Oct. 3, 2023

The Porch Is Live - Are the Steelers DEAD?

Oh boy... this week was tough to watch. And... Hockey Jesus is here to preach!

Oh boy... this week was tough to watch. And... Hockey Jesus has his take on the Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce debacle... he is here to preach!

 

[00:01:06] Steelers' disappointing offensive performance.

[00:04:30] First year head coach and quarterback.

[00:09:08] Defense struggles and adjustments.

[00:11:37] Team not built to come from behind.

[00:14:33] Gaslighting and defensive game plans.

[00:19:11] Tomlinisms in the post-conference.

[00:23:19] Offensive coordinator and head coach schemes.

[00:26:09] Coaching at all positions.

[00:30:06] Steelers offense and winning games.

[00:34:58] Steelers organization and changes.

[00:36:49] Steelers' offensive player evaluation.

[00:42:34] The Swift effect on the Chiefs.

[00:44:15] The bottom line.

[00:47:03] Taylor Swift and dating.

[00:52:57] Penguins' goalie rotation.

[00:54:37] Will Butcher's Outlook

[00:57:45] Colonoscopy and healthy living.

Show Quotes:

  • 00:02:08 - "Well, I'll just simply say that when I watched the game, my feeling was this is the low point. I don't know that it's rock bottom, but it's the low point that I can remember for a very long time."

  • 00:04:16 - "You can say shit show because it was a shit show."

  • 00:06:22 - "I got no idea how we can make this better."

  • 00:10:18 - "And that's always been the problem with Tomlin."

  • 00:12:19 - "So when you say this is a team that's not built to come from behind, honestly, what I hear is I am too stupid to be a football coach."

  • 00:14:37 - "That's called gaslighting."

  • 00:17:55 - "I do after the, after whatever the post game, um, bullshit session that Tom comes out and spews every damn time."

  • 00:19:16 - "Hell yeah, we're going to make changes."

  • 00:24:31 - "Hey, it's shootouts now."

  • 00:25:46 - "Your voice is not terrible."

  • 00:29:11 - "If he can't fix it, he'll be out of the league next year, right?"

  • 00:31:32 - "They need to hit rock bottom to start over and potentially get a new quarterback."

  • 00:34:56 - "I think this week the Steelers were finally on a national level, on a local level, on every possible level, they were finally exposed."

  • 00:36:23 - "Look, he was a winner."

  • 00:39:43 - "I'm going to go Niners."

  • 00:42:35 - "We have to talk about the Swift effect because it's clearly affecting the Kansas City Chiefs as a team."

  • 00:45:23 - "Dude, think about all the free marketing she's gotten from the NFL, the single biggest marketing."

  • 00:48:23 - "Mike says she goes through men like babies."

  • 00:48:38 - "sick of Taylor Swift."

  • 00:51:33 - "Because, let's face it, can we drink with, well, you don't drink anymore."

  • 00:53:30 - "Dude, he plays like a forward."

  • 00:56:08 - "My concern this year with them is pretty much what you said yours was last year."

  • 00:59:43 - "Don't worry about it cuz I got a lot of I got a lot of shit to say"

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Transcript

00:00 Steve I really would.

00:02 Marc Why? Maybe because we're live and the music hasn't played yet. Thankfully it was just one second.

00:08 Chris It might actually be time to start the show. And you never know. We got a lot of angst tonight. You never know with this crew.

00:19 Chris Alright, welcome to the Sports Porch. Welcome. This is the Sports Porch Pittsburgh and you are watching us live. Live on Facebook. Live on X. live on YouTube, live on LinkedIn, live all over the world. And we always drop the podcast. We drop the podcast right after the show, right after the show, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere you get your friggin' podcast. Is that the pirate coming right now? Well, the pirate's dead. Anyway, 14 games better. And we are on, we are on, we are on radio every single week. We are on Radio PGH. You can find that at radiopgh.com. Thank you for being here. I was really hoping this would be like an exciting week and we could talk about the Steelers and how good they've been. Well, it's exciting, but for all the wrong reasons. Yeah. So, you know, in the description for the post, if you're watching live, and you're not listening to the podcast after the fact or not listening live on radio pgh and i'll post the link here in the comments um i said are the stealers dead and that's what i want to know i want to know i want to know what the f was that what to do with the stealers and i want you to call in come on guys call in tonight that is my cell phone number it's your voice not your face 412-805 Pardon me, I'm getting too excited. Yeah, 805-726. There you go. Get on the show. Now, I don't want any of your rye whiskey or whatever that is. Three rye guys. It's water as far as you know. Yep. Yep. So creative. So what was that? What was it? Who wants to go first? What was it? Tell me.

02:07 Marc Well, go ahead, Mark. Well, I'll just simply say that when I watched the game, my feeling was this is the low point. I don't know that it's rock bottom, but it's the low point that I can remember for a very long time.

02:27 Steve Well, yeah, and I agree. I actually think this was their worst offensive performance since last year when Tomlin made the change from then Trubisky to Kenny Pickett. He panicked, right? Because the offense was doing so poorly. He said, time to bring in our future. And it did get better. So, and he did promise that there will be changes. Hell yeah, there will be changes.

02:54 Chris Well, that was this week, right? Yeah, that was this week. But go ahead.

02:57 Steve So, um, I think it will, we'll probably get to this later. Those changes will be very interesting to see what happens. But as far as the game, I mean, Really? Are you that surprised that this offense looked that bad?

03:11 Chris I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you right now. Are you really? No, I'm not surprised But what I want to do what I want to do is I'm gonna I'm gonna segue here to something real quick Okay, I just have to toot my own horn. Yeah, this right here that I'm holding up now If you're listening, you can't see it. We did our Steelers season predictions a few weeks back. Yeah, we did so I'm doing one. So yes, and I am for and oh I said they would lose to the Niners, beat the Browns, beat the Raiders, and lose to the Texans. You certainly got your pulse on the team. You got it. Mark, you are 0-2, 0-3. You are 0-4. You said they would beat the Niners, beat the Browns, lose to the Raiders, and beat the Texans. Shows you what I know. You know nothing, Steve. No, I'm 2-2. You are, yes, you are 2-2. Lost win, lost win.

04:04 Marc I think we should put up Amy May's comment. I think that says a lot right there.

04:09 Chris Amy May, what does Amy May say here? Let me see.

04:12 Steve A-S blank blank show. It's okay. You can say shit show because it was a shit show. Yes, it was a shit show. It absolutely was a shit show.

04:20 Marc Here's what… Here's kind of what I saw, and I'll keep it brief, you know, so that you can break it down in further detail, Steve. What I found to be Um, just befuddling was was there was a lot of that was that befuddledness, you know, like look look, I mean look cj stroud Looks like he may be the real deal. It's still too early to tell dg, but he does look good Okay, so all right But, you know, this is a first year head coach and a first year quarterback, a team that had the second pick in the draft, I believe. Right. And so, you know, I think I don't know. I think they went to and 15 last year, if not. Yeah, they were horrible last year. They were absolutely horrible. And I got to tell you, I mean, they just looked like they had so much more talent and energy. Than the Steelers. I mean like they were playing fast. Yep, and the Steelers just looked like they were running in mud and it was just like honestly, I It was you'd be hard-pressed to find a good play in the game You know, I remember one one.

05:44 Steve She had a few runs.

05:45 Marc She had a few runs There was maybe one play where TJ Watt had a nice stop in the back.

05:49 Steve I think Calvin Austin the third had a nice catch. I Those were two things I think I can remember.

05:54 Marc But really, you have to really stretch to find a good play in the game. For sure. And it was just so, like to me, I was just like, and you know, Steve, you were texting that Tomlin looked lost.

06:08 Steve And that's exactly- I think I said concussed. Okay, well- You did.

06:12 Marc You said concussed. He really did look lost. Like honestly, I was looking at his face and his face just kind of, what his face said was, I got no idea how we can make this better.

06:24 Steve You know, that leads me to think like if, if, if a coach did get concussed, can they like knock him out of the game? Like, can they just bring in a new head coach for the game? You know, like, sorry, coach, you got concussed. You look concussed. You need to go to the locker room. He'd have to go into the blue tent. I think that's honestly, I think that's what they needed. And here's why I say that because you're right. Rookie head coach, you know, D'Amico, Ryan's right. He's he's actually looks like he's a real deal coach. And who did he pick up? He picked up a nobody from the 49ers, Bobby Slowick.

07:00 Chris Mm hmm. You know, he he's been of the Mike Shanahan tree, Mike and Kyle, Mike and Kyle Shanahan.

07:05 Steve Right. Yeah. He was with them as a quarterback's coach. The kid knows how to play, how to put together a game. And here's what Houston did really well. And I think they stole this from the 49ers, but it works really well. The way they stopped TJ and the guy on the other end was it was basically they took the tight end and they would always chip TJ with the tight end while they were doing that. The offensive tackle would spin backwards to be able to get back into a good position to then hit TJ again. Right. TJ had to go through two people in less than three seconds. Not even TJ can do that. And it was brilliant. You didn't, he wasn't, there were no pressures. And I heard a statistic today that said the Steelers, when they don't get pressure on the quarterback, are the worst defensive team in the league. So, and that makes a lot of sense because that's what happens when you have, you know, Levi Wallace back there with, you know, Patrick Peterson, who doesn't seem to be able to cover. The other thing that they did really well from an offensive standpoint was they ran routes that were quick and short. Why the Steelers didn't roll that up? It was just beyond me Like they have no faith in their cornerbacks to be able to roll it up and say okay if you're gonna do that We'll counter it with playing the man and we'll let you have the deep pass that lets me to believe Leads me to believe that they're playing scared defense and when they're playing scared defense, which means they can't get to the quarterback That's a big problem. No, they didn't give up too many. Well, that's not true. I Nico Collins torched them just like Amari Cooper torched them, just like Devontae Adams torched them, just like Brandon Ayouk torched them. They always have a wide receiver that just absolutely torches that team. And that's the problem with the Steelers right now. It's not just on offense, and we can talk more about the offensive problems, because there are many. But on defense, they're not getting it done either. And that's why yesterday was such a shit show.

09:08 Chris So, you know, this is something Luke and thanks for being here. Week in, week out. Luke, I want to know from all of you, your top three available offensive coordinators I heard today, possibly Byron left, which let me just, I'm going to take Steve stance on this cause I know what he's going to say. Luke, it doesn't matter because they're not going to fire candidate Mike Lawrence. We all agree. Canada has to go. What about the defensive coordinator coordinator Terrell Austin?

09:37 Marc Look, guys, actually, on that note, you know, they say that Mike Tomlin calls the place. Yeah, I know. So if he does, then he deserves a lot of the blame for the defense.

09:46 Chris I don't know how he can call the plays unless he's got every single friggin play memorized.

09:50 Marc Well, yeah, cause he doesn't have a play sheet.

09:52 Chris I know, I know. That's complete crap. I think, I think Tomlin okays all the plays. He has the plan in his head. Uh, and it's not to say a guy can't memorize something, but I, yeah, I, I, I'm with you on that.

10:05 Steve Well, it's not that the defense isn't bad. I think they run schemes. I just think that they're afraid to try certain things during the game. They want to stick to the script. Right. And when the script isn't working, they don't have a plan B. And that's always been the problem with Tomlin. He's never been able to make adjustments at halftime. And, you know, at one point, let's remember it was fourth and one. They had the ball. They could have kicked a field goal to make it a one score game. They could have made it 16 to nine, but they decided to go for it on a fourth and one and do it from the shotgun. If I hear that one more time today. Right. Exactly. Right. That just makes no sense to me. Why? Why they did it like that. Right. And the thing is, they called a time out right before because Tomlin mentioned something in his press conference about, well, the where they placed the ball wasn't where we thought they were going to place the ball. So we had the call time out. And I'm thinking to myself, so does that mean you were going to kick a field goal? It didn't make any sense to me. Like, did he think maybe it was closer and they were just going to run up to the ball and, you know, do the quarterback sneak thing. He was very, he was not clear at all when he said that, what he meant. And he's the master of saying things like that.

11:22 Chris Well, I heard a guy today on the radio, word salad. Tomlin's just a word salad right now. Now, Amy May, our number one fan on the female side of the equation, says, what about Canada saying we aren't a team built to come from behind? You know what, Amy May? It's funny that you bring that up because that's something that has stuck in my craw, if you will, for a long time. When I heard that quote, which I think was a couple of weeks ago too, What the hell does that mean? What does that mean?

11:54 Marc Isn't the objective to score every possession on offense?

12:00 Chris The objective is to win games. Right. And you are not going to win every game from the starting gate to the finish line. You are always going to have to come from behind. Well, not always, but there are going to be many, many games where you come from behind, whether you're down three points or 27 points. So when you say this is a team that's not built to come from behind, honestly, what I hear is I am too stupid to be a football coach.

12:29 Marc Honest to God. When did he say that's pretty good in this week or another time?

12:35 Chris It was like, I honestly, I don't remember.

12:37 Steve I don't remember when it was said.

12:38 Chris I'm relying on press reports on this. Yeah, I believe it's true. Yeah. And well, and Tomlin backed him up at some point. They were having a conversation where they said, it's kind of like, well, what we want to do is we want to get a lead first and then we start to expand the playbook then. What? What are you talking about? What do you mean? You want to get a touchdown and then you're going to open up the playbook? I thought you were supposed to open up the playbook like back in training camp and learn it. You know, I had to be honest with you. You said this could be their low point. And I disagreed with you. I think they can go lower because they can. Yeah. But you're not far off the mark now. Now that I think about all of the ridiculous comments Coming from management right out of this and look you guys know me. I'll finish up on this one You guys know me. I have been a Tomlin supporter. I have I really have been we hear this all the time I hated Canada and I can't say I hate the person but I hate the way Canada calls games I think he's a terrible offensive coordinator. Whatever. I've always been kind of on Tomlin side. Like look the guys, you know, he's good I'm starting to doubt that now.

13:52 Marc Well, you have you have to think to yourself. I You know, Tomlin was blessed with a team one year removed from a Super Bowl. This is true, right? And he was blessed with… That was a few years ago. Yeah, and he was blessed with a Hall of Fame quarterback. That's true. And as the Hall of Fame quarterback… And a Hall of Fame running back. Yeah, well, and as the Hall of Fame quarterback… And a Hall of Fame wide receiver. Stop it. And as the Hall of Fame quarterback… That's what I'm saying. Got older and older. Tomlin got worse and worse. And now that the Hall of Fame quarterback's not here, he's getting worse and worse.

14:33 Steve But he still has a winning record. Yeah. Yeah. That's called gaslighting.

14:40 Chris You're gaslighting yourself.

14:41 Steve I'm setting myself on fire.

14:43 Marc Here's the thing that just, you know, like, look, here's the bottom line. The bottom line is, um, If you ask me, all right, there isn't much of a defensive game plan outside of get to the quarterback. Okay. Right. And on the flip side of that, if you truly are, well, stop the run. If you, yeah, if you truly are a great defensive mind, you should be able to look at Matt Canada's offense and say, This is a college offense.

15:20 Steve Well, and they can, they do. You know who does that? The opposing defense. All of them. How many times yesterday did you hear the announcers say, it looks like they actually knew what they were going to be running in that play? I know, I think it's starting again. Like on that screen, the so-called screen pass to Firemouth. You know, it's like the guy knew he was going to get the ball right when he left his block. He's like, oh, he's not blocking me. He's running out here. I know he's going to get the ball. Kenny didn't even wait. Like, you have to wait as a quarterback till that guy comes and gets you to make that work. He didn't even do it. He just threw it to Firemuth because he was so scared of getting sacked.

16:02 Marc And it's like, and it's like, here's the thing, like, who's, who's coaching these, these players to get better? You know, I mean, like you got Canada's up there in the booth. He, to me, he needs to be alone. To me, he needs to be down on the field talking to Kenny Pickett after, after each possession, you know? You know, and, and then on the other side of it too, is like, you know, Tomlin's resistance to bringing in an offensive mind, right? I mean, it's like, You know, and, and if you look around the league, you know, the Tomlin coaching tree just doesn't exist.

16:40 Chris I, I, I, I'm not sure, but I think we might have a call coming in from Florida.

16:44 Steve Sounds good. Let's hear it.

16:45 Chris Okay. Is this Pat on track? Yeah, no, it's not Pat on track, but I have to, I, I, it's a technical issue here. Hello. Welcome to the sports porch.

16:58 SPEAKER_00 Hmm.

16:59 Steve Dead air.

17:00 Chris Oh, you know what? No, here it is.

17:02 SPEAKER_02 uh hello my goofy voice yeah yeah no no sorry is this dg this is dg dg welcome to the show welcome to the porch what do you got first dj well first of all i gotta apologize if i put off calling because um the only thing that's worth in my goofy voices is if you had to see my goofy face so yeah um but i had to call because we got three of them here just I'm just so, no, you guys are, you guys are great. You know, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just so frustrated. I've just been sitting here and, you know, Mark's last statement that I heard before I dialed in, and, you know, there's Steve gaslighting, but Mark's statement, who is coaching these, these players. And, and I'm just wondering if you guys feel the same way I do after the, after whatever the post game, um, bullshit session that Tom comes out and spews every damn time. And I'm like, just so sick of it. It's just, it's ridiculous. It's ridiculous.

18:13 Steve You want to take that one, Steve? Yeah. What else you got DG?

18:17 SPEAKER_02 Well, another thing that you mentioned Steve, which I agree with you. Um, you said, guess what? they're not going to get rid of Canada. And they need to get rid of Canada. They need to, they need to demote them. You can get anybody else. It's just, it's just, it's just, it's pathetic. And, and you see how these other teams adjust. We never adjust anything ever, even when it's smacking us in the face. And these teams say, you know, hey, how do you, how do you, um, how do you counter these crazy rushers on the, on the outside? They start flipping little, you know, screen passes and things that everybody's got planned, um, to adjust except for the Steelers.

19:05 Chris Well, I can tell you, I can tell you're frustrated, DG. I really can't.

19:10 Steve Let me take on your questions. First is Tomlin, Tomlinisms in the post-conference. Those also aren't going away, but I think he did say something that was instructive this time, and I think it was the first time I actually saw him get mad and not at another reporter when he said, hell yeah, we're going to make changes. I was thinking to myself, wow, if Conlin's saying he's gonna make changes because it was that bad, I think at that point in his mind, he was thinking, I'm going to have to let this, this offensive coordinator go. I had never seen him go to that level before. So you, I mean, so let's see, let's see what happens in Baltimore this week. If they lay another turd, I think you, I think you're absolutely going to be looking at Steve Sullivan is your, as your next offensive coordinator. Unfortunately for the Steelers, that means it's the same playbook because they're not going to bring in by Byron left, which in the middle of the season and institute a new offense that never happens in the NFL, but, and it never happens with the Pittsburgh Steelers. But that doesn't mean that next season, Some big changes will need to be made in the offensive coordinator position.

20:28 Chris Well, yeah, and we already know that but what I think is interesting DG is that the one thing that Marcus said that that spurred you to call You know who's coaching these guys? I've been wondering that mm-hmm this entire season I've been wondering that because it everything is so pedestrian and

20:48 Marc Well, and everybody's regressing. Everybody's getting worse. Kenny Pickett's getting worse. Yeah. I don't know.

20:55 Chris I don't know why. DG, one question for you. Last year, when Kenny Pickett got thrust into the spotlight, and then you fast forward to the end of last year, Did you really think that he made, and you know I was a huge Kenny Pickett fan, but did you think that… I know where you're going. Did you think he made any true progress? I mean, all they sing is… I think he did.

21:23 SPEAKER_02 He did? I think he did. Okay. I think he did. Because, you know, I'm kind of an advocate for these young guys. I feel bad because, you know, it's a brutal sport, brutal game. And, um, you come in, you know, I'm a, I'm a Mason Rudolph fan, whether people like them or not.

21:40 Marc I actually like Mason too. I actually, I would put Mason in this week instead of Trubisky.

21:46 Steve Yeah. You might see him though.

21:48 SPEAKER_02 The thing is, I don't think that, that, that Ben Roethlisberger, um, did any great favors for, um, for Rudolph, uh, as far as bringing him along. He was a, he was a total punk. And so then you get thrust in there. And, you know, it's a brutal sport. If you don't get the wins, people, you suck and you're out. And I feel bad for these guys. They're 27-year-old kids. And they're told, you know, hey, you know, nice try, take a hike. And the thing is, look at Uh, Gino Smith. Okay. Um, I'm just saying some of these guys might not be as bad as everybody says. Some of them might be, but, um, they're just quick to yank them, you know? Well, yeah.

22:38 Marc Gino Smith has DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett and usually a, usually a very good running game and a good offensive line and a good head coach.

22:46 Steve An offensive mind of head coach, you know, yeah, right.

22:49 SPEAKER_02 So, but he was resurrected from the trash heap. Yep. Sure. If you ask many people, they would say, yeah, you know, Smith would not be the way to go.

22:59 Steve But there is, there definitely is some credence to the head coaching scheme for the offense. Because if you look at the 49ers last year, when they had Garoppolo, Garoppolo was great with them till he got hurt. And then now look at Garoppolo with Vegas. He's terrible. I mean, he's hurt now, but he's awful. So the schemes that the offensive coordinator and the head coach put together really make the offense what it is. And I keep saying this, this Steelers, team is not predicated on offense. It's all predicated on defense. And when the defense has a terrible game like it did last Sunday, that the offense has no chance in hell of being able to keep up with a team that can be two scores ahead of them. And Canada said it. Tomlin said, we're going to make changes. I don't believe that means he's going to go into some sort of offensive juggernaut mode because they just don't have it in their playbook. And this is who the Steelers have been since Ben Roethlisberger left.

24:08 Marc Well, here's the problem is that I feel like what you're talking about, Steve, is that, you know, The NFL has sort of passed the Steelers by. Oh, yeah. You know, they passed Tomlin by. I mean, he's three years. He's talking about three, three, you know, three yards and a cloud of dust and, you know, running the ball and winning with defense. Hey, it's shootouts now. You know, you watch the last couple of Super Bowls. They're like 45 to 40. Yeah. You know, it's shootouts. I mean, it's amazing if you can play good defense these days, you know, I mean, you got to be able to throw the ball and he's approaching it in such a way that you would have to have such a good team to win that way. It's almost impossible.

24:52 Steve Well, and the Steelers also are, and this is not an excuse, but they are missing Deontay Johnson. I mean, you need to, if you're going to, if you're going to come from behind, you definitely need three wide receivers to be able to do that with. So, so I think that's not helpful. It's definitely not the problem, but all these little things add up to what happened yesterday in the game. And I unfortunately am kind of, thinking that if the Steelers can somehow pull out a miracle win against Baltimore this week, everybody's going to be like, eh, we're still okay. Nah, but we're not, but we're two, we're two and a, we're two and only division. We're only one game behind Baltimore and everybody's going to be just fine with that.

25:35 Chris Uh, listen, DG from the, from the, from the bottom of our hearts, we want to thank you for being such an incredible fan. We love interacting with you.

25:43 Steve Yeah. And your voice is not terrible.

25:46 SPEAKER_02 That's kind of weird, but like I said, it's better than my goofy face. You're going to see that one of these days. I'm going to pop by to get my man in the middle mug signed. Sounds great.

25:59 Chris That would be great.

26:00 Steve We got a Sharpie ready for you, DJ.

26:02 SPEAKER_02 One last final thing. One last final thing. Tomlin used to be a defensive back coach. We need coaching, not just overall coach, we need coaching at all these positions too. Offensive line, we've got no Decent offensive line. We it's just nothing. Uh, you know, i'm just i'm frustrated So have a good show correct to the show. Talk to you later.

26:27 Steve All right Thanks for the call david brings up a great point about the coaching the steelers have Notoriously have been the the team with the least amount of coaching and the least amount of payroll and coaching Yeah, so I mean that just leads that just means that you know tomlin is even more in charge of things when it comes to that so

26:46 Chris So, so let's get, we had a bunch of comments coming in here while we were talking with DG. Luke, as the phone was ringing, cause I hadn't straightened out the board yet, said, is that Tomlin calling?

26:58 Steve We put it, we put them on hold.

27:00 Chris Yeah.

27:01 Chris He's still on hold. Yeah. We got him. Jeff says, when will Tomlin be held accountable? Do the Roonies even care anymore? anymore.

27:07 Steve That's a good, that's a, there's a lot to unpack.

27:09 Chris Luke says, try anything at this point. Eric Olson says, pass protection. Uh, Amy says, I'm worried because PICA can't see open players. Luke was talking about the shootouts you were talking about. It's, it's top gun. He also mentioned that a few teams admitted knowing what was coming. And Amy May, she's kind of upset with her husband cause she still says, Mark is stealing my comments.

27:31 SPEAKER_00 We just, we just think alike.

27:33 Steve You're, you're, you're married.

27:34 Marc His comments are your comments. I got a question for you. All right. All right. So at this point in the game, Kenny Pickett, the guy, not the guy or to be determined.

27:50 Steve Not, not the guy at this point. to be determined.

27:53 Marc Not the guy. I've finally moved into not the guy.

27:58 Steve Here's why I say not, you're saying not the guy because you're comparing him to C.J. Stroud.

28:04 Marc No, I'm just saying, I'm just saying. You know, is he a serviceable NFL quarterback for a winning team for the next seven to 10 years? No. And I say no.

28:18 Steve Well, I mean, seven to 10 years is way too long. Most quarterbacks don't last five to five years, four years, three to five years, four years now. Yeah. And here's here's why I'm saying to be determined. One, Kenny Pickett is not a great talent. He wasn't in college. He had one good year, but he got better. So the only reason I say to be determined is because, you know, Eric brought up past protection. I think he does have past protection. He's just not comfortable in that pocket yet. Once he gets comfortable in the pocket and he can go, so like CJ Stroud went through his progressions like this. One, two, three, throw. Right. Can he pick it goes one? Oh shit. This guy's gonna hit me, right? Damn, I got to get out of this pocket. Fuck. I gotta throw it away. Yeah, or he gets sacked, you know, and that's what he's got to fix. If he can't fix it, he'll be out of the league next year, right? Because you either fix that or you don't.

29:14 Chris Okay. So that's that, that, that whole question is, do you believe he'll fix it?

29:18 Steve I think he will. if he can get the right plays that allows him to feel comfortable in the pocket and to allow him to roll out every now and then and do that roll pass. They do that roll pass and it works out well. I think they just need to mix it up a little bit and maybe they have the plays and I don't think they're being called properly. And that's why I think Canada does have to go. And I think if they lose to Baltimore, I think you'll see that happen in the bi-week and you'll see Steve Sullivan come up and then you just let them play out the rest of the year. If he can better plays for Kenny to feel more comfortable. I think you'll see the offense be good enough because whether you like it or not, Tomlin is somewhat correct in saying the Steelers defense is better than most other defenses and they don't have to score 35 points. But if they can at least get the 24 or 28 on a consistent basis, I think they can win more games. And that's why I say to be determined because I do still have a little bit of faith that this team can put it together. And honestly, And if they beat Baltimore next week, they're still in a pretty good position because look at what, look at what Cincinnati bundles are doing in a bad, they suck. They've already beat the Browns and the Browns have already lost their quarterback for a little while. Who knows how long. Yeah. So, so that leaves them in, in the Ravens. And they will have a game up on the Ravens already. Well, I know that sounds way too optimistic and I get your angst about their offense. I feel the same way. But the sad thing is they probably get better if they lose to Baltimore, but have less of a chance of making the playoffs. Yes.

31:00 Marc But in the long run, I think it's better for the team for the year that lead that leads into my finals, my final Steelers question for the week. What do you think is the better outcome for this season? Steelers go 9-8, just barely missed the playoffs. That would be horrible. Steelers finish four and 13 and get a top seven pick. That would be horrible.

31:28 Steve I don't like either of those.

31:29 Marc I think four and I think four and 13 is the way to go. They need to hit rock bottom to start over and potentially get a new quarterback.

31:37 Steve Well, the Steelers aren't going to go four and 13, so you're going to have to pick another one.

31:42 Chris Honestly, I am not convinced of that. Seven and 10.

31:45 Steve You could say seven and ten.

31:46 Chris Listen, I am just I am not convinced of that now at this point, because I think that the team itself has completely lost its identity. No, that's absolutely false. Yeah. God, he's such a homer.

32:02 Steve I'll tell you why it's false.

32:04 Chris The defense is still good enough. The defense is still good enough. I don't think they are.

32:09 Chris I don't think they are. I think that defense, honestly, seriously, I'm being serious. I think that defense is terrible.

32:16 Marc This is what I think.

32:17 Chris I think their secondary is horrible. I think their linebackers are mediocre.

32:21 Steve Once they put Joey Porter Jr.

32:22 Chris back there.

32:23 Steve But they're not going to do that. They will. That will be one of the changes that he makes. But here's the thing. And that'll be immediate. You'll see that in the Baltimore game.

32:31 Marc But here's the thing. pretty good so far, but we don't know. He's barely played, right?

32:36 Steve We don't know about Christian Gonzalez from New England, but he's out there.

32:40 Marc Here's the thing. Honestly, honestly, I was playing. Here's the thing. I look at the Steelers defense and I say they've got a great defensive line. linebackers and secondary outside of Minka Fitzpatrick, very pedestrian. So if, if the Steelers don't get a pass rush, they're a bad defense.

33:00 Chris That's exactly right. That's what I'm saying.

33:01 Marc So they do get a pass rush most games. Yeah, but it's not, it's not, they're not good in layers.

33:11 Steve The only, the only, the only teams they lose to are the quarterbacks who can quickly make decisions. So far, so far. And that's, that's how you beat the Steelers. Yeah. I'm just saying that Lamar Jackson's going to try and run against them. That's not going to work. And that, that way they'll be in the game probably for most of the game. Well, that's the difference. That's the difference with the Steelers. That's why I have a little bit of faith that they can get it together because there aren't a lot of quarterbacks out there that can do that. C.J. Stroud clearly is a better talent than everybody has given him credit for. This kid could be the next Jalen Hurts.

33:49 Chris Yeah, he impressed me.

33:51 Steve And he's got a good coaching staff that's letting him grow quickly.

33:56 Chris Now, Debra says talking over each other is rude. Now, Debra, you don't know us very well, do you?

34:00 Chris Debra, Debra, Debra.

34:01 Chris You don't know each other very well. OK, so I am not sold on this anymore. I don't think Nagé is Wow. Yeah, I got to put this on my buddy from York. Jeff Paul is can't believe this, but I agree with Steve. They aren't going to panic. You know, you know what? Jeff's just doing that because he doesn't want to agree with me. Well, he's a smart man. I mean, come on, get a couple of Yorkers together. You can agree with me. Nevermind. Jeff DG says Tomlin certainly doesn't deserve another winning season. Only reinforce the status quo.

34:36 Steve I agree with David on that one hundred percent.

34:38 Chris And we got it. We got to get to our picks here. And then we have hockey Jesus in the house because the pencil is right around the corner. Eight days away. And we can we can talk about this until any moment away. way, some, some final, some final, some final words, some final words on this week. Okay. I think this week the Steelers were finally on a national level, on a local level, on every possible level, they were finally exposed. And it's not, it's not that like, we didn't know that in Pittsburgh. Right. I mean, the, the, the fire Canada screams from the stands still does. Right. So, but my, my concern, Steve, is that, Your take on the Steelers organization and how they do things is not going to change. Which, if that's the case, even if they lay a huge egg next week, would mean, in your example, that Canada is going to stick around. Tomlin is a loyalist. We could see Canada stick around to the end of this year. Now, given what's happened, I would think that that should be highly unlikely. Even so, if they get embarrassed by Baltimore, there'll be changes. Even, even so, even so, um, I am not, I do not think that this year is a year. This is the year where the Steelers are finally going to fall out of the shadow of Ben Roethlisberger. And they're going to realize that while Ben Roethlisberger from a personality standpoint in this city, is not was not always appreciated from a skill level standpoint on the football field. Look, he was a winner. You're not going to find the next Ben Roethlisberger. And if you don't, well, we didn't pick it. Well, of course, or Trubisky, which they talked about. And this Trubisky was always the Mark Malone. But this exposes, right, this exposes the Tomlin defensive mindset. The guy's a defensive mind. He can't evaluate offensive players. Now you can.

36:49 Chris I agree.

36:50 Chris They got Antonio Brown. They got they got what's his face? Le'Veon Bell. Well, what happened to Le'Veon Bell after he left the Steelers? He sucked. And what happened to A.B.? Whatever. So the point is that I think they are in for a few years of, dare I say, futility, because the NFL is a hard place to win, even if you do think they script the plays to help out Vandal. So I agree with you.

37:16 Steve I agree with you a hundred percent that the futility will only end after Tomlin gets retired and replaced, gets retired.

37:23 Chris I love that. So, so I, uh, now Jeff says if they fired Canada next year, bring in say Jason Garrett, do you think Tomlin could coexist? No, no, he won't bring in because Jason Garrett, Jason Garrett is a cowboy and he only wants to do cowboy things, which is like hang out with really hot chicks on, on the Fox news. Wow. Okay. on the Fox news channel or whatever. You know what I'm talking about? You know what I'm saying?

37:48 Marc All right. Let's get to, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah.

37:51 Chris Yeah. Is it that one right there?

37:53 Marc No.

37:53 Chris Yeah. I think it was this right there. It's a whole bunch of Mark Schwab's around a whole bunch of Mark Schwab.

38:00 Steve Let's get to the picks. All right. Okay.

38:02 Chris Let's do them quick. All right. So last week, leave your picks in the comment. Yeah. Yeah. Last week, uh, last week, last week, last week, last week, uh, I had the, uh, that's the wrong one. Uh, last week I had, uh, the lions Mark and Mark and Chris had the lion. Steve had the Packers. We all had the chiefs, which we almost all lost. And, uh, Mark and Steve had the, uh, the bills and I had the dolphins. Currently our record stands at, I do have it up on the ticker here. pretty close. Um, I don't know why it didn't change itself. It likes your telephone. Uh, Mark, Mark is six and three. Steve is, uh, five and four. And I am, you got your first win. I no, no, no, no. I'm four and five.

38:57 Marc or starting a round out like last year.

39:01 Steve All right. Uh, yeah. So this early, I believe I was on the bottom for a while.

39:05 Chris You were this week. Uh, the first game we are, the first game we are picking is the Cowboys at the Niners back to the nineties. Fellas back to the nineties. I think it's Cowboys at the Niners. Yeah. Yeah. Cowboys at Niners. The girls at the Winers. Yeah, typical. Typical.

39:27 Steve Mark's calling for a tie here. I know it.

39:31 Marc He hates both of these teams. Should I start us out?

39:33 SPEAKER_00 I do.

39:33 Marc I do hate both these teams with a passion, but I'm going to go per turd. Per turd? I'm going to go Niners. I think they will win and remain undefeated.

39:47 Steve I got the boys in an upset.

39:49 Chris Alright, and I'm going with Hall of Fame. The Niners. Hasn't lost yet.

39:55 Steve He has not. It's like betting against Brady.

39:59 Chris I told you how good he was. I'm glad I traded him. I'm finally going to get a chance to watch a full game from my former favorite team, the Bears at the Redskins slash Commanders. Don't say that's a bad word. What is this, the Sunday night game?

40:21 Chris No, Thursday night.

40:22 Marc It's the Thursday night game at commander. Who you got? Uh, didn't the bears just win this? No, they lost. They were winning 28 to three. I'm going to, I'm going to go commanders. Yeah. I can't pick the bears. How can you pick the bears?

40:42 Chris I mean, that's got to go with that team from Washington. And I got to go with Sam Howell. I liked the way the kid plays. He's got, he he's, he's got grit, no doubt. So we're all going with the commander. Should have went for two against the Eagles. All right, here is the must-win game of Kirk Cousins' career. Chiefs at the Vikings. Listen, man. Chiefs at the Vikings. I know, and if the Vikings lose this game,

41:10 Steve Well, you know what that means? That means the Jets finally get their quarterback.

41:13 SPEAKER_00 That's all that means.

41:15 Chris Who they get? Kirk Cousins. Yeah. That's where the, wherever, whatever they've been saying. And you know what happened? If that guy is smart, he will stay as far away from New York as he possibly can.

41:25 Steve You know, he doesn't want to go. He's a, he's a family guy.

41:28 Chris He wants to stay in Minnesota. So who's going to win? Chiefs, Vikings. They had better hockey. Absolutely must win for the Vikings. Absolute must win. Yep.

41:36 Steve Must win for the Viking. I'll go chiefs.

41:39 Chris Me too. I'm going, I'm, I'm going with my, with my boy, Kurt cousins.

41:44 Marc I think it's going to be a shootout though. They have no defense in Minnesota.

41:48 Chris I think it's going to be like a 35 31 game, but I got to tell you, I know that the jets defense is actually surprisingly fast and pretty.

41:56 Steve No, they're good. They're just young.

41:58 Chris So they still make some mistakes. But Pat, my homes, in that game. made some errors that even good defenses, like it was almost like he wasn't really thinking.

42:10 Marc Yeah, he wasn't. I mean, the chiefs, I mean, look, the chiefs are kind of very similar to the Eagles in that they're three in one, but they've been underwhelming.

42:20 Steve Is this where we get to the talk about Taylor Swift that I've been waiting for? Good Lord. One more comment.

42:26 Chris Mark's Eagles almost choked against TDs commanders this past week. Commanders win this week. Thank you, DG. All right, fine. You want to talk about Taylor Swift?

42:35 Steve We have to talk about the Swift effect because it's clearly affecting the Kansas City Chiefs as a team.

42:42 Marc You mean in a bad way? Yes, in a bad way. But all these little girls are going out getting Kelsey jerseys.

42:50 Steve Hey, by the way, if you do have any Travis Kelsey, like cards or anything, put them on eBay. Now they're gone like wildfire. Like you're not going to get a higher value. And I'm saying this because the Swifty, the Swifty talk will all be over in a couple of weeks. And here's why. Okay. Are you ready? Are you ready? I'm ready. Swiftie. Okay. Get out your notebook because this is what has happened. Taylor Swift about four weeks ago finished her, uh, concert in the North America because she went down North America for a while. Right. Right. And instead of taking eight weeks off, like most of us would do and just put our feet up and just be like, eh, I'm going to be going over to the Europe. I'm going over the Rome in two months.

43:31 Chris You're talking if we were worth like $800 million. Right. Okay. Right. Right. I don't know if like a guy that works at a gas station says, I'm going to take eight weeks off and go to Europe.

43:42 Steve She's in between gigs, you know, she's got a big movie coming out, by the way, everybody should go see the heiress tour at their local movie theater. Even if they've seen the heiress tour at their local concert venue. Oh, this will be much better. I can't wait. Mark's going with Amy. I know they're going.

43:56 Chris I'm going to drag my wife kicking and screaming to that.

44:00 Steve Oh, absolutely. You have to know if you if you need a vest, I got a vest.

44:04 Marc Yeah.

44:04 Steve I'd rather have straps. Now you'll have to use your own straps. I'm sure you have some up in the bedroom somewhere.

44:11 Marc You're hilarious. So what's the what's the bottom line?

44:15 Steve The bottom line, the bottom line is over what she figured out was she's got to bring more people in to watch a movie. And that's what she's doing. She basically looked and said, Hey, Travis, Kelsey's a meathead. One, I can easily dupe him in the thinking that I like him too. Three, I can go to every football game. I can get my face planted there and I can be a national icon to a bunch of people who don't know me because let's face it. Most people, meatheads that are watching NFL football have no care in the world for Taylor Swift. Unless she's dating a tight end, the best tight end who just won the Super Bowl for Kansas City. She was like, yeah, I'll use him. So that's what she's doing. She's using him probably for this weekend and next weekend. Then guess what? She's flying off to Rome. She's got her international tour there. This will all be behind us in two weeks. You won't have to hear anything about Taylor Swift until maybe the Super Bowl, because I think her tour is over somewhere around when the Super Bowl ends.

45:17 Chris So you don't think this has nothing to do with love for her?

45:20 Steve It's absolute brilliant marketing on her. Dude, think about all the free marketing she's gotten from the NFL, the single biggest marketing.

45:30 Marc So are you saying that she's pulling one over on Donna Kelsey as well?

45:34 Steve No, she's pulling one over on the whole Kelsey family, the whole NFL and the world and all the media that goes with it. She's just duping them. And it's brilliant marketing.

45:48 Marc I thought you thought that Taylor Swift was a nice person. She is.

45:52 Steve No, she's a very smart business person. Think how many more millions, hundreds of millions of dollars she's going to get from her movie royalties because there are going to be that many more people going to see the movie. because she's been relevant these last two weeks, not just because of the tour, because all the Swifties, including myself, will be going to see this in the movie theater. Now she's going to get everybody else who kind of heard about her through Travis, Kelsey, and they're going to go now, too. It's brilliant.

46:23 Chris It's absolutely brilliant. I'm with you a hundred. I'm with you a hundred percent. And I think I don't think, though, that she's I'm not with you. I think the Kelsey's are in on it. That's what I'm saying.

46:35 Steve Well, yeah, I think you're right. I think you're probably right.

46:38 Marc I think he, I think he really likes her. I think she might even like him. So, so it's love guys.

46:44 Steve You both make, you both wins. You both make brilliant points. It could turn out to be a mad love affair. We don't know what's actually happening behind doors. Yeah. And that's what makes this show great.

46:54 Marc I don't find special someone.

46:56 Chris I don't find Taylor Swift that attractive.

47:01 Marc She looks like a little girl.

47:03 Steve She reminds me of my sister. I would like to have her around and have some of her money, but to date her… to be in love with her. And she just, no.

47:14 Marc Yeah, no, I agree. I don't, I don't get it at all.

47:17 Steve But no, she's, she's a brilliant business woman and this is what it is. And you heard it here first. Tell all your friends, you heard it at the sports porch. It's a business.

47:27 Chris It's not, it's not personal.

47:29 Steve It's business. It's possible. I don't think so. I think he looks at her and be like, wow, if I can get some of those hundreds of millions.

47:37 Marc I mean, I believe in Kelsey and Swift. There you go.

47:41 Steve That's nice, Mark. Yeah.

47:43 Chris You should go see the movie. You know what? You know, what's really funny is that as they. Uh, what does he just say?

47:51 Marc I think David's a little bit of a fan. Oh, Wendy Cody in the house.

47:55 Steve What's going on, sis? Wendy, you're probably right. I'm sure she wouldn't want to date any of us.

48:01 Marc I wouldn't date Taylor Swift. Amy May is my lady.

48:05 Steve Back off, Swift. Wendy, there's only one person in this room has actually met Taylor Swift, and let me tell you, it's not the two chumps beside me. That's right.

48:13 Marc Yeah, yeah. You mean above you? Yeah.

48:23 Chris Mike says she goes through men like babies.

48:25 Steve Mike's not wrong.

48:25 Chris Yeah. Yeah. Who knows? Who knows? So yeah, that's my, that's the Swiftie effect. I think, I think, you know what? And I, I, I think you're right, Steve. And, and, and that's where we're going to end it. Cause I am so sick and tired of hearing about this.

48:38 Marc sick of Taylor Swift.

48:39 Chris It'll be over in a couple of weeks, a couple of weeks.

48:41 Steve Get, get rid of, get rid of the, she's going to be, she's going to be a Rome at the end of the month. She's got plenty of concerts to do.

48:47 Chris She'll be out of these broadcasters like Tariqo last night, like free publicity, everything out of his mouth was a Taylor Swift song. Like he was, he was putting sentences together with the title of the Taylor Swift. I didn't even know, honestly, I, I, I wasn't paying attention. And after a while I was like, What's wrong with Mike Tereso? Did he have a stroke? Somebody said Taylor Swift and I'm like, oh my God.

49:14 Steve Come on, please. Can we stop this? Free publicity, man.

49:18 Chris I'm telling you. Like we need it. Enough. Okay. The rich get richer. And dare I say, that's how it should be. um yeah come on let's get to some hockey come on we got a little bit of time left listen hockey is right around the corner right around the corner and steve is literally shaking and sweating with excitement he's put together about 500 different spreadsheets um three hockey jesus and hockey jesus will be preaching on the podcast after every single penguins game this year also known as hockey jesus you can hear You can hear him on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere you get your friggin' podcasts. I'm going to have to change that because I'm going to have to get a Penguin's accent. Sounds like a Russian, like Genome Alchemist. I'm going to work on that. I don't want to embarrass myself. That sounds awful.

50:13 Steve I must break you. Yes, there you go. Hey guys, breaking news. I've decided that this Wednesday is when the spectacular is coming out for us.

50:27 Marc Spectacular. Everybody look out Wednesday. Awesome.

50:31 Chris Are you going to have a little whiskey before you do that? A little bourbon? No, I had enough Saturday for a while. After we left. Yeah, I knew that fire went on for a while.

50:39 Steve Was Scott there? Uh, no, we, it was probably only gone for about another hour and I actually did not pour myself another drink after you left.

50:47 Chris I told my wife on the way home, I said, there is a better than 50 50 shot that that whole chief's conversation ends up happening. But obviously it didn't. Okay. Hockey Jesus get laid on us, laid on us.

50:59 Steve Okay. So everybody knows hockey season's above us. right around the corner is above us. It's coming down from the heavens, right? Just like we love it. And, um, the penguins have a brand new team this year. I mean, there's no other way to put it. The top six are intact. So basically this year's team is going to be made of top six guys and bottom six guys. And really they're to me, I think there are four keys for the penguins this year. One, they got to have health from their top six. Two, Sully's got to figure out if his 30-year-old guys can skate with 20-year-old guys. That one, I think, is probably the biggest problem that he's got to overcome. Because, let's face it, can we drink with, well, you don't drink anymore. Can we drink with 20-some-year-olds? No. Can we skate with 20-some-year-olds? Hell no. Well, I can't skate. Right. So, yeah. I can inline skate. And rap at the same time, right, Mark? Yes, yeah. So I think that's probably his biggest problem. I like that kind of party. And then, uh, the third one, they got to find a surprise guy. You know, the, the, the shiny toy right now is this red deems a Horner and he may not even make the team. Everybody likes, you know, O'Connor. They think maybe he's the guy. They got to find somebody in the bottom six. Who's going to score like 18 to 25 goals. It could be Lars Eller, but chances aren't, aren't very good. He's the center, get centerman on the third line. It could be this Achari. He might be the guy, but he's going to have to play through third line minutes on the fourth line in order to do that. And then fourth, everybody knows it's about the goalie. If Jari is not the guy, they did go out and get a couple other guys. you know, needle nose Ned and, uh, you know, Magnus, your buddy.

52:43 Chris Yeah. I love that name. And I love that he's huge. He's I say, screw Jari, put this big guy in. He's as big as the whole net. Just having to move. They got it. They got to thread the needle on every single shot.

52:57 Steve Like that Geico commercial. Yeah. What is that? It was from like four years ago. I'm showing my age a little bit. Yeah. So the goal, they're going to have to figure out a rotation. I think, you know, maybe Jerry's going to be the guy, they said, you know, whatever hip problem that he had last year, chronic hip problem is suddenly gone away. So I tell it comes back. Yeah. So I think that's going to be probably the last, last thing that you're going to have to look for. So I think, you know, if they can address those four things, look, you should be excited about this penguin team this year. They're way different with Carlson. Oh my God. I've only watched two games so far and Carlson only played in one of them. Dude, he plays like a forward. Like he doesn't even think about not going to the net. When the puck is going down the ice, he's skating down the ice. He is not stopping at the blue line. He's going right for the net every time. So Graves is going to have to figure out how to play with him. He's gonna, he's their new defenseman that they got from New Jersey. So once they figured that out, I think they'll be okay. But It could be a bumpy start, really could. The good news is, is Gensel looks like he's ahead of schedule. You know, they said he's probably gonna miss five games. They're talking about maybe he might even be ready for the home opener. I doubt it. I'm sure he wants to play. I say give him a rest, man. He's skating already and they said he's skating. He's feeling really good. It's about the feel, you know, when it comes down to it. But I also know. It's not like it's a broken bone.

54:20 Chris In professional sports in general, they like to rush people back. for obvious reasons. And, you know, when you got a guy like Gensel and it's a sport like hockey and a C injury, he has, and it's a long season. Let him exactly let him be healthy. That that's my take on it.

54:37 Steve I agree with you. And I would rather see somebody up in that that top six because let's face it, that top six isn't going to be healthy all year. Somebody is going to miss some games. I mean, they got lucky last year.

54:48 Marc So what's what's the outlook this year for Will Butcher?

54:54 Steve Who the hell is Will Butcher? He's definitely not going to start with the team. So that means he'll end up in Wilkes-Barre, Scranton. Depending on injuries, I mean, they let Ty Smith go. He was the experiment with Marino. So he's actually probably moved up. up the notch and moved up a couple notches because of that. He's still a work in progress. I don't think you'll see him this year, to be honest with you. Unless, let's see, both POJ and LeTang or Peterson go down for a significant period of time. Then maybe you'll see him.

55:33 Marc So we're not going to be able to use him as like an update?

55:37 Steve No, you're not going to be able to use him. Magnus would be a great guy, but he's probably only going to get spot starts.

55:46 Chris No, I knew that's what he was looking for. Yeah. He's looking for a guy up the horn. It's nasty.

55:51 Marc How about Vinnie? Henna?

55:53 Steve Stroh's Henna. Stroh's. It could be. Yeah. So Henna Stroh's is right now plugged in the first line with Sid until it comes back.

56:01 Marc Okay.

56:01 Steve Henna Stroh's update. It could be Vinnie. It could be Vinnie. Yeah. I love it. Vincenzo.

56:08 Chris My concern this year with them is pretty much what you said yours was last year. They had problems because of their, I mean, I, I use the phrase loosely, but because of their age, um, and they're not, they got older. There's not. Yeah. And, and so this year it's kind of like, You know, can they skate with these younger teams? They still have the talent. But, you know, I'm more concerned about injuries. Yeah, of course. And but with the addition of Carlson now, you know, OK, so you're going to have your scoring should get a nice little bump there because you got a guy who plays who's a defenseman who really is an offenseman.

56:45 Marc Well, right for lack of a better term is an offensive defenseman.

56:49 Steve Well, he's actually not even the defenseman He's just pure offense and what he what he's really great at is on the power play. He's he's a super He's this guy who can distribute the puck like super quick. Yeah, so I So if they're they're really gonna have I'm giving a little bit away for Wednesday's night But they're gonna have to have a top five power play in order to survive some of the other Five on five play that's gonna be a debacle first game Chicago, right?

57:16 Chris I'll go.

57:16 Steve Yep Homer at home. I Connor Bedard. Are you first game? Are you going? I got tickets. Yeah.

57:22 Chris Oh, we're going to have a, we're going to have a hockey Jesus report for live.

57:26 Steve Oh yeah, for sure. Absolutely.

57:28 Chris Live. All right. Listen, Igloo. Listen, I want to, I just want to remind everybody that, uh, starting on, what is it? Friday, right? Friday? Yeah. Is that the game? When's the game? Uh, the game is Tuesday. Oh, next Tuesday. I was going to say Friday's the day I get my colonoscopy.

57:45 Steve Oh, well you love that day.

57:46 Chris That's like your most favorite day of the year.

57:47 Marc There's a lot of those going around these days.

57:49 Chris I know there it is, but let me tell you, man, look, first of all, for your health, if you're over 50, do it. Get a colonoscopy. Second.

57:57 Steve Oh wait, Breast Cancer Awareness Month too for you girls out there. Yep. Check them out. That's exactly right.

58:03 Chris I agree. I agree.

58:04 Steve That's how my wife caught hers early. We push healthy living here.

58:08 Chris It's serious. But back to the colonoscopy, let me tell you the stuff they give you to knock you out for the colonoscopy. If you appreciate that kind of stuff, that's the kind of stuff I could get behind for all of us. It's awesome. Yeah. All right, guys. Listen, Hockey Jesus will be preaching starting Tuesday night after every Penguins game. this Wednesday. So two days from now, we're going to have a hockey Jesus. Not, I don't think we're going to do a live on Facebook. You're just going to do the podcast, right? Yeah. Okay. So this Wednesday, just keep an eye on social media because we'll let you know when the podcast drops. And, uh, a few teams admitted knowing what was kind of, I don't know what I'm looking at here. I, there were some, I always like to get these comments and have a good week. Everyone from Jeff bottoms up, Chris. Good luck. Uh, so thanks guys for watching. Uh, as always, we appreciate you watching on social media, uh, Facebook, uh, LinkedIn X, uh, and, uh, what's the other one? YouTube. That's right. Thanks for another informative and entertaining show. You're welcome, DJ. Thanks for calling in. Really appreciate it. Visit us at the porch is live.com. We did it boys. The porch is live.com.

59:18 Chris ThePorchIsLive.com.

59:22 Chris Ah, there we go. Let's go. Here we go. It's called timing.

59:26 Marc It's called timing. Raven's coming into town.

59:29 Steve We've got to beat those birds.

59:32 Chris I'm not feeling good, but… Thank you for listening to the Sports Ports Podcast. We're going to drop the podcast right after the show. You can find it on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Don't worry about it cuz I got a lot of I got a lot of shit to say Wow. That was a good one. Damn.