The Porch Is Live - Was the Win Over The Ravens Worth It?

Chris So I kind of wait for you to get to all the real bad shit out and then we start the show.

Marc Well, we've already started. You are as smart as me.

Chris That's what we call it Welcome to the sports porch Pittsburgh where you are watching us live on Facebook LinkedIn on YouTube on X all over the world and you can always grab the podcast Listen to the podcast we drop it right after the show on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts modifier anywhere you go and I know it's not baseball season baseball season as well for us is over but it is hockey season and you can always always always find us at the porch is live.com the porch is live.com the porch is live.com on this penguins oh yeah here we go boys Oh, man, I can't tell you how excited I am to do this show tonight. We just if you can see in the background of Steve down there, that's Steve the hockey Jesus. We got the new studio set up. We're going to have some couch cast at some point. We're going to have some guests in here. We got Schwalber over here to my to my right. He has his eye on the Phillies game because he can't help himself, even though this is a Pittsburgh show. And then you got me back here in the corner, your technical director, and I'm digging the setup. Yeah. It's really good. We got some energy around here, guys.

Steve All we did was we moved some furniture around and who knew it would look like this.

Marc That's it. That's all we did. My pleasure, guys. My pleasure helping out.

Steve Mark was here in spirit.

Chris He was. He got the video of the finished product.

Steve You know, we got more work done with him not being here, honestly. Probably.

Chris Yeah. Because it's always like, did you ever notice he's always like, as soon as we start doing something, he's going, you know, my back.

Steve Yeah. Or, hey, when are we stopping for food?

Marc Yes. That's all. I have a herniated disc. What other disabilities that I have do you want to make fun of? That was a bad question.

Steve We could go on. That's a whole show.

Marc That's a whole show by itself. I kind of walked into that one. You did.

Chris You did. Don't worry. We'll slam the door in your face later.

Marc Sometimes you get punished for making insults.

Chris That's right. Sometimes we just get punished for being here. All right. Listen guys, uh, the porch is live tonight and I want to remind you that we are a live show unless you're listening on the podcast and you can always call in if you have anything you want to say. It's your, uh, it's your voice, not your face. Uh, it's just like a radio show because, uh, we are usually on radio PGH. And, uh, as always, I forgot to fire that one up.

Marc So, ah, the hell with it this time. 412-805-7236. That is correct. We would be happy to take your call.

Chris Call in and talk to us. Only if you call during the live show. Call in and talk to us. Get Call on the Podcast. Can we just get to the first place, Steelers? Yeah, well, how funny is that? I love it.

Marc How funny is that?

Chris Okay, so here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to put this up on the ticker. Uh, I want to know your emotions about beating the Ravens. Call into the show now, 412-805-7236. David's on the porch. And, uh, what's up DG? How you doing? Uh, greetings. Uh, and Roe wants to know, Mark, why are they picking on you? Hmm. Well, uh, That there's years of history. There's some yeah, there's actually some once again. That's a whole nother show There's there's there's some hidden meaning. They're absolutely hit me greetings DG. So Emotions, okay during this during this game. I think I remember texting you guys and saying I am completely confused Oh, yeah, were you not confused? Tell me give me your emotions about this game.

Steve So let me start with the night before and Scott goes to the games, we're at the bar, we're having some beer, and he's like, well, what do you think about tomorrow? And I said, honestly, I have no clue. I said, 60% chance it's a 17-14 game, 25% chance the Seahawks get blown out, and the 15% chance You know the Steelers blow them out and when I said 1714 I didn't say who was gonna win because that's a toss-up game I had no idea who would win that game to be honest with you But so I did kind of I did kind of expect that the kind of game that we got but not the way it played out Right. Oh my god, and then through through the game like before the game, you know, it's about the same emotions but during the game literally, I think I went from I I'm going to just trust in Kenny Pickett. And can we trust? I think I texted four or six times. And then I went to Kenny Pickett is dead to me to Steelers are in first place to wait. Maybe they're not in first place because they just fumbled it away to. We're definitely winning this game with the field goal game over. Maybe not game over. Yeah. Yeah. Game's over. I mean, literally, like, that's where the emotions were. They were like, this team needs a total revamp. I'm so happy they're going to lose. Canada's gone to, well, we're in first place. And that's really it. I mean, it's really, it was really an unbelievable roller coaster of emotions.

Chris I gotta tell you, I'll chime in. Did you have any emotions about it Schwaber or were you emotionless as usual?

Marc Well, I mean, I, I root for the Steelers because my wife is a Steeler fan and it really has nothing to do with the Eagles unless they match up in the Superbowl. Right. Right. So, um, you know, I, I take a little bit of a different, um, vantage to it. Like I, I have the belief that, them losing the game would be better for them than winning the game. I feel like them winning the game almost secures another mediocre season, another 9-8 finish, and nothing bottoming out and you don't have the changes that you need to become a better team. Right. So that's kind of where I was at. You know, I mean, you know, the things that I want to see happen, I want to see matt canada gone yeah we're gonna okay i'm gonna hold up i'm gonna hold up i've been i've been told there's you know there's there's parameters there's structure tonight sorry we're gonna try because there's so much to unpack let me just let me just say well first of all your wife agrees with you which i mean i know she's required to so um although she said something before I even started talking.

Chris Yeah. Did she?

Marc Yeah. She said, she said, I don't think the Steelers are a good team. Well, right.

Chris And I, I think that a lot of people were there. Let's let's see what Mike Lawrence has to say on Facebook. He says we get first and go from the five and can't get a touchdown. Then at the end with about a minute 15 left and no Ravens timeouts, we take a 43, uh, quick Neal. What is it? We take quick Neal, quick Neal downs and kick the ball back to the Ravens. Insane. Right. I mean, we're going to get a ton of comments tonight. I know this. Sure. Yeah. Hell yeah. We got to make some changes. DG says, can you guys identify any significant changes? No. It seemed like the same old stuff to me, relying on splash plays against underperforming teams, no winning strategy. So I continue with your emotions or whatever the hell you were saying.

Marc Very even keel.

Chris Right, that's right, right. Yeah, okay.

Marc I mean nothing nothing really surprised me in the game except for the amount of blunders the Ravens made mmm Both sides really yeah, yeah the blunders the Ravens made made a big difference in the game Yeah, that was the only thing that surprised me in the game.

Chris Yeah, if I if I'm if I'm a Baltimore fan Right now what I'm talking about right now is two things. I that ridiculous play at the end of the half, which was obviously a miscommunication, but still you got it.

Steve Is that what he said? I never heard it. Yeah.

Chris They said it was a miscommunication, but, but, but you got to button it up more than that.

Marc Okay.

Chris These games always come down to the last second. We all know that all points are important going into this game. The Steelers all time were tied in the amount of points scored against each other all time, which is a crazy statistic.

Steve Well, they were two points off going into the game, and at one point during the game, it was exactly even.

Chris Yeah, 7-19, 7-19. And the thing about it is… The Steelers are up now, by the way. You know, so they got… Right, obviously. That's the most important.

Marc Steelers don't play baseball, by the way. Yeah, and you thought… You said the Steelers are up right now. Yeah, yeah. No, he's talking about in the points. No, no, in the total points. Oh, oh, okay. I thought you were talking about…

Chris Mark, if you would like to stick with baseball, leave the show and go sit on the couch.

Marc No, no, no. Lots to talk about this week. If you'll let me talk, I can't wait until the magic five questions.

Steve Yeah, that's going to be fun.

Chris Preaching to the choir, fire the OC. How do they keep this guy? So, okay. So if I'm in Baltimore, it's that ridiculous play at the end of the half. And then the seven drop passes, three of which were touchdowns last week. I didn't want to say it, but I, my prediction was maybe three. My prediction was that Baltimore was going to trounce them. That that's just what, and, and if, if, and look, Almost is only good in horseshoes and hand grenades. We know that. But if those receivers had made those catches, that game is completely different. It is. It is a blowout and Baltimore is winning. So if I'm in Baltimore, that's what I'm screaming about right now. Like, yeah, you got to catch the passes and you got to, you know, you do that.

Steve It's very similar to the way Cleveland felt after the game they lost to us.

Chris Well, I think so, but this one was a little bit more egregious.

Marc Yeah, it really was. That makes me even happier. It really was. Yeah, I mean, actually, I had one thought.

Steve Those are the best games to beat against Divisional Riot. I mean, honestly, I had a thought. Or you steal it, and then it's like they have no idea what just happened.

Chris Hold on to your thoughts, Robert. Hold on to the thought.

Marc I had a thought during this game, which was, has Harbaugh finally lost it.

Chris Yeah. Well, at the end of the first half. Yeah. I mean, that was horrible.

Marc That was ridiculous. To be honest, to be honest, the play call of the interception in the end zone was a horrible call. That was horrible.

Chris It was also a bad throw to take away from Joey Porter. He played well, he played it well, but it was a horrible throw.

Steve The only thing I think with a game plan from a Baltimore perspective, and I really hate to put that hat on because I hate them, but The only game calling that I thought they should have done was they should have run the ball more. They stopped running the ball. And I think it's because this dealer said, well, we're going to put seven guys on the line so you can't run the ball. And then they ran, they didn't run it. And, and then they just made terrible, their wide receivers dropped the ball. So, I mean, that's really what it came down to it. Their players didn't come up big.

Chris Okay. So Mike, we're going to, we're going to get to this. Mike says, do you think you guys think Kenny called an audible on the touchdown pass to Pickens? Yeah, we're, we're, I know we're going to address that.

Marc I just want to give you, there was some thought that he just changed the protection.

Chris Well, he said it was an audible.

Marc Yeah.

Steve Did he say he audible Randy, Randy, Randy, Randy means protection to the right protection to the right. Uh, go, go.

Marc Okay.

Steve That's basically what he meant. Now. Did that mean you have to throw him the ball? No, but it's exactly what burrow and chase do all the time when they see it. They don't, they don't even have to say it anymore. Yeah. Chase knows just to go down the field and he's going to throw him the ball. Yeah.

Chris want. Yeah. So and we're going to get to that. My emotions about the game. I was totally confused. I'm still totally confused. Well, that's that's in life.

Steve You're that's kind of a state of being.

Chris This is why we do this show. Yeah. To make fun of me. So. Like during the game, I said, this is, this is the worst possible outcome for the Steelers right now. And, and I hate saying that because honestly, look in the NFL, a win's a win, man. It's a win, victory in two there in first place. And if they can, if they can scrape out win after win after win, look at the end of the year, when you go back and you look at all the trophies, Nobody says that was an ugly Super Bowl year, you know, so I love a do I get it, but I think I think the bigger issue is what's going on on the field is you had basically 80% of the game. We're not going to talk about the Steelers defense right now. 80% of the game looked worse than horrible. Pickett wasn't hitting people, the offense was terrible, and that's where I want to go. Let's talk about this game right now from the standpoint of Kenny Pickett. What did Kenny Pickett accomplish in this game?

Steve He threw one good pass to win the game at the end, and that's all you really need. And that's it. That's it. I get it.

Chris I also preface this by saying a win is a win.

Steve Also, he didn't make any mistakes, which means he didn't panic and he didn't try and do too much, which is exactly what he's asked to do in this stupid offense.

Chris There you go. OK, Schwaber, what did Kenny Pickett do in this game that was good?

Marc He accomplished that he is not as bad as the 25th or the 32nd worst quarterback in the league. There you go. There you go.

Chris I agree with that. There you go. I think what he achieved was, now this goes into all of the talk we've heard about Matt Canada supposedly not reacting at all to that touchdown pass. Whatever. I know, that's like the dumbest conversation to have in the world.

Steve It's like never having a losing season to me. It's another one of those abnormalities which who cares.

Marc I gotta be honest with you. I did notice it and this was my thought, and I kid you not, this was my thought. I felt like Canada knew that if they lost this game and they looked horrible, he was going to be out at the bye. I honest to goodness thought that Canada's emotion at that time was this is my last game and the touchdown shocked him. I think he was shocked and he just didn't move a muscle like he didn't know what to think like wait a minute what we threw a touchdown pass we've been horrible all game right yeah like i think he was shocked and i think i i agree with you my my thinking was i agree with that my thinking was he

Chris at first he was a little miffed that Kenny audible because even the rumors that Kenny isn't allowed to change the play or not true, he's encouraged. He's discouraged from changing the play, but Kenny made this call and yes, I think Canada was watching it like, ah, he changed the call. Oh, okay. We scored a touchdown. Like, like that was his thinking, like either, or, or yeah, to hear all these guys are like, well, did you think that maybe with the wasn't celebrated because he was thinking that this, and he was going to be fine. I mean, shut up. The guy's 50 some years old. He's a professional coach. Look, it doesn't matter how bad he was. No, you're using two kind. He's paid by a professional organization, a professional amount of money to be a professional coach. And he's not a good one. Can we go there? He's definitely not a good coach.

Steve There you go. Does that make him unprofessional?

Chris I'm thinking along those lines. So what did Kenny Pickett do better for me? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I almost said nothing.

Marc Yeah, but I gotta give that's not true though.

Steve I got I gotta give him he had to do something. They won the game. Yeah, I mean I give him special teams won that game He did throw that ball. Yeah, he threw he threw one good pass Did he have to but the question is and he had to throw did he have to know? Do they win that game still if he doesn't make that pass they probably do then you could say nothing Actually, I would say they definitely don't win the game. Well, no Boswell kicks a field goal there I don't know. And actually they take more time off the clock.

Marc Well, no, maybe Kenny gets sacked. You get pushed out a few. Well, that did happen.

Steve That did happen twice in the game.

Marc Right. Right. Right. So yeah. So I that I give him just a little bit because it was a game winning. All right.

Chris All right, listen, listen, the phone number, if you're watching on social media is 412-805-7236. Any of these things we're talking about now, call in and let us know how you feel. Did Kenny Pickett make any progress? No, he made no progress whatsoever. They got lucky because the defense played out of their ass. Special teams blocked that. They did, they did. I mean, look.

Steve Well, I'm waiting for your other question.

Marc Well, I would actually see. Now, I would say that the defense did not play as well as it appears. Now, did they play well? No, no, no. Is that to end the game? Did they? Well, you know, did they play well in the fourth quarter, second half of the fourth quarter? Yes. But the rest of the game, they should have given up 20, 24 points. So I think that the Steelers are weak against the pass.

Chris That's obvious. So, okay. I want to get these comments in. I want to get these comments in. CD says, CD says, you know, field goal, safety field goal, touchdown, miss conversion. Yeah. 17. Yeah. Ouch. DG says aside from the last minute TD pass, I think Kenny looked very, it looked bad. He had happy feet in a band in the pocket all game long. I think he looked a little better in the pocket in this game I will give him that a little better. I think a little bit not much not much problem cd said he didn't throw any trabiski-like interceptions. That's true. Tim Eggert says false comfort in a win and um cd is agreeing with me as far as uh, Okay. Well, he's saying the d plays well in key situations not all game. You glitches love to be like hashtag inconsistent I wonder how my wife would feel if I was like Hashtag put on some sexy clothes. It might work.

Steve You might want to try it.

Chris Um, all right. That's another discussion. So, okay. So I'm going to segue here. Lamar Jackson.

Steve Well, no, I think Amy, Amy makes a great point. The whole team is mediocre. Well, that's not true. I think, I think George Pickens had a little bit of a breakout game. Oh yeah.

Chris Well, he catches 130 yards in a score.

Steve Well, I mean, he's clear. He was clearly the number one guy, right? So not only was he the number one guy and they, they planned against it, he still performed well.

Marc And he performed against a Pro Bowl cornerback. I know it was his first game back from injury, but still, up until that point in the game, he had pretty much done his job.

Steve And let's face it, T.J. Watt is not mediocre.

Marc No, of course not.

Steve So I think there are a few exceptions to that, Amy, but the rest of the team, other than those two guys?

Chris You're probably right. Okay. So, so I'm not even, I, I heard some comparisons today. Uh, you know, pick it to, to Jackson and the, you know, pick it out. Dual Lamar Jackson.

Steve No, we can just skip over that conversation. We agree. That's good. Those people are idiots look if if if his wide receivers catch the balls today through did he threw right in their hands? He has 275 yards three touchdowns. They win that game by two touchdowns at least right so enough of that. Okay.

Marc Yeah so Let's move on to Canada by the way, they didn't catch those balls They didn't I know well, I mean there is something to be said for that, you know, because I would argue that rashad baitman and Odell Beckham Jr. 2023, Odell Beckham Jr. are both not Pickens. No. And Pickens catches the ball and those two.

Steve They're they're not even Deontay Johnson.

Marc Right. Oh, and Aguilar, we forgot about him. Yeah, he had a couple of clients. That's why he that's why he's not on the Eagles. Right. That's right. That's what I was saying. Right.

Steve OK, definitely. All right. All right. All right.

Chris When I got quiz Watkins, Najee Harris versus Jalen Warren, can we settle this argument once and for all, please? No problem.

Steve I'll settle it for you. Go for it. They both need the play. I mean, that's the bottom line.

Chris It's not what I wanted to hear, but I understand. I think I know where you come from.

Steve I mean, they, they both have to play. Clearly Jalen Warren is the better back of the two, but you still need a running back. That's going to go right into that line, full speed and get zero yards. Yeah. Four times to wear them down. Yeah. Because Jalen Warren does that. He's probably going to get hurt. Right. So. So it's just it's you need them both. I get it. Jaylen Warren is probably the better back of the two right now. In fact, I'll go out on a limb and say he is the better back. But you still need both of them as long as they're both in there together. I don't see where the controversy.

Marc Although I have a question for you.

Steve It's a league that has running back by committee now. Right. It is. So, I mean, that's all they're doing.

Marc I do have a question for you. Remind me the name of the Steelers running back during Ben's first Super Bowl win. Willie Parker.

Steve That's it. Willie Parker. Oh, yeah. Watched him run 75 yards.

Marc Is Willie Parker any bigger than Jalen Warren? No, but he was fast. No, but he was faster. OK, but if he's no bigger, you know, look, I mean, I remember when Willie Parker Um, got the ball in the first game. I think somebody was hurt or something. Um, you know, we all kind of thought like, you know, they're not going to give him the ball, you know, like a, like a, um, Oh no, they, they had me running for Willie Parker.

Steve In fact, Willie Parker that year was probably more valuable as a running back than Jerome better.

Marc Right. And didn't, didn't he like in the next season or like, didn't Jerome retire and then he was the number one running back and he was not good. He wasn't as good as the number one. He wasn't. Okay.

Steve Which proves the point. You need to have two, you need to definitely have two running backs. Somebody who's your home run hitter, and somebody who's just gonna run the ball 15 times for 60 yards. And that's what the Steelers have now. And we just have to get used to that.

Marc Yeah, but I'm… Well, here's, let me make one more comment. Please do. The reality of the situation here is that It's an OK back by committee. All right. OK. The reason why we're so prone to not accept that and to be disgusted with Harris a lot of the time is because he was a number one pick. Agreed. If he wasn't, if he was drafted in the third round, like people would say, yeah, they got a pretty good thunder and lightning approach here. Right.

Steve You know, well, you're right. And actually, if if the if it was reverse, right. Jaylen Warren was the number one back. Right. They would probably feature him more, but they would still run Najee Harris every now and then just right in the line. And everybody would be OK with that. Right. But it's just the reverse situation. So people are too hyped up on the fact that Najee is a first pick who's kind of a bust.

Marc And I say kind of a, because Amy is, Amy is really doling it out tonight. Isn't she?

Chris She is. She is. I do agree, Steve, that you need two backs, but you need two good backs. And I agree with Amy there. DG says, I absolutely agree with Steve. They are two different types of runners. If the OL was gift, the line was good and their schemes were better. This goes back to Canada. you know, best, best to wear down the defenses by the fourth quarter. But here's the, here's the thing. Look, I don't know of a running back that was ever drafted to be like, let's make sure that we hand the, by the guy was this ball. And he runs right into the line as hard as he can and bruises these people up and never, ever gets a yard.

Marc There's a ton of them. There's really a ton of them.

Chris I mean, who drafts are running back in hopes that it doesn't want them to run a hundred yards a game.

Marc Do you realize that?

Steve I mean, but do they, that's the thing. There are very few backs that actually do that.

Marc I understand, but you get where I'm coming from. The success rate of backs in the first round is like less than 50%.

Steve That's why a lot of that's why a lot of teams don't draft it right back in the first round because they do have to pay them big money and that's Unfortunately, why nausea won't be here after next year. They're not gonna give him that fifth that fifth year contract It just doesn't we won't make sense to pay him eight million dollars.

Marc Yeah, I I get it But but I I think the the big when you draft him there you do expect him to be that I agree.

Steve The expectations are not being fulfilled by Aji, but the two of them together, it's good enough. Let's just move on. Here we go.

Marc Well, and I would also say, and I think that, um, I also think that, um, somebody made the, I think it was DG who made the remark. Um, and also I'm going to say Tim Egger also made the remark. The running game also would be better with, better o-line play, so that's personnel, and also with better play calling.

Steve Are we going to talk about the offensive line? Because I'd like to throw that my two cents. We're going to get there and I'll hold off.

Chris I'm going to move to J.P. Junior right now. This is why this game was so confusing, OK, because everything that we've talked about when they do it, it's it seems to succeed. And the thing about it is and we'll we'll get into the line with that soon. The thing about that is that like We're not getting paid all that money to put the players on the field, you know, but, but JP jr. That's, that's what I call him. JP jr. Is he a starter?

Steve Oh yes. A hundred percent. I told you you should start at the beginning of the year.

Marc I agree. You should be. And, and, and to be fair, You know, look, it's still early, and I think that everything we've seen of him so far we've liked. He should be a starter, even if he's not the full-time answer. Because you want to see if he is.

Chris Who do you think's back here? He's watching us on YouTube. Sassafras and chocolate milk, baby. He's back. Yep, yep. Wish I remembered his name. Anyway, so… joining us on YouTube. Yo ho son. Thank you so much. What was his name? I don't remember. It's been a while since he's been on a JP jr.

Steve Starts sit, Pat, Pete, DG, Pat, Pete, and that whatever that nickel position is, you can play him.

Chris Oh, Amy's starting to get a little, a little possessive here. DG and I are your two number one fans.

Marc I would agree with that. They should put, you know what, actually I take that back. You know what I think they should do with Patrick Peterson? I think they should put him at safety. That's not a bad idea. Next to Minka. Yeah. And the reason why I say that is because the one thing that Pat Peterson is, is he's a playmaker. Right. And I think if he has his eyes on the quarterback and is allowed to roam a little bit, then I think that he Um, has a better chance to succeed.

Steve That's who was, that's right.

Chris That's right. Thank you. Yeah. Yo ho son. Yo Gary. Uh, yeah. Pat Pete, a coach and a good one. Um, I think that's a great idea though. Pat Pete at safety. I do. I, I, I, I wouldn't have thought of that.

Steve They need him on the field. He's just got, he's got too much

Marc experience.

Steve he's been tackling for all the linebackers. He's their number one. He leads the defense in tackles. That's the problem. He shouldn't be doing that. He should have more freedom to get to the ball.

Marc But I also do think with maybe a running mate in Pat Peterson, he can maybe have a little more confidence to take some chances versus who's out there with him now.

Steve I'm down with that. I like that idea. I think having J.P. Jr. in the starting position allows you to free up the talent to do the things that they're better at.

Chris OK. One more thing. One more thing about the defense. The linebacker play. Is it better this year?

Steve Well, I mean, it's better this year, but you're starting from the worst in the league. you know, how much better. It's probably, it's probably like Kenny Pickett better. You know what I mean? Yeah. The one thing I do like about the linebackers is they got Holcomb and they got Quan Alexander and I always forget the other guy's name, but I like the rotation. Landon Roberts. Yeah. Thank you, Roberts. I, I, I like the rotation that they do because that keeps them fresh throughout the whole game.

Chris You know what I mean? Well, and, and Quan Alexander showed up this game.

Steve Oh yeah, he had definitely had some splash plays. And he was part of the reason they abandoned the run because he was always in the backfield causing mayhem.

Chris So Steve, let's go to the offensive line.

Steve Well, like I said, Broderick Jones is definitely and should have been starting in that left tackle position from the beginning any runs that they had You can see they they tend to go to the left-hand side Because they got him over there and they got say I'm all over there and those guys can open up holes right the big problem the offensive line has is is Mason Cole. Dude, he's terrible. I don't think he can start in the NFL pass this year. He's awful. He gets blown back every play. And he's in the center of the line. Exactly. So if you're not fast enough, and let's face it, Najee's not fast enough, he can't even get to the hole in time because Mason Cole's getting blown up in the backfield every time. And it's not just a couple times, it's every time.

Marc Yeah, and to be fair, that's part of the reason why Kenny Pickett is jumpy to get out of the pocket.

Steve Part of it. Part of it. I mean, he needs to get comfortable with some guys coming back into his face a little bit.

Marc It's definitely something he has to work on, but I'm saying it doesn't help.

Steve But, and I agree with everything that all the callers, I should say the texters, have been saying regarding Canada's Canada's inability to have good blocking schemes to make something work. I saw some statistic today where it's like when they're under the center, they run the ball like 85% of the time. And when they're under the shotgun, it's like the same thing. So like automatically when they're in the shotgun, you know, they're going to pass when they're under center, you know, they're going to run. So it's like, It's, that's a problem and that's Canada. So, and I know we're probably going to get to him next, but that doesn't make it easier for the offensive line when the defense already kind of has an idea. Like I know I can bum rush through this because it's probably going to be a run play and I'm not going to get, I'm not going to get trashed with some, you know, short past. It's going to go behind me as a linebacker.

Chris And that being said, you did bring up Canada. So my, my, my, my last official question, and then there's one more after that. Are you sorry? We won because Canada will stay.

Steve I will never apologize for beating the ball to morons. Never. Right. So no, I'm not sorry that we won. I am sorry that we have to continue down this path of Matt Canada's offense being awful. And Mike Tomlins.

Chris And here, here we go. We're just going to introduce this segment. Steve has thoughts on Tomlin as always.

Steve Oh, I finally get that. I finally get to talk about Tom. Okay. Talk about Tom. Okay. This is why Mark needs to watch. Okay. Everybody, everybody listening.

Marc You see me going like every, every, every.

Steve Everybody listening may want to sit down for this cause I'm about to tell you why I think Mike Tomlin is a great coach. Okay. Oh goodness gracious. That's why I said you might want to sit down for this.

Marc You just walked yourself into that one.

Chris Yep. Well you did. Did I, are you ready?

Steve Are you ready? No, no, no, no. I, I, this is facts. Okay. All right. The reason Mike Tomlin is, is a great coach is for this reason only. He totally has this team believing that they can win games with defense. And the reason I know this is because I witnessed it in the Cleveland game. Total debacle. They had no chance of winning that game. Every player on that field totally believed that they were still going to win that game. And he has them in this mindset of, if we can just keep it close, the defense will do something. And they have in the games that they've won. to be able to win the game and they do it like I don't I don't know I don't know how else to say that other than that's just coaching maybe it's a mind meld maybe it's something I don't think it's I personally I don't think it's a winning formula moving forward don't get me wrong but these players totally believe it They absolutely believe it. If you hear it in the, in the post conference, they always after, after the game, they're always saying like, well, we just believe that, you know, we could get better. And the defense actually did get a lot better. Like they sucked in the first quarter, but then they made some changes that was like, Oh, okay. This is all we have to do now to stop that.

Chris adjustments, which they are not famous for.

Steve Defense is very good at that. And I give Tomlin some credit for that. I don't know how much, but he's the defensive expert. If he could just find somebody on the offense to make those tweaks, clearly it's not Matt Canada. If he could do that on the offensive side, I think he has something here. I really do. But I don't think right now, the way this team is constructed with this talent, And with its ability that they can do this for very much longer, but let's face it the games that they've won They should not have won and the only reason they won was because they believed they could get it done And that's why I think Tomlin is a great coach. And as soon as you said that DG said I just puked into a bucket well, I hope you were sitting down David because I I preemptively said

Marc By the way, new term introduced during that segment, mind melt. Mind melt. I thought that was interesting. Was it mind melt?

Chris Melt, not melt. Mind melt.

Steve No, no, they're totally melted together.

Marc Yes, mind melt.

Steve The whole defense has one mind when it comes to Tomlin saying we can win this game boys We can win this game and what happens they play renegade. They get a fumble recovery. They punt the ball. Somebody blocks it Yeah, they just believe it I I don't know how else to how else to say it but they they keep it close and then they they do that thing this comes down to this particular game

Chris comes down to the classic Raven Steelers game. Gunner coughs up the ball.

Steve On the free kick. By running into his own guy. Yeah, by running into his own guy. By the way, that guy should be cut. Tomlin should cut that guy. To show his genius, he should cut that guy.

Chris I think everybody agrees with you there. I know I do. I'm pretty sure Schwaber does. But I guess what I have to say about this game. Here's why it is… Uh, so confusing for me. Okay.

Steve So we all know division rivalries, but that Texas David, that Texas game wasn't even close. Yeah, that's true. It wasn't, it wasn't close. And that's the problem. Once they get more than a score or two behind they're screwed because the offense can't come back.

Chris Well, they didn't, they didn't build the team to come back. It's not a team that comes back. We didn't build the team to come back.

Steve As long as they're one score or like 10 points behind, they'll still feel like they can do it.

Chris So here's the problem that I have right now. That's the belief. And I don't know if it's a problem. Maybe it's just a brain fart. I can't get beyond. Actually, I think I text you guys and said watching them win this game was kind of like laughing while I'm taking a crap. Oh, you know what I mean? Like it's like it's like I'm happy that I just. took a big dump, you know, like the entire offense. Let's get serious now.

Marc We were doing so well. The entire we had we had a chance of being picked up by ESPN. And then and then you had to say that.

Chris Yeah. Who wants to be on ESPN?

Marc Do you want to be on ESPN? Yeah. With the salary, they're going to pass. Yes. Yeah.

Steve I'll take the salary. Yeah. OK.

Chris So the hours, maybe maybe I'll clean it up, Klein. All right. So, so, you know, this is a classic division rivalry, classic Steelers game, weird, wacky stuff happens. You know, you got fumbles, you got drop balls, you got a blocked punt that turns into a safety. You got a weird play at the end of the half when they should have. CD says, happy dump. That's your Drexel education at work. Oh, man. Wow.

Marc There's a lot there. You were probably the worst student of the three of us. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That goes without. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's always a bad seed in the bunch.

Chris Yeah. Really? Yeah. I mean, it's not like I ever got anybody to take my tests for me.

Steve Yeah. Right. So that would be that would have been the smartest thing you did. Yeah.

Chris Jesus. Okay. So much for ESPN, I guess.

Steve We never had it.

Chris Your resume is not what you said it was. Okay. So. Next, not next week, we have a bye week. So who are we coming in? Who's coming into town at the end of that? Or where are we going?

Steve We're heading out the L.A.

Chris OK, that's right. We're going to L.A.

Steve We're going to see a real offense out there.

Marc Right.

Steve This is the real defense.

Marc To the Rams or San Diego? The Rams. The Rams. So what I'm saying is either one. The Chargers are L.A. too, though, right? That is correct.

Chris OK, yeah. The Rams. This game is The original ran this game is an anomaly. They won the game because it's a rival.

Steve Well, it's not an anomaly because they beat the Cleveland the exact same way.

Chris I understand. But that was a division game, too. What I'm saying is my belief is that when you go out, oh, my buddy Jeff. Oh, yeah. Used to cheat off my papers in school. Dude, I was never in a class with you. You were a great ahead of me. Listen, listen. Come on, dude.

Marc Next thing you're going to tell the more, the more you talk about it, the more it's true.

Chris Yeah. That's funny. AFC North front runners. So I, I, you know, back to my point. This game was an anomaly. Next week or two weeks from now, I'm telling you, it's going right back to the same old crap and they're going to lose that game.

Steve There's no way they're winning that game.

Chris If they get 14 points down, they will lose that game. I think this was the worst possible outcome for this franchise right now, was for them to win this game and start having the feeling that You know, oh, maybe we're in first place. Look, first place five games into the season doesn't mean anything. Sure, it does. No, it does.

Marc It does, too. How can it? Well, at this at this point, it's first place because they're in a bad division. That's basically what it is.

Steve I disagree. I think it's first place because they happen to beat the two teams in their division at home like they should. Yeah. Yeah. Otherwise, you'd be saying this team is done for the year.

Chris Am I detecting some sort of like Steeler Homer bandwagon going on?

Steve No, no. I think that. I think the yeoman's work is ahead of them.

Chris Oh, there's another good quote.

Steve The yeoman's work.

Chris You know what you're doing? You're going Tomlin on us. You're talking about weighty issues.

Steve Well, I'm sorry if you can't understand my weighty issues.

Marc Was there rhythm within the rhythmic structure?

Steve The rhythmic structure will need to be more rhythmic into the future.

Chris There you go. Oh my God, he just turned into Mike Tomlin in front of me. One more comment in here, CD says, need to change the OL up the line, give Pickett a chance to read the D with pre-snap motion and get wide receiver screens early, blah, blah, blah. It's like, is his name Canada? What is this? Are you the offensive coordinator? Maybe he should be. Yeah. Well, he does have a Penn State education.

Steve Mmm, that goes against him, but he probably knows Joey Porter jr. Yeah. Yeah, you might yeah, not as good as Joe Paterno All right. No, sorry. He wasn't there at the time.

Chris Okay, so listen guys Let's let's do a real quick Who do you think's gonna win after the bye?

Steve Oh After the bye. Yeah, what why do we even care? Oh

Marc Well, you said they're in first place. That kind of means we, you care.

Steve I mean, I'll just go with my picks for the year. I picked them to lose in LA now.

Chris Well, okay. Let me, let me just go down our records here right now. I am currently five and Oh, on the season. I had them losing to the Niners, beating the Browns and the Raiders losing to the Texans and beating the Ravens five and Oh,

Marc You can just say five and Oh, you don't have to like go down.

Chris I want to remind you, I'm three and two.

Steve And the only games that I lost was the juxtaposition between the Houston and the, uh, the Vegas game.

Chris You had them beating, you had them beating the Ravens and Mark Adam losing. And I have them losing against the Rams. We all have them losing against the Rams.

Steve Yeah. So I mean, and I think that makes sense for this team. They're never going to run away with a division, but the fact that they're in first place in the division now in Cincinnati is so terrible. Although they're coming back to life, that will be what it comes down to. Can they beat Cincinnati in the two games they play them to keep the divisional lead? Okay. That's really what it's going to come down to. And of course, nobody believes that they will.

Chris Okay. So, uh, Well, let's move on here to our picks for this week. Oh, there's some horrible games this week. Uh, yeah. Horrible games. We're picking. So last week, uh, Steve had the Cowboys, me and Mark had the Niners. That was a bad, all three of us had the commanders and boy, were we wrong. And Stephen Mark had the chiefs and I, you know, I picked Kirk cousins to win and I was wrong there. Yeah, that leaves our record right now. Mark is eight and four and pulling away. Steve is six and six and Chris is five and seven, but I'm going to make a comeback this week.

Steve I'm going to make a comeback. So that means Mark gets the picks first.

Chris That's right. So should have taken them bears this week, this week. The games that we are going to pick Thursday night. We want to know what your pick is Thursday night. Broncos at Chiefs.

Steve Well, nobody's taking the Chiefs. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, come on. You can't take the Broncos there.

Chris Steve and Mark. I'm taking the Broncos.

Steve No, you're not. I am.

Chris take them. I'm in love with Russell Wilson.

Steve Well, he's, he's going to be available soon.

Chris No, he's actually having a better year. Their defense is just horrible. I'm taking the Broncos a Sunday night giants at weight. We got, maybe we got a prediction coming in here with it. Yeah. It's a CD Kansas, Kansas city stairway to seven for Casey is pit sits at six for the 38th year. Um, Craig's in, he, he chimes in. Thanks for being here. Craig, the players pass and present love Tom and we know that. Yep. They do. Uh, giants at bills Sunday night, giants of bills.

Steve Who you guys, who you guys got bills came off of a terrible loss against Jacksonville. I don't, I think they got a rebound against the giants.

Chris I'd say bills. Yes. Steve, Mark and Chris are taking the bills. All right. And the final game of the week. Seattle it's Cincinnati. This could be a good game.

Steve I'll go Cincinnati The one two in a row I'm going Seattle me, too We'll let my really run away with this thing. Yeah, why not?

Chris Why I think Seattle is actually pretty good team Yeah, I think they're pretty good to CD bills mafia since he at home um okay all right now now we've come to the part of the show where steve starts to convulse and sweat and you know things are just kind of crazy and i want to remind you guys i want to i want to remind everybody that uh of course uh hockey jesus is uh back and Hockey Jesus Preaches on the podcast. After every single Penguins game, Yo Carey takes the refs, hit the Giants and Bills. After every single Penguins game on the podcast, Hockey Jesus Preaches on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or anywhere you get your podcasts. And in fact, the spectacular is out. It is out and it started in incredible fashion. Incredible fact.

Marc Yeah.

Chris There you go.

Marc How did it end? How did the spectacular end?

Steve The ending was not so great.

Chris Actually guys, this is what they would call an epic ending. I just got to queue it up here.

Marc I think the thing that is most remarkable is that the Hockey Jesus, facing death, almost certain death, worked through the call.

Chris Here you go.

Steve I did need my father's help on that one. This is the Hockey Jesus. This is what you get when you do a live. I just hit the music. I hit the music. Oh, my God.

Chris Yeah. Yeah. Well, listen, guys, before Hockey Jesus preaches right now, this is what I want to tell you.

Steve I want you guys to… Amy, they didn't get to hear any of that. Thank you, technical director.

Marc Oh, that's a shame.

Steve Well, how is that possible? Well, that's OK. We don't need to worry about that. They can just go and listen to the podcast. Wait a minute.

Chris I had it on. I had it on.

Steve Well, they didn't hear it. They can only hear us laughing.

Marc Well, you're kind of a failed technical director.

Chris You know what, guys? I really apologize for that. I have everything set up right.

Steve And that's just the way it works. So if you do want to if you do want to hear me dying on the radio, just go and listen to my Pittsburgh Penguins preseason spectacular, where I kind of break down what the Penguins need to do to make the playoffs this year. I'm really excited. Tomorrow night I get to go to the game. I get to see Conor Bedard play in his very first hockey game. I've got tickets to like six games this year, as usual. I'll actually have to post those up on the line. I think my next game is at the end of the month where Ottawa's in town. And then probably not again until November. But yeah, I love it. I love hockey. This is the best time of the season. The thing that you have to worry about with the Penguins is right out of the gate, I think they are going to struggle. So you're going to have to stick with the boys here in the first couple of games of the season. I think they're going to struggle. But come back. I'll give you all the reasons why that's happening. And hey, hockey is here. We love it. We love hockey and we love it on the porch. And I love it after every game. This week's going to be great because I'm going to do it live. I'll do my I'll do my I'll do my post game from PPG and then on Friday, I will actually be in Philadelphia. So I don't even know how I'm gonna do that be they play Buffalo on Friday, so That's just what we're gonna go with and that's that's what we're gonna do you can also catch the hockey Jesus on our deportees channel and

Chris Uh, as always, it just cleared what it would, uh, I don't like now Steve's vocal is muffled. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not, I'm not sure what's going on.

Steve It's cleared. It's good. Now he can hear me, David. Yeah. That, that was an anomaly. I heard a, I heard an interview with Sid today where he said he just kind of looked back and he saw Lateng kind of, kind of crumpled on the ice and he wasn't sure what happened. So, He took umbrage with the, uh, with the one kid that had him because he knew he could take him out and he just kind of roughed him up. He, he didn't really actually want to do that. So it was just one of those things. It was actually a pretty funny interview because, uh, it was actually, if you want to listen to it, Mark Madden had it on, on the X today. And, uh, you should go and listen to that interview. It's, it's a great interview, but at the end, uh, Mark Madden asked him if he is actually going to start a fight with Conor Bedard. He said, no, I don't think that will be happening. But good stuff. Yeah. I don't think you'll see Sid dropping the gloves too much. He is thrilled to be, you know, in his 19th season. And we'll see what happens. I mean, you know, old guys versus young guys, you know, we're always rooting for the old guys here on the porch.

Chris Yeah, and I'm just excited that we're going to have the Hockey Jesus preaching after every game, but I want to try something on the podcast here because I think I might have figured this out Um, so let me see if for you guys who've been watching and sticking with us, um, this is going to be our first live test of something. Um, so not really. Yeah, not really. Every, every, every day, everything is a live test. Let's be honest to the folks. Let's try it. Let's try the start of that. Let's try the start of that hockey Jesus spectacular. Cause I'm going to put the link up in the comments. So you can go, uh, listen to the preseason spectacular. Let's see if, uh, um, Okay, so, okay.

Steve Ooh, donate today. Here you go.

Marc That sounds good. They're asking for donations.

Chris All right. Can you hear that?

Marc Amy, can you hear that?

Chris David says, that's a no. Ah, that really sucks guys. I'm sorry about that. It is a really, really funny show down near the end. Steve loses his voice. Hey, just go listen to it.

Steve Catch it in the last 26 minutes. That's amazing.

Chris It's always good listening to me choke to death. I'm putting the link for the Hockey Jesus spectacular preseason spectacular into the comments right now. And, um, That's about it for that.

Steve Now I want to, I want, I want to know, do you guys, are you, are you excited for hockey this year? Hell yeah. Sure.

Chris Yeah, no, I'm absolutely excited. I'm excited because I, I, I watch quote unquote, watch hockey through you. Yeah. And anyway, so, uh, all right. One last thing here. Yep. Tell me about, tell me about the, uh, documentary on Beckham.

Marc Oh, we're not, I've only watched one episode, but it was very good.

Steve Yep. Here's the documentary on Beckham and why you have to watch it. Football, as it's known in England, is much more popular in England and throughout the world than it is here. Correct. David Beckham is a superstar like even if you don't know the sport, you know, David Beckham is right So it kind of chronicles his career including, you know, when he got started which was like at the age of like 16 I think he was found when he was like 15 and I signed a contract right and it's just amazing to watch this kid turn into a superstar and ultimately just a mega star, not even on the pitch, as they say. So it's, it's great. It's just great. And in the insight, you all know the story, you know, Posh Spice and David Beckham get married. They have some kids. Superstar couple. But, uh, the way they, the way they actually, the way they present themselves, they actually kind of seem normal.

Marc Yeah. A-list couple. There you go.

Steve There you go. You got it. You got to watch it. Got to watch it. All right, guys. All right. Well, and you know what? It's the bye week. So why wouldn't you watch it?

Chris That's exactly right. Exactly right. Well, you know, after you watch your hot. And after I finished watching Encounter, which is about all the aliens out there. It's so terrible. We're going to bring it back. We're going to bring What Are We Watching back. We're actually going to bring it back next week because it's the bye week.

Marc They're coming right after the Hockey Jesus.

Chris Oh yeah. I'm just wondering if everybody can hear the damn music. I have no idea why we put that in there, but listen. I want to thank you all for watching the SportsPort Pittsburgh all over social media, all over the world on Facebook, LinkedIn, X, YouTube. And of course, we're going to drop this crazy podcast right after the show, right after the show. The Sports Porch Podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you get your friggin' podcasts. And of course, of course, you can always visit us at theporcheslive.com, theporcheslive.com, theporcheslive.com. And one more thing, guys. See us there. Find us at radiopgh.com. That is our new radio station. We are in our new studios and we can't wait to share with you. Get it rockin'. Yep, I am your technical director and I am out and Phil