard that they started Kevin Dotson between the two. And if it were me, I'd put Matt Filer back out at right tackle again because he was very good there last year. And I'd want him helping out against Watt. You know, I think Watt could win a one-on-one matchup and win against all-d-old. in a way of. I think Wauke would definitely win a one-on-one matchup on the outside with Chukes of Corpour. I would bounce him around a lot and make everybody try to deal with

him because he's going to be a handful for all the Steelers up front. The offensive line, in general, especially running the football, has not been what it was in recent seasons. I thought it started to backslide last year, especially against the one. I have no reason to believe it's found its footing against so far this season. Even the guys who deem themselves better run blockers, I think have been better against. the past. Tim, has Ben all the way back from last year's injuries? Yeah, the arm strength looks good in that context.

Yeah, I mean, I thought he looked very much like himself for better or worse last week. I thought the plays that he has made from the two-minute drive against the Giants on have been prototype Ben Rossesperger, looting the rush, moving around to the pocket, not running but stepping right up to the line of scrimmage, throwing off his back foot across his body and hitting people. And that's what Ben's done since 2004. And sometimes the mistakes that he made are born from that same mentality. And looking for more when it's just as easy to take the checkdown.

I think we saw two of those examples against the Broncos. Luckily, one of them was dropped by one of the defensive backs. So he looks very much like the Ben of Old to me. The delivery is a little different by his own admission, spotting himself through three quarters more often and not so much over the top, but that might also kind of be the designs of the throws. and I think by the middle of the year, definitely towards the end of the year, that will be less of a talking point because I do think if he gets more in tune with some of

his wide receivers will push it down the field more. Tim Ben, Spitzburg Steelers Radio Network, pregame host with us for a couple more minutes on the Matt Thomas show. So Tim, as you know, everybody, even fluky non-playoff teams can open up the season at 2-0. You almost gain a step of credibility and respect around the league if you get to 3-0. help me decipher if this Pittsburgh's team is good enough to go to 3-0. How will they do it? Will they continue to pounce on the mistakes the Texans make? Or do you think that there's a little vulnerability because of the fact that the Steelers have not played great competition in the first two weeks?

Oh, I think there's vulnerability. I'll think there's vulnerability because as successful in the coaches, Mike Tomlin has been, which is to say he's never had a losing season since taking over in 2007. He's only had two free-and-old. starts. So it's not easy to go three and oh, he's done it so rarely. And yes, going all in four. Now, he managed to turn that team into eight and eight respectable by the end of the season. So it's tough to do. Like I said, I do think there's an issue there when it comes to the Texans front against the Steelers-O-Lan. I have some concerns. I have some concerns about

Watson move around buying time, and the Steelers trying to cover all three of those wide receivers, even if DeAndre Hopkins isn't available. So I think that's how the Texans can hang with them. I've sort of had this 27-23 score in my mind died the whole time with Watson running around and making, trying to make a huge play, gunning the bone to the end zone as time expires and maybe like

Joe Hayden knocking away at the last second. That's how close I think this game will be with the Texans losing by four. But I think it's going to be a respectable close game. I think the Steelers do it by making more big plays down the field and popularizing on turnovers. That's one big thing. You've got to

give the shooters a lot of credit for. They got a lot of Lukey good turnovers last year. Everybody thought the turnover number would dissipate, but they've already gotten what's four so far this year. They've earned all of them. So I can still see them get the ball back once or twice in prime position, and they've been a little bit better, actually a lot better executing in the red zone than what they were.

A year ago, that scored from distance, too. So I think they went about 2723 is what I've been calling all week. You've given us a pretty realistic expectation of the game and potential outcome. Last question. no fans in Heinz Field again. How cranky are Steelers fans that are not able to go to games like it feels like now at least half the NFL teams are allowing their fans in the side of the buildings?

Yeah, they're getting cranky. You know, it really hit me when I went to the Pitt Syracuse game on Saturday last week. We've been flip-flopping our media credentials within the paper, so I just covered the game from home on Sunday. I'm going this Sunday. So it'll be my first Steelers game without games. fans, but, and this is going to sound like it's a shot of Pitt, and I don't mean it to me, but,

you know, I know what that stadium looks like watching pick games when there's like 25,000 people in the building, and you can space it out effectively. And that really hit me being at the pit game, where I looked around at this vast expanse of yellow empty seats, and I thought to myself, well, you know, you could put 10 in here, and I know what it's going to look like, and it's not going to look all that different. Like, you can do it. I think that realization is starting to wash over people, to be honest with you, the bigger angst, the bigger talking point, more than the Steelers, more than Pitt, the anger has been over high school football and limiting the capacity in the brawls and local districts, local counties, local schools, and the governor over how many, if at all, parents should be allowed.

That's been the bigger talking point and the bigger political hot potato. Well, hopefully it doesn't happen here in the Lone Star State. I guess at this point everybody's behaving themselves. Tim, thank you for the analysis. It was fun being with you yesterday in your show, and I appreciate you spending some time me this afternoon and enjoy the weekend of college and pro action. We appreciate it again. Yeah, I appreciate you coming on, too.

I always enjoyed being on. I've been to Houston a number of times. Love it. Great to be on with you guys. Thanks again, Tim. Tim Benz, Pittsburgh Steelers, Radio Network host, and also Tribune Review Sports columnists as well. We appreciate him spending some time with us here on the show.