This week’s entry into the Classic Jurassic Meat-Eater Matchup hits the heart of the blood sport, the trenches. That’s where you’ll find the biggest, meanest meat eaters in the field.

And this week, it’s a thrilling matchup with 6-foot-1, 250-pound Steelers center Ryan McCollum making his third career start as he duels with Giants nose tackle Dexter Lawrence.

So who is this guy, Dexter Lawrence? Let Mike Tomlin introduce you.

“Dexter Lawrence is a problem,” Tomlin said this week. “He’s a problem in the run game. He is a problem in the passing game. I think he leads the NFL in sacks, but he’s just a dominant, dominant player.”

Yes, he is a problem. A BIG problem. At 6-foot-3 and 300 pounds, Lawrence crushes the run like a true nose tackle and the pass like an edge rusher. In fact, Lawrence leads the league, including edge rushers, 9-7 games. In this day and age of specialty edge rushers, it’s almost unthinkable for an interior defender to do this.

According to NextGen Stats, Lawrence is so dominant that he has been double-teamed on 63.3 percent of his pass-rush snaps this season. And if you watch the video, he can hold his own on those double teams quite well.

In addition to being a ferocious quarterback hunter and his best QB threat in the league, Lawrence recorded 24 tackles (17 solo), 13 quarterback hits and 7 tackles for loss in 7 games.

Part of his great talent when chasing QBs or RBs is his speed. You might not think of him as fast, but Lawrence ran an official 5.05 40-yard dash at the 2019 NFL Scouting Combine. Lawrence’s 40-yard dash was one of the fastest ever recorded for a defensive lineman, especially one of his size. With pads on, he weighs more than 360 pounds and moves at a pace like his 40s. We’re talking about a force that’s more like a runaway train than a human.

For Big Dex, holding the point of attack sometimes seems like child’s play. He reminds me of the character Andre the Giant plays in the film “The Princess Bride”. Andre, who is 1.90 meters tall and weighs over 250 kilograms, notes at one point that he rarely fights against men in single combat; he usually fights against several men or “gangs”. This also applies to Lawrence.

Without a doubt he will be a challenge. McCollum will need help. Strategic blocking skills add to the already impressive percentage of double teams Lawrence faces, forcing him to run from sideline to sideline, block whenever the opportunity arises, tire him out a bit, and misleading him through the use of willpower. They all play a role in the battle royale that is sure to take place in the trenches after kickoff.

Largely due to Lawrence’s amazing pass-rushing abilities, the Giants lead the league with 31 sacks. His linemates Azeez Ojulari and Brian Burns each had four sacks. But make no mistake, Lawrence is the “pack leader” on the Giants’ front end. It all starts there.