The Sports Porch Black & Gold - Steelers Party in Vegas!

Scott:
all right here we are the sports sports black and gold all over the world on facebook instagram linkedin youtube x

Chris: I did say Instagram, right? You did. Did I say that? Okay, that's right. That's right. And the gram. And the gram. And we're going to drop the podcast right after the show. That's right. Right after the show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, Spotify, or anywhere you get your frigging podcasts.

Steve: Anywhere. Was that good? That was extremely loud and boisterous. How do you feel about that, Scott?

Scott: Sounds good after a win.

Chris: I'm wearing a Philly's hat.

Steve: Hold on. Oh boy. You just wanted to show your mullet. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Did you, did you notice Chris's mullet? It's really, it's really flowing out the back.

Chris: It's absolutely classic. This is much better. Did you notice it? Were you like, what's your problem?

Scott: I thought I was looking for my Metropolitan's hat.

Chris: Yeah, that would be the Mets, right? That's what you're talking about? The Metropolitan. And listen, in case you haven't figured it out yet, we're also going to mention the fact that we are now live on Radio PGH. That's right. Radio PGH. And when I find the link to that, we will we'll put it up there. We do have a comment on Instagram already.

Steve: Oh, right.

Chris: It's going to be the OG. OC. Official Chris Chadha says, I've listened to all the H.J. podcasts on the pens. They're good, concise to the point and just the facts.

Steve: How about that? Way to go. He's my new loyal fan. I think I made a new disciple. That's right. That means congratulations, OC. I'm glad you are enjoying them. They'll be one tonight. Pass it around. Just stop by at about 930 and you'll be catching it live.

Chris: Pass it around. And I would be remiss if we didn't introduce our guest to my right. We are all in the studio. H.J. 's across from me. This is the counselor. Scott, friends with Steve, fellow Yinzer, the counselor Scott, let's see if we can move that camera. There we go.

Steve: How about that? Does that look better? No, it looks the same, actually. Does it flatter him more?

Chris: No. No?

Scott: Well, I think you do.

Chris: That's right.

Scott: Old school sweaters.

Chris: OK, there we go. Can't really see the pens. Just got to talk a little louder, counsel. I got you, sir. You're an attorney, so you should.

Scott: I mean, I'm used to being soft spoken. You know, you can't handle the truth. That's right. You can't handle the truth.

Steve: We did that last week.

Chris: Anyway. All right. Let's get to what we're here for. Of course, we're going to talk black and gold. We're going to talk about the sports in Pittsburgh. I'm losing my friggin mind.

Steve: Easy, we're going to talk about distillers, we're going to talk about the pens. There will be no pirates because pirates are now dead to us. That's right. And then we're going to talk about what we're watching. Maybe we're going to throw some food in there. We do have some food. We do, but it's not a Trader Joe's segment. We're mixing it up a little bit. No, we're not doing Trader Joe's this week.

Scott: The Youngsburger may introduce the pirates.

Chris: There you go. Really? You might. Oh, okay. Oh, Jesus. Yeah. Listen, not only is he the counselor, he's also our attorney. So we need to listen to his advice.

Steve: He was my friend until he said he's going to talk about the pot. Keep it straight.

Chris: Somehow I think he's going to stay your friend. Don't worry.

Scott: I wasn't looking for Rowdy's $200,000. Yeah.

Chris: I know that was great. You can't find it, it's in Nutting's pocket. People actually got upset about that as if it was a surprise. Okay, Steelers, let's go there right away. Good, bad, ugly, in the desert, a victory over Vegas. The three of us watched it together in Squirrel Hill. On tape delay. Yes, well, on forced tape delay. So I'm going to let the counselor go first. Give me what we like to do here is good, bad, and ugly. Just go good, bad, ugly. So give us your good from that game. Obviously, they won.

Scott: So I've got a good in two parts, which is, you know, law school teaches you to take license with opportunity. So I'm going to do it. My first is the good. I'm going to start with Ryan McCollum. And it's because we didn't hear his name discussed at all in the fourth period. That would be your center who came in through Zach Frazier. And Ryan McCollum is in small degree a part of the offensive line, which I think is getting better. Of course, the big caveat there is Zach Frazier. I guess Dan Moore was jib-jabbing after the game and said he's optimistic about Zach Frazier, and apparently Zach Frazier wanted to go back in, which those of us who have looked at him crawl off the field when he broke his leg in his last game at WVU understand why.

Chris: Right. Yeah. Yeah. So any more good to add to that or was that, is that your biggest good, the offensive line?

Scott: I mean, fields, fields was scrambling a little bit, but you know, it's hard to tell on TV whether that's the pocket breaking down or him breaking down the pocket.

Chris: Yeah. It's very true. That's a very good point. Yep.

Steve: H.J. lay it on us. Mine actually is not Steeler related. It's the, it's the foe related. It was good that we played against the Raiders because the Raiders literally handed that game to us. Right. They, they had too many penalties at the wrong time. They scored a couple of touchdowns that essentially weren't touchdowns. They fumbled it at opportune times for the Steelers. And I just think that the Steelers just totally, and you know, not to mention the, the block punt, I mean, just in all aspects of the game, the Raiders did not look like an NFL team. They were horrible. They were terrible. And I think that was good for the Steelers. I think the Steelers needed to have a big win. And hey, why not? Why not have a, you know, double digit win for their first time in forever against a crappy team, because you're supposed to beat up on those teams. So I'm glad that we were, the good was playing against a terrible team.

Chris: Interesting you would say that. Good for me was the offense, believe it or not. Justin Fields, 14-24 for 145 yards. More importantly, no turnovers. No fumbles, no interceptions. Well, he did have a fumble.

Steve: Oh, he did have a fumble. Well, yeah. Kind of.

Scott: One interception was a noogie.

Chris: It was a Danny Noonan. Yeah, I get it, but it's not in the stats.

Steve: Not in the stats. That's all that matters, right? That's true.

Chris: Not in the stats. It happened, but it didn't happen. And you're going to be surprised when I say this. Najee Harris. I knew you were going to go there.

Steve: I know. I have to. That's why I didn't go there, because I knew you were going to go there.

Scott: Somewhere in between you and I, Najee was there. I mean, that 38-yard touchdown run was great.

Chris: Best run of his career. Finally to see him play the way he should play close to the way he should play.

Scott: Especially because he didn't fumble it out the back of the end zone.

Chris: Yeah, that was, yeah, thank God for that.

Steve: Yeah, exactly. I actually thought it was fumbled. I thought it was a fumble.

Chris: I know you did. I'm glad I was wrong. I know you did. I'm glad you're wrong, too. So we might still be hanging out in Scott's basement crying. But now the Raiders would still would have found the way to lose that game. I think that I would like to see Najee follow this game up with a similar performance. um and against the jets i i i don't know i don't know that look the jets are an anomaly to me you know how i feel about the jets they're a cursed franchise and i i said that for years you guys would laugh at me then they get around just two years ago and in the first game he goes down i'm like look it's a cursed franchise i i we've known that since neil o'donnell absolutely and i i think that he can follow that up So, you know, going back to the good, I think Field's play was good. I think Najee's play was good. I agree with you that the line, especially after Zach Frazier had to go out, that was the main concern you brought up, counselor, was… Wow, you got a lot of good going on today. I think it was… Did you take a good pill today? No, no, I don't take anything but bad pills. You know that. But, but for me to be right, for me to be positive, absolutely. And I have to do this because I've always I've been so down on certain aspects of this. And I have been a Steelers or a Fields apologetic. And I've said he should be the starter. If you're going to go long term with Fields, he has to be your starter. Yeah, I think he remains the starter and he should. I don't think there's any reason we can have this debate in a minute. So the good was that I. Let's get to the bad. I'll reserve the, I'll reserve the bad for right for the receiving course. So, so counselor, the bad for you for this game.

Scott: Well, I'm sorry to take it from you there, but, uh, Georgie Georgie, I just, I don't know if there's stones on your hands or what, you know, it doesn't matter if you're always open. Yeah. As long as you drop the ball, you can say you could catch the damn ball.

Chris: Yeah.

Scott: You can say 14, just catch the damn ball.

Chris: You can say fucking it's a, it's all right. They don't. Yeah. Yeah. There's certain things you can't say, but you can say whatever you want. Yeah. Yep.

Steve: It's easy the bad for me was definitely the red zone offense How can you get so close to the damn goal line and not get it into the end zone? You had a first and goal on this nine or eight yard line after that block punt and you lose 11 yards That's ridiculous. Come on Come on, Steelers, you can do better than that in the red zone. Right. I think that's where that's the bad for me. They need to really figure out how to score touchdowns and not field goals. I know you got the best kicker in the league. We don't need to prove that anymore. True. He's good enough. Let him kick it from 55 or 60. When you get inside the 20, get it in the damn end zone. Yeah.

Chris: Yeah. That's that's going to keep you. That's going to keep you right at that nine and eight level unless you can start putting that ball in the end zone.

Scott: Supposed to be the hallmark of what's his name?

Chris: Mr. Smith. Smitty. Smitty. Yeah. Getting in the red zone. Yeah. Smitty. He's not getting it in. He's not. Mike Lawrence is back. He says, so glad we got the big win. Is Arthur Smith's play calling that much different than Matt Canada? You know, we keep throwing to the sidelines rather than the middle or deep. Thank goodness Najee had a good running game.

Scott: Mike, I think you should hold that thought until we get into this quarterback conversation.

Chris: Yeah. Okay. Maybe. Yeah. I guess we're going to have a quarterback conversation.

Steve: We should.

Chris: Well, we need to. I agree. I think we need to as well. Um, the bad for me is, is, um, George Pickens. I said it last week. I actually, I said it. We put a tick tock video out our, our intern Marta. Thank you, Marta. Marta is the best. Put a tick tock video out that actually went semi viral. without any money spent, which is amazing.

Steve: That doesn't happen in TikTok.

Chris: Not in our world. Technical director on TikTok. That's right. But what I said last week is what I'm going to say again today. George Pickens is a loser. He is plain and simple. He is a loser until he proves me wrong. And he will prove me wrong when he doesn't wear eye black that says all fucking open fucking always. Okay. And he doesn't sulk on the sidelines like a baby. And he stands up like a man and he plays football and he shows up on time to practice. Well, he, nobody said that, but he shows up on time to meetings and he shows up on time to practice and he acts like a champion. You are nothing to me until you prove that as a fan. And so far, you're a total jerk.

Scott: Are you saying load management hasn't helped us? Yeah. Catch radius.

Chris: Absolutely. Yeah. Load management hasn't helped the goddamn thing with him. And by the way, and we all know that's a bunch of crap too. And we can go down that Tomlin.

Steve: By the way, George Pickens is a champion. He's an NCAA champion. I understand. So are you insinuating that maybe it's the coaching that has turned him sour?

Chris: Um, I, what I'm insinuating, I'm not insinuating anything. I, I just, I think the guy's a bum at this point. This is your third year in the league.

Scott: How about this? I think Brock Bowers will have more Pro Bowls on his rookie contract than George Pickens will in his career.

Chris: There you go. That's a hot take right there. Two Bulldogs.

Steve: But the problem is… Two Bulldogs. You got it. The problem with Brock Bowers is he's playing on a team that he's the number one receiver as a tight end. So of course he's going to be a Pro Bowl candidate. George Pickens is never going to be a Pro Bowl candidate as a wide receiver in the AFC East.

Chris: Look who he's got to compete against. Well, of course, yeah. Jamar Chase, to name one receiver.

Steve: And honestly, in the Steelers' offense, I don't know that very many offensive players other than maybe the offensive line could be on the Pro Bowl because they just don't score enough. They're not flashy enough. They're just, that's the kind of offense they are. They're the meh offense. Canada plus, if you will, Mike.

Chris: So, the bad, right. So, you could kind of lump, Justin Fields passing performance in that in a way, because of course it's not all on George Pickens shoulders.

Scott: Beautiful. So I want to get to the ugly.

Chris: All right, let's get to the ugly. All right, go for it.

Scott: The ugly slow starts, man. Like good one. Can, can this football team be prepared to play from the get go? What the?

Chris: Yeah. Right. Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. What the fudge? Only I didn't say fudge.

Chris: Yeah. Is that your, is that your biggest ugly take?

Scott: I mean, Madison looked like Barry Sanders, the first series.

Steve: Very true. Yeah. And then he didn't do anything afterwards. It's really inexplicable how they get off those slow starts as an excellent take.

Chris: Yeah. Well, that's a slow start on the defense. The offense gets off to a slow start as well. I mean, could we just, could we score?

Scott: They move really fast, 30 yards, and then they stop and on third and eight, they run a draw and kick a field goal.

Steve: Once they get in the field goal range, they get comfortable and they're like, Oh, good. We got points.

Chris: Let's run it. Yeah. So ugly for him is the slow start again.

Steve: Yep. I, and that's an excellent take. Mine's slightly different. Mine has to do with injuries. I think the injuries are starting to get ugly. There are too many of them. They're in too many key positions. I know the standard is the standard and next band up and all that bullshit. Why do we have so many injuries? Can somebody explain to me, we spent money in the off season to go get a guy to make this team better, more in shape. And they're worse. They're worse than they ever have been. They're always in the fricking ice bath. I want to hear what the counselor has to say about this.

Scott: So all the teams that passed on Troy Faotanu would tell you why he's injured.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. His knee injury, but, but, but what about the, what about the right tackle or the right guard and the backup right guard? And now the center, like those guys didn't have any injuries, but yet they're getting injured all the time. He's been on this Nick Herbig. Yeah.

Chris: When is he playing this all year? This is the mantle that Steve has hung his hat on.

Steve: Where has he been all year?

Scott: He's been injured. I think the important thing is a lot of these injuries aren't just soft tissue.

Steve: you know that i think that's more concerning but i i don't know they're not playing so they're injured and it sucks that's what that's that's to me ugly that's the definition of ugly okay so you know big part of me is saying that's football man

Chris: I mean, with so many injuries, I know you, I know what you're saying. You're running backs already. You're pointing at the trainers. You're saying what's going on. Why are we not? I get it.

Scott: You've been on this. I think Daniels has only missed one game since he's been with the Steelers. So you can't do much about an Achilles.

Chris: Right. So ugly for me is, again, the red zone offense. I mean, you have got to score more touchdowns in the red zone, especially given the fact that, you know, as we progress through the season for the Steelers, the season is only going to get harder. It's not going to get easier.

Steve: They're arguably… Oh yeah, we already saw that with the schedule.

Chris: Right, they're in the softest part of their schedule. Still are, right in the meat of it. Right now, yeah. So, you know, you've got the Jets coming up, which is one of the games we're going to pick in a little bit. That's right, we have to pick it. Then you've got the Jets and the Giants at home. Then you go to play Washington in Washington. Who knows what they're going to look like come that point in the season.

Steve: So Washington's going to be there. They're going to give they're going to give the Steelers a run for their money. Yeah, of course. In a game that in the preseason look like, oh, well, we're playing Washington. They're going to suck. That's what I'm talking about. That's not the kind of game it's going to be.

Scott: Now what I'm talking, they should play that game in RFK Stadium.

Chris: Yeah, I'd love to see that. Yeah, that that.

Steve: Only if the dead played at halftime.

Chris: What I'm talking about is the fact that preseason, that was going to be the last game of the easy part of the schedule. Now, all of a sudden, you take the gauntlet after that of the Ravens, the Browns, the Bengals, the Browns, the Eagles, the Ravens, the Chiefs, the Bengals.

Steve: See, I mean, some of that actually got easier thanks to the Browns.

Chris: Theory, it got easier because the Browns and the Bengals are not necessarily as advertised.

Steve: I think the Bengals are playing okay ball, but they're not, they're not lighting it up.

Chris: But it's, it's, you know, rivals and you know how that goes in the NFL. So now all of a sudden the commander's game. That's true. So you've got to learn how to score in the red zone. That was the ugly for me.

Scott: Do you want me to take a match to this powder keg?

Chris: Yeah, please do. That's why we're here. You don't ask to light matches here.

Scott: So Chris, question. If they're taking the deep sideline route away from Pickens, which they are, and he's not going to go deep across the middle, who can we rely on for explosive plays? Nobody. The Steelers are really missing Jalen Warren, who's still, we all talked, not 100%. Correct. I'm just there's no one there's no one to score it make to make explosive plays. I agree. Nagy did it with with a 38 yard run. Right. I think was the second longest of his career because he's not.

Chris: I think so.

Steve: Yeah, he's not. Sorry. Yeah, they got no explosive. They got no explosive. That's not the nature of their offense, though. You're not looking for a quick play. In fact, Tomlin doesn't like the quick play. He likes the good ending. I mean, that was a happy ending, you know, 38 yard run, and he's in the end zone. He'll take that all the time, but he's not looking for a deep pass, the pickings for 76 yards, one play, 76 yards touchdown. That's just not the way he has his offense running. Mason made it happen.

Chris: No, he did. But I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about in the red zone.

Scott: There's another receiver on the other side.

Chris: Right. When you're in the red zone, you're within 20 yards of the end zone. So it's not a splash play. It's calling the right place to work your way into the end zone instead of playing conservative to just make sure you get points. The guy, I think, hold on to, to, to, to Scott's point, who's, who's going to make those explosive plays. It's, it's more about, it's not about making an explosive play in the red zone. It's about calling the right play instead of calling, you know, just running three times or some weird screen player throwing the ball.

Scott: So I think we've just backed into our quarterback conversation. I think you're right. If I remember Russell Wilson is all time, one of the best quarterbacks in the red zone.

Chris: There you go.

Steve: That's a good point. There you go. Yeah.

Chris: That's why they need to play Russ. So, so then let's get your take on this counselor. Do you think that Russell Wilson should be playing?

Scott: You know, I take time. I think it's really difficult to take somebody out when they're winning, but they didn't win the last two games. And fields, I think in the first two or three games, I remember looking at pro football focus and seeing that he was tops on, you know, like deep contested throws or whatever that metric is. I don't think he's made one of those throws in the last two or three weeks. OK. And he's missed a bunch of them. So I just I don't know how long we can rely on his legs. It works against the Oakland Raiders. Right. They're the Oakland Raiders. Yeah. Just say the Raiders. It's not going to work. You know, when we get to. I mean, you think that's going to work against the Ravens?

Chris: Well, we don't know, but I concede your point. Yeah. So, so you're, so you're, it sounds to me like you're kind of 50 50 on this right now because, because he's been winning, but would you have started the season with Russ if he had been healthy? Would you have started the season with Russell Wilson?

Scott: Here's the dilemma right here. The dilemma right now is we have two winnable games in front of us. If you keep Justin Fields in now and he wins these games and we come out, then it's damn near impossible to make the switch in bi-week, I think. If you're six and two going into the bi-week, how do you do that? But that also sets up a Tomlin classic collapse where we go two and seven the second half of the season.

Steve: Well, I already predicted that's going to happen. So it doesn't really matter to me who the quarterback's going to be. Cause I think I had them like at six and two or something like that. Maybe even seven and two. Yeah. Because it's the cake part of their schedule. And now I'll concede that probably that Washington game that we thought was cake is now no longer a cake game, but definitely one of those two Browns games, a hundred percent. Unless of course, by that time they get rid of Deshaun Watson, they could be a much better team. Uh, if they take that idiot out. Yeah. They might have to My take on the quarterback controversy is very simple if for us is healthy you play him. I've been saying that Consistently throughout the season. I think he gives you a better chance at throwing the ball faster He gives you a better chance of scoring in the red zone. And I think overall he's a better quarterback however, if there is time when you need to put Fields in there, just play him. Just put him in there. If it's third and seven and you're not sure whether you want to run it or you want to pass it, put him in there. He already knows how to run the damn play. He's been doing it. It's not like you have to pick between how many plays they have. Let them, let them have the five or six or seven plays that we need them in there for where, you know, Russ might not be as mobile. I just think I just think that makes the most amount of sense. And I think the reason we're having this conversation is because we're already thinking about what the hell are they going to do next year? Right. And and the I just feel like I got kicked in the ball. The problem with that. The problem with that is Tomlin doesn't think past this week. Steve just sprained my ball. So that's the deal. Dallas Cowboys guy. That's absolutely the deal. That's the problem. Everybody's thinking too far ahead. Let's just put him in there if he's healthy. Just put him in there. I don't care. If Fields needs to come in, bring him in. You're not hurting anybody's egos here.

Scott: I feel like it's April 1st and I'm looking forward to the draft. I just missed the entire winter.

Chris: I, I, I think that, you know, once again, the Steelers are their own worst enemy. So the, the, the, the question becomes like, you've got this field situation that we're talking about and you've got Wilson on the sidelines now supposedly healthy. And it's kind of like what, what. What were they planning on for this year? Like, why did they go get Wilson?

Scott: Well, Russ was on the blocking sled, so they're down a few linemen.

Chris: So maybe, maybe they put him in. Yeah. Maybe he could start a right guard. Yeah.

Steve: And then if you need to just say, you know, make him, make him the legal man on the end. And then he could do whatever he wants.

Scott: And we have two quarterbacks in at the same time.

Chris: Yeah, that's a great idea. That's very innovative. Thank you for being here.

Steve: See, that's why we have you on the show.

Chris: That's un-Canada-like. Yeah, that is un-Canada-like. Yeah, it just for me, I question what the motive is. It's like if you want to win, And if the goal is to win, I know we've had the conversation, you know, we get to the playoffs kind of thing. If the goal is to try to get to the playoffs and win games and win a Super Bowl and you bring Russ Wilson in, that's why you brought him in. Right. And then you go. He's got that experience. Then you go and you get Justin Wilson. I keep saying that. Justin Fields. Maybe what they need to do is get one of those… Let's go, boys. Maybe they need to get the… Third line just got on the board. Are we having a football or a hockey conversation? What's going on here?

Scott: The hockey Jesus… It's a real-time update. There we go.

Steve: Thank you. The hockey Jesus is never not watching Penguins hockey, just so you know. I already knew that. Anyway, so… Actually, he's a pretty bad goal by the goal. You should have stopped it.

Chris: Nice shot by Lars Eller, though. I think that… The future is, I think that they want the future to be Justin Fields. I agree. And I think that if you want the future to be Justin Fields, that you have to leave Justin Fields in and you got to let him lose.

Steve: And I think that's a terrible idea.

Chris: I know you do. Just let me finish. They don't have him signed for next year. I know they don't. But if you, if you take him out now, And I know they're not going to do it this week. I'm not talking about now. I just mean now in the, this scenario we're in. If you take him out now, you pretty much in my book, you're destroying him as a starting quarterback. I don't think so.

Steve: For the Steelers. I don't think so. Why do you think that?

Chris: I, I think it's, I think it's, look, we forget a lot of the times that these guys, you know, they're human beings and I'm not, I'm not coming from a compassionate.

Steve: I get it. All quarterbacks in the NFL have huge egos and when it gets deflated, they, they can, they can get upset.

Chris: You're sending a message, you're saying that you're saying you're not ready even though we let you play.

Steve: No, no, they're not saying he's not ready.

Scott: This was a Bradshaw issue too. I mean, just, I mean the history there with Joe Gilliam, I mean, I don't, I mean, maybe they're different today, but I…

Steve: Well, Joe Gillum played for the Steelers way before Bradshaw was there, and he was probably the better quarterback when they put Terry in. 100% true. But the reality is, neither of these quarterbacks are on the roster for next year. So to talk about ruining him for the future, to me, is not a conversation that I think makes sense, because neither of them are signed. We can have neither of them next year. Yeah, that's very true. So here's the deal. They both came in with the thought that Russ was number one and Justin was number two. There was no, if you play well, Justin, then, then Russ will sit. There was none of that. There was Justin, we're going to need you throughout the season. We need you to be ready. And it just turns out that, you know, the blocking sled stopped him from playing the first six games.

Scott: I think the blocking sled was just a conspiracy.

Chris: Do you really?

Scott: Yeah, I actually do too. I think that was a setup.

Chris: Do you really? Yeah. You're not jagging me around?

Scott: I am actually.

Chris: Oh, you son of a bitch.

Scott: I was like, finally somebody's taking me down. Wait a minute, there is a helicopter above his head.

Chris: Finally somebody agrees with me. We're going to have the new black guy back with Mark. He believes in aliens too. He believes in aliens.

Steve: But that's the thing. That's the thing. I think these guys came in and that was great. These guys came in knowing that. So you play Russ because he's healthy now. You just plug him right in there. And that doesn't mean you don't play fields also and just do it. Do both of them. I think it makes the team actually a lot harder to play.

Scott: And I see Jeff's comment there. I think we've probably spent enough time on this. I just I like Charlie Batch. Thanks, Jeff. I think you're right.

Chris: Yeah, Jeff, my buddy from York, he says Batch is pretty solid on. Wilson. Wilson coming back and playing. Anne-Marie, Justin is happy in the Berg. Let's keep him happy.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's something to that. You do have to, I recognize you do have to think a little bit about next year, but they're not going to sign him in the middle of the season. If anything, they're going to go to him at the end of the season and say, we're not keeping Russ. We want to keep you. How much money do you want? Let's sign now. Yeah.

Chris: Well, we have the Jets coming up this Sunday night and that'll be fun. Two Sunday nights in a row. Uh, and, uh, not two Sunday nights in a row to Sunday, Sunday, Monday, you know what I'm saying? All right. So let's go to our NFL predictions right now because that's, uh, that game is on the list. Uh, what we do every week is we pick three games. We take the Thursday night game, the Sunday night game, and then I ran them Sunday during the day game. Last week, Mark the Grand Schwabini, who is the counselor sitting in for him, was 2-1. He is now 11-4. Steve was 2-1. He is now 9-6. And I was actually 2-1. Which makes me 5 and 10 on my way back. You doubled your win total. I did. I almost doubled my win total. I was 3 and 9. Now I'm 5 and 10.

Scott: That's like 500 in Klein math.

Chris: It is, really. If you do 5 divided by 10, right?

Steve: That is 500. That is 500. You are at 500. Congratulations. He knows me better than I thought he does.

Scott: There's special math out there.

Chris: Klein land, Klein land, Klein land. It's great.

Steve: Klein land.

Chris: You know what my wife calls this, this house. This is so funny. She went, when we go away on vacation, we go, we'd stay at like all these nice resorts. She always steals the privacy signs from the doors if they're cool, if they're nice. Right. So we have a bunch of them hanging on our bedroom door, you know, privacy. She calls this place the Ritz Klein. All right.

Steve: I like it.

Chris: I like it. All right. Thursday night game. Who's your winner? Denver at New Orleans. Now, here's what we're going to do. We laid down the law before the show started. The Grand Schwabini has elected not to be here tonight. So he's going to get a whole world of shit from us next week. But also, the counselor is filling in. So the counselor's picks are the Grand Schwabini's picks. Now, Scott knows a little bit about football, so I think he's going to make an honest pick. But he's not rubbing the lamp.

Steve: But he's not rubbing the lamp. How much is coming in and going?

Chris: Yeah. How much is really? Well, we'll find out. So we're going to let the counselor go first. Denver at New Orleans.

Scott: Yeah. I think Denver has a coach that's going to be pretty amped up for this one. And it's a good point. Denver. Denver's looked somewhat better, obviously. And New Orleans is just tanking. Well, you're going with them. I got to say Denver here.

Steve: This I mean, this is a tough game to pick. Is Carr still out? Does anybody know? I don't know. Cause if they got to play that rookie again, he's okay, but I don't know. He's just not great. You know, I'm just going to go with my gut. I'm going with the saints and I don't really have a reason for it. Yeah.

Chris: Yeah. I am not sold on Denver at all. I hate Sean Payton.

Scott: Um, and do you think he'll wear a visor in that dome? Oh yeah.

Chris: A hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. My wife calls them ESVs, emotional support visors.

Steve: Yeah. I think his hat's going to say always fucking winning. Yeah. Right.

Chris: I'm going with New Orleans on that one.

Scott: I'm going with New Orleans. You think he has a patent on that already?

Chris: He should. Yeah. He's got a patent on being an asshole. That's for sure. He's got it stitched up right now. Yeah. The Sunday night game. Let's go. Well, let's leave that one for last. The Sunday game that I picked. I know we went Lions Cowboys last week, but this is a matchup here. Lions at the Vikings.

Steve: Uh, yeah, four and one versus five and one. You got her goes to the top.

Chris: That's exactly right. Got to take this north. Got to take this. I, you know, who's your, who's your winner here? Yeah, it is a tough one.

Scott: I mean, I think I know who should win, but counselor, I think the injury to aid nudges and is a really big deal for the lions. And, uh, I don't know. I'm, I'm afraid of, uh, what my friends in Minnesota might say if I don't pick the Vikings. So I'm just going to go with Vikings. Homer. For those who don't know, I lived in Minnesota for 12 years. No, seriously, I think the Hutchinson loss is a big deal. It is. And, you know, the Viking Stadium is a tough place to play because they pump that ridiculous noise in there and it just echoes. It's terrible. But they got that clap. It's terrible. Yeah. And that clap is completely made up, by the way. Yeah, of course it is completely made up.

Chris: Everything is made up. What do you mean? Just like Renegade made up. It means nothing.

Scott: No, it's just the skull chant. It's made up.

Chris: Yeah. Oh, it's not real.

Scott: My understanding is it's completely fiction.

Chris: Yeah. Cool. Well, I'm sorry, Minnesota. It's always fiction till it's real. So it's real for them. It's real for them and it works. So you're going with Minnesota. I'm going with Minnesota.

Steve: It's a Homer pick for him, which is kind of bizarre sitting here in Pittsburgh, but we get it.

Scott: We get it. It's kind of, it's if that, if that were, if that were in Detroit, I might feel differently. Okay.

Steve: I absolutely think the Lions are the better team. Yeah. And I think they're going to win, but I have a take on this that probably nobody else here has. Do you know who Hawk Tua is? Yes. Do you know that girl? Yeah. You know, her, her new boyfriend is Sam Darnold, right? Yeah. Oh my God. You didn't know that? Did you say Hot Tuna?

Scott: Like the band Hot Tuna?

Steve: Really? Yeah. Yeah.

Chris: That girl got a, got an NFL quarterback.

Steve: Yeah. She's, she's a hot commodity now.

Chris: Well, he's obviously he's a hawk to a kind of guy. He likes the hawk to a let's go hawk to it.

Steve: Let's go. I think, I think that the hawk too is going to bring him down and I'm going to take Detroit. I'm going with the lions.

Chris: Yeah, I'm going to lines, too, because they're a better team. But you know what? Scott's Scott's take on the Hutchinson thing. He's right. He's not wrong. Yeah. What a horrible injury that was, too. So, yeah, I mean, I say good form. Yeah, that's terrible.

Steve: I mean, the Lions were zooming with him. I don't know what they're going to do now. Maybe they'll trade for T.J. Watt.

Chris: Yeah. Anna Marie, she says Renegade. I bet J.J. would come play for him. Renegade is real, just like the terrible towel curse is real.

Steve: She's right on.

Chris: You're right on there, Anna. Yeah. So, OK. So, Denver at New Orleans, Steve and Chris have the Saints. The counselor and Mark have Denver, Jets at Pittsburgh, Jets at the Steelers. So, down at the AAC. Down at the AAC.

Steve: Yes. Sunday night. What do you think?

Scott: Yeah. I'm going to be optimistic that Alex Highsmith is going to be back. He did practice last week, I think at least one day, and I think this defense is completely different with Alex Highsmith. No, no diss on Nick Herbig at 240 pounds, but there's a challenge with the run and if you can keep that bottled up and. I don't care if Aaron Jones is leading the league, getting it out. I think I saw on 2.4, 2.5 seconds. I think those guys will just make his night. You mean Aaron Rodgers?

Steve: Aaron Rodgers. Aaron Jones. Yeah. That's okay.

Chris: We knew what we were saying. Aaron's somebody. I say Justin Wilson all the time. Oh yeah.

Steve: I love when you say Justin Wilson. Do you? Because that's who they need to play, Justin Wilson.

Scott: I could have said Cedric Wilson.

Steve: Yeah. You could have said that.

Scott: We could use Cedric Wilson now. You think? A second receiver.

Steve: You could have said Aaron Hall. Yeah.

Chris: That would have been more appropriate. You could have said Steve Kiefer. Anyway, so. Ooh, I never thought about that. You got this, or yeah, Scott DeFlitch. No, we don't have any Scotts in our team. Let's take a look at that kid. Anyway, so you're going with the Steelers?

Steve: Yes. Okay. So I believe that I took the Jets in my original prediction, so here's why I'm going to stick with it. One, I think it's a pick'em game. Two, I think it's going to be like a 12-9 type game. I think both teams have really pretty good defenses. And I don't think either wants to make a mistake. It'll really come down to, will Aaron Rodgers make a mistake or will it be Justin Fields making the mistake? And I just think that Justin Fields has played, assuming Justin Fields plays, I think whoever the quarterback is for the Steelers, they're at a disadvantage because we haven't turned over the ball multiple times in a while now. And I think they're due. I just think they're due because they play, they just don't, they just play too safe. And I think eventually that's going to bite them in the ass. This is the game that bites them in the ass. I think they lose. A close one.

Chris: Okay, so you're taking I'm taking the Jets. Okay, you're taking the Jets me because I'm sure I took him to me. This is a trap game This is a game. They should win First of all because it's at home. They have a great defense and And, uh, the jets are just in just complete disarray. They don't have a coach really right now. No. And, and Aaron Rogers is done. I mean, I don't care what anybody says. Does he have a good game or two left in him? Sure. But he's done.

Steve: Oh, he's not going to have a good game against the Steelers. Probably not.

Chris: No, no, no doubt that. No, but this is a classic trap game for the Steelers. It's a game they should absolutely win no matter what. And Tomlin will find a way to screw up the clock, not make the right call. They'll be in the red zone. Something will happen. Justin, they are not going to go two full games without a turnover. There's going to be a stupid turnover and it's going to turn the tide. And the Jets are going to win the game. So I'm, I'm, I'm going with the Jets.

Steve: Did you, did you go with you? I did with the Jets for pretty much the same reason. Wow. I actually think I don't want to have the Steelers actually beaten Aaron Rodgers. I don't think they have. I don't think they've actually beat, beaten him once.

Scott: I don't know. I was at a game at Lambeau that was pretty crappy. Yeah. Mostly because they called Minka off sides on what was a clear block. But anyway, sorry. That was a, that was a great game three years ago. Still too soon.

Chris: Anna Marie says TJ is going to eat Aaron Rodgers. Oh, that would be glorious. I would pay to see that, Anna Marie. Yep. And as I guess I could, as fate would have it, I'm posting the link, uh, for a radio PGH. right now. If you want to just listen to us at any time, you just follow that link. So, okay. So we've gone through our NFL predictions. Now we're going to move on to stump the Yinzer. But first I want to thank everybody. If you're watching us live on video all over the world on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube X, and the gram, thanks for being here every Monday night at 7 30 PM. And right after the show, I'm going to drop the podcast and you can get that on the I heart radio app, Apple podcast, Spotify, or anywhere you get your frigging podcasts. Stump the ender. Well, what is that? What is that? Well, uh, first I'm going to, um, it's kind of like that.

Steve: I'll need an injury.

Chris: Did we mention that the counselor is also our sound effects guru? And he loves Jeopardy. Um, so do you love Jeopardy? Please tell me you don't watch Jeopardy anymore. Too slow. Too slow. There you go. You're too slow or Jeopardy?

Steve: Well, both. Nobody watches Jeopardy since Alex Trebek.

Chris: No, my mother still watches Jeopardy every single night. Oh, I'm sorry about that.

Scott: Yeah. And you're not turning into your parents?

Chris: No. And Wheel of Fortune. No, if I turn, I don't want to talk about it.

Steve: You know, the best Jeopardy episode is on Groundhog Day. Is it? The movie Groundhog Day, where he knows all the answers. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Chris: Where he's sitting there eating the popcorn. And then he says the answer before the answer ever comes out. Before the question. Yeah, before the question comes out.

Scott: Yeah, that's great. Yeah, that's the best. Movie hour is the next.

Chris: All right. You're right. Stump the yinzer. What is this? Well, generally, we usually have just one yinzer in a house. That's Hockey Jesus. But we happen to have two yinzers in the house right here, Hockey Jesus and the counselor. And what we do is we do a little trivia. And whoever wins, whoever gets the answer right, gets to be the yinzer for the next coming week. And so that means that Steve actually gets to step outside himself and not be a yinzer for a week. if Mark gets it right, which has only happened once. Only happened once. So I don't know what to do with this other than I have two Jensers here. I have a question. Somebody better get it right. I am going to default to the counselor. Are you? OK, you're going to let him answer first. Yeah, I have a feeling he's going to know this.

Steve: That's OK. I really doesn't matter. I really because I went by default Mark to be the answer.

Chris: OK, I'm going. I'm going.

Scott: Is it how many Hall of Gamers are from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania?

Chris: No, no, no, no, no, but you would know that. No, but I'll. Yeah, yeah. Stomp the answer. Which Super Bowl did Jack Ham sit out due to injury? Oh, I went to the Wayback Machine. Oh, come on. You got to know that's a good one. Let's see, Jack. He played in three. He had to sit out one of them because he was injured.

Steve: That is a really good question. Yeah.

Scott: Hmm, I think it was 10. OK, I I think I yeah, OK, I'm a little hazy on this one.

Chris: Is that your answer? Sure, 10.

Steve: OK, I'm going with 14.

Chris: You get to be the answer again for the week.

Steve: It was Super Bowl 14. Thank you. Only because I remember Robin Cole being playing a lot and I'm like, why is Robin Cole playing so much?

Chris: I can't believe you remember back that far. I don't remember anything from my childhood.

Steve: And honestly, if it was one of those earlier ones. I would have no clue. I would have had no clue.

Chris: So, uh, the Yenzer remains the Yenzer and, uh, Superbowl 14.

Steve: Jack Hamm did not play.

Scott: Actually, I don't think we got it right last week. I don't remember. In homage to Jack Hamm, though, I will say probably the biggest improvement on this football team this year is the secondary. Absolutely, yeah. And how about Elliott as a tackler? I think we talked about this last night. Yeah, we did. Yeah, we did. And how about Dante? Yes, Jackson. Not Deontay. Yeah. How about Dante? Dante Jackson. With three interceptions in the first six games.

Chris: Yeah. Yeah, that's turning in to be… That should have been your good. Yeah. It could have been my good. When we were talking about something else, when we were talking about the quarterbacks, I kind of went back in my mind. I thought, you know what? I didn't bring that up. I think the good, but I think the reason we didn't bring it up is that the Raiders are a bad team. And so it's almost like you take the defense that we have and you expect them to play well, which they did, but you still got to intercept the ball. You still got it. You still got to cover the receivers. And I am very surprised at the play of Dante Jackson.

Steve: Very, very, very, very solid.

Chris: Now that we are listening to H.J. watch a hockey game, we're going to bring H.J. onto well, he's already on the screen. So now, so here is hockey Jesus. Of course you can follow the hockey Jesus on YouTube at the sports porch podcast. Hockey Jesus comes on after every single fricking penguins game. He rarely actually in the last two years going into this season, hasn't missed a game. If you want to get updated on that, if you want to catch up, you can listen to him on the podcast about 20 minutes after the game, uh, on the, you on the, what am I saying? Spotify, Apple, the podcast, YouTube, whatever. Anyway, so Hockey Jesus, the start of the season. Wait a minute, let me just say Mike Lawrence says he was in the area 10 days ago and had a Yinzer Lager at Sharky's in Latrobe, PA. Very nice. I'm sorry, Latrobe. Latrobe. Anyway, so Hockey Jesus, the season has started. The counselor is also a very, very avid dedicated Penguins fan and hockey dad and hockey dad. Yes. Got to bring that up as well. So you guys like let's get it on here. Let's talk hockey.

Steve: Jesus, please. I'm sorry. Montreal just scored a goal that was just ridiculous. So let's start with Tristan Jari since he gave up a goal. He's the problem right now for the Pittsburgh Penguins. He really is the albatross that's hanging around their neck of trying to get back to some playoff hockey. Everybody knows that the Pittsburgh Penguins haven't been in the playoffs for two years. I think it's driving Sidney Crosby absolutely nuts. Of course. Because that's where you want to play. You want to play in the playoffs. And the first three games that have come by, well this is the third game. Is this the third game? Fourth game. This is the fourth game, right. So in the first three games, they played two playoff teams and one non-playoff teams. They beat the non-playoff team and they lose to the playoff teams. And when they lose to the playoff teams, they're losing pretty badly, in my opinion. They lost to the Rangers, the game I was at, and then they lost to Toronto, where the media and Scott, the counselor, actually backed me up on this. The media seems to think that they play really well against Toronto, where I thought they didn't play nearly good enough to win the game. They gave up way too many good opportunities, and they ended up losing the game. Were they competitive? Yeah, they were competitive. But in the game of hockey, just being competitive isn't enough. You literally have to dominate. And even sometimes when you dominate a period, You get a fluky goal, and the other team can take the momentum away from you. So I think that's the problem with the Penguins right now. They're shifting their lines around a little bit. It's hard to know. Russ didn't play in the first two games. He's played in the last two now. It doesn't look like they're having too much problem scoring, you know, minus that first game. And I'm just going to say scoring in the first game was because it's just stark and great goalie. So let's just throw that game out. They look like they have the ability to score. Their power play looks like a real power play again, unlike last year. So I think they just need to get it together. They need to keep beating the teams that are Beneath them Montreal being one they're up to one tonight so far in the first period and as long as they do that and they tread around the 500 they're gonna have to find another gear and I just don't know where they're gonna find it. You know, are they gonna find it Scotty?

Scott: Yeah, so I'll Just take issue a little bit with what Steve said. I think Jari is an enormous problem I think the reason why they didn't make the playoffs last year was because the power play full stop and If they score 10 more Power Play goals, and they are just in the top third rather than second to last in the Power Play, if they have 10 more goals, that translates to 2 to 3 additional wins. They are in the playoffs. That last game doesn't matter. Back to Jari. I will agree with Steve, also being down at the game, the Home Opener. And I will say that they were in the Toronto game because of Yoel. It's Yoel, everyone. Not Joel. It's Yoel. Yoel Blomquist kept them in the game in Toronto. Tristan Jari did not keep them anywhere near being in the game against the Rangers. Now, of course, as Steve said, they were playing the best goalie in the world. I will, you know, give an example. Chris, you know, mentioned, you know, I am a hockey dad. My son still plays at a college in Pennsylvania, played three years of varsity in Minnesota, is a really good hockey player. And the first thing that I look at, Steve knows, is shots from the slot. So after the game, I went on the Penns app, as I always do, and I looked, and I think Toronto had 14 shots from the slot in that game. The Penguins had 4 shots from the slot. I don't even need to have watched the game. It's like the football turnover ratio. If you win the turnover ratio by plus 2 or plus 3, you are going to win the football game 90% of the time. If you have five times or three times the number of shots from the slot, you are going to win the game 80 to 90 percent of the time. My son played defense, so I have to tell you, looking at that, Blomquist stopped Austin Matthews, probably the best goal scorer in the game. Well, today, you know, on on a partial breakaway, just as an example, as one vignette, anybody that wants to watch it. So the goaltending is a big problem. I will say I'm somewhat more optimistic, I think, than Steve is, mostly because I think the bottom six is way better. And I think if they can find a way to make Ryan Graves better, who, by the way, again, as a hockey dad, I mentioned this to you guys last night, put two shots off of the shin pads of the wing coming out to defend to him, which is usually going to set up an odd man break going the other way. Right, right. Graves has been in the league for seven years. He should know better. He should know better than to do that.

Steve: Or know how to shoot it around the gun. Exactly.

Scott: So those little things accumulate, you know, accumulate because it's a game of mistakes. And when you make those mistakes, they're magnified because they leave the odd man breaks and goal scoring opportunities and shots from the slot.

Steve: Right. And, you know, we'd be remiss to say, so basically you're saying that they're not going to find one person who's going to do it. They're going to do it with four lines. They're going to roll four lines. The third and fourth line is going to be better than last year. So Sid and Gino aren't going to have to be able to basically do all the scoring.

Scott: That's right. And in the segment that I've created for us, the Jönsberger versus the Pittsburgher, I have a take on this that I think will help.

Chris: Well, we're going to have to get to that shortly.

Steve: Absolutely. So, I mean, it is too early. I mean, this is the fourth game tonight. They are winning. So if they win tonight, you know, they're back to 500, two and two. And that's OK. I think that's OK in the first 10 games. They're going to go on a four-game West Coast trip very soon. So that will, if they once again can win two, lose two on the West Coast trip, that'll be good. If they lose all four, it's going to be a problem. I think it's real. I think that NHL this year is, there were some teams that are coming out. I can't believe that Utah is 3-1. Can you believe that?

Scott: I can. And I think, you know, part of that is excitement. I think, you know, at the start of the season, and I think just seeing a little bit of that game and the new owner, you know, and his energy, I think they're, they're going to have a good culture there.

Steve: I'd like that Arizona team. And I could see what you're saying, getting a new arena, getting fans behind them. They got great young talent in Clayton Keller and Logan Cooley.

Scott: Dude they had to like walk a half a mile from the locker room around these funky curtains and everything to get to the ice at the arena they were playing in the last two years.

Steve: Yeah, because they're playing in a basketball arena. It's the most bizarre thing in the world. Yeah. Yeah, so we'll see.

Scott: Porcht warm ups, they're going to warm up on the way.

Steve: Yeah, on the way. We'll see how the season goes. The Devils have come out hot. They're 4-1. They look like a really good team, but that's no surprise. Last year, I think they just kind of fell apart. Stars are undefeated still at 3-0, and the big surprise in the West are the Avalanche and the Oilers. Together combined, they're 0-5. And that's a pretty that's a shocker. But once again, it's such a small sample, 82 games, a lot of games to play. But I think there's there's still something to be learned about starting off slow. Well, I mean, the Oilers did it last year, probably the worst start they've had, and they did make it right Stanley Cup final they did. So, I mean, you can overcome these things early in the season. You can't in the mid-season or late in the season. So, it's okay to be in the mushy middle early in the season.

Chris: And we're going to hear from you again in a little while. So, stop back. OC on the gram has a question, and I thought they had this. Does the NHL have a, have an NFL Sunday ticket like product? Didn't they have?

Steve: Yeah, the NHL ice. It's called NHL ice. There you go. If you're, if you're, if you're not in the Pittsburgh area, you can get all the Pittsburgh games on there. Unfortunately, if you are in the Pittsburgh area, they black most of them out if you have the ice package. So don't buy it if you're local. I actually had to buy the sports net app. Um, some sports Pittsburgh, what is that called? Pittsburgh sports net. That's what it's called. Pittsburgh sports net. It's the, it's the one that holds the hockey. That's what I'm watching now. So I had to buy it.

Scott: So, so one of the best things about moving back home is my cable bill went way down because I was able to ditch both the NHL center ice package and the NFL Sunday ticket.

Steve: Yeah.

Scott: Saved me like a grand a year between those two.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah.

Chris: The pay for the chickens. Yeah, that's right. The chickens out back in the city. All right. All right. So I'm going to drop this podcast right after the show, but we, we, uh, let's, let's do, do you want to do your taste test here or do you want to do your, let's do the Pittsburgh versus the Jensberger. Okay. Let me, let me dial up a couple of things here. Pittsburgh versus Jensberger.

Steve: And, uh, he's pulling out the lamp.

Scott: So I've, I've taken, nobody can replace the great Schwabini of course. So I've taken the lamp and I've replaced it with the eight ball.

Chris: I was worried when he touched the lamp that it might shock him and kill him.

Scott: You know, for those who see here, so we, we've got the eight ball. Too much power. So I was thinking about this, you know, and, and really this is the Pittsburgher who's optimistic. I'm going to, I'm going to pose a question to you guys. And then the Jensberger is, is pessimistic. Okay, we're gonna see if you guys can beat the magic 8-ball, okay? We're gonna do we're gonna do two questions for the Steelers two questions for the Penguins and two questions actually for the Pirates quick, okay? Yeah, we have to but wait a minute wait a minute So the Pittsburgher wants to know Okay, will Mike Tomlin?

Steve: Finally win a playoff game Okay, so my answer is no

Chris: Um, this year, this year. Yeah. My answer, my answer is no.

Scott: The eight ball says it is decidedly. So, Oh, right.

Chris: That one down. Interesting. Write it down. All right. Hold on. Now you guys got me taking notes of it.

Steve: I feel like I got it. You got it.

Chris: You got it.

Scott: All right. Good. Okay. Tom. All right. Now the Jensberger, the Jensberger wants to know if George Pickens, right. We'll score a touchdown before Thanksgiving,

Steve: Oh yeah. Yeah.

Chris: That's a yes. Uh, yeah. I think he's going to score a touchdown this next game.

Scott: Yeah. The eight ball says yes. It's unanimous.

Steve: Okay. Oh yeah. We got a double yes on that one. Okay. Next. Okay.

Scott: Oh, we're, we're moving the hockey. The Pittsburgher wants to know hockey Jesus. Oh yeah. If a young guy in the Penguins lineup will exceed expectations.

Steve: Hmm. No, I'm going to go with no on that. Let's see.

Chris: You're asking the wrong guy here. I'm going to, I'm just going to go with yes. I'm going to say yes. Somebody will exceed expectations.

Scott: One of the young guys cannot predict it now. However, I will say Drew O'Connor is going to score more than 20 goals this year. That's my prediction.

Steve: I don't consider him a young guy.

Chris: I thought, I thought the eight ball said that I was like, well, how does the eight ball know about Drew O'Connor?

Steve: So he's taken over. So he's saying yes.

Chris: Now, the Jensberger wants to know if Kevin Hayes will make more than $500,000 per goal.

Scott: Kevin Hayes' salary, Chris, is $7 million. $7 million, right.

Steve: So 14 goals. Yes. I'm going to go.

Chris: Yes. So you're saying he's going to score less than 14 goals, 14 or more.

Steve: I'm going to say yes.

Chris: Well, he says, he said that say the question again, the Yinsberg wants to know if Kevin Hayes will make more than $500,000.

Scott: No, if he will, if he will make more than $500,000. Yes.

Chris: a goal. So in other words, 14 goals or less. Right. Okay. I'm going to say yes. He's going to, he's going to be left.

Scott: The eight ball says, ask again later. Oh, like probably two thirds of the way through this after, after, after that was that what the eight ball means.

Chris: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Scott: Okay. Now last question, the Pittsburgh wants to know if nutting has any intentions of opening the checkbook.

Steve: Oh, well, that's an absolute.

Chris: Yeah, that's going to be. That's a no for both of us. Yeah.

Scott: Ball says most likely.

Chris: Oh, my God. Oh, well, I don't listen. If the ball gets that right, the eight ball is a permanent member of this show. Agreed. Yes. Agreed.

Scott: All right. So some of you may know. I mean, there are rumors. I don't know if this has ever been confirmed, but Don Zimmer, longtime Major League Baseball manager. Yep. Manage for the Yankees for the for the Red Sox.

Chris: He like ninety two. He's. I just remember him being big, fat and bald.

Scott: Apparently, apparently some Red Sox fan at one point carpet bombed his house with manure. Okay. Paid someone to drop manure over his house. Wow. So the eight ball that's created on the Jens Berger wants to know if Bob Nutting's house will be carpet bombed with manure.

Steve: Oh, I'm going to go with no, but I would love it if it happened.

Chris: Yeah, I'm going to say not manure, but maybe pierogies. But so that's a no.

Scott: The eight ball says without a doubt.

Steve: Oh, I love it. Oh, man. And by the way, we're not advocating for that.

Chris: Uh, not really. Yeah, not really. Yeah, be careful. Be careful, Scott.

Scott: Eight ball versus the lamb.

Chris: Yeah, that's a good one. I like that. Eight ball versus the lamb. Yeah. Grant Schwab-Beeney versus the eight ball. Well, there's a lot of jokes there we could talk about, too, if you think about it.

Steve: All right, let's move on. Too many.

Chris: Too many to count. That was a great segment. Thanks for bringing it.

Steve: That's a good one, counselor. Yeah, we need some more. The counselor's eight ball, that's what we're going to call that one. This is my favorite show of all time.

Chris: Um, that's because Mark's not on it.

Steve: Exactly. So, uh, I do miss Amy, though. I have to admit.

Chris: Yeah. Amy, are you want? No, she's not. She's with Neil.

Steve: No, I know.

Chris: There's a lot of help into the end, into the limousine. Mark, your dad's girlfriend doesn't like the chocolate that I bought, even though Chris said it was really good. You know, that's what he, that was, you know, if I'm going to be the bad guy for that.

Steve: If we ever get Amy on the show, people will understand how great that is.

Chris: They will. My wife actually said I was making fun. She stopped by Trader Joe's the other day. Yeah. You told me about the chocolate. She basically was like, yeah, you know, help me out here.

Steve: So I tried to help her out.

Chris: My wife, I brought some of that home to my wife. My wife said it was really good. If my wife says the chocolate's good, the chocolate's good. So if girlfriend doesn't like it, I can't help her. Oh, no, she's going to love it.

Scott: She's going to love it. You should have warmed her up with a honey biscuit.

Chris: Yeah. Yeah. That's the honey sauce always helps out. He's catching up. All right. So, uh, all right. Sports force, black and gold all over the world, live on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube X and the Graham. And of course I dropped the show right after the show. Yeah. We're going to do that right now. Right after the show on the I heart radio app, Apple podcast, Spotify, or anywhere you get your frigging podcasts. Um, so your daughter Ellie made us, uh, she's into this. Explain what you told us. Yeah.

Scott: Ellie, Ellie brought a little snack into the program. Uh, she, uh, she's, uh, in, Planning to major in anthropology loves cultures loves food usually make some asian stuff that's extremely hot steve knows this and i don't like the hot stuff you know i was coming out to the show so last night she was telling steve about these dates that she made that were like i don't know like the roman

Steve: the roman praetorian guards or something no no no this is what this is what she told me exactly she said this is this was the favorite treat at the coliseum that they would sell and this was the most popular thing that was sold which means it has to taste good It's, it's, I mean, it was eaten when guys were out there beheading each other. Yeah. It can't not taste good. Definitely tastes good. So let's pass the sucker around. I can't wait to try. Come on Ellie. Yeah. And it's like, it's like dates with like nuts and. Well, yeah. What is it, Scott? Yes.

Scott: It's.

Steve: I can't remember what else was in the middle. Oh, honey, honey on the top. Honey sauce. You can't see it.

Scott: Dates that are caramelized and um, It's got the honey sauce on it. They have some honey sauce and nuts.

Steve: And anyway, she doesn't even know how appropriate the honey sauce is. Well, we'll let you go first. I'm all over this. I love, by the way, I love dates and I love honey. This is going to be, this is going to be very sweet, but it's going to be incredible.

Chris: What, what's the, what are the nuts?

Steve: Uh, it looks like, it looks like walnuts, but no, it looks like pine nuts. There's definitely some pine nuts in there. Yeah. Hmm.

Chris: Are we doing all right there? Holy hell.

Steve: Wow. Hello. I gotta say, I tell you what, that is one sweet treat. Actually with the nuts in it, it's perfect. Cuts it down a little bit. I feel like I'm going to go behead somebody now. What do you think? Yeah, well, I got some neighbors I don't like. I was, I was thinking maybe in a Coliseum setting.

Chris: Well, we can, we've got like a theater we can do this in. We can kidnap them and drag them. Nevermind. Yeah.

Scott: Akroshore Stadium might be available.

Chris: Yeah. It's got an open end. We can probably get in there. No problem.

Steve: No, I think it's still smoking hot from that pit win actually. Yeah, you're probably right.

Chris: We should talk about that.

Steve: They're undefeated. What's there to talk about? Let's not jinx them.

Chris: Does it have like a little spice in it too?

Steve: Oh yeah. I taste that a little bit of spice now too. Yeah. Yeah, you're right.

Chris: I'll be total transparency here. I was looking at them.

Steve: And you're like, ah, you taste it first.

Chris: No, well, no. I saw the look in your eye.

Steve: Maybe that's where I went. I did. I saw the look in your eye.

Scott: Chris, you thought they were like new cockroaches.

Chris: I didn't know. Well, I mean, you said you wanted to study anthropology. You said that I get a headache automatically, but I did not have high hopes. And you still don't. No, but they were delicious. They were absolutely delicious. That honey sauce made it for sure. I happen to have a napkin from one of our previous shows, if you want it. So Ellie, thank you very much. Those are absolutely, I would eat them again. I would eat them again. Would you? Absolutely. Yeah. Was that your first taste or had you had them before?

Scott: First time. She just made these.

Chris: Yeah. Good for her. She rocked it up. Excellent.

Steve: Thank you, Ellie.

Chris: Thank you, Ellie. Yeah, absolutely. And good luck in all your endeavors. And if you want to become a chef, please, you can tell you can taste.

Steve: Oh, yeah. We love being guinea pigs. We're guinea pig for food around here.

Chris: Well, when he was saying last night that that she wanted to, like, learn how to make the ancient food. Yeah. Like I got the whole gist of that whole thing. Like what, what, cause like we still eat grape leaves, you know, but it's all different now, but make it the way they made it back then. I'd never heard of anybody doing that. So I just thought that was cool.

Steve: She said there's like a, like a cookbook out there that they found and it has all these recipes. That's right.

Chris: That's what we were saying last night. So excellent. Thumbs up Ellie. Okay. What are we moving on to now? Last part of the show, what we're watching, what that is. Well, there's a billion streaming services out there. I spent a lot of time watching some streaming television today, as a matter of fact, while my wife snored on the couch next to me. Nice. I'm going to bring this movie up too in my, what are, what are we watching just because I want to get you guys take on it. But, um, so what we do is we, we spend hours and hours watching stuff that maybe you don't want to watch. Maybe you do want to watch. Pepper, by the way, I'm still tasting. Yeah, it's still in my mouth. And, uh, that was a horrible thing to say. But anyway, we have, Anyway, we're going to tell you what we're watching, whether or not you should or shouldn't watch it. Steve and I each have one. Do you have one that you want to bring up? I don't have a picture.

Scott: Usually we have a picture or whatever. This time of the year, like Steve, I'm always watching hockey.

Chris: So you're not into the streaming as much.

Scott: I'm excited. And I told Steve, I think, uh, this year, I think we're going to try to watch some college hockey live. Oh, wow. Wow. That's above and beyond the hockey Jesus right there. I'm excited. I'm excited for that. One thing I am watching. I'm not a big TV person. That's my other half. But the show that I love, uh, on Apple TV, uh, slow horses.

Chris: Oh my God.

Scott: I can't believe you said that. Love that show. Gary, Gary Oldham. I think it was nominated, but didn't win. Probably should have won. Um, it's a, it's an MI six British intelligence show. It keeps you on your toes. It's it's would Susan like it. It's pretty quick, pretty crazy, crazy. I think she should give it a try. Yeah. I'm writing it down. You can, you know, slow horses are, are slow house.

Chris: Yes. Yeah. And he's always, he's always hammered and smoking a cigarette and like, I love his character. I love his character.

Scott: It's, it's pretty good. And, and, um, you know, having, you know, having some experience in DC and around the government, I think, you know, it's, it's done, it's done in a realistic way, political figures, you know, there are people to like and not to like, right.

Chris: So he's saying in a realistic way, but I, I just want to give you this background on it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. He's saying in a realistic way. Listen, I, I trust everything he's saying.

Scott: He's, he's being completely like, yeah, you know, from his experience, I think the politics in the intelligence service is what I'm speaking.

Chris: There's politics. Steve thinks I'm going in a direction I'm not going in. He, but I know where he thinks we'll go. We'll see in this. Now what I'm, what I'm giving you is here's, here's the premise of the show. Slough house. is the the precinct where they send the rejects, the dumbest MI6 agents. Gotcha. No, I wouldn't say dumbest.

Scott: I think they're rejects.

Chris: Right. For various reasons. But there's a couple.

Scott: If you're not a team player, if you're there, you've effed up.

Chris: This is this is season four, right? That's coming out. OK, so you got to watch start of season one. This season four just came out, of course. So when I say the dumbest, in season one, there were a couple people there that you're like, really? They made it into MI6? Like they were dumb. All right. That's all I mean. I got you. So it's kind of like. So he's saying that it's there's part of it's kind of true to form. Yeah. Do they have like a, a reject CI, well reject MI six thing for real. I mean, you know, that's what I'm saying. Like if you watch it, you'd be like, what? You know, like anyway, it's really good. I was speaking more from a character standpoint. Yeah. Like what's her name? The politics. Yeah. Up above the top down kind of thing. But yes, Gary Oldman is brilliant in that show. Absolutely. So I wish I, I, I actually brought this up as a, what we're watching a couple of years ago. on the porch.

Steve: I believe it. It sounds like something that you would, you would watch.

Chris: So we'll go to you first too, for that matter. Uh, I don't know if he's watching or not, but, um, we would, I would know if he watched it. Okay.

Steve: So HJ, you are watching Outlast and it basically, this is if Survivor had a brother and he took his brother and he put him in Alaska. And while he was in Alaska, he got no food, only got one machete, had to pick a team of four others, and basically had to stay out there for infinite amount of days. And so there are four teams, Alpha, Brava, Delta.

Chris: Bravo, you mean? Alpha Bravo? He said Brava. Brava. It's a Starbucks drink. Didn't he say Brava? Brava. Yeah. You said Alpha Brava.

Scott: But these are, these are teams, these are teams of people because there was a discovery show where people were alone. Right.

Steve: Yeah. No, these, these are teams of people and the team wins. So like you have a team of five, if everybody doesn't tap out or whatever, then everybody gets $200,000. Nice. But what happens is, you know, people get hungry and they get cranky and they're like, they fire their gun and like, I'm want to go eat something, you know? And then like, Actually, I think the show itself kind of sucked, to be honest with you, because they didn't really do anything. There was like, they just sat there and some of them just literally sat there and said, well, we're just going to save our energy to go get some water later. Okay. And you're like, uh, okay. Yeah. Well, that doesn't make for good television. No, no.

Chris: A slow, painful death from dehydration would. but not this.

Steve: Yeah. And, and, and, you know, like there were some people who literally didn't take a shit for like 30 days and they were like, well, if they don't take a shit in the next five days, they're going to die. And you're like, really? Like, I, I, you know, that doesn't sound like fun. So needless to say, I would not recommend this show. It just, it moves too slow. It's not really that entertaining and all the things that like could kill you. They're just so far out there. You can't even fathom it. Like, right. Like you're going to die of dehydration.

Scott: It's a little bit like a substitute for the pirates bullpen.

Chris: There you go.

Steve: Oh, there you go. If they had like parasitic water, they were drinking out there. I would say yes. Yeah.

Chris: Okay. Outlast. Don't watch it. Not good. Okay.

Steve: Uh, it's interesting. We usually, by the way, that's season two. So they've had a season one and a season two. So a lot of people are watching it, but did you didn't want season one? Yeah, I did watch season one. I thought, I remember season one being a little bit more entertaining. Right. It seemed like there was more interaction between the groups. Right. And this one, it was just like, ah, we're just going to stay here.

Chris: So what you're saying now is if they come back with a season three, you're not going to be watching it now. I'm not in on season three. Interesting. We, we, that, that we both have something that we're not necessarily going to recommend. Cause usually we have, you know, two of us at least are like, yeah, this is great.

Steve: I could recommend survivor, but you won't let me, you, you won't let me talk about survivor. No, because I,

Chris: all right because you're going to you're going to right yeah he's like season 78 no no season 47 yeah Scott will like that is it 47 yeah real yeah the 47th season that's right not they do multiple seasons a year I had the same Bob Barker hosting yeah really no they've moved on Drew Carey's host uh no Bob died All right, so I am watching something called The Last Thing He Told Me on, well, I watched it on Apple TV Plus. Oh, that trailer photo just looks awful.

Steve: It does, doesn't it? Jennifer Gardner. I mean, I'm a big Jennifer Gardner fan.

Chris: It does. The Last Thing He Told Me on Apple Plus. We got a comment coming here. Update Jets score 10 to 7 Jets. Wow. Over the bills. The Last Thing He Told Me on Apple TV. Okay, so It's played, uh, Jennifer Garner, uh, stars as a wife of a, of a guy who is working at a tech startup on the West coast. Um, something comes out about the tech startup being a Ponzi scheme or, you know, they're, they're, they're the stockholders find out that the books are cooked and he goes on the run and she ha he has a daughter from a, from a previous marriage. And he basically leaves a note for Jennifer Garner, protect her. Oh, that's the last thing he told me. And so you had you, then of course we all know where this goes. Like why, why, where are you going to go? What are the secrets?

Steve: How are you going to be protected? Who's going to do it?

Chris: Right. So fast forward to episode, I don't know, six or seven or it's a limited series. It's not going to be a series in season two. Thank God. Yeah. But Fast forward to the end of it. Can't give us the ending. I'm not going. Well, why? I don't want it. You shouldn't watch it. It's horrible. Okay.

Steve: Nobody's got people out there. If you want to watch the last thing he told me, turn this off now. Okay.

Chris: There you go. Nobody dies. All right. There's no real twist. Well, I'd take that back. There's one twist that seems to be kind of obvious.

Scott: There's no sex. Is there like a Tristan Jari version of this? Like the last thing Mike Sullivan told me?

Chris: Everything is, is with you is hockey, isn't it? Anyway. So that's a hockey dad for you. That's true. Nobody dies. The twist is a little obvious. Yeah. There's no sex, no sex, no intrigue. There's very little violence. I mean, I felt like I was watching this ongoing commercial for that company that Jennifer Garner started, Honey Grow or whatever the hell it's called. You know what I mean? Yeah. Right. Is that a hair product?

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. No, it's like she's, she's always out in the… Schwaber would know.

Chris: He's probably tried it.

Steve: always out in the garden just gathering things.

Chris: I mean, I'm kind of under, I'm kind of overselling that part of it. Yeah. It really wasn't horrible. What it was is you never, are you going to be all right? I think the counselor needs some help. Yeah.

Steve: He needs some hair product over there. We'll help him in five minutes when this is all over.

Chris: Yeah. When this is finally mercifully over. I'm telling you, be careful. You're going to hurt yourself. You're going to get shot. But anyway, it never gets to the point where it's one of those things, it's like Al Pacino, every time I try to get out, it just keeps, they keep pulling me back in.

Steve: You're like, oh man, that at the end, that was worth watching another episode for. Am I with Siskel and Ebert. But you weren't surprised at the ending.

Scott: Yes, definitely.

Chris: There you go. Siskel and Ebert. I want to be Ebert. Thank you very much. And the ending left me kind of the way I felt after I drank five beers instead of 10 and then went to sleep. Like, not good, not bad. Not good, not bad.

Steve: Just a little milky. Just like, eh. Yeah. Why did I do that? Yeah. That was kind of a waste of my time.

Chris: It's kind of like eating a medium rare steak versus a rare steak for me. Medium rare steak is, it's doable, but you know, I like it rare. I don't know. I don't eat it. You do like it rare. That's true. It is rare.

Steve: Yes. That's a no go on the last thing he told me then.

Chris: It is. It's a no go on the last thing.

Steve: And by the way, you didn't actually, people, you can come back now. You didn't actually give away the ending.

Chris: No, and why did you invite everybody?

Steve: Well, because I told him to leave because you were going to give away the ending. Why did you tell everybody to leave? Well, because you were going to give away. I said, if you're if you're going to listen, if you want the last thing he told me, leave now. But you never gave away the entity. Yeah.

Chris: So you scared everybody away. Well, that's mine. And then you pulled them back in. All right. Thank you for watching the Sports Sports Black and Gold Edition all over the world on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, X, Instagram. And of course, I'm going to drop this podcast right after the show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your freaking podcasts. You can subscribe there. Leave us a review, we would love that. I want to thank the counselor for being here. Nice job, counselor. We'd like to have you back as often as possible from the home studio or back here. H.J. will be talking to you a little bit later. Everybody grab H.J. after the Penns game tonight. I am your technical director. I am out. Don't forget about it. Don't forget about it. Jablonsk. Jablonsk. Say it, Scott.

Scott: What the fuck is this?