Steelers Recap - Rockin' in the Jungle!

Steve:
Here we go.

Chris: All right everybody welcome to the sports porch black and gold edition here from headquarters In our studio in our bunker studio in Monroeville, which we call the porch Yes, we want to welcome you back. And of course you are watching, if you're watching live, you're watching all over the world on Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, X, and Twitter. And I'm going to drop the podcast right after the show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere you get your frigging podcasts. And of course, if you don't care to watch us, which is fine because Mark is kind of ugly, actually, Steve.

Marc: Well, let's say you're the ugly one.

Chris: Yeah, that's true. Yeah, maybe. I'm dropping this in the comments right now. You can stream on our live radio feed, stream us live on radio PGH. The stream link is in the comments. You could stream live at any time, any time at all. And we are on Instagram on the sports porch and we are supposedly on Instagram on Pittsburgh beautiful, but I can't get that feed on my, um, on my, uh, thing here. I, and it, well, it, it says we're live. So I'm going live. So we are live link is in. Okay. So there we go. We are, we are alive. So now I just have time at all. We are on Instagram. I'm sports. Supposedly on Instagram. It's not in your head, but I, uh, is on my Somehow I have to mute it. We are looking for a technical director. Yeah, so there we go. We are, we are live. So now I guess that's on you.

Marc: Yeah. Sorry guys, we're just going to have to cut you off there. If you can understand this, let us know because you're special.

Chris: Mr. Stiller fan is in the house on YouTube right there. I'll try to bring us back live on Instagram during the show. Um, what I, yeah, it's, uh, well it says, It actually, it actually says, it actually says we're still live. So if you're watching this on Pittsburgh, beautiful live, thanks. I can't see your comments there, but if you're watching this on the sports porch, thank you for being there. We've got a bunch of people watching there as well.

Steve: Absolutely not Scott.

Marc: Yeah. Yeah. Do we know who he is?

Steve: Yeah. Uh, no, he's just a fan of mr. Stiller fan. Okay.

Marc: Well, look, actually mr. Stiller fan says I'm a huge fan of talk radio as well. 93 seven, the fan, but you really enjoy this show. I have to tell you, we appreciate you because yeah. I mean, I think we're better than the fan. Yeah.

Steve: And I actually get us for like a good hour and we're much more entertaining.

Marc: No commercials. None. Yeah. Zero.

Steve: I mean, if you'd like to go to the bathroom a lot, I'd listen to the fan.

Marc: Right.

Steve: Yeah. Right. And we are men of that age. Like, you know, we need to get to the bathroom.

Chris: We need to get to men of that age. So Mr. Stiller fan, hey, listen, uh, I'm putting this link up here for you again. Uh, spread this around. This is the live link to listen to our radio PGH station. Uh, it's our internet radio station. It's not a spam link or anything. It doesn't ask you to buy anything. There's no subscriptions, no nothing. It's internet radio, radio PGH. You can listen to us live. You can listen to some music during the day. We have a bunch of our other shows there.

Marc: I just want to cut in here at the four minute mark. And note that Mike Lawrence says that there was a football game yesterday.

Steve: Mike gets right to it. He's like, 44 points, let's go. Super Bowl time.

Chris: For me actually, the game was today. I watched it today, but absolutely we're going to move on here. What do we do? We talk black and gold sports, everything. Uh, Steelers, of course, big news. Um, H J hockey Jesus, who is to my left in the studio. Now, uh, Steve is in the house and of course the grand Schwab beanie across from me. Uh, we're going to talk about the Steelers. We're going to talk about the penguins, nothing to talk about with the pirates, obviously nothing to talk about with pit football because they've totally collapsed. Um, we're going to do our NFL predictions. We have a trader Joe's snack time that I think the guys are going to like this week and we're going to do a little, what we're watching along with the ends are treas trivia. So how does that sound guys? That sound good. Yins are trivia.

Steve: I don't know. I've been drawing the blank lately on that. I'm going to have to study up.

Chris: Now, Mr. Stiller fam says, let's talk. The defense has now been three straight games with three turnovers. Here's what we're going to do. All right. We're going to talk about the game. And the way we like to talk about the game is we like to do good, bad and ugly. But the first thing I want to say is Russ cooked in Cincy. The Steelers are in the driver's seat. We're going to do the good, bad and the ugly. But as far as Russ Cook and twenty nine of thirty eight for four hundred and fourteen yards, three touchdowns. He did have that pick six to start the game in which I thought it was a bullpen. I thought it was clearly interference. I'm sorry he dragged him down to the ground. We could talk about that. Other stats. Najee ended up with 16 carries and seventy five yards in a score. You had George Pickens three for seventy four in a score. Pat Fryer to bonehead. of penalties. Right. We're going to talk about that. Pat Friar-Muth finally got into the game big time. Six receptions, 68 yards and a touchdown. Jalen Warren, four for 55. Najee Harris, six for 54. Van Jefferson, huge catch, one for 43. Corderell Patterson, three for 37. Calvin Austin unfortunately lost the game or left the game with a head injury. He had two for 29. Darnell Washington, my favorite stealer right now. one for 10 he had a huge block on that now jay harris run shocker um so all around offensively a a pretty good game um but of course we are going to uh obviously have good some bad some ugly i've got a lot of both mr stiller fan says he's pumped for the game with the Browns in town, Browns in town. We don't want to talk about that game yet. Um, we obviously want to talk about the game and since the great Russell Wilson, the referees gave the Bengals two scoring drives, right? That's exactly right. So let's start with hockey Jesus. What is your good from the Steelers game?

Steve: Oh, I mean, clearly it's Russ. I mean, his ability to distribute the ball to as many receivers as he's hit and to do it seamlessly. I mean, he's just amazing with the check downs, knowing when to run the ball. I thought that also the offensive line pulled a pretty good game together. Russ had a lot of time to do things, wasn't really rushed, and that's going to be a recipe for the Steelers winning almost every time.

Chris: Right. Right.

Marc: Schwaber, you're good. Yeah, I have to agree. I'd say Russell Wilson. I mean, look, he's hitting so many different guys that was a nine different receivers. Um, so look, I mean, I've, I've kind of said this before, you know, all of a sudden with Russell Wilson, a quarterback, Calvin Austin looks like a legitimate player. You know, Van Jefferson all of a sudden gets two catches each game. You know, I mean, guys who we barely know about, like Skronic, catch a ball. Right? Yeah, seriously. And throw in blocks like a beast. So the bottom line is, he obviously knows where everybody's supposed to be, and he's able to see the field, and he's able to make all the throws. Yeah, he's playing really at a higher level than I anticipated. You know, I had figured that with what had happened in Denver, even though last year was still a decent year statistic-wise, I figured, I mean, there had to be some reason why Sean Payton had him in his doghouse. But I'll tell you what, I mean, he certainly looks like he's playing like a younger Russell Wilson, and that's good news for Steelers fans.

Chris: Yeah. Absolutely. I agree. The good, the good for me was again, obvious Russell Wilson. I'm going to try not to repeat everything you guys said. 414 yards. The biggest thing that I, that I liked, and I'm going to get to, we get a ton of comments coming in. So I'm going to get to those in just a second. What I loved about what I saw from Russell Wilson in this game, is regardless of the fact whether or not that was a questionable penalty on Pickens, not on Pickens, but against Pickens. He throws a pick six basically to start the game. He comes back and throws for 400 yards and leads them to a victory and they score 44. Yeah.

Steve: I mean, they went right down the field on that next drive. Like it was like, ah, he already put it behind him. He knew what happened. He didn't even have to worry. Didn't even think about it.

Chris: And that's key. And that, that's what makes, that's what makes an all pro quarterback and all pro he realizes there's going to be a throw that he wants back. And that was the one he wanted back. But what he did is he put it in the past.

Steve: I don't think he wanted that one back. I think he recognized what happened and probably went over and grab the, you know, grab the, uh, the iPad, right? And he looked at it and he was like, oh, well, they ain't no big deal.

Chris: Well, what I'm saying is that you just wish it hadn't happened. Not necessarily. It wasn't a bad throw.

Steve: You never want to pick six that happen, especially in the first drive. But if it's going to happen, it's probably better that it happens on the first drive, especially against a porous Cincinnati.

Marc: Amy May speaking your language there, Clyde.

Chris: Yeah, he sure is playing better than old man Aaron Rodgers. Exactly. So these comments are coming in. Keep your comments coming in, guys. We love it. John on YouTube, thanks for being here again. 10 wide receivers with 20 yards or more receiving. Why bitch about another number two?

Steve: Well, actually it was nine with 20 more, but 10, 10, 10 receivers did catch it. Mount Washington only had that one.

Chris: Let's see. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. You are correct. So close enough though. Nine district distribution pro thing. Um, Mr. Still a fan says that's a great point. Um, number 15 plays like a Hanson brother. What does that mean? I'm not really sure what that means.

Steve: That means he plays with reckless abandon. There you go.

Chris: I don't know. All right. Let's not forget about Roman Wilson. Bad start, but we can't throw the towel in yet on him. He may end up a number two. I don't think we need to worry about that at all. I don't even think we're thinking about that because Russ knows how to get the ball in the right hand.

Steve: And actually, Coach T doesn't really like Roman Wilson right now because he's always injured. So he's just throwing in the towel with him. He's just for next year. Yeah, he's a next year project.

Chris: Russ with his experience, Mike Lawrence chimes in on Facebook. Thanks for being here. Uh, he knows how to read defenses. Absolutely. Now the 44 points they scored is the most they scored since like November of 2018. So, and this is what we were talking about all year long. What, which Russell Wilson, what we see, number one, and number two, if we see the Russell Wilson, we think we're going to see, because I think the three of us were basically in agreement that he, that he was going to play like a veteran quarterback. It was just, did he have it or not? And, you know, the naysayers will bring up since he's very, very porous defense and truthfully their defense is bad. But I talk about this all the time. Good teams kick the shit out of bad teams. And now they did put up 30 plus points on our defense, which is something we're going to talk about here in a second. But as far as our offense went, our offense was much better than their defense and they kicked the shit out of them. And now we're seeing, we've talked about this before, I've talked about this before, Arthur Smith is opening up the playbook. I saw something, a breakdown of the game after the game on, I think it was the NFL Network, where they showed, and it was actually Mark Schlaireth. who in the, in the beginning of the year said Russ Wilson was, was washed up. He actually recanted that and said, I was wrong. And he apologized and he showed the progression through the games that Wilson has played as we, you know, we're, what have we been saying as Steelers fans? Why aren't we using the middle of the field? Why aren't we using the middle of the field? Well, every single game, his past chart pattern started to move more towards the center of the field. It's called rolling out the offense for a veteran quarterback, you know, one piece at a time. Let's bring it in. Let's bring it in. Let's bring it in. Let's bring it in. Kathy King on sports porch on Instagram says Broderick Jones did a better job. I think he did a great job of grabbing George Pickens. Yeah. A good psychologist. Yeah. Yeah, you would know about that. Takes one to know one, Mark. Right, right. All right, so all three of us are good was Russell Wilson. All, let's go to H.J., bad.

Steve: Well, I'm not going to go the Pickens route on the bad. What I'm going to go with the bad is their special teams seem to be letting us down lately. That block field goal was unacceptable. I'm sorry, but when you're when you're blocking for a field goal, this was all on Broderick Jones, by the way, and everybody knows what a what a Jones fan I am. But he just forgot to block somebody. I mean, you've got to be in the game for 60 minutes, OK? Right. And that is just unacceptable because it might come down to a field goal to win it in close games against good teams. they're gonna have to they're gonna have to shore that up i mean there wasn't very much bad i don't i don't care about the 38 points because that's all joe burrow does yeah he just scores points and he loses he's a loser joe burrow is a loser okay he's never getting back to the super bowl he's gonna be a big cry baby and everybody's gonna say he's such a hall of famer

Chris: Screw Joe Burrow. Okay, so you're you're you're you're bad.

Steve: My bad is Joe Burrow and the blocking on the on the special.

Marc: Oh boy. Amy May's chiming in. Steve's not going to like it.

Chris: Yeah. Well, we'll get there. We'll get there. Let's let let let's let you know. So, Steve, your actual bad was your actual bad was special teams getting the block the block kick. All right, Schwaber, you're you're you're bad.

Marc: Well, you know, it's hard to come up with bads when you score 44 points. But, you know, and here's the thing, because I don't want to say this is entirely bad, but I'm gonna say just the overall Steelers defense. Now, what I will say is that, and this is kind of how I've always felt about the Steelers defense. they're a big play defense. And in this game, their big plays decided the game. And so, on one hand, you could say the offense, I mean the defense, with their big play ability, really helps seal this win. Which is a good thing, but I do think that teams really can run the ball on them pretty well. I think that the secondary at times can be weak, in particular JPJ. I mean, I guess if you take away the pick six, then they scored what, 31 points? I mean, that's a lot of points. Usually if you score 30 points, if your opponent scores 31 points, you're usually going to lose. So I think the defense needs to kind of shore some things up. I did like What they were doing, I thought they got TJ Watt going by moving him around to different spots on the field. I thought that was a good approach. And maybe they really do miss Highsmith quite a bit. Yeah, I think that's true. But, you know, I'd like to see the defense play a better all-around game.

Chris: My bad was George Pickens, and I'll tell you why. When is this guy going to learn to keep his mouth shut? Never. This is the issue that I've had with him from day one. So before Russ started throwing passes to him, anybody that watches or listens to our show knows that I think George Pickens is very talented. I also think he's a hothead who is all about himself. Now, when Russ started throwing him the ball and he had a couple good games, I mean, he had a bunch of hissy fits in the beginning of this year, as well as last year. Right. But when Russ started throwing him the ball, he looked like a professional. He did not look like a professional this game. You have not proven anything yet because your team has not won anything yet. So, you know, I. worry about i i love the connection that he has with russ right i love the deep ball i love the patterns he runs i love his body control i love his hands i think if if somebody would get a hold of him and be able to get through to him and say look You could be one of the best, if not the best receiver in the league, if you would just tone back, just tone back the attitude a little bit. And luckily for him, the two ridiculous penalties that he got called for, the second one wasn't egregious enough to get him kicked out of the game. Right. And those both of those drives led to touchdowns. If that hadn't happened, they would have lost this game because there's 14 points off the board. That was my bad. As far as the defense goes, I think the defense played pretty well, but I'm going to save that for my Ugly. I want to get Mr. Stiller fan in here. Let's talk about the defensive adjustments. Burrow was stepping up in the collapse pocket and making plays. Second half happened in Burrow only completed one pass by stepping over the pocket. Right. Huge. Mr. Stiller fan also says his bad was the officiating. He's already jumping on ugly the blocked field goal. And John on YouTube says the Steelers knew Pickens personality before drafting him. He slipped down the draft because of it. They shouldn't be surprised. It's not, it's not, I don't think the Steelers are surprised that that's not what I'm getting at. What I'm saying is manage this guy better, you know, tie him to somebody because you've got a situation here in which if it's a big game and he does this stuff and, and the, and they lose the game, that's a problem.

Steve: That's a problem. Yeah, it definitely is. But that's what he's going to do. And there's no way to stop him from doing it. I don't know, man. He has mature. The man has to stop himself.

Chris: That's that's pretty much what I'm saying.

Steve: Somebody needs to talk. And you can talk to him all you want. The problem is coach T doesn't like the real men. How many times have you, you've heard Tomlin say, you know, we got to let these guys be who they are. You know, we got to reach them wherever they are. And he, that's who he is. He likes, he likes to do that sort of thing. He just needs to figure out. And I think this, it's the same way with Joey Porter in his, in his holding penalties. You're not going to change that. He came in as a handsy guy. And I get Amy's point about Joey Porter sucking, right? Because you hate to see any you hate to see to one flag against your top cornerback. He had six in the game. Did he have six? Six. Oh, my God. He had two on one play. And so the problem with Joey Porter Jr. is the same thing with Pickens. These guys are great talents and I don't think you wanna rain that in you just need the channel that energy in the something positive not in the something negative like supposedly making a first down gesture to the crowd everybody knew what he was doing it was no first down gesture but they have to say first down gesture. And then that flicking the ball into the guy's face, just flick it to the referee. Like if you want to do the first down jester after you get a nice third down for a first down, do it there. Like where he's doing things, it's misplaced. And I think it's the same with Joey Porter Jr. Joey Porter Jr. is going to hold. OK, now that everybody knows he likes to use his hands, he's got to be careful when the ball is in the air not to do it. You can do it at the line of scrimmage. You're allowed to at the line of scrimmage. Just don't grab when he gets past five yards. You got to know when to get your hands off and look for the ball and he'll be OK. You'll figure that out. All right, smart. He's a good cornerback.

Chris: All right, Mike Lawrence on Pickens. He needs to grow up. He's supposed to be a pro now. Joey Porter needs coaching on defensive technique. John on YouTube, Tomlin said GP must grow up three times in his press conference. That means something. He's going public on him now. So there you go.

Steve: He did say that. That will help, John. You're right about that.

Chris: Yeah. And Mr. Stiller fan says he doesn't really have a problem with JPJ. I think he's a very good player with tons of great play ahead of him. He's physical and he likes that. Not worried about this game. Refs know this game and have something else. It didn't catch the whole comment. All right. H.J., what was your ugly?

Steve: Oh, I mean, it definitely has to be the the pickings thing. The fact that he got those penalties, that's that's just ugly. That's not Steeler football. That's not what you do. Like when you get into the end zone, do a dance, you know? Yeah. Do you know, get excited with the players around you. You don't need to taunt the fans. That's just ugly. And it's the same with taunting another player. Right. Don't do it. Celebrate, find a different way to celebrate and do it that way. Make it fun. Don't, don't, don't do those things to fans or other players and everything will be fine.

Chris: So your ugly was, uh, was George.

Steve: Yep. George is two 15 yard penalty.

Marc: Grand Schwabini. Yeah. I also, that's my ugly pickings. you know, Tomlin's right. Just like grow up already enough. You know what, why we have to have this conversation every other week. Yeah. Yeah.

Chris: I mean, you're getting, you're, you're, you're getting fed, you know, I mean, you got a quarterback, you're in the game, you make big plays and then you, you negate them. Okay. My ugly is something that it's, My ugly was JPJ. Somebody has got to coach this guy. Look, I know. I get your argument. He's always been handsy. Now, here's the thing that I thought. And it's funny because Mr. Stiller fan says JPJ doesn't run his mouth about referees like Pickens has. That's not really true. He complains all the time, not the way George does, but on every play.

Steve: All cornerbacks complain when the flag is thrown.

Chris: I know, I know. Let me get my point out here because I, I have a suggestion for JPJ that I think, I think might actually, it's going to sound a little weird, but I think, I think you guys are going to buy into this. If you're listening JPJ, this could be the key to your success. Listen, I'm dead serious. Okay. So here's what Michael J Fox says. here's what I noticed. Here's what I noticed. First of all, the, the, the, the one play in the end zone where he got two penalties called against him too. I've, I have never seen that before. Maybe you guys have. Oh yeah. I've seen it. Okay. So, but it's rare. All right. It's rare that you get a holding call and then a pass interference call. It's like you either get one or the other.

Marc: You know what I mean? Yeah.

Chris: So the point I'm making is that he is so handsy and I think it's because he's, his wingspan is actually, and they were talking about it on the broadcast, his wingspan is longer than his height. Yep. All right. So that's why they drafted it. Of course. But here's what he does. First of all, he starts kind of complaining about things and he's, he's what a second year player. So like we were talking about a couple of shows ago, listen, You know, now the refs are going to pick up on this. The more you complain about it, the more they're going to watch you. And that's what's happening. He wears white gloves. You can see his hands on the other players. The Bengals were wearing black. You can see his hands on the other players jerseys. Actually, I think you're on to something here.

Steve: Yeah. Wear black gloves. Well, when they're wearing black uniforms, wear black. Right. When they're wearing the glove doesn't fit, you must quit.

Chris: That's right. Exactly. I'm not kidding. That's actually not a bad idea. Exactly. Because I understand it's part of his game. He still needs some coaching and some refinement. Second year NFL player experience. So I get all that. I'm with you. But he is just way too handsy when you watch him. Nah, I don't think so. I think he is. If that's his game, if that's his game, change. Wear those gloves. Don't you think that? I think that would work or it would help. It would help hide.

Marc: Well, that's almost that's almost so simple that I feel like if if you actually have the answer and the Steelers don't, the Steelers are in trouble.

Chris: Well, we all knew. But, but we all knew, we all knew Mitch Trubisky wasn't going to work out. We all knew Kenny Pickett wasn't going to work out. We all know, we all know that Broderick Jones would, should be a left tackle. I mean, sometimes the obvious things are the simple things and the fans can see it.

Steve: It will hide it a little.

Marc: I mean, look, there's no doubt about it. To be honest, I think it's just really simple. I mean, I think that JPJ is a very talented football player, and I think that he will be a very good corner in the league. I just think he just needs to learn. He just needs to learn what you can get away with, where you can get away with it, where you can't. And he does have to, look, he needs to be less handsy, and I think that can be learned over time. But they really need to coach him up on it because it doesn't really seem like for whatever reason at this point of the season he's learning. He's just kind of playing the same way and I think he needs to change.

Steve: I think he needs to figure out because if you think about that, that pass interference in the end zone, he didn't need to do that. He didn't need to run into the guy. He needs to be more aware of where the ball is. Yeah, that was the problem. I think once he figures that out, everything's just going to fall into place.

Chris: And Mr. Stiller fan agrees with me. He needs to wear corresponding gloves to the jersey of the team that you play. I think it's a great idea. I really do. JPJ is also a great cover cornerback. The best that this team has drafted in way too long. Yeah.

Steve: So, I mean, you know, he's no, he's no Woods. No, not yet gone a little farther. Not yet. Yeah. Not yet. What's it can really clock people. Now, before we move on, great punt returner.

Chris: Before we move on to this and, and, and talk about, uh, next week's game, which what is Cleveland at home here, right? Uh, I do want to say one thing that I talked about and I noticed during this game near the end, last week, when we were talking about keys to the game, I said, I would Bella check this game and I would take Jamar chase out of the game and let everybody else do their thing. I did not think that that would actually be the strategy. And I did not think that the strategy would be to put J.P.J. on T. Higgins and then put everybody else on Jamar Chase. But up until the end of the game, they had held him to something like four catches for 30 yards. That's exactly what I said they needed to do. You keep him out of the game, fine. Let the guy run all over you. Let T Higgins get his catches. I think they did JPJ a favor because I think what they realized was that putting him on chase, uh, I think chase would run circles around him right now. And I think he would have been even more handsy and you don't want to, you don't want to pass interference call on Jamar chase because chances are it's going to be 45 yards down the field. Yeah. I just, I'm saying, I think it was a great strategy that worked out really well. And I think so too. And I feel like a little bit more of a genius now.

Marc: And I think that you got all the answers.

Chris: I do change your gloves, take chase out of the game.

Steve: I should be the coach. The 38 points is, I'm sorry, but it's, they, they basically gave them two touchdowns in two minutes. Right. And it's because they play that prevent defense and they could.

Chris: And I didn't like that, but.

Steve: I know, I don't like that either, but when you're up so high and you do have a guy like Joe Burrow who likes to chuck it long, I think it made sense. And that's why I'm not so concerned about the 38 points. The defense just flexed for what they were up against.

Chris: That's all it was. Yeah. And, and T.J. Watt did show up with the strip sack. Uh, Herbig had that great sack that, that, that led to, um, um, what's his name? Peyton Wilson's touchdown. I mean, I think that Casey Hampton had, or Casey Hampton.

Marc: That's a throwback.

Chris: Yeah.

Steve: He's retired.

Chris: I know. Cam Hayward. Man, he showed up with some great plays.

Steve: Yeah, Dan was instrumental in plugging up that middle in the second half.

Chris: Yeah, and Joe Burrow, I know how much you hate him. Joe Burrow, the reason that I think he's a bum is that he has taken so much money away from that team. He's really like he's got 29 or 29 touchdowns and one and five interceptions or something. I mean, he's incredible. A couple of those throws that he made falling down and all that. They were Patrick Mahomes. Like if you gave that guy a good defense, I think they would win a lot. But, you know, he wants to get paid so they can't they can't afford to put it. They're going to lose Hendrickson. Did they resign him?

Steve: That doesn't matter. But it doesn't matter. They're the bungles and they bungled it up.

Chris: Yeah. John and John on YouTube talks about JPJ and Chase's Jamar Chase as well. So we got Cleveland coming into town this week. It's a Sunday game, right?

Steve: Yep, it's just a regular one o'clock.

Chris: Just to warn you guys, I'm working on Sunday again, so same.

Steve: That's okay, we've got a better chat going. We don't need you anymore.

Marc: Yeah, every two minutes we're not talking about Mount Washington.

Chris: Yeah, I appreciate that, really. If you guys go back and listen to the last show. These guys, when I'm working down at Trader Joe's on a Sunday, these guys like to text our on our text string and they pretty much give away what's going on with the game. But I mean, I was able to work that out and you guys, you guys have fun and then we'll have fun afterwards. So anyway, Cleveland keys to the game. H J.

Steve: There's no all you have to do is show up. I mean, they really didn't happen the last time Cleveland already played their frigging Super Bowl. Yeah. All the fans are happy. Now we're now we just get to decimate them here. This is going to be so easy. This game will be over at the end of the second quarter.

Marc: I don't like the sound of that. I think he's right though. I think that Cleveland had their perfect game against the Steelers.

Steve: It's not going to be any lake effects.

Marc: No, no, it's it will be. I think the Steelers will be fine. Well, look, they have to take them seriously this time. Yeah, that's true. And they will now. And that's right.

Steve: Now that they beat them once, they've got they've got some they've got some energy in the stump or.

Marc: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I do think that Cleveland I don't think it'll be like a complete thrashing. I mean, I think Cleveland will keep it close until maybe midway in the third and then the Steelers will pull away.

Steve: I think I think TJ is going to have a huge game. I think he's gonna have like four sacks this game.

Marc: Well, he has to. Yeah, I think he's going to. Yeah, he's listened to a lot of the…

Chris: crap that he's had to deal with for miles garrett yeah i think it's common yeah yeah i i think you guys hate when i say this this is a classic trap game um but that being said trap game that being said i think the difference here it's kind of like i talked about this this game coming up with um the the eagles on our philadelphia show with the eagles in carolina But last week, I was the one of us who said, I think that the Eagles are going to beat the Ravens because the difference in a trap game is that they have Saquon Barkley. This is a trap game that actually already occurred. And the difference is they have Russell Wilson. You can't have a trap game twice. Yeah, sure you can. Against the same team. Yeah, sure you can. No, you can't. All right, you can. So I think that the difference here is Russell Wilson is going to have this team ready to play because he is clearly now the leader of this football team. And I think he is going to remind them of what happened the last time they played Cleveland and how important it is for them to send a message. So I hesitate always to say, you know, like Mr. Stiller fan says here, the Browns are going to get smacked. Um, you know, I think a message has to be sent. Yes. I want to see Justin Fields by the start of the fourth quarter. I did like the fact that they did not use Justin Fields till the end of this previous game. I think they learned their lesson there, but I, I, I place that's how many, that's true. I do think that the Steelers, there's always potential because this Cleveland seems to play them harder and hold them to less points. And their defense is better than Cincinnati's. But I do think the Steelers are going to win. I do. And I think the key to the game is that playbook. Now that it's opened up, don't change a thing. You know, throw that ball over the middle field, find Pat Friermuth, make sure George Pickens is behaving properly. JPJ needs to wear white gloves because Cleveland's probably going to be in white. You know, most likely and orange, it doesn't matter. Well, then he needs to wear orange gloves.

Steve: I wonder how that would go over. Just don't have that stupid elf on him.

Chris: Right. Well, they won't have that. They won't have that. Yeah. Put the elf on his gloves. So anyway. All right. Moving on now. This is the sports sports. It's the black and gold edition here in Pittsburgh. We are live right now. If you're watching us live all over the world on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube X and Instagram. And of course, I'm going to drop the show right after the show. the podcast where you can get it on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere you get your freaking podcasts. And I'm going to put one more time a comment down in the link, a link down in the comments where you can listen to us on Radio PGH. That is our sister internet radio station. We run right out of the studio right here. Let's move to our NFL predictions. Last week, well, what do we do? Last week we predicted three games. We always predict the Sunday night game, the Thursday night game, and then a pick'em game on Sunday. Last week, Mark was 0-3, so he is now 23-13. You're within reach, Steve. A three and O week and an O and three week for me. Hey, listen, I'm not that far away either, brother. I'm just telling you right now. Sure. Steve is now 20 and 16, and I am creeping ever closer to 500 at 17 and 19. 17 and 19. Hey, man, I'm just happy. I'm I've rattled off a couple decent weeks here. All right the Thursday night game this week And we want to we want your pick in the comments as well It is I think we picked the Lions Packers game earlier this year too because it was a big game. I think we did Packers at the Lions big game Detroit 10 and 1 Packers 9 and 3 it's in Detroit What do you think, H.J.?

Steve: The Packers beat them in Green Bay, didn't they? Yeah, I think that's their one loss, right? The Packers might be the Lions kryptonite, actually. Yeah. But I'm taking Detroit.

Chris: All right. So H.J. says the Lions, the Grand Schwabini.

Marc: I guess I got to take the Lions at home.

Chris: You're going to take the Lions.

Steve: I might take the Packers if Minnesota wasn't right behind them, but the Lions don't want to lose that first spot.

Chris: Yeah, this is tough here. I feel like when all three of us pick a team, the team loses. That's what I feel. I'm going to take the Packers in this game. So your pick has nothing to do with football. You're taking one for the team. Nothing to do with football. Nothing nothing to do with football at all. What are you what's your pick? Let us know in the comments Okay, the Sunday night game is the Chargers at the Chiefs Jim Harbaugh. All he does is win.

Steve: Oh There's Jay. I there's no doubt the Chargers are gonna beat the Chiefs 100% You think so go bet your life savings on this game. Oh

Chris: Oh my, please don't do that. Please. Okay, so you're picking the chargers.

Marc: It is a nice upset pick. I have to admit, I mean, the chiefs have been You know, playing with losses week after week against really subpar teams. But I'm going to say with a big Sunday night game in the world watching that the Chiefs are getting a little tired of folks saying that they're not as good as they are and big red. and Isaiah Pacheco and company will get it done.

Chris: All right, I'm going with Steve and the Chargers because I have a man crush on Justin Herbert. You sure do. You love the way he looks. I do. I do. Even after he cut his hair, I think he's still one hell of a sexy man. He's still got good style. I know he does have good style, unlike me. So, okay. Sunday night, Chargers at Chiefs. Let's see. John Edberg on YouTube picks the Lions. The Lions eat the cheese, folks. Can't beat a great team twice. John Edberg is also taking Kansas City. Okay. The Sunday pick them game. Now we did this. We, you don't have to watch this game if you don't want to, but this is, we're not going to watch the game. This is the number one pick bowl or the loser bowl, the Jaguars at the Titans. Uh, good God. H J who's going to win this game.

Steve: I'm just going to go with the home team in this one. I think the Jaguars playing without Trevor Lawrence most likely. What a terrible hit that was by that guy. By the way, that guy should be suspended for the rest of the freaking year. He did kill him almost. I mean, that's just ridiculous. A defenseless quarterback skidding and he hits him in the head with his forearm. Like, there's nothing good about that play that the NFL should be proud of. That guy needs to be suspended for the rest of the year, but the Titans are still going to beat the Jaguars.

Chris: Okay, Steve's taking the Titans.

Marc: Who is the backup quarterback for the Jaguars? Does anybody know? I don't know. Is it to go be Berset?

Chris: No, no, no, no, no. I actually think it's Mac Jones.

Steve: Mac Jones. Yeah, that's right. It is.

Marc: Yeah, it is. Boy, Mac Jones versus will leave this.

Chris: And they just got, they just got tuned up by the commanders. 42 points. They sure did. Yeah.

Marc: Yeah, let's say we'll leave us breaks out in this one Titans mark.

Chris: I'm taking the Jaguars because Mac Jones This is his opportunity to take over and become a starting quarterback I mean it is it's an opportunity. Yeah, I'm taking the Jaguars. Okay, we got a bunch of predictions coming in right here Mr. Stiller fans says chiefs are getting struck by the bolt in the LA charges charge ahead for a lock at fifth seed wild-card spot and that the Titans will own the Jaguars or Jaguars, whatever you want to put it John Edberg says the Titans, and he was telling us, yes, Nachos Jones is the quarterback for the Jaguars now. So those were our NFL predictions. You guys getting a little hungry? Sure am. Always hungry.

Marc: I think you are. I want to taste the biscuit. Taste the biscuit.

Marc: Taste the biscuit. Taste the goodness of the biscuit. Okay, everybody. It is that time again.

Marc: It is Trader Joe's snack time. And well, what is that? Trader Joe's snack time.

Marc: Well, everybody knows that I work at Trader Joe's.

Chris: And they are not an official sponsor, so they don't pay us to do this, but it's a great place to work. And I love the food there. And they gave us permission to do this. So what we do is I bring home a Trader Joe's product for these guys. I whip it up. I fix it up. I cook it. I chop it up. I open the bag or whatever it requires.

Steve: You just put it in the air fryer. By the way, I had some bird nests for

Marc: lunch today.

Chris: Yeah, see, and Mark had the vegetable birds nest on the show and he's buying them now.

Steve: Hey, they're good. They are good. They're definitely one of the best things.

Chris: And then we rate the product and we give your honest opinion. If we're not a fan, we tell you we're not a fan. If we are a fan, we tell you we're a fan. So this week we have Crispy vegetable pouches. It's a seasonal item. It's a seasonal item. Vegetable. Yeah. Here's the box for anybody that cares.

Steve: That's a terrible name. Yeah.

Chris: A vegetable pouch. It's almost as bad as the phrase naughty purse. Have you remember what movie that's from? I do not. Dinner with schmucks. Naughty purse. I don't remember.

Steve: That's not a movie I put in my brain. Yeah.

Chris: Well, you should. It's funny. It's hilarious. Okay. Anyway, uh, vegetable pouches. Uh, here you go, Schwaber. Let's you, um, take a couple that's soy sauce there, by the way, that they're, they're not hot anymore. I hope they're warm. They were blazing hot when they came out of the air fryer.

Steve: Um, uh, pass the sauce.

Chris: Come on, let's go pass them out. You want to hand them to me or can you, you got them? You got them. There you go. Rolling across. We'll figure out a new way to do this.

Marc: You like them? They're good. It's like a vegetable egg roll.

Steve: Oh, man. I just dumped it right over my keyboard. But that's OK. Oh, it does look like a pouch. Yeah, it is. Looks like a like a garlic.

Chris: They're supposedly handmade. Supposedly. I don't know what that really means. Mm hmm.

Marc: I like it now. Veggie egg roll.

Marc: Mm hmm.

Steve: That's really good. I'm not a fan. Really? There's too much ginger in it. I'm not getting any vegetable. It's just I like it. I'll leave him right here so I can. It's just the mouth feel. Don't worry about it. The ginger is overpowering all the vegetables.

Chris: It's a mouth feel.

Steve: Yeah. The mouth feels not good. I'm going two thumbs down on that one. Oh my God. I'm going two thumbs up. That was not good. Big thumbs up.

Chris: Yeah. Trader Joe's snack time.

Steve: Sassy wants one.

Chris: Right there. She's not going to get one because she'll have diarrhea.

Steve: Sassies are a mascot.

Chris: John Edberg says they look like teabags, which is true.

Steve: You're right about that, John. They do. And it tastes like a teabag.

Chris: That's horrible. All right. Two thumbs up from the Grand Schwab Beanie and your technical director. And that's it for Trader Joe's Snack Time. Not good. But thanks for participating. And listen, if you haven't been to a Trader Joe's and you got one near you, go down and say hello.

Marc: Taste the goodness of the biscuit.

Marc: That's right. Taste the honey sauce. Taste the goodness of the biscuit. Biscuit with that honey sauce.

Chris: I don't know what you're thinking. These are delicious.

Marc: Get that honey sauce on me. I don't like the way it tastes with my chicken wings.

Chris: All right, guys, thanks for that. This is the sports where it's black and gold. If you're watching us live all over the world, we're on Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn X and Instagram. And guess what? I am going to drop the podcast right after the show.

Steve: Are we getting some trivia next or what?

Chris: Yes, you are. Where you can get the podcast on the high radio app, Spotify, Apple podcast, anywhere you get your podcast. And you can also follow us on YouTube. Would love for you to become a subscriber there. Leave us a review. at the Sports Porch Podcast. It is time for a Yinzer trivia. Stump the Yinzer. And what is that? Well, to my left in the studio is Hockey Jesus, our resident Yinzer. He has pierogi in his DNA, pierogi DNA. And across from me is a Grant Schwabini, who has relocated here from parts unknown outside of Philadelphia. I give a soft pretzel DNA. You got it. Soft cheese steak DNA. If you think about it, I give a sports related trivia question. And, um, if the answer answers it right, he remains the answer. If the non yinzer answers it, he's the honorary yinzer for the week. I do want to get mr. Stiller fan and trader Joe's have these things called Scandinavian swimmers, delicious, soft and chewy. Yeah. They're like little gummy, gummy things that are like in the, shape of fish and lobsters and stuff like that.

Steve: Oh, yeah.

Marc: They're like that. That's kind of a that is kind of a naughty feel to it. It's weird. Scandinavian swimmers.

Chris: It's weird to see a lobster that looks like a gummy candy, but they do taste good. All right. So what is Yinzer trivia this week? Oh, man. Steeping with sticking with the football theme. Stump the Yinzer. Who was the last stealer of the 1970s to be inducted into the Hall of Fame?

Marc: Hmm.

Steve: I can hear Mark chewing of the 1970s Steelers.

Marc: So. Like meaning like they were inducted, maybe like last year, even.

Chris: Yeah, right. Who was the last of the great 70s Steelers of the 70s to be inducted in the hall?

Steve: I think I might know it. I don't know it, but I'm going to give a guess. I'm going to go with. See who played the longest. That's really the key. Who played the longest? I'm going to go with Terry Bradshaw.

Marc: Okay, I'm giving you L.C.

Chris: Greenwood. Both of you are wrong. It was Mike Webster, 1997. Son of a gun.

Marc: Son of a monkey's uncle.

Steve: Iron Mike. God darn it. I bet Scott Kiefer would have gotten that one. Yeah, he probably would've gotten counselor would've gotten that one offensive lineman. Yep. Definitely would've got it. Ooh, I'm telling you, I'm, I'm, I'm in a rut now with that trivia. I'm, I'm, I'm going to brush up for next week.

Chris: Well, it doesn't matter because you're still the answer. I mean, that's the thing is if you lose, you lose nothing. And actually if you lose, you gain nothing. So this whole thing is meaningless. Um, all right. So, but it's fun. That's why people like them. Now we've got to move on to something, uh, that is near and dear to our heart. This gentleman right here, Hockey Jesus, is in the house. You can follow Hockey Jesus on our YouTube channel at the Sports Works Podcast. After every single Penguins game, he gets on and gives you a 10-minute podcast and a video podcast. of the, uh, of the game itself. A little bit of a recap. It's really informative. I have actually, he has not missed a game. Now I'm not even going to say, I'm not even going to talk about those two games you intentionally skipped because I know why you did it. So as far as I'm concerned, if the Grant Schwabini is on board and we have a consensus, he's still never missed a game. Sure. Right. Okay. So Hockey Jesus has in the last two and a half years of hockey has never missed a Penguins game. He pretty much does that podcast after every single game. I mean, I did go back and watch the game. Well, I understand that. What I'm saying is you haven't missed a game. So that's all I'm trying to convey here to our listeners.

Steve: Do it more concise, Mr. Technical.

Chris: So Hockey Jesus Preaches on the podcast and Hockey Jesus, they've won, what, three in a row now? Three in a row. Things are looking up. Pump the brakes. All right, go for it. Pump the brakes. Go for it.

Steve: The reason why they've had a recent three-game winning streak is for a variety of reasons, but mostly because they've played Midland teams. Vancouver's not really that good. Boston can't score a goal if they tried. And Calgary was at the end of a four game East Coast trip where they only saw they only got one point in four games, one point in four games. Wow. So so I mean, that was helpful for the Penguins. But the seven games before that, they lost six of the seven and they only beat San Jose at home barely in that. So I'm going to pump the brakes a little bit on the three game winning streak, although it's fun that they've won three in a row. I'm not going to lie, because I was at the game. They absolutely just absolutely ran over Calgary six to two. And, you know, after being at the Rangers game and the Dallas game and, you know, being outscored ten to one in the first period, it was nice to see them get six goals. Yeah, you needed it.

Marc: You needed it in a bad way.

Steve: I needed it and the whole atmosphere at the PPG arena just changes when you're just absolutely crushing a team. So that's fun. They did get a new guy Phil Thomas, you know, I think we talked about him a little bit last week, but he has really solidified the second line. They've put him in the second. They slot him in the second line with Gino. He's playing really well there with Bunning. And that allows Russ to play with Rax and Sid on the first line. And that line's been been just absolutely great. So, um, I think that's really helped solidify things. The one thing that I would like to see moving forward is getting rid of some of the jabronis on the fourth line. Right. The 8-0. Gotta go. They can't get rid of Hayes because of his contract and Achari. Achari's got to go. But I recognize they're not going to get rid of these guys. So the bottom line to the Penguins is they're pushing buttons to be able to be in that mushy middle for a while. And here's the issue coming up. The next three home the next three games two of them are at home once Tuesday against Florida number one team in Atlantic So that's a significant challenge Friday they play at Madison Square Garden the Rangers who are actually in a pretty bad rut right now I know I know they just won but they just beat Montreal. So Montreal is actually worse than us the probably the only other team in the east you can see that definitively and And, uh, Saturday they play Toronto at home. So they've got, uh, if they can win three in a row here, then you're going to see me get actually pretty excited because that means they've got some secondary scoring going on. It means Jari's continued his, uh, ability to stop the puck. Uh, better than just you know at nine hundred say percentage he's gonna have to school be at the nine fifty say percentage for them to win some of these games he's done it before i mean in he did show he did show of flashes of some are pretty good saves uh… which he had an all year previous to the last one so I'm hopeful that things are gonna work out but you know this is where the penguins are there it's weird because they're 15 of 16 in the east but yet they're only three points away from a playoff spot right and a lot of that has to do with the amount of games they've played they've played Other than the devil's the most amount of games So they other teams have a lot of games on hand with him So what they do with that if they win them then it it keeps the penguins at the bottoms But you know depending on who other teams are going to be playing may or may not make a difference. So I That's where the penguins are right now.

Chris: Uh, OC on Instagram says, HJ, why was Instagram buzzing over the pens? Tomasino guy this weekend. Sorry if that's not his name. He's number 53, I believe. Why all the buzz?

Steve: Yeah, because they just picked him up. So, uh, Dubas went out and use one of their, I don't know, seven, uh, seven draft picks in 2027. And they gave Nashville a fifth round pick for him. So everybody was like, why are you trading away draft picks? And the reason they traded for him is because, A, he's a first round pick. So any first round pick is worth trading for if you're only going to give up a fifth round pick, especially a fifth round pick two years from now. So it's not like he gave up anything for him. So the guy definitely has talent. And they thought that by bringing him here, they could slot him up on a higher, on a higher line. He was not playing in at all with Nashville. And when he was up, they were slotting him in on the fourth line. Some guys just play better. So I think that's why, uh, that's why Instagram's buzzing about him because he, he, yeah, he scored two goals in, uh, his first two games. So that's something also. So, um, so, um, that'll create buzz. Yeah, but let's face it. He's not a goal per game score. Let's pump the brakes on Thomas. He knows ability that, you know, maybe get 80 goals this year. He's not going to get 80 goals this year. Okay. Let's just be realistic about this. What we do on the porch. I don't want to, I don't want to damp. You know put a damper on the fun, but he's a good slot guy in this on the second line That's why instagram likes him. He scores and you know They got him for cheap. That's that's it. All right. Who do we got coming up now? uh, you got Florida panthers coming into town on on tuesday. They're number one in the atlantic. So the world champions Yeah, if if they can get a point from florida That's good. That would be a good game. Even the loser point would be acceptable. A loser point would be acceptable.

Chris: And that's, that's Wednesday night. No, I hate the loser point.

Steve: I take that back. Um, but no, that's, that's Tuesday night, Friday and Saturday. They play back to back Friday in Madison square garden against the Rangers Saturday. Um, they play Toronto at home. The other thing to look forward to this week, if you're a hockey fan, this doesn't probably have much to do with very many penguins except for Sid most likely is, uh, the four nations rosters are coming out. They're coming out on Wednesday. Actually, they set the rosters, the management. And by the way, Sullivan's going to be head coach for the American team and Billy Guerin's the GM. So those two guys kind of pick the team for the American team. Those rosters are coming out on Wednesday. They already know who made the team and the guys already know it, but they're doing this unveil, I think on TNT or Sportsnet, 6.30 on Wednesday night. What is this thing again? It's a four-team tournament. So they're stopping it like they do for the Olympics. Exactly. They're going to run a four-team tournament. I don't know if it's a round robin, like a loser bracket and stuff like that. I'm not, I don't know the details of it, but it's basically for a week or two in February instead of an all star break.

Chris: Right. All right, Hockey Jesus preaches on the podcast after every single Pittsburgh Penguins game. He gives you like it is. He prays for the Penguins every night. He's looking for disciples, so you can follow him on our channel at YouTube at the Sports Sports Podcast. And of course, you can catch us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, Spotify, or anywhere you get your frigging podcasts. Thank you, Hockey Jesus. Now, to wrap up, That was a good amen. Thank you, Hockey Jesus. That was a very good amen.

Steve: Mark is struggling over there.

Chris: The Grand Schwab Beanie. I know. He didn't even have a prediction for us.

Steve: I mean, he's got some sniffles. Maybe the spirits aren't able to make it into his stuff.

Chris: No. I think he ran out of this antiseptic he's been spraying down his throat the whole night.

Steve: Better to keep the germs in the throat than on us.

Chris: That's right. That's right. It doesn't matter. What we are watching this week, you wanna explain what this is, Schwaber?

Marc: Sure, there are so many things that we have to choose from in this world. And TV, movies, that is a big one. There's so many channels, what to do. Hulu, Amazon Prime. Max. Netflix, Apple TV Plus. Nebby. Nebby, Freebee, Beebee, Boobee, Tubee, Woobee. and I'm obviously making a few up there.

Steve: But the point is. I think you can find them.

Marc: The point is there's so much to choose from. So we're gonna make your life easier for you. That's what we do. We care about you, our listeners and our viewers. And we're gonna tell you what to watch or what not to watch based on our expert opinion.

Chris: There you go. So what we're watching this week, H.J. doesn't have one because the qualification is that you have to have either completed the season you're in. You don't have to watch all eight seasons if it has that many. You just complete the season you're in and then you can give us a review or you have to watch the entire movie or documentary. You can't walk out on it and then you can do it. And H.J. 's in the middle of a couple of things, right?

Steve: Well, yeah. I mean, if you want me to, I can kind of bring you in on Survival 47.

Chris: No, no, no. We're not doing that.

Steve: Come on, there's only a few episodes left.

Chris: It's getting really good. I feel like I'm not going to survive another Survivor review. That's just the way I feel.

Steve: Oh, you're going to get one when the season's over. I know that.

Chris: That's why I don't want a goddamn review right now. I'm so tired of it. All right. The Grand Schwabini is watching.

Marc: I watched the class that saved Coach K. Wow, now when you look at that guy's face right there.

Steve: Wow, he looks really young.

Chris: Yeah. Would you ever imagine he would be considered probably the greatest college basketball coach of all time?

Steve: No, he looks like a Nazi in that picture. I'm not going to lie.

Marc: He does. He does. So this is on ESPN. It's also on Hulu. You must have dunked Zybal. So actually I didn't know, you know me, I'm not, I'm not a documentary guy.

Steve: No, you're not at all. This is something Klein would have watched.

Marc: Don't do the bounce pass. This was something that I just happened to turn on right when it started is about, I think it was about like an hour and a half.

Chris: Okay.

Marc: Go ahead. I wasn't interested in making this about the nuts. It's interesting that you just, you really go with it. Yeah. I can't help myself. I mean, you're such an Aryan. But anyway, um, so You know why, you know why I don't like most documentaries? Because we already know what happened. You know the ending. Yes, right. But what was cool about this was it was about a portion of Coach K's career that I was completely unaware of.

Chris: Okay. Oh, what portion is that?

Marc: The very beginning, right? The very beginning. Ah, Hitler Youth. Please stop. Duke Youth. Where he started Okay. And his first year was just abysmal. They were horrible. At Duke, you're talking at Duke. At Duke. And also the, you know, the year, for those of you who don't know, Duke is in North Carolina. Right. And the other two main teams are North Carolina and North Carolina State. NC State, right. So his first year,

Steve: That would have been around the time NC State was really good.

Marc: Yeah, his first year, North Carolina won the title, and then the second year, North Carolina State won the title. And both those years, they were horrible. Like they they lost in their in his first season. I think they lost the last game of the year that they played by like 60 points. They were really bad. Wow. But then what he decided was, you know, he felt the only way we could maybe turn this around is we have to change the way that we recruit. And so what they had been doing was they had been going and, you know, reaching out to like all the big, all the big star athletes, you know, and it was just too many and they weren't getting like, you know, as, you know, like intimate, I guess, you know, with, with the players. And so what they did instead was they really focused on a core group of players, like, like eight to 10 players, and they really went extremely hard at those guys. So they went extremely hard and like, and, uh, they ended up like signing, um, uh, this group of players who their first year they sucked. That was his second year. But then, but then I believe it was the third year they made it all the way to the end of the NCAA tournament and they just lost the last game by a couple of points. But, um, and then the rest is history and the rest is history. But it was, it was interesting. I mean, it was, it was cool because what year was that?

Steve: Do you remember? Like the 84, 85 around there?

Marc: It's kind of in that range. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, basically it was almost everybody who was on the team, you know, was basically like at a table and they were all just talking about it, you know, with, with some clips and stuff. It was cool. You just got a lot of inside stuff. The kinds of stuff you got out of it would be, there was a game where one of their good players didn't hustle for a ball. And he came in, you know, at halftime and he took a picture off the wall, you know, in the hallway of this guy diving for a loose ball. And he just, and he put it right in front of him in front of the team and said, do you think we'll ever see this again? And he slammed it on the ground with glass shattered. It was cool, it was good. I mean, I've never been like a big Krzyzewski guy, but you could tell there was a lot to his success.

Chris: Yeah, and also with NIL and the transfer portal, I don't think you can do that ever again. Mm. It's just not going to happen that way.

Steve: No, it'll it's way different now. Yeah. Those days are bygone.

Chris: Yeah. Right. Bygone. So the Grand Schwabini, the class that saved coach K on ESPN, was this like a 30 for 30 or 60 for 60? Something like ESPN plus I can pick it up.

Marc: And it was. Yeah. And it was pretty cool, too, because like, you know, there's some guys on the team that you just really forget. We're basketball players like, you know, Jay Billis is. Yeah. Jay Billis. Jay Billis was one of the core guys, right? Yeah. Like, oh, yeah, he actually was a really good basketball player.

Chris: Yeah, you know interesting. All right. All right. Thank you. Grand Schwab. Eenie. I Completed something this week You should not be surprised.

Steve: Oh, this was this what I was talking about.

Chris: I know I want to watch this cold case who killed John Bonet Rams It's like the fifth edition of this. Yeah Everybody knows I love documentaries and I don't think there's anybody our age or even a little younger. Did you learn anything new? Actually you do learn a lot of things new. Here's something that you learned. Don't spoil it for me.

Steve: Who abducted her?

Chris: I can't really even talk about it now if Steve doesn't want me to ruin it for him.

Marc: Well, do we still not know? Well, we do kind of know.

Chris: There's a guy. I can't give definitive answers.

Marc: We think we know, but we really don't.

Steve: There's a guy that they fingered and he's the one that they think is good.

Chris: Yes, they fingered this guy. I mean, they fingered him from the beginning and then they actually had like an 11 hour finger session over a recorded phone call. And that's how they fingered him.

Marc: Yeah. I'm happy to not be a part of this conversation.

Chris: No, this, this, the interesting thing about this, here's, here's what I'll give you that I think, because you should watch it.

Steve: Well, here's what I know about JonBenet. Everybody thinks that it was the son. who, who, who somehow killed JonBenet and then they had to hide it because it was such a horrendous thing. Yeah. The parents hit it and that's, that's, that's the, that's basically the basic. That's where they went after.

Chris: In the beginning they thought it was the father. Right. And then they thought it was the mother. And then 15 years later they decided that, well, it could be the son. I can tell you after watching this documentary, you will know that it was 100% neither of them.

Steve: No. Let me ask you this. That's good. That's good. Yeah. Give me anything that's going to spoil it. It's not that. And now I want to watch.

Marc: The answer to this question, I'm going to guess is no, but I'm interested. Has the conspiracy theory been mentioned in this?

Chris: Which conspiracy theory?

Marc: that John Benet Ramsey still is Katy Perry.

Chris: Yeah, no.

Marc: And that's real. Yeah, I've seen that. Yeah.

Chris: Yeah. No, that is that that was similar birth date. It wasn't. Yeah, it wasn't even it wasn't even touched. Not even remotely approached. No, no.

Marc: But is is it? Is she?

Chris: No. She's dead, okay? She's dead.

Steve: There were photographs to prove it. How do you know? Mark, I think that's the sixth edition.

Chris: Yeah. One of the things that I think is interesting about this documentary, and again, without giving anything away, is I think we all know Patsy Ramsey died many years ago of a recurrence of ovarian cancer, but John Ramsey's still alive. Yeah. And he's an older man now, much older. Uh, and he is interviewed for most of this documentary. And I got to tell you, as you watch three episodes, as you watch them, you, you really start to realize the magnitude of the bullshit that this guy had to go through, like absolute. And just, I got to be honest with you, you know, Boulder, Colorado, that police department, not the guys that work there now, but the guys that were doing all this. Yeah. I got, I got two words for you. Fuck you. It was unreal. Unreal. The shit that they pulled on this guy and his family. After you watch this, you know, well, he's a murderer. No, I have no idea.

Steve: Mark's not going to watch it. I have no idea. No, no, he's not going to watch it.

Marc: But I'm definitely going to watch it. I might. Absolutely. I may go home and start watching. There's a small chance. Well, here's the thing.

Chris: I think my wife wants to watch it. Well, this is the kind of documentary, ending the show on this note, this is the kind of documentary.

Marc: How many episodes? Three. One hour?

Chris: Approximately.

Steve: Hour, five minutes.

Chris: Yeah, maybe a little less. Hour, 11 minutes. This is the kind of documentary, Schwab, that like there there is no ending because nobody was ultimately has yet been convicted. Right. And you feel like. you know pretty much everything but you really don't. You actually find out there's some things you find out where you're my wife who was a forensic analyst for a while they there's something that they found out and I will not give it away but there's something that they found out early on and early on you're talking within the first 12 months and she went literally we're watching it and she went Are you fucking kidding me? And they kept this going this long and they knew that the whole time. So there are things that you find out where you're like, oh my God. So that being said, you know, God bless you, John Ramsey. I hope we find John Bonet's killer. But if you're still if you're interested in that case and you thought you knew everything, You know, I'm not going to address this comment by OC. Wasn't Burke Ramsey excluded by the blank because I don't want to ruin it for Steve and he can't, he can't, he can't see the comments. But the answer is yes. Uh, OC, absolutely. You're right about that. So yeah, highly recommend it. Who killed JonBenet Ramsey on Netflix. And that's it. We're wrapping up and to say good night.

Marc: Good night! Good night, JonBenét.

Chris: Would anybody have cared if it wasn't a pretty white kid? Oh my god. Wow! You mean a pretty white Aryan? Hello! A pretty white Aryan? Hello! The Aveus of making you talk! picture when you look like a not so i know we did not just tell me that all right for the grand schwa beanie for hockey jesus on your technical director thanks for watching the sports fortune to watch in this live every monday evening at seven thirty p m eastern time on face book linkedin youtube acts and instagram and of course i'm gonna drop the show right after the show on the podcast me i really like apple podcast spotifier anywhere you get your free and podcasts and you can always stream us on radio p g h anytime you want and follow us on YouTube at the sports sports podcast. I'm your TV and I am out.

Steve: Jablonsk. Jablonsk.

Chris: Jablonsk.