Steelers vs. Joe Flacco

Chris: All right, folks, welcome to the sports sports black and gold. If you're watching us live all over the world, you're watching us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, X and YouTube. And of course, you know, we drop the podcast right after the show. That's right. We drop the podcast right after the show on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, Spotify or anywhere you get your friggin podcast. That's right. So subscribe. Leave us a review. you know, all that good nasty stuff. So what are we going to do? We're going to porch this week on the porch. We're going to talk about the Steelers. Obviously. Um, that's what we're going to do. H J is in the house. Uh, we're all coming remotely. H J hockey. Jesus is coming to us from Greenfield. The grant Schwabini is coming to us from, I'm going to say it Fox chapel, although And I am in headquarters in Monroeville, as we like to say out here. Thanks for being here. Steelers talk. Jesus is in the house. He's going to talk about the Penguins. The season is right around the corner. We've got what we're watching. No Trader Joe's snack time this week. We're not together. I did have something for us, but I'll save it for next week. And I did mention what we're watching. But the first thing I want to do is we just received word that a baseball legend, when I say legend, I mean, you can't use, I mean, there are a few legends as legendary as the great Pete Rose has now passed away. He was a career 303 batting average, the all time hits leader with 4,256 hits. 19 years he spent with the Reds, five years with the Phillies, where I do believe he won a world championship. And he had a brief stint with the Montreal Expos. I'll never forget the Expos uniforms and watching Charlie Hustle play as an Expo. That was surreal to me. We're not going to have a debate tonight over the Hall of Fame because he has Hall of Fame numbers and he was a Hall of Fame player, but he broke the cardinal rule. He bet on baseball when you weren't allowed to bet on baseball. You're still not allowed to bet on baseball if you're a player. So that's a debate that'd be had for another time. Well, listen, before we get an official, Chris Chott is on Instagram already saying pirates screwed over to Les and IKF bad. Look, I got some. Oh, yeah, that was bad. Yeah. But you guys real quick in honor of Pete Rose, Steve H.J. Pete Pete Rose memory. First one that comes to mind real quick.

Steve: It's easy when he's sliding in head first, that Pete Rose slide that he had. He always went full out no matter what game it was, whether it was an all-star game, whether it was a playoff game, whether it was just a regular Sunday afternoon. That is my memory of Pete Rose. Charlie Hustle.

Chris: Charlie Hustle. Schwaber.

Marc: Well, he had a really big play in the World Series in the clinching game when Bob Boone almost dropped a pop up between first and home plate came out of his out of Bob Boone's glove and Pete was there to grab it.

Chris: Yeah, I actually remember that play. Who did they beat?

Marc: The Kansas City Royals.

Chris: Are you sure it wasn't the Orioles?

Marc: I'm sure. Really? No, George Brett. Yeah.

Chris: Yeah, it was George Brett, right. Uh, my memory is when he cried when he broke the hit record, when he, when he went to first base and his son was there and he cried.

Marc: Heads up.

Chris: Yeah, absolutely.

Marc: So, um, very near feeling.

Steve: Mr. Touchy feely. Yeah, man.

Chris: I just remember watching it and thinking, okay, there's, there's a realness to him. There's a realness to him.

Steve: You're probably tearing up right now.

Chris: uh part of me is so there there's uh so official chris shot on instagram we were not going to talk about the pirates tonight but i'm glad he brought this up there's two things first the pirates released rowdy telez and everybody knows now obviously it was he had four at bat so if he had played in the next game most likely he would have received his $200,000 bonus. The only thing I'm going to say about that is, why is anybody surprised? I mean, come on. This is what the pirates do. And honestly, look, if you know what the pirates do, if you know how they run their team, and we all do, Oh, what the hell? Who cares? Tellez was not. Listen, Tellez is a baseball player. He's a professional. It's a business. He's made millions of dollars in the league anyway. If he hasn't saved a shekel or two, who cares? Second, he wasn't going to be around next year. And third, hey, not even needed another $200,000 to pay the, you know, to pay the pilot for his private jet. I don't know. Who cares? Like if they had done that to Brian Reynolds or somebody who's monumentally a part of this team, I would say, yeah, you really screwed somebody over. So what? Well, well, period. It's well, well, good.

Marc: The issue is more the bad look optics that it doesn't exactly say to a free agent, want to come here because this is how we treat our players.

Chris: But what free agent wanted to come here to begin with? Who are they going to go try to get anyway?

Marc: Nobody. Well, but this is also another reason why.

Steve: I don't think free agents need another reason why, Mark. I mean, they have to know. They have to know at this point that the Pittsburgh Pirates are a joke of a franchise when it comes to Major League Baseball. And everybody knows that, you know, You know me, I hate baseball with a passion since Nutting has been owner of this team. And I will continue to hate it as long as he's the owner. But even I have a cautious optimism for next year, just because they finally have some really big league talent that they can keep for cheap for the next couple of years. So that's the only reason, because I know they're keeping them for cheap. And that's the only window they have. So they got a two year window. It started this year. They were the same as last year. So it makes me very optimistic, optimistic, but very cautiously optimistic for next year. And this stuff with Rowdy, tell us who cares about this guy. Good riddance. And don't be surprised when Nutting does it again next year.

Chris: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Now, the IKF thing, I listened to an interview with him or I'm sorry, I read an interview with him where basically what he said was, look, I was given the opportunity to play in the game. But given the fact that I had been injured and I was still kind of nursing that injury and the conditions were wet, I declined because I wanted to give some of the other guys on the team a chance to play in Yankee Stadium. He came out and said that. He said the Pirates actually offered me or Sheltie offered me this said, Hey, do you want to start tonight in Yankee Stadium? He elected to say no. Good guy. He's a good guy. He was protecting himself and giving somebody else an opportunity. So put that away. Okay. They didn't screw IKF. Nobody screwed IKF. That was his own choice. And I, I I'm, I'm good with that. And on the Tellez thing, who the hell cares? This guy didn't do anything for us this year. Anyway, save the 200 grand, go throw a great big party with it, Bob Nutting, and please God, Sign somebody in the off season to help Paul Skeens legitimately be a good pitcher. Give him some offense. I, unlike Steve, am not cautiously optimistic on the Pirates this upcoming year. The reason I'm not is because if Nutting does what Nutting does, this is what he's going to do. He's going to ride the Paul Skeens train.

Steve: That's it. Well, right. Yeah, of course he is.

Marc: Well, I mean, you know, meaningful. And what the hell does he care? And another way of looking at this, though, like if you really want to take a look at it. So 76 wins the year before. So I was going to bring this up.

Chris: The Grand Swabini's got to get his.

Marc: Yeah, no, no. I mean, I did. I did make a perfect prediction, but 76 wins last year, 76 wins this year. Yeah. I mean, take out Paul Skeens and they were much worse.

Steve: Much worse. Yeah, that's true. That's an excellent point, Mark.

Chris: Yeah. Well, next year will be the year for Paul Skeens. Okay. Arguably, limited sample, a little over half the year. probably if not the best. Well, there was one guy that you could say was better than him. I guess Chris sale, but best pitcher in baseball. Um, let's see what he does next year. Let's see what he does with the off season. Let's see if he comes back. Let's see if, let's see if he can continue this and get a bat, get a goddamn bat.

Steve: And I don't think they need more than one bat.

Chris: Honestly, if skiing, just like Schwaber said, You take away Skeen's 11 wins, and they are remarkably worse. You have to assume that 11 of those wins, they might have won four of those games. But in all honesty, right now, they need a legitimate player. That's what they need. One legitimate player with the pitching staff they have. And you turn 76 wins into maybe 83 or 84 wins in a legitimate shot at the playoffs. All right. Actually, though, go ahead. One more thing. One more thing.

Marc: Not not not actually, though. I mean, you know, here's here's the thing.

Steve: I mean, like, look, oh, God.

Marc: I mean, look, hey, you know, is, you know, Keller a good pitcher? Yeah. Mm hmm. I mean, Did have like a 4.4 ERA. I mean, you know what? What's his name? The good kid, Jared. I mean, he had a four ERA, you know, actually the the what's the guy's name? The Hernandez or something. Ruiz Hernandez, the Ruiz. Uh, yeah, one of those guys actually, actually pushed pretty well, but let's not, let's not, let's not get her Louis Ortiz. Right. Right. Louis Ortiz. Let's not kid ourselves though. I mean like, you know, Mitch Keller, like, was he like 11 and 11 with like a 4.4 ERA strong finishes bad. Yes. They're not like tremendous. He's like a good third, fourth starter.

Chris: Yeah. You're right. You're right. We're with you. We're with you. Enough about the pirates. All right. And Buccos Nation, you know what? Get over Rowdy Tellez and his 200 grand. Rowdy Tellez didn't want to be here. He pretty much said that from day one. The only reason he was trying to hit the balls because he wanted to get the hell out of here and sign a contract somewhere else. So what? Well, that's like most pirates.

Steve: Right. Just like most pirates. Hit the ball well, sign a contract, get out, goodbye.

Chris: Right. I get it. I get it. There are diehard Pirates fans who watch every game. They live and die with the Pirates. God bless you. If I had faith in this owner, I would live and die with him as well, but I just can't. And this Rowdy Tellez thing, I mean, you just need something to get upset about. I mean, for God's sake, look, they once again, they were the pirates this year. They're going to be the pirates next year, and they're going to sell out when Paul Skeens plays and when they have fireworks night every other fricking night, because that's the only way they can put asses in the seats in that ballpark.

Marc: The reason why I just wants to keep it going. The reason why I do think it's worth talking about, though, is because it's a big F you to the fans because they know it looks bad and they served it up on a platter and said, we don't even care what you think.

Steve: When is, when is nothing ever cared about the fans and what they think? You know, when it was, when he said, build me the stadium and he knew he could make more money off of it than people would enjoy it. And you know what? He was even right then.

Chris: Yeah.

Steve: Talk to me when this guy is gone, and then we'll have some conversation about real baseball, not about this idiot.

Marc: Let's bring it back to the Steelers.

Chris: That's exactly right. Okay, so I did catch up and I watched that Steelers game. I actually watched the replay of it today.

Steve: Guys, guys, breaking news at my house. Are you ready for this?

Chris: Yeah, please, hurry up.

Steve: My wife just shut the door on me. You have succeeded, Steven. I finally got the room that I've always wanted.

Chris: There you go. And the door is closed. Okay. The Steelers, good, bad and ugly from the loss in Indy. And can I say Joe Flacco is Steelers kryptonite? Not that they weren't beating them with Anthony Richardson. Remember, you can always follow the Sports Porch on Twitter at the Sports Porch with the number one. I've got that down in the ticker you're watching on Twitter or X. Um, let's talk about this game. Let's talk about the good, the bad and the ugly. I want to start with, uh, the grand Schwab beanie and we'll do good round, bad round, ugly rounds. Go ahead. What did you think was good about this game?

Marc: Well, full disclosure, I had taped the game and the way DirecTV works, it's really insane. Like you've got channel two and then you've got channel two dash one, which plays the same thing, but there's nothing on two dash one. So I actually didn't tape I taped nothing. But I will say this. I did follow every single play on my phone. I just didn't watch it. And I did turn it on just in time to see the fumbled snap.

Chris: Nice. Perfect timing, as usual.

Steve: No, we're talking about the good, Mark. The good. Yeah.

Chris: We want to know what you think the good was.

Marc: Well, I guess I would have to say the good is Justin Fields' second half. Because, you know, as I was watching it on my screen, it looked like, you know, OK, Colts go down. This game's over. Oh, Fields brings him down for a score. Colts go down, score again, game's over. Oh, Bills brings them down for a score. So obviously the offense was clicking in the second half. So the good would have to be a Justin Field second half performance.

Chris: All right, H.J.

Steve: I have something similar, but I'm going to go more with the way they came back because they were basically getting manhandled by halftime. and literally could do nothing right on offense and on defense. And then in the second half, I thought they made some good adjustments that kept them in the game. So I'm going to say their their their resolution to try to come back and win the game, even though they didn't do it. I like the fight in the second half.

Chris: CD says good, didn't give up and fields can run. I This is a tough one for me because I thought the good was more of an individual thing. I thought the good was getting Darnell Washington. into the offense. Yo-Ho Sun is right. When he comments turnovers hurt us big time, they always hurt. I think the good was that, yes, our defense seemed to kind of strengthen up a bit, even though Flacco was able to throw, you know, shred them at times. And I think in this, you know, after going down, what, 17 to nothing, They ended up scoring, it was 24 to 7 or something for the rest of the game until that late field goal that made it 27. So it's hard for me to point out. an overall good thing. I, I do like the fact that they trust Justin Fields more. He's throwing over the middle more. He dropped a couple of dimes in there, but then of course one of them was ruined by, and we'll get, we'll get to this in the bad and the ugly. One of them was ruined by George Pickens, you know. Um, and, and I, I, I continue to be hard on this, Get Darnell Washington into the game. Oh, my God. When that first of all, he can catch the ball. Second of all, he can run with the ball. Third of all, the guy is six, seven, two hundred and seventy pounds. And he basically hurdled a five foot eleven or six foot player. All right.

Marc: Where where do we go to sign up for the Darnell Washington fan club?

Chris: You can come right here to this studio. I've got a sign up sheet right here. I mean, how can you disagree with me? I mean, Schwaber, you didn't. Did you see the highlight of that play?

Marc: I did not, but I have. I have seen several NFL players hurdle people.

Chris: Yeah, what I'm saying is go back after you look after the show or even during the show, go just Google the Darnell Washington highlight. And I'm telling you, you watch this guy. Am I wrong, H.J.? You watch this guy run and hurt all over that guy. He scampered for like 28 yards. He is a locomotive.

Steve: Wait, let me answer the question. Yes, you're wrong.

Marc: OK, yeah, yes, I agree. Yeah. Not getting more touches to Darnell Washington did not result in the reason why the Steelers lost the game.

Chris: No, I didn't say that. What I'm saying is the good was they're trusting fields more. He's throwing over the middle more. They're letting him make decisions and they are getting Washington in the game more. I think he's an essential part of the game plan and it's good to see him being targeted. That's the Arthur Smith offense. There's the good. Go ahead, H.J. Did we already do you good?

Steve: Yeah, we're good. Let's get to the bad.

Chris: Schwaber, the bad.

Marc: Bad, I'm going to sort of extend it beyond yesterday, but I'm going to call it slow starts. Right, you can't. You can't do worse than was it 17 to nothing?

Chris: Yeah, yeah, we 17 and up.

Marc: Well, I guess you can do worse. There are a couple teams that were down 2028 to nothing, but one wears the color green, I think. Right, right. But seven but 17 to nothing. I mean, look, You got no leeway. I mean, it's so hard to win a game when you're down that far.

Steve: Yeah, you stole mine, Mark. That would have been mine. So I'm gonna pivot and say the bad was TJ Watt. TJ Watt was invisible. Really? Yeah, he needed to take over that game in the second half when they needed a stop. When they got to 17-10, that's when TJ needed to take over. Needed a big sack and maybe a scoop and a score there. He was invisible. No sacks. He's not been really visible since What's his name on the other end came out and her big came in? so I think that's that that would be for me the bad the the whatever the 65 million dollar defense and they gave up that touchdown to allow them to go up 2410 that's that's ridiculous. That shouldn't have ever have happened

Chris: So before we get to my bad cd says bad got punched in the mouth by them running hard and nods running like watery jello Um, yoho son is saying facts jesus facts Uh, uh, brad trombley's in the house the bad The bad was that I spent money to see another loss live Um, by the way, did did I send you the video that brad sent me of that justin fields touchdown? No

Steve: I'll have to send it to you guys. It's tremendous. Brad, thanks for sending that to me. That was, uh, that was incredible. Actually, I think I put it on my, uh, on my Twitter slash X account. So it's up on, uh, it's up there. If you want to go see it, it's, uh, at burger man with a G H burger.

Chris: My bad. And Chris Chada on Instagram is saying a two minute drill at the end was not good either. Harris staying in bounds. Come on, man. Listen, I'll, I'm going to talk about that in a second.

Steve: We're going to get to the bad.

Chris: Yeah, well, we got to the bad. My bad is not- Wait, time out.

Steve: Pull up CD's comment about TJ got held all day.

Chris: You can pull that up anytime you want, brother.

Steve: Did That's bullshit. He didn't get held all day. They showed one play and that's the only play that they're putting on Twitter And now they're saying TJ got held all day. Come on. Come on, man. He's he's an all-pro He's a defensive player of the year. He can get through that guy by the way Indianapolis is offensive line is one of the best so I mean you got to give him that too and

Chris: Yeah. Pete Rose passed away at 83. Luke, go back and start at the beginning of the show. We did a little tribute to him. The bad for me, and it'll lead into the ugly later when we get to that with me, the bad is Najee Harris. The Colts run defense is the worst in the league. And I know that we have injuries on the offensive line. I know offensive line is a work in progress with us. Uhm, but when Corderell Patterson was in the game, he was shredding them and then he got injured. Same offensive line, same issues. I've been talking about this for the last two years. Guys, you know it. You can verify it. Najee Harris does not know how to find the hole, and even when he does, No jokes, please. Even when he does, he does not have a quick first step. Now compare that to later in the game when he was the outlet pass and he was able to catch a ball with five yards to get the engine rolling. Then it becomes a threat. Okay. But that's not a running game.

Steve: That's not a running game, but it was him running the ball that got that yardage.

Chris: Right. But you know exactly what I'm talking about here.

Steve: But I mean, it was all yards after the catch on that play. That's the only reason I take offense to what you're saying about nausea being bad.

Chris: He's bad.

Marc: The only the only thing the only. Well, first of all, look, he could be nicked up and we don't know it. But I think the bad from Najee, apparently I heard listening to a lot of sports radio today that he was complaining after the game. Yeah, he was. You should see these, you know, seven, eight man fronts. I'm going up against that kind of a thing.

Steve: No, what he was saying was he's saying that, you know, we all kind of own some responsibility for the way the offense and the run game was this game. That's what he was saying.

Chris: Okay, great. So ugly Schwab or grand Schwabini, what was ugly?

Marc: All right. Well, ugly. I'm going to just tell you what I heard a lot of on sports talk radio today. So I will leave it up to you guys to tell me if you agree or disagree. Uh, and I'm going to single out two players. I'm going to single out JPJ and Patrick Queen. Uh, I understand both of them had some pretty tough days yesterday.

Steve: No, you're right. They definitely did not play to their level. You know, we're used to JPJ having a shutdown corner and Pittman just caught everything in front of him and not so many things behind him. But I agree with you, probably his rough game since, you know, he first got started as, you know, inked in as a starter last year. Patrick Queen it's it's really I I'm struggling with Patrick Queen because I think he I Think he's not the guy we thought he was the dominant middle linebacker that gets everything But I don't think in our 3-4 defense that he can be that way But I can understand why people are concerned about his His inability to make a flash play to get into the backfield and those sorts of things because he hasn't done that yet But I think he's still probably still learning the defense, but maybe I'm just an apologetic for him. It's possible.

Chris: Right. Okay. Ugly. H J ugly for me.

Steve: Yeah, it was, it was all the boneheaded plays they made. And let me cite to one clearly was the George Pickens fumble. What the hell? George makes a great catch. His first catch of the game makes a nice run. What the hell are you doing with the ball in your left hand and, and holding it like it's a fricking loaf of bread. It's just ridiculous for him to do that. He's got to know better. He had a great game, so that's why I'm not calling him bad, because he did have a really good game. But that's just a boneheaded play that you can't have inside the red zone, especially with our offense that has trouble scoring in the red zone, let alone giving it up. And the other thing was, near the end of the game, Look, they're only down by three points and nausea. Harris doesn't run out of bounds. What the fuck nausea run out of bounds. And, and, and that caused another bonehead play, which was, they didn't call a timeout. They got a timeout, call a frigging timeout and call a play. It's fourth down. They can't have better defense than we can have a better offensive play. If you make a 15, 20 yard play there, you're in field goal range. And we might be talking about overtime and winning the game. So to me, it was the boneheaded plays that made that ugly at the end. And that was really frustrating for me. And it's probably what cost us the game was the ugliness.

Chris: Yeah, the ugly for me is something that I've talked about in previous years that seems to be just status quo. The standard is the standard, and that is discipline. And that goes to three plays, three plays. Two you've already talked about, H.J. One, why in the hell was George Pickens carrying the ball like a loaf of bread? Like you said, that was one of the strangest and actually most comical fumbles I've ever It was like he was holding the ball in his left hand and he got tackled and he was heading out of bounds and he did like a ballet move, pirouette, and then like just served it up in the air, you know, here you go. And I was like, what in the hell was that? The other one was 100 percent nausea, run out of bounds. Look, if you need any more fodder for the NFL is rigged crowd, just watch TikTok. You'll see this play. The NFL is rigged. Najee Harris didn't go out of bounds. No, that's not the case. It's called coaching and discipline. And the last one is the fumble on the snap to Justin Williams, Justin Fields. He's looking to his right. Now, this one I'm going to chalk up more to. Zach Frazier is a rookie. Justin Fields is new in the offense. They're still syncing each other up, but he's looking to his right. The ball snaps, smacks him in the face, and next thing you know, they lose. He does recover the ball, but they're back 20-some yards, and that's basically the end of the game. Look, this is fundamental football you're talking about. protect the ball, get out of bounds, be on the same page with your center, look at his ass when it's time for the ball to be snapped. You will not win games if you don't get the fundamentals right. And Tomlin does not. And, and I, you know, I know we've had this, we've had this debate before. Tomlin just expects them to be professionals. Right. But look, any professional you practice and you drill all the time. Did Jerry Rice stop practicing because he was so great? No, no. He did not, you know he did not. This is going to be a problem no matter what if they don't go back to basics. I love the idea of Arthur Smith making them run laps when they had, there were also some dumb penalties on the offensive line, but I love the idea of Arthur Smith making these guys run laps when they had false starts in practice. It's called getting the fundamentals right. You do the little things right. And in the long run, the ball will bounce your way. And truthfully, those three plays, had they not occurred, I think the Steelers would have won this game. Hands down, they would have won this game.

Marc: By the way, I just Googled the Pickens fumble. Yeah, it was quite comical.

Steve: I wasn't expecting that.

Marc: Yeah, it was like the ball is almost out of bounds. It's like he threw it in the air to them.

Chris: Yeah, he did some kind of pirouette and then it was like, you know, it was like a Three Stooges thing, you know, bizarre. Yeah, it really was bizarre.

Marc: And, you know, what's what's funny about it is when you're actually not watching it, but you're following it on the ticker and all you can see is picking completes for 12 yard game fumbles Indianapolis recovers. What was going on in my vision was Pickens made a slant towards the end zone and got cracked at like, you know, the three and lost the ball. That's right.

Steve: No, no, no. That could be farther from the truth.

Chris: Right, right, right. He served it up like prosciutto on a charcuterie board. Yeah. I mean, it was like, whoop, there you go. It's all for you.

Steve: You would have been all over that fumble. That's for sure.

Chris: Me?

Steve: Oh, yeah.

Chris: You mean jumping on it? Prosciutto? Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I don't know what's in there. Yeah, absolutely. So the good, the bad, the ugly. Yes. So where do we go from here? Go to next week. Well, yeah, I was going to say real quick, the Cowboys are coming into town. It's a Sunday night game. The Steelers are historically pretty good in prime time. The Cowboys are not having the greatest season. Um, we're going to go into our NFL predict. Why don't we just go into our NFL predictions right now? Because we're going to be predicting, uh, the Sunday night game is one of them anyway. So with our Sunday night game, well, we will, what we got to do is rehash last week because you guys will love it. Mark is currently six and three. This is after the results. Steve is tied with him at six and three and Chris is at a lowly two and seven three last week. Consistency. Um,

Marc: Yeah. Yeah, I think I guess I did.

Chris: Yeah. Did I? Well, I might have that wrong. Hold on. That's not possible. That's not possible. Mark took the Giants. Right, I love that. Yep, he took the Ravens, so he won that. Okay, Mark is 8-2. Mark is 8-2. Yeah, I was going to say. My bad, boys.

Marc: My bad, boys.

Chris: 7-2. 7-2. Excuse me, 7-2.

Steve: This is what happens when you let the technical director do the math.

Chris: There you go. I'm going to take my computer and go home. Shut up. All right. Hold on. Okay. So let me, let me get that right. Yeah. Uh, Mark is seven and two. Steve is six and three and I am two and seven.

Marc: So Mark, what was the other game?

Chris: Uh, Mark had the giants, the Ravens and the Raiders and all the Raiders with the Raiders one.

Marc: Didn't I?

Chris: Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. Oh yeah.

Marc: Yeah, so I was two and one, so I'm eight and one, aren't I? Yeah, I'm eight and one. I'm eight and one. That's a pretty big difference there.

Chris: Well, maybe I'm just trying to, maybe I'm hoping you guys won't fact check me like ABC News.

Marc: You were just hoping for some competition. Right.

Chris: Right. Yeah, and after a tough loss, you should all have the pizza guy Anyway, that's you, Kerry. Okay, we got this right now. 8-1, 6-3, 2-7. I had the Giants, the Bills, and the Browns, and Steve had the Cowboys, the Ravens, and the Browns. So, anyway. Let's move on to our NFL predictions for week five. We're going to start with the Sunday night game, which is Cowboys at Steelers. Let's go. Grant Schwabini, you're in the lead. So who you got?

Marc: Well, you know, this this is a tough one. You know, like this was one where before the season, I think I might have picked Dallas to beat the Steelers. But Dallas is without its two best defensive players.

Steve: Yeah.

Marc: Right. And DeMarcus Lawrence and Michael Parsons, Michael Parsons. So that's a huge, huge loss. Plus the fact that the Cowboys have no run game whatsoever. So I'm going to say after a tough loss at home on a Sunday night where they generally performed very, very well, I'm going to say the Steelers will take this game.

Chris: OK, Mark's got the Steelers.

Steve: Steve, I'm sticking with my preseason prediction where I think the Cowboys will win this game, although I think I said the Cowboys will come in and thump us. I think it's going to be one of those. closer games that will end up losing. So Steelers lose.

Chris: Okay. Um, Yoho Sun is saying a damn tie. Probably Dallas sucks and we play down. Um, I, you know what, I'm, I'm going with the Steelers on this. I, I, I, you know, they haven't said that Justin Fields is definitely the starter yet, but I don't see how you can not roll with him at this point. Um, But we'll see. But I, I, I think the Steelers are going to rise to the occasion here at home. This, this is a must win for both teams, but I think the Cowboys are, are, you know, I think the fact that the Steelers are at home and the crowd will be into this and they hate the Cowboys. I think the Steelers win. So, okay. Next game. Uh, that was Sunday night. Let's go back to Thursday night bucks at the Falcons.

Marc: It's a tough one. Um, Have they played already this year? Or no, no, I don't think so. No, OK, so Bucks at the Falcons was a three in one versus two and two. Yeah, yeah, that's right. I don't know. I'm going to say that the Buccaneers are playing pretty well. I'll take the box.

Steve: Yeah, I think I was wrong, but I think I was wrong about the Buccaneers this year. I think they're a better team than I gave them credit for. I think the Falcons are still struggling to find their way. I'm gonna have to go with the Buccaneers too on this game.

Chris: Okay boys, Kirk Cousins is my hero. I'm going with the Falcons.

Marc: Your season's already over anyway.

Chris: Hey man, I'm just having fun at this point. That's all I'm doing. I'm just having fun. Probably right. Okay. The other Sunday game, two and one versus two and one bills at the Texans three and one, three and one, three and one. Yep.

Marc: This is an interesting one because, you know, the bills are just coming off of a thumping, but previously had been three and one playing very, very well.

Steve: Yeah.

Marc: And your Texans, you know, your Texans are kind of somehow they're three in one. But in the last couple of weeks, they haven't really looked that great. Yeah. But I'm going to say that I'm going to take the Texans. I think the Texans have a better chance of more gaining steam than and the bills more have a chance of coming back to the pack a little bit. So I'll go CJ Scroud. Niko Collins, Stefan Diggs for the win.

Chris: All right. The Grand Shawbini says the Texans are going to win. Hockey Jesus?

Steve: I don't think the Bills can play worse than they did last night. They look really bad. I think they're going to have a rebound game. And why not against the Texans? The Texans haven't been playing consistently good ball, but they've been squeaking out wins. I think the coaching and the Josh Allen factor will kick in. They won't be able to come back this time. I got the bills.

Chris: Steve Hockey Jesus has the bills. I see this as a veteran versus rookie. even though they actually don't play on the field together. It's Josh Allen versus C.J. Stroud. C.J.

Marc: Stroud is a second year player.

Chris: I know. Yeah. Versus rookie. Sorry. Versus young gun. I think Josh Allen comes in and says to the young gun, listen, this is how you bounce back from a drubbing. And he shows up to play. So I am going with the Bills. There you go. There you go. That's our prediction. So moving on here. If you're listening to us, listening to the podcast and the I heart radio app podcast, Spotify, or anywhere you get your frigging podcasts. Thank you very much. Subscribe, leave us a review. That would be great. And of course, if you're watching us live right now, you're watching us on Facebook, LinkedIn X, Instagram, and, uh, something else, YouTube, um, subscribe. That would be great there as well. And I dropped the podcast right after the show. Now we're going to stump the answer. And what is that? Well, Mark is actually the answer this week. So we're going to have to stump Mark. So, what is Stump the Yinzer? Normally, Hockey Jesus is our resident Yinzer. He has pierogies in his blood. His DNA has more Y chromosomes than any other chromosome. Y for Yinzer. And so, but last week, Mark was able to get the Mario Lemieux question right. How many seasons was Mario with the Pens before they made the playoffs? Hockey Jesus guessed six. The right answer was Mark. So, and we just lost Hockey Jesus anyway, so maybe he'll be back. So maybe until he gets back, we should also pay homage to Dikembe Mutombo, who passed away today at 58.

Marc: Not in my house.

Chris: Yeah, we're going to wait for H.J. He is something happened to his Internet. So he got it. He's out of the studio. So, yes, Dikembe Mutombo. We're going to do that right now. He passed away today at the age of 58 from brain cancer. Well, wishes and prayers to his family for that. He played 18 years in the NBA, eight time All-Star, four time defensive player of the year, his three thousand two hundred and eighty nine blocks. were second all-time, played college at Georgetown, played for the Sixers during the year they went to the finals. Did he play for, who else did he play for, Schwaber?

Marc: He played for a lot of teams. Denver Nuggets, I believe, was the team he played for the most. That was his first team. He was part of, I believe, it was the first time an eight seed beat a one seed when he was with the Denver Nuggets.

Chris: Yep, yep. Now, Yoho Sun has an interesting question. How many abandoned malls are in the burg?

Marc: I believe they're all abandoned except Ross Park.

Chris: Except Ross Park. Well, Monroeville is not abandoned yet, but it's on its way. It still gets a fair number of people though because of the, um, the theater that they put in right, right before COVID. So it still gets a number of, uh, of, of people. Uh, yes, Yo-Ho Son, we did a Pete Rose tribute at the beginning of the show. So go back and listen to the beginning or watch it. Um, third loss, Chris Christopherson, the seventies, A Star is Born. Yeah, that was, that was a great movie. Uh, the most recent one with Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga. My wife says my hair looks like Bradley Cooper's hair in A Star is Born now. that's that's the It's getting there. It's getting there. Okay. I'm not sure what's going on with hockey, Jesus.

Marc: I'm going to, I'm going to, by the way, by the way, our apologies. Uh, we only currently have one generator at one of our locations. Um, so we're working on getting generators at our other two locations. Um, so just so you know, you will never lose, uh, the Grangeville beanie. We have a Jenner rack, right? Right.

Chris: We have a Jenner rack. Yeah. And I'm, I'm looking into getting one. I just don't have it yet. So. Yep. Well, and at the same time, thinking about generators and power, our prayers go out to everybody in Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida for that incredible mess of a hurricane that hit down there. And I mean, it's been raining here for a day and a half and all we're getting is rain. Thank God. But I just don't. You know, I just, I, I pray for those people down there. You're living your life one day at a time. And next thing you know, a tragedy like this hits. So I hope there's, there's, they're getting the help that they need. Yoho Sun says with your hat off TD, you look like a kid in a sandlot. That's what I was going for. That's actually going for it. My computer just. Fucking died. No clue scrambling. That's the text I got. All right. Well, listen, we're just going to have to get on with the show on. So we're just going to do the stomp the answer with Mark. And if Steve gets back, I'll tell you if you got the answer right or not. So stomp the answer. Here's the question. Go work. Which Steelers quarterback played baseball for Jim Leland in the Florida Instructional League now? I feel like I should give you a hint. Chris Chotto on Instagram, I remember my elders telling me to watch The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh, but never did. Isn't Dr. J in that movie? Is Dr. J in that movie? Yes, he is in that movie. So the hint that I'm going to give you Is that he was a a quarterback? Uh, yeah, you can't tell you have hair with the hat on. Oh, thanks official Maybe I maybe I should just make a guess beforehand because if you give me a clue and then I get it Then everybody's gonna say well, it's because you got a hint Well, the only hint i'm going to give you is is that he's a quarterback that has played for the steelers while the three of us have been friends Okay, jim. Leland probably coached in the florida instructional league like in the 70s In early 80s, you know what I mean? And we met in 1989 or 1988 So from 1988 until today It's a guy That has been the steelers quarterback while we were friends.

Marc: Okay, I am going to go with How about that mike tomzak

Chris: Okay. All right. That's your answer. We'll wait till H.J. comes back. I'm not going to tell you if it's right or not. As we are moving on, we do have some hockey Hockey Computer Antichrist. John says. C.D. has a guess. Bobby Brister or Mark Malone. I'm not going to tell. I know the answer, of course. I'm not going to tell anybody the answer until he gets back. And maybe, maybe he'll be back. Oh, tech director Patrick Renna from Sandlot. Nice. All right. Uh, we'll save the hj segment till whenever steve poaches his wife's computer to get back on but in case you're wondering oh There he is What?

Steve: My computer just died Really? Wow, dude. I don't know what happened. It's just like everything shut down. That was wild.

Chris: Could you turn it back on? I tried to and it just All right, so maybe it's uh, yeah, it looks like your phone's dying too hj There you go.

Steve: Well, that's because I'm on, that's because I'm on a wifi. So I don't know how well this is going to work.

Chris: Yeah. Well, okay. So here's the stump. The ends are question. All right. All right. Which Steelers quarterback played baseball. Now Mark has already given an answer. He doesn't know if it's right or wrong. Which Steelers quarterback played baseball for Jim Leland in the Florida instructional league.

Steve: Okay. Oh, I have to guess? Yeah, get stumped the answer. Yeah, I don't get like ABCD now.

Chris: Well, I'll tell you what I'll give you the same. I'll give you the same hint that I give the same hint that I give Mark that I gave Mark. He is a quarterback during the time we have been friends, so we all met 1988. OK, I know that time on there is a quarterback who played in the Instructional League for Jim Leland.

Steve: The answer is Bobby Brister.

Chris: Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. You are right. Bobby Brister. Son of a gun. Son of a gun. Yeah. Your brother, CD, guessed Bobby Brister first and then said or Mark Malone. Amy May says Mark Malone. And Yo Kerry is saying maybe you should pay your Internet bill, Mr. Jesus. Well, I mean that's better than not having a computer for yourself honestly if you think about it this evening just pray on it So, so hockey Jesus is back in the house and, uh, you can follow hockey Jesus on YouTube at the sports porch podcast. He, uh, gets on after every single penguins, regular season game. And he talks about the game and about the penguins and the, Oh, and he's gone again. So, um, no, I'm here. Oh, okay. All right. What are you doing? Would you get near your router? You're screwing up the podcast.

Steve: I did, but now I'm annoying my wife. So I might be, I might be sleeping outside tonight.

Chris: Yeah. Well, Hey, listen, priorities, dude. Show over marriage. I mean, come on.

Steve: Hey, I'm still on the show, right?

Chris: I mean, is your marriage going to pay the bills if you get thrown out of the house? No, but the show might, it might.

Steve: I think you got that backwards.

Chris: Yeah. Anyway, okay, Hockey Jesus, let's make it quick here. Talk a little bit about the Penguins. The season starts in, what, a week?

Steve: A week from Wednesday, it's right. Yes. So, um, it's real, it's real simple. Um, I don't see any new talent coming up. That's going to make a big impact early in the season. Unfortunately, I was hoping that maybe Owen Pickering, or maybe, uh, this Rutger McGrady would be the guy, but neither of these guys are going to be able to make a significant difference watching them play the other night. It's clear that this Bolivia that they got is going to play with Sid on the first line. He's fast, but he can't score and he can't defend. I think that's going to be a problem in the long run, but in the short run, they're going to be basically the same team. I didn't like the way their prospect goalie played the other night, but he did make a rebound. This is Bloomquist I'm talking about. He did make a rebound the other night after, the night after he played. So maybe he'll be, maybe he just needs to play in the, in Wilkes-Barre against those Hershey Calder Cup winning Bears. So he'll be able to get some practice down there. I think that's probably the best thing for him right now. Um, so look, the penguins played last night. They played, uh, I don't know if you know about this, but hockey ville craft hockey ville every year, um, has the fans vote on a rank that needs some renovation. And there was this place I'm going to get it wrong. So I'm not even going to say the name of the place, but that's where the pens in the sense we're playing last night. It's a really cool game, but the best part about it is all the stars have to basically play in this game. So last night we got to see like a real hockey game. and a rink that holds like 2,500 fans, which was pretty cool. I think it's pretty cool for the NHL guys to play too. So I got to see Sid and the power play and Malkin play. Malkin had a hat trick last night. Sid had two goals. The power play looked better, but it's still just going to need some help. I think it was one for three or one for four last night. Um, so look, hockey's back. That's the most important thing. I'm not expecting great things from the Pens. In fact, I think this could be the week, this could be the year that the Pens, the wheels fall off the bus for the Pens. I think this might be the year from what I'm seeing, they just don't get it. They're not a fast team anymore. And they still want to try and play like that. They'll get run over by these teams that have good young talent. And I hate to say this, but the Flyers are getting more talent and they're getting younger. Um, and they could even pass us this year. That pains me tremendously to say it pierces my heart, but it's, it's very possible. This could be the year it happens.

Chris: Yeah, well, we'll see. And official Chris Chata just asked us on Instagram, will H.J. be doing a Penn's podcast during the season? And I answered yes. After every Penn's game, just look for the sports sports podcast on anywhere you get your podcast, iHeart, Spotify. It's usually a 10 to 15 minute gig. And so about 15, 20 minutes after the game, you can catch that. And he does it on YouTube at the Sports Porch Podcast. Do you do them live on YouTube now, or do you just post them? You just post them.

Steve: I might go live. I think I'm probably going to go live.

Chris: Yeah, well, that's up to you. Either way.

Steve: I think I'm going to go live afterwards, because in that way, if people want to jump on, they can ask questions. maybe we'll make it go. I to be 10 to 15 minutes. I

Chris: Yeah, the Monday night one or the spectacular that you're planning. So official Chris Chott is going to be known as O.C. now because it's just too much to say his name. So O.C., he has not missed a Penguins game the last two years. So I would say you can have faith in Hockey Jesus that he will be around for, I would say, you know, you got to give him a night off here and there if he I don't know if something happens. I'm going to give them a 95 to 99% success rate on the 82 games coming up this year. Most likely.

Marc: I agree with that. I think it'll be 100%. You think?

Steve: You never know what happens when you're traveling. That's true.

Chris: He still hasn't missed one though. He still hasn't missed one.

Marc: You haven't missed one yet. I mean, look, it still counts if it's like two days later, if you're on vacation.

Steve: It's true, and I haven't missed one yet, so that is true.

Chris: Two days later. Okay. What we are watching this year, there is no Trader Joe's snack time tonight because we're all remote and it's kind of hard. I'm not going to use DoorDash and pay that. I don't have a courier to send food up to them. They're just going to have to miss out until next week. So we're going to move right on to what we are watching. What is that? Well, there's a lot of streaming services out there, and sometimes it's really hard to find something to watch. And luckily, we're old guys that sometimes like to sit around and just flip through the menu on Netflix or Max or Prime. You can spend days doing that if you want, afternoons doing that if you want, and never find anything to watch. So what we do is we find things to watch, and if they're good, we tell you. If they're bad, we tell you. The only qualification is that if it's a movie, even if you hate it, you got to watch it the whole way through so you can give the review. If it's a series, it doesn't matter. You don't have to finish the whole series, but you have to have finished the season you're in so you can review the series up to that point. I do not have one right now. I'm in the middle of a couple that I'll be able to review next week and in the weeks coming, but the Grand Schwabini and Hockey Jesus have theirs. So the Grand Schwabini, this week you have watched, it's actually a movie.

Marc: A movie called Never Let Go. Halle Berry stars stars Halle Berry. And if there was a way to make Halle Berry look somewhat unattractive, I think they accomplished that in this movie.

Chris: I say impossible. She is just gorgeous.

Marc: But so this was a fun one. Like there there's kind of like a a genre of movies that I tend to enjoy. You know, one type is, you know, apocalypse. The world is coming to an end. Another is horror and another is supernatural. And what was kind of wild about this movie was you watch the whole movie and you kind of aren't exactly sure which one of those it is. So it's it's just kind of wild. There's like a lot of stuff sort of left up to interpretation. Long story short, just a little plot for you. Halle Berry and her two kids are in a log cabin in the woods in the middle of nowhere somewhere, and apparently, at least their belief is, is that the world has, you know, collapsed and people went insane and started murdering each other. And they are in a blessed house that if as long as you are attached to the house, you cannot be hurt. The evil cannot get to you. So what they have is they have a very elaborate rope system which allows them to go out to be able to find food to eat and things of that sort. And so it's just wild. It's just a little wild. You know, you're just kind of wondering, like, you know, what's going to happen here? And, you know, you really don't really know throughout the whole thing where it's going to end up. And I enjoyed it. I think there could be a round two coming up sequel. But again, this this is definitely gonna be one of those, you know as the reviews I looked on Rotten Tomatoes You know, you're looking at 50% of the people love it 50% of the people hate it So if you like the M night Shyamalan type movie, you're probably gonna love it If you don't you'll probably hate it. So There you have it

Chris: All right, Never Let Go, a movie with Halle Berry. That's what the Grand Schwabini has watched. I did not have one this week, like I said, so we're going to go right to Hockey Jesus. Hockey Jesus is watching something on Netflix.

Steve: Yes, I finished this. I started this and finished it. It's called Made, starring Margaret Qualley. Maybe you know her, maybe you don't. I didn't know her.

Marc: I heard this is good, actually. I never saw it.

Steve: So this is based off of a movie. I'm sorry, this is a movie based off of a book. And the book basically – the premise is this woman, Alex is her name, basically leaves her boyfriend. They're not married, so she leaves her boyfriend. She has a child who's about three years old. And it's questionable to call it an abusive house because that's really what the whole subject of the matter is. Is her boyfriend really abusing her? Because it's mostly, it's mostly psychological abuse. There's no real, you don't see her, him ever hit her. But anyway, she leaves and she's trying to start a new life. And it's basically her whole story. This takes place in Washington, the state of Washington. She actually has a mom who also is a psychotic. She's undiagnosed bipolar and she's played by Andy McDowell. And I'll tell you, Andy McDowell is great in this role. I mean, she's just fantastic. Like she really comes off as like unstable at times, but then real caring at other times. She plays the part really well. And it's just about her whole her whole life of Should she go back with her boyfriend? Should she stay in this domestic abuse place? Which is some of the places she ends up in are just absolute terrible pig sties. And like when she arrives, like you get the sense like she's like so thrilled to be at this place that you would never want to live in your whole life. And just the way the acting is done and the way the story is, it just pulls at you. You're just like, I have to know what happens. Does she stay with them? Does she find true love? Does she do something else? And you have to watch it because I promise you, I think you'll like the ending.

Chris: So it's a movie on Netflix.

Steve: No, it's a small series. It's actually 10 episodes. They're pretty long. So I mean, it's a bit of, you have to be, you have, trust me, once you start watching it, you won't want to stop watching it. You'll want to watch it the whole way to the end. Guaranteed.

Chris: Is it new? Is it new? Yeah, it's new.

Steve: It's new. It's new this year. It just came. I think it just came out a couple weeks ago. And like I said, it's based off of a book. And the thing is, like, I guess the woman who did it was she's the one who went through it. Um, she and and she already wrote a sequel to it that tells you kind of what happened with her life even post What you get to see so i'm pretty sure that there's going to be a second, uh a second, uh, uh set of episodes, um that that will go through um What happened from the time she you leave her at the end till you know current day really?

Chris: All right. Well, that's it made On netflix hockey jesus as a side note before we head out of here I just want to say that I you know in in keeping with further embarrassing myself That our special guest last week, new york pizza Was three a slice of new york. Yeah, I know a slice of new york He was three in his predictions, he means three, you know, you know, very nice He even beat the grand schwa beanie.

Steve: Yeah

Chris: How about that? He was 3-0. Son of a gun. No wonder his computer crashed watching Netflix on his pen dot laptop. and says all right guys listen thanks so much for watching the sports sports black and gold edition if you're watching live every monday night at 7 30 p.m eastern time all over the world on facebook linkedin youtube x and the gram instagram i'm going to drop the podcast right after the show have a great week jeff paulis thanks for being here as always i'm going to drop the podcast right after the show on the iheart radio app Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere you get your friggin' podcasts. For the Grand Schwabini in Indiana Township, for H.J. Greenfield, I'm your technical director, and I am out.

Marc: Jambalansk. Jambalansk.