Steelers vs Seahawks Week 2 Preview | Steelers Live The Match Up | Pittsburgh Steelers

Steelers vs Seahawks Week 2 Preview | Steelers Live The Match Up | Pittsburgh Steelers

[Music] Well, the year of Aaron Rogers or the era of Aaron Rogers, whatever it ends up being for the Steelers, began well for Pittsburgh again for Rogers as he threw four touchdown passes in the Steelers 34 432 win over the Jets. Now they’re getting ready to take on the Seattle Seahawks as we welcome you into the matchup presented by Shell Polymers. Thanks very much for being with us alongside Missy Matthews and the Matt Williamson. I’m Rob King. Thanks for being with us. And guys, before we move too far ahead to the matchups of this game against Seattle, let’s look back at a nice victory for the Steelers. 1 and0. It was a a very interesting game to say the least. I think, you know, there was some rain during pregame. Then the sun came out. The Steelers got the win. But I think there was a lot of tone setting uh that we expected from Jaylen Ramsay and company. We saw it in game. And when they all needed to make key plays down, you know, towards the end in the crunch time, they did. Not at all what everyone expected, which was a very lowscoring game. It wind up being a very high-scoring game. Yeah. And I was very impressed with the Jets. I mean, sometimes you got to give the opponent a lot of credit. They got a lot of good young players. Steelers have a lot of things still to work on. I’m sure they’re not thrilled with every aspect of that game, but a lot of their key players, you mentioned Ramsay, you know, made big plays late in the game and got out of the stadium with a win. It’s great. So, Seattle started off their season with a 173 loss to the San Francisco 49ers. Now, they’re getting ready to take on the Steelers, of course, the home opener. And Seattle’s not great against the run, and the Steelers weren’t great running the football against the Jets. So, Missy, that’s your first key in this one. Yeah, I think it’s, you know, September football, as coach Tomlin will say, you’re starting to really find your groove or what you want. But ever since Arthur Smith came to Pittsburgh, it has been the physicality, the run game. That is what he has preached. And I think too, you know, you draft Caleb Johnson, uh, you get Kenny Gainwell in free agency. And then you extend Jaylen Warren. I think we all went into this game thinking we would see a little bit more. I was not expecting Aaron Rogers to throw four touchdowns. Um, but you heard Mike Tomlin on his weekly press conference on Tuesday talk about the fact there were zero explosive runs. Time of possession was not in their favor. You have fancy new toys like DK Mechaf, but at the same time, that’s not sustainable. It worked in this instance, but I really think the Steelers have to get that run game going against the Seahawks and not make themselves so one-dimensional. I don’t know whether it’s yardage or yards per carry that the Steelers are after with Aaron Rogers a quarterback. Aaron Smith or um coach Arthur Smith famously said, “We didn’t bring these guys in here to run the wishbone, right?” Still, you can’t run for 53 yards and you can’t run for 2.9 yards per carry. One or both of those things need to get better. Yeah, 100%. And a big thing I’ve harped on all off season was yes, the Steelers ran the ball a ton last year, but they were at the bottom of the league in yards per carry. And that was with more mobile quarterbacks, you know, that are going to chip in. We saw what Fields did in a Jets uniform, too. You got to get that number up to the mid fours. I mean, right around four is not going to cut it. And the entire offense, at least it has in the past through Arthur Smith, has started with the run game, you know, and they did have a short controlled passing game, a lot of screens that kind of acted as an extension to the run game, but you need that physicality and the ball control aspect of it all. Well, when you think of physicality at the receiver position, I think of DK Medaf, which is your key, how he’s going to fair against a very good Seattle secondary. Yeah. And the Jets game was super interesting to me because clearly they had Sauce Gardner and that was one of our keys last year and he f or last week and he followed Metaf a lot. The few times he didn’t, Metaf got the football. I mean, it was almost every time. And that clearly the the Steelers game plan of let’s not go after Sauce. The rest of the secondary in New York’s a step down from this guy. Well, this week’s a total difference. I don’t see really any weaknesses in Seattle secondary. I don’t know how they’ll handle Metaf, but there there aren’t going to be any easy matchups, that’s for sure. And Witherspoon, their slot corner, is probably their best guy, but he won’t get Metaf very often at all. As we tape this on Thursday, his status is unknown right now. did not practice on weddings, an injury that cropped up. Julian Love, their fine safety. Um, he’s also dealing with a bit of an injury. And Emman Worry, their their excellent second round pick, who would have been a perfect matchup. You would have thought in a game like this, maybe going against a bigger guy like Johnny Smith. He’s not going to be there. But again, anticipating those guys being out there, it is an interesting matchup. I think Coach Tomlin said it best that that is probably the best position group on their team, especially on their defense. Um, but I think DK this week, you know, it was just like the media with Aaron last week. You’re playing your former team. This team traded him. I understand Aaron was cut. You know, which one’s worse? But he talked about his alter ego and the mindset that he goes into. Anytime you hear him talking in the locker room, it’s yes sir, yes ma’am, no, no, thank you. But he said the alter ego doesn’t have a name, but I think we are really going to see that come out. Uh, even just the yards after catch we saw against the Jets. That is why the Steelers gave up a second round pick for him. Yeah. Right. Well, they had 171 yards after the catch in that game. The Steelers overall was huge. It’s been a while since they’ve done that, right? Absolutely. That’s hasn’t been their style as much over the years. So, uh, look, you want to run the ball, you want to get into third and manageable. You got your receivers to get open. All that is great, but my key match up, you got to block for Aaron Rogers. And Aaron Rogers, hey, look, my back was a little stiff. I didn’t move as as well as I wanted to. I stepped into a couple of sacks. Great to hear your leader say those kind of things. But again, it’s only the first game for Fanu. I mean, he did play one game last year before exiting with an injury in Denver, but then you have Rodri Jones playing his first game really at left tackle. Um, but they were going against young, energetic edge rushers for the Jets. Everybody’s got edge rushers, right? You’re going to run into a problem every week. Seattle, yes, I agree. The secondary is great, but they’ve got a lot. They have Demarcus Lawrence, they have Leonard Williams. These guys are veteran pass rushers, not the young guys like the Jets. They’ve got a few tricks up their sleeves. And then you bring in uh you know, Boyet Maf. Um he’s a guy Derek Hall can get some sacks for you. They’ve got a lot of pass rushers on the Seattle team. I think I agree what you said with Aaron taking some of the blame for, you know, walking into some sacks perhaps, but I think he said it best. Pat Meyer, the offensive line coach, has to get this group ready and there are things that are fixable. I think it was something Matt that we worried about during training camp uh when Brick Jones was dealing with that injury. So, he wasn’t practicing a lot. It is a young offensive line. You have Zack Frasier and Mason McCormack taking their year two jump, but those two guys on the outside, which is most important on your 41-year-old quarterback. Um, I think that was not the outcome everybody wanted to see. Uh, and you were kind of like cringing a little bit, but hopefully there’s something that they can do this week during practice to get them ready to go knowing that, you know, it’s not just the Seahawks defense, but what lies ahead as well. Yeah. And Rob, to Rob’s point, it doesn’t get any easier this week. This is a very good pass rush and even Trent Williams, one of the best left tackles we’ve ever seen, had a really long day with Maf and those guys last week. So, there’s a lot of really high quality pass rushers on and you mentioned the young guys. It’s so funny like the Zack Frasier and Mason McCormack like they’re fine. Well, it’s year two for them, right? And they’re going against a guy Byron Murphy was their number one pick last year at the nose. I think he’s a breakout guy this year, right? So, that’s another Not week two though, right? Week three. Yeah, that’s a little bonus matchup. Little bonus matchup we have for you here. Hey, wanted to uh let you know that you have an opportunity to show off your black and gold knowledge with immaculate prediction. That’s a Steelers predictive game that allows you to compete against all of Steelers Nation. Make picks each week for your chance to win great prizes like a trip to the 2026 home opener. This week’s first place prize is a Chris Boswell autograph football. How cool was that with the big play he had last week. Here’s one of the week 2 questions. Will DK Metaf have over or under 65 and a half receiving yards against his old team? This game is exclusively in the Steelers mobile app. So head there now and good luck. Well, stick around. The Steelers defense will try to get on track after surrendering 32 points to the Jets. A look at the key matchups for the Steelers D against Seattle’s offense when the matchup presented by Shell Polymers resumes. [Music] Get all your Steelers gear direct from the team. Shop the Steelers Pro Shop in store or online for all things black and gold. You can get jerseys, hats, authentic memorabilia, custom gear, and exclusives you can’t find anywhere else. And of course, get the ultimate Steelers game day accessory, the terrible towel. Steelers Nation shops here. Get your gear in store or online at shop.steelers.com. [Music] Welcome back to the matchup presented by Shell Polymers. in this too is of course very happy to be 1 and0 after exiting Metife Stadium even if they weren’t exactly pleased with everything that transpired in those 60 minutes in that win over the Jets. Welcome back here with Missy Matthews and Matt Williams and Matt um you know if fans want to get panicky and week one’s a little early for me to get panicky but if they want to get panicky they can remember 270 rushing yards against the Ravens and then the Jets coming out with a very similar offensive approach and being able to run the ball effectively against the Steelers. something they certainly want to rectify here a thousand% and even just going back the last handful of games to last year just too many points allowed too many rushing yards allowed they’ve made a lot of changes on defense I’m sure they’re not happy at all with how that went in New York yep and again no Malik Harrison this week no Derek Harmon as well in the middle of the line so let’s get to our keys and Missy the key for you a different kind of quarterback obviously we’re not going to see Justin Fields Sam Darnold and your key is let’s get some pressure on this guy yeah I think you know, especially that week one loss to San Francisco, there was a very costly fumble and when I was reading about, you know, what was said in the locker room after even the days after, um Sam Darnold didn’t necessarily take blame for it. The head coach and the offensive lineman didn’t think that he touched it. It was kind of like, you know, how did this happen? How did we get into this place? And you flash back to Sam Darnold uh with the Vikings last season and it seemed like everything was going great until that week 18 game against the Lions that they didn’t win that they needed to and then they end up in the wild card and you had nine sacks. Um just I think being able to get after him like we’re seeing there to make him uncomfortable. You can force him into bad decisions. Justin Fields can use his legs. Justin Field sometimes the play is to use his legs with a you know quarterback designed run. So a totally different quarterback as you said and I think that if the Steelers defense can get after him um it’ll be a good day for them in the office. And I know Matt’s got a way that the Steelers could do that. But before we do that and get to your key, Matt, um I’m going to throw in here the the the Steelers cornerbacks against Seattle’s wide receivers. Um, of course with DK Metcap there last year, this would have been a certainly an interesting matchup with the way the Steelers have loaded up at the cornerback position. U, but again, when you think about the Jets, like first of all, guys, I hated that matchup for the Steelers in week one, right? You didn’t have Harmon. Um, you know, uh, you weren’t maybe equipped to take on a team that that just wanted to simply run the football. This is a little bit more of a balanced attack. This is kind of the team that you go out and get three corners to face. We all know about Jackson Smith and Jigba. Cooper Cup though who was kind of quiet in week one he’s a guy that you’re gonna have to deal with and so the fact that you have three corners to be able to guard their best players and I and I think it’ll trickle down right so maybe in another week Seattle might say okay so they have Jaylen Ramsay against uh Jackson Smith and Jigman maybe we can go somewhere else but guess what now you got Slayer Porter to go against Cuff this is the kind of matchup in which I think the the Steelers superior firepower at the cornerback position will come the bear. I could absolutely see that. And I’m super impressed with the defensive side of the ball in Seattle. Defensive-minded head coach who comes over from the Ravens. He’ll be familiar with the Steelers as well. The offense is a massive work in progress. New quarterback. Metaf’s gone. But one of the uh the offensive line has changed a lot. And surprisingly, all four of the Steelers first opponents used a first round pick on an offensive lineman, including these guys on Zable, the left guard, who’s pretty good young player. But Smith Njigba is really the the straw that serves a drink. I mean, it is rare for him to get the the target share he did last week. Almost 60% of the throws went to this guy. And that is amazing. It’s an unbelievable number. You know, Cup’s going to operate out of the slot. Smith the Jigba is now playing slot and outside, but the ball’s going there and kind of like a Garrett Wilson situation, but even more extreme. What do you think the Steelers will do to combat that? I don’t know. I I’m I I I think that Ramsay covers the top guy if the Porter situation kind of throws it up in the air a little bit for me with a hamstring injury. Yeah, I I have great respect for Cooper Cup, but I think he’s lost a step and he’s only a slot. So, if Ramsay just shuts him down, do they roll a lot of coverage to Smith and Jiga on the outside? I think if Smith Niga is a slot, which will happen still a high percentage of the time, but not as much, Ramsay will be on him heavily. But obviously job number one is don’t let this guy go crazy because he’s the foundation of the passing game. And it is interesting because JSN ran a lot of stuff out of the slot last year. You bring in Cup who’s another slot guy. What’s going to happen? A little redundant. Yeah. But well JSN showed it’s not that redundant week performance which was really good. So uh if they drop back to pass uh Missy says let’s get pressure on Darnold and and you have a specific guy you want to see get going here for the Steelers. Yeah, and the Seattle O line, as mentioned, is a major work in progress, but it looks like the left side’s pretty well set. Cross is a really good player, and Zable, the left guard, is a first round pick and looks like it. Center to right tackle is questionable. Now, we know who that person, who that right tackle has to deal with, and that’s TJ Watt. Watt’s gone five games without a sack for longest streak of his career, including the playoffs. I don’t think all of a sudden he forgot how to get to the quarterback. I think he’s due. I expect him to feast in this game. Home field advantage and the noise could work to his favor. Less run heavy script. I expect Watt to get, you know, blow up this week. That sounds good to me. M. And possibly getting Nick Herbig back as well. You know, that doesn’t hurt at all to kind of, you know, give them a rest here and there. All right. So, the Steelers will look to improve to 2 and 0 on Sunday when they host Seattle in the 2025 home opener. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. at Akasher Stadium for Missy Matthews, Matt Williamson, and our entire Steelers production crew. I’m Rob King. We thank you for watching this edition of The Matchup presented by Shell Polymers. 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Missi Matthews, Rob King, and Matt Williamson preview the Steelers Week 2 game against the Seahawks on The Match Up

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