The Porch Is Live - The Steelers Sh*t the bed!

00:00 Chris off this shit. I do. I absolutely love it. Try pushing the button. There we go. I feel like we started the show twice tonight. Does anybody else feel that way? Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Only for the real followers. Welcome to the Sports Porch, Pittsburgh. You are watching us right now on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, all over the world. And no silly games. You are listening to us live on Radio PGH from the bunker in Monroeville, Pittsburgh's first, only and best Internet radio station. And man, are we excited? How about you?

00:48 Mark I'm excited, but i'll tell you what My neck has been bothering me because I keep watching christian mccaffrey. He keeps on running.

00:56 Chris Oh my god And I also want to remind you give you whiplash We drop the podcast right after the show on the iheart radio app apple podcast spotify or anywhere you get your freaking podcasts anywhere and you can always visit us at that thing down there in the ticker, the porch is live.com. The porch is live.com. The porch is live.com. That is right. Welcome to the show. Drop a comment. Uh, I'm going to make one quick statement about the pirates. Um, let's get back to the steeler. The Buccos report has unceremoniously been suspended until a final report at the end of the year when they played their last game. I will give you my thoughts. My prayers go to Andrew McCutcheon. I hated seeing him go down because it was a feel-good story. 299. But you want to know what? Listen. He'll be back. The season's over, and I don't care what anybody says. And I got a lot to say. The pirate will be back. There's no doubt.

01:56 Steve That's why I thought you got rid of it, because I know he was really expensive to keep on. I know he's we couldn't afford it.

02:02 Mark They wore you down.

02:03 Chris They wore you down. The problem is you didn't want to guarantee me enough money, Chris.

02:07 Mark It was too much. Yeah.

02:09 Steve Too much money. Yeah.

02:10 Mark We'll bring it back. He finally said, I've had enough.

02:13 Steve I think he went to the Kansas City Chiefs because it seems like they're giving up.

02:16 Chris They are handing out lots of money. So let's bring it back to the Steelers. And we're going to bring it back to the Steelers. So what I have to say about the Steelers right now is, oh, boy, not good. Not good. I have one word. Look, I went over to Steve's house in Had to get out. Greenfield yesterday. Come to the same place. Thanks for the invite. Yeah. We didn't think you'd want to watch it. I wouldn't have. I know. So I went over to see you too. I went over. We saved a dime. We saved a dime. And a little bit of queso. He did serve up some incredibly dry chicken tenders. Oh, they were terrible. I'm glad you said that because I didn't tell my wife that when I got home. Oh no, they were terrible.

02:58 Steve Here's the thing, I went to the grocery store to get wings like a normal person would. Clearly everybody in Pittsburgh had the same idea the day before.

03:10 Chris Yeah. Well, lesson learned. You don't go to the grocery store to get wings.

03:14 Steve If you would have invited yourself the day before, then I could have did it.

03:18 Chris I did invite myself. That is true. I did. I was like, I'm coming over.

03:23 Steve Actually, normally we do have some, we do have some wings normally in the freezer, but for some reason they were in there pretty long and I just wanted to do them up like a couple of weeks ago and they were, they were terrible. And you did them up.

03:33 Chris Yeah, well, they were, you know, they would get freezer burn. Well, you didn't do the chicken tenders up. That's for sure.

03:38 Steve Oh, well, that's because that was the popcorn chicken. Don't ever get popcorn chicken.

03:42 Chris It's not real chicken. That's the problem. The chicken was it and it was good. Say like that, like that, like you're surprised.

03:48 Steve It's not real chicken. No, no, it was real chicken in, but there was so much breading around it. It was it was it was not good.

03:56 Chris The saving grace, though, before we get into how wonderful the Steelers game was, the saving grace was the bottle, the jar of Tostitos queso. Oh, yeah, I knew that that would fix everything. Yeah, I was dipping them right in. Oh, yeah. And that queso is really good.

04:12 Steve Tostitos queso is pretty good.

04:14 Mark That's very low level. It is low level. We had the famous Schwab nachos at my place. It's another level.

04:23 Steve Thanks for the invite.

04:25 Mark We're seasoning up the meat. We've got minced onion in there. We've got garlic.

04:32 Steve Well, it didn't help the Steelers on Sunday.

04:34 Mark It didn't. It didn't, and nor could much help the Steeler.

04:39 Chris So as of right now, I think we're going to invite ourselves to Schwab's house next week. We're just going to show up. Yeah, we're just going to show up. Where are those goddamn watches?

04:48 Steve Well, actually, we'll be here on Monday night next week.

04:51 Chris There's no game on Sunday for either of us. Oh, yeah, that's true. Okay. So, um, I, in the description of the, uh, social media posts that people are watching now, I literally put in there the Steelers shit the bed because the Steelers shit the bed. They did. And, um, I look, I, I don't think I'm going to take any flack for this, But I honest to God, I can't believe I have to say this again. I can't believe I have to go down this road We tried to avoid talking about it as much as we could in the offseason. I blame Matt Canada Listen and let me tell you please grateful land. Everybody's gonna talk not the right way Everybody's going to talk about the passes that Kenny Pickett missed. I know, I get it. Everybody's going to talk about the offensive line not performing well. I know, I get it. Everybody's going to talk about the 49ers and how great they are. Yes, they're a great team right now, but honest to God, there was no game plan. None. I have yet to see this guy put a real game plan together. I don't care what anybody has to say. If I was the Steelers brass today, and I'm not, that guy would not have a job. It's time to move on.

06:11 Mark It's all yours, Steve. No, I will make a comment. Please mark they had one play for positive yardage and they took that long to go to Jet sweep Amy wants to know why negative play Amy wants to know why?

06:29 Chris Why mark was not invited Steve and Chris? Well, Amy, it was simple.

06:34 Steve Chris invited himself.

06:35 Mark Obviously, they're closer friends, and I've been left out.

06:39 Chris Can't you answer your own question, Amy? I mean, is it that hard? OK, can I get to the real analysis of the game? Let's get the comments in. Luke Morrell. Hello again, gentlemen. Wow, what a day yesterday. Didn't expect that. DG back in the house. Blaine Canada. It's not as if the second play was a jet sweep. Oh, wait, it was a jet sweep. Absolutely. So negative yards. OK. Okay, here's the deal. Is this the immaculate perception?

07:04 Steve Yes, this is the immaculate perception from yesterday's game, right? Okay, everybody pull out your notebooks Get a pen and paper ready because this is this is what really happened and there's no way to fix it So I'm sorry, there's no fixing but I can tell you what happened yesterday. It's real simple. I the 49ers have a better players have better coaching staff, are ready to make the next level to get to the Super Bowl. Okay. The Pittsburgh Steelers are pretenders. Okay. They, both teams have a second year quarterback, but both teams have supposedly some of the best coaching in the league. Yesterday, I think that the Steelers can easily say that they don't have the best coaching in the league. They completely got outcoached. And here's how I know. The Steelers run a pass. Well, first of all, Tomlin outsmarted himself. They won the toss. You put the defense out there, not the offense. He made the mistake before a play was even done.

08:16 Chris I thought they elected to receive.

08:18 Steve Here's the thing, I don't… They did. Oh, yeah, okay. But they won the toss. You always defer and you put your best players out there. That's the defense, Mike Tomlin. Right. Coach T, it's the defense, okay? Yeah, definitely the better team. It's the defense, right?

08:32 Mark Yep, yep, yep. I don't completely agree, though.

08:35 Steve Well, here's why I know I'm right. Because when they came out, not only did they not have a plan, they threw the ball, I was like, throw, throw, throw. Chris can attest to this throw, throw, throw. First thing they did, they throw, they get seven or six or seven yards, right? Okay, good. Yeah. Next play jet sweep. Okay. Dumb idea. No big deal. You still got third and five, right? Yep. Incomplete pass. He may even got sacked because the, the, the pressure was too much or Kenny got felt the pressure and he couldn't complete the pass. They punt the ball. And I think before they punted the ball, they were offsides twice and they got moved back a couple of times. And, and the punt was like, starting to have PTSD. Right. And then the punt was like 35 yards. So they start with on, on our 45 yard line because we elected to take the ball. That's all about coaching, right? That's terrible coaching. So, so now you give Brock Purdy a short field. What did they do first? They threw the ball, they got a five yard game. What did they do second? They ran a jet sweep. Their second play was a jet sweep and they did it for positive yards.

09:46 Chris Yeah. Well, I think that was the thing. I actually think that was Shanahan making fun of Tom when he called the same first two plays.

09:52 Steve I think he was basically exactly right. He's like, we're just going to play there. We're going to show them how good we are, how much better we are than them. Whatever they do, we're going to do it better. And then on third down, they got the first down. And then after that, they go down and they score a touchdown and the game was over and everybody felt that way.

10:09 Mark I'm going to, I'm going to disagree for a second though here, please. You know, I feel like it, no granted. I mean, obviously yesterday proved that the preseason is preseason, right? But the offense looked very, very good in the preseason. You're playing against a very difficult 49ers team. Why not show your offense that you've got confidence in them. Take the ball first, go down, score and get a lead.

10:37 Steve Well, because I don't see I don't I don't have a problem here here's why I have a problem with it because you're playing against a much better defense and They have they're so caught up in what they're doing. They don't check themselves against anything else They had to know that 49ers defense was so good. I mean, did you have you seen two better linebackers? I since maybe Jack Lambert and Jack Ham were on the field for the Steelers. I mean, they were everywhere. They were monsters. When they tackled, they tackled basically to knock your head off. Greenlaw could cover the whole field, right? In Warner was just a beast. The only thing he did was miss a Almost a handcrafted interception. Did he drop it? I still don't know how you drop that But so so that's my that's my that's my that's my fault with the Pittsburgh Steelers. They don't check themselves They don't say what's our best way of winning this game putting the defense out in there get a three and out maybe get a special teams Calvin Austin the third return right three And, and now we're in a better position and, and we are going to get the ball at the second half. Instead, everybody knows that the Steelers are never prepared coming out in the second half. Now they got, now they have to defend. And what happens? 65 yards, 75 yard run for a touchdown on the very first play. I blame the coaching staff for thinking that they were better than they were when they know they were playing against Inferior defenses. And, and, and that just makes Kenny Pickett less better as a quarterback as the year goes on. Yeah. I, I think put him in a bad situation and he looked terrible. Don't get me wrong, but they put him in a situation to basically say, you got to go out there and do this now against the best defense that you've ever played against probably since he started in your life. after he's played against two bit, uh, you know, third people who are from Atlanta who probably aren't even in the NFL anymore. The last time he was on the field, right? It's just, it's too big of a leap and they should have known that. And they didn't. And the reason they didn't is because they're buying into the hype that they had this team prepared and they weren't. They absolutely were not prepared to see what it did. And the other thing I fought this coaching staff for is their inability to play the talent that's out there. Broderick Jones absolutely needs to be on the field. So does Joey Porter jr. These guys are the best talent that we have. Clearly Patrick Peterson has no speed to be able to cover guys on the outside.

13:09 Chris It's why I don't think he played horribly though.

13:12 Steve He didn't play horribly because he was letting guys in front of him and then Purdy, Purdy, Purdy recognized he wasn't going to get behind him.

13:20 Chris So what do you do?

13:20 Steve He just lets it throw in front of them. Right. And here's the thing about Brock Purdy. I know you're going to say Hall of Fame, but Brock Purdy is exactly what the Steelers want in a quarterback. Absolutely. He doesn't make mistakes. He's not very good, but he can, he can hit the offensive. Wide receiver he can find the right guy quickly so that he and he's comfortable in the pocket He's super comfortable in the park and he's also the benefit the beneficiary of a great coaching staff Yep, and a much better supporting cast and in here's how you know that the Pittsburgh Steelers have inferior players They ran the same plays. They just executed them. And yeah, some of that is coaching, but ultimately it comes down to the players executing the plays. Kenny Pickett did not. I think Kenny Pickett is going to get better. I don't think, I do believe that, you know, he threw for, he was probably in the top 15 of passing yards yesterday.

14:20 Chris Yeah.

14:20 Steve But that's because he was, I'm just, I'm just saying that like, if you ask him to throw the ball, the guy can throw the ball. He just needs to get more comfortable in the pocket. He needs to stop taking chances to guys like Hayward across the middle. And he needs to start, he needs to start throwing the ball. The people like Pickens, it seems like Deontay is going to be out for a little while. So it's going to be Calvin Austin, the third and Alan Robinson. He's going to have to hit now.

14:45 Chris Yes. So DG says the offensive line was consistently beaten in the Niners offensive line consistently blew the Steelers defensive line back off the ball. Yes. But you've been talking about the coaching and that's where I'm falling on Canada on this. Okay. So you've got, you've got accidents. Good one. Luke, you've got plays where Connor Hayward is essentially going long. Like who dialed that up? Yeah. Matt Canada dialed that up. Right. OK. Like Kenny Pickett to me yesterday. Look like a guy who, first of all, was playing nervous. All right. You're going to have butterflies. It's your first official start of the season as the Steelers in as the Steelers quarterback you're playing against. Right. The best team you've ever played against in your life at this point. Best defense. Right. Absolutely. And there's high expectations. And this guy is dialing up, you know, long downfield passes over the middle to a fullback. I mean, tight end fullback, whatever.

15:56 Mark Well, since Canada has taken over the role as offensive coordinator of the Steelers, they have not had one game with more than 400 yards of offense in that period of time. 261 times other teams have had over 400 yards.

16:13 Chris Okay, so need we say any more? I mean, seriously. Canada does not… We do need to say more.

16:19 Steve Well, and you can say all you want. The reason Canada is the offensive… We do need to say more. The offensive coordinators, because Coach Tomlin wants him to be the offensive coordinator. He can fire him at any time. So if you have a problem with Canada, you have a bigger problem with Tomlin because he's the one who's keeping Canada.

16:38 Chris Mike Tomlin just scares me, though. I don't want him to get mad.

16:41 Steve Yeah, well, I can understand that. But you know I can tell you coach T's Conference after the game yesterday inspired no confidence at all in me because what he was saying was just a bunch of gobbledygook Yeah, and he always says that he's good at that But but the one thing he did say was that you know, we need to go back to the chalkboard and we need to go back to the drawing board, which means they didn't have it right at all. They didn't, their game plan was wrong. They're the way the, the people who produced their game plan was wrong. And they've got to be able to do that better next week against Cleveland or if their season could be over.

17:21 Chris Oh yeah. Very, very quickly.

17:23 Steve Not good to, to home losses. If you, if you lose the Cleveland on Monday night, yeah, that, yeah. You you might see more Cleveland fans in the stands than 49ers fans in the stands on Monday.

17:37 Chris Yep Yep, and Luke Luke who's chiming in here a lot. Thanks Luke Mac. You should be coaching new Palestine football No, I think that's where he went to high school and can we ask Haley if he's interested no, he's he's golfing yeah, yeah, and I don't think he's

17:54 Steve And Luke, as far as the slipping incidents, that all has to do with the fact that Pitt played there the night before. And the other thing that has to do with is when players feel like they have to do more than they're capable of doing, they won't be focusing on how they're moving their body in space. They'll be thinking they've got to do more than they can and they'll slip.

18:15 Mark Yeah. There are some positives. I, I, by the way, I agree.

18:21 Steve You guys, I agree.

18:21 Mark There's one positive. Did you guys see Washington block?

18:26 Steve Oh yeah. He's, he's a beast. He pancaked Bosa. Yeah.

18:31 Chris No. And when that happened, I said, why isn't he in the game more? I mean, look, Fry and Muth got injured. I get it. But, but this goes directly to your point, Steve, you draft these guys, you draft them high. Broderick Jones, right. We analyze, Steve actually goes back.

18:47 Steve Uh, and I haven't done the tape for this game because broderick jones was in like for four snacks Yeah, but he went back during the game.

18:53 Chris He would rewind the play and be like, okay Who who lost their guy on this play? It was dan moore every single time more jr. Yeah, almost every jones should be in no doubt about it darnell washington Just on the fact that his athleticism and his size alone make him a big strong offensive lineman who can pancake joey, uh nick bosa He should be in the game more. They should be utilizing him over the middle to throw the ball to and I'm sorry guys, and I know this this may or may not be and we'll get to the punter mic in a second There's a comment coming up this may or may not be popular and I've been singing this song for a little while But nausea Harris is not the answer. He was better than Jalen Warren yesterday I, but Jalen Warren, I don't look at Jalen Warren as a replacement for him. I think Jalen Warren is, is, uh, uh, definitely a good third down change of pace back. Who's going to give you that, that, that should be fair to be fair though.

19:53 Mark Did Nigel Harris get much of a chance?

19:55 Steve He had six. six rushes. Yeah. And one was actually a pretty good run.

20:01 Chris 22 yards. But, but I'm, I'm, I'm just, I'm just telling you not the guy because nobody's afraid of him. And, and, and, and he's not, he's not the guy I, and, and I know Steelers nation doesn't want to hear that. And I certainly don't want to say it, but I got to, you know, it's truth, man. Najee Harris is not the guy, and we're in year number three now, and I know it's only one game, and I know it's against a great defense, but we've been saying this game after game for the last three years, and he has not made a difference. They haven't made the playoffs.

20:38 Mark I'll tell you who does make a difference is TJ Watt. I don't think I've seen a game that good on the other end of such a lopsided loss of my life.

20:50 Steve When you take a three sack effort from a guy like TJ Watt and you just basically throw it in the toilet, that's not good. Right. Yeah.

20:58 Mark He was, he was excellent.

21:00 Steve He was a beast. Yeah. He was a beast. Yeah. Yeah. He's worth all the money that you got him. I mean, honestly, he almost had two fumble recoveries.

21:08 Chris Yeah. And that's, that's the thing is that here's a guy who, you know, I don't know when his deal is going to end. And we also know he has, you know, had injury issues, but here's a guy who he'll get injured this year. It probably. Here's a guy who is, I'm only going to say potential Hall of Famer right now because his career is not over. But here's a guy who looks like he's probably headed to the Hall of Fame, who it looks to me like is never going to win a Super Bowl in a Steelers uniform.

21:36 Steve He hasn't even won a playoff game.

21:37 Chris Yeah. I mean, that's a shame.

21:42 Steve Well, it's not a shame because this team just wants to be mediocre. God, that sucks. I mean, it's what they are. They're trying to be this team that is, OK, we'll be good, and then when we need to be good enough, we'll be able to make the playoffs. And they're never able to make that leap. And if they, and granted San Francisco, everybody agrees here, I think that we can at least agree to this. San Francisco 49ers are a good team. Maybe one of the best teams in the NFC. Yeah, probably better than the Eagles. But right now, potentially.

22:17 Mark Well, obviously, they're top three in the NFC.

22:21 Steve So they're a very good team. So what the Steelers need to take from this is they got kicked in the teeth, the use of Tomlinism, they got kicked in the teeth by a very good team. Now they need to respond to that against What I think is a mediocre team in the Cleveland Browns next week and they just need to erase this from their memory You know and and and get ready to play the Browns, but you know, what's a shame though is before we get into the punters Okay.

22:48 Mark Yeah, well one thing that's a shame is that I can I can already tell you what's gonna happen it's set up just like a Steve saying here and that the Steelers are pretenders, because what's gonna happen? Steelers are gonna play some mediocre teams, and they're gonna win some close games against them, and before you know it, it's gonna be like, you know, the Steelers could make the playoffs, and it's gonna come all the way down to the end, and maybe they make it, and maybe they don't. But everybody's gonna think they're right there, and they're really not.

23:25 Steve This has been who we've been in the last 10 years.

23:28 Chris That's exactly what he just said. They want to be mediocre. So, Mike Lawrence, Steve and I had a nice laugh about this during the game. The Steelers punter is awful. DG, am I the only one who thinks the Steelers should have kept the other punter? Arvin's initial 34-yard punt really helped a lot. He's been terrible times and terribly inconsistent.

23:47 Steve I think he did have like a 65-yard bomb at times, and that's the problem with him. He's in so terribly terribly inconsistent. Yeah.

23:56 Chris Okay. So jeff my buddy from york pa Sorry guys. I just disagree with a lot of what has been said. It may be time for a new offensive minded head coach Canada as oc is not the answer. Well, I mean i'm i mean you're agreeing with me jeff.

24:09 Mark Yeah, you are agreeing with us jeff.

24:11 Chris Oh, yeah, so so Well, I think what Steve is saying is that my problem with Canada turns into a de facto issue with Mike Tomlin. And then the question for me is, do I think Mike Tomlin should be replaced?

24:27 Steve No. First of all, let's just get this out there. Mike Tomlin is never going to be replaced. Mike Tomlin will need to retire before he gets replaced. This is the Steeler way. And if you can't accept that, I've accepted that by the way, I don't have to accept that Mike Tomlin doesn't seem like he gets where the NFL is going, which is offensively minded. And he had no plan to change the game once they got down by two or three scores to start chucking the ball deep and taking over the offense in a different way. That's the problem that I have with Mike Tomlin. I think he's a great coach, and he's clearly been one of the better coaches in the NFL, and the Steeler way is the way it's going to be, so I accept that. But what I don't accept is if Mike Tomlin doesn't understand that this is an offensively-minded NFL, and if he doesn't have a secondary game plan to do that when things go bad, then he is never going to make the playoffs again. Right. OK, that's what I think. Mike Tom, somebody needs to get Mike Tomlin in the room and show him some film footage of that Miami. LA charger game yesterday, right where Miami said we have no defense and we don't care because we have a great offense and we will use our weapons the way they're supposed to be used not in jet sweeps necessarily all the time but throwing the ball downfield when you're down 28 to 7 and And that's my only beef with the Steelers right now.

26:05 Chris It's not with the way they run.

26:10 Steve It's not the way the Steelers run. I think that, you know, having a head coach and knowing he's going to be the head coach, And when he steps down, he will be retiring from the NFL. He will not be taking another NFL job. I think that's an admirable way of going about the head coaching job. But somebody needs to tell him he's gotta get with the 2020s. This is not 2010 when you can have a good defense and a good enough offense to be able to win. By the way, our defense isn't good enough either. So he needs to literally have some soul searching I know Tomlin is a man. of the cloth. He really likes to pray a lot. I truly believe that that's what he needs to do to see if this is what he wants to finish out, how he wants to finish career in Pittsburgh. I'm calling him out for that.

27:01 Chris I'm serious. I'm absolutely serious right now.

27:04 Steve I know you are. Because I think he can do it, but he needs to get with 2020. This is not the 2000s. This is not the 2010s. This is not, he does not have Ben Roethlisberger who's going to come back in the fourth quarter and save him. He's got Kenny Pickett and he needs to be able to get weapons to be able to score more.

27:26 Chris as a secondary option. So the takeaway from this is, uh, coach Tomlin, if you're, if you're listening, Steve suggests that you pray. Yes. Prayer. He does. He needs to pray a little bit.

27:40 Steve He needs to think about what his future is going to be with the Pittsburgh Steelers, how he wants to finish out as head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, because he's reaching unprecedented territory when it comes to not being in Super Bowls. And I'm getting a little upset about that. I'm not the only Steeler fan who's getting a little upset about that.

28:00 Chris Oh yeah, we know that. So DG says for him being a secondary coach in his early days, our secondary is consistently underperformed. Absolutely. Yeah.

28:07 Mark That was, I think, I personally, I thought that was their biggest weakness coming into this year is outside of Minka Fitzpatrick, the defensive backs.

28:16 Chris Yeah. Uh, yeah. I mean, Peterson Peterson's on the, he's on the, he's, he's at the end of his career. Good corner. Yeah. The guy should be playing. Right. I agree. They, they, they, and at one point yesterday, I, during the game, I, I, I asked up, I asked Steve, I said, not yet, Jeff, have you, um, you know, have you seen JP jr. In the game yet? I did even place for place. Yeah. Yeah. That, that to me is, That's ridiculous. And when you're down by that much, what's the harm? You're playing against great receivers and a great quarterback. Get a little experience. Just like Broderick Jones.

28:55 Steve Once again, there's no secondary. The primary plan didn't work. And when it didn't go to schedule, then they don't know what to do. There's no secondary plan. And that's my problem with the coaching staff and Mike Tomlin is the head of that.

29:12 Chris Now we do have to bring something up here. A DG, the Browns spanked Joe curl. Cool. Joe burrow to punish the hypocritical Steve for taking him as his fantasy QB. Yeah.

29:23 Steve That were you happy? I mean, I was, I was thrilled actually.

29:28 Chris How can you be thrilled Cleveland?

29:30 Steve Well, I mean, so somebody has got to win that game and I already told you, I think the bungles are back. I don't, I don't think they're making it back to another super bowl ever. Right. And this will be the year of the proof because if they don't make it this year, they're in big trouble the years after this contract.

29:46 Chris Right. Right. So, I mean, they'll restructure it every year.

29:49 Steve Well, yeah, they will, but that's what they'll have to do, but it still won't be enough. Right. You know, when you're spending, you know, $48 million on a quarterback year after year, right? It really stops you from hiring, you know, one other person that's going to take you over the edge. I mean, it's just the way it is. Yeah. I don't disagree with what David said, though. I am a little hypocritical, hypocritical, but I did love every second of his 89 yards passing. Well, what I think is great is that Mark and I, during our fantasy draft, Mark and I… Oh, by the way, we only need a half decent night tonight from Mr. Wilson from the Jets to still win.

30:27 Chris So fantasy is just that. We're going to get to that. We're going to get to our NFL predictions as we do every year, the three games we predict every year. So, okay. So what do… Let's get this comment in here. Just right. So if the Steelers beat Cleveland and since he beats Baltimore next week, we're back to where we were yesterday at 1 p.m. Everybody's one in one. That's right. Everybody's one on one.

30:51 Steve Yeah, that's right. And we're one in one in the division. And they're actually. Since you'll be one. Yeah. Everybody will be one. Actually we'll be at the top.

30:59 Chris Okay.

30:59 Steve So we'll be one to know against everybody else. Right.

31:02 Chris So what? Oh yeah.

31:04 Steve Because we'll be one to know because we'll actually be in first place.

31:08 Chris That's right. Yeah. So there you go. Jeff. Incredible. Working right. We can go right from the bottom, right to the top. Nine and eight season again, but last in a way, but it will just be fool's gold.

31:20 Steve Yeah. We'll still be a pretender.

31:22 Chris It's gold. Um, so the breaks and when that happened, here's season was full. Here is one thing that I am going to throw out there. Um, that, uh, and, and of course Luke, Luke says wishful thinking, but I'm going to throw this out there. Um, I may surprise you guys. I, Not only have I soured on Najee Harris. We know that. Yes. I have soured on Kenny Pickett. I do not think Kenny Pickett is the answer.

31:59 Mark Well, I don't. It was, look, he was playing against the best defense in the league.

32:03 Steve But he, but, but he looked like he was, you'll be, but you'll come back around the camp. You're done with Najee. I get it. I see it in your eyes. Yeah.

32:11 Chris I mean, he wasn't, but they have no answer. So they have to play him. Oh yeah. Yeah. He wasn't like, he wasn't coach.

32:17 Mark Look, he wasn't, he wasn't set up to be successful.

32:20 Chris No. No, he's talking about Kenny. I'm not.

32:25 Steve I don't know about that, Mark. No. No, I mean, I do. Thank you.

32:29 Mark I mean, look, you know, like you just take it from the beginning, you know, first play. Good, good.

32:34 Steve It's a good yardage.

32:35 Mark Yeah. Second play. Everything that is wrong with Canada.

32:39 Steve Yeah. Well, if Broderick Jones is in there, he blows that guy off the line and it goes for a first down. Right, right.

32:46 Mark Broderick Jones, not in the game. You know, and to be honest, like, let's just even talk a little bit about play calling. You know, this is the kind of, you know, the Steelers are the kind of team they should be throwing the ball to George Pickens minimum seven to ten times a game. That's true. Agreed. You know? And meanwhile, we're just dilly-dallying, throwing it to all these guys who are just okay.

33:14 Steve You know, I don't know the last time the last time I checked the quarterback is the one who gets to throw the ball, right? Yeah, he's the one who has to decide to throw the to pick the pickings. Yeah, I agree I mean and if he's not open that's not necessarily Canada's fault. No, that's true, right? So so I mean it's you really have you really I think Kenny Pickett will get there, but it's clear yesterday He was not comfortable in the pocket, right? He wasn't he was sacked. I think twice or three times, but I think he got sacked early. And I think that really, I think that got in his head. He needs, he needs to work on, this is what he needs to work on. He needs to either get comfortable in the pocket. He needs to work with Canada. If he's not comfortable in the pocket, they need to have more plays, get him out of the pocket initially until he can be more comfortable in the pocket. That I agree with, and I don't think they do enough of that. I don't think they have enough plays where it's like, Kenny's got a rolling pass play option, you know? Something he's actually pretty good at is throwing on the run.

34:20 Mark Or like, you know, another example is, you know, obviously, you know, now granted, you know, the 49ers are playing prevent at the end of the half and that's when they have the good drive. Right. But like, you know, if I'm the head coach, I come out in the hurry up in the second half.

34:36 Steve Well, they did do some of the hurry up and the one bright spot was that, that two minute offense. But remember with the two minute offense, the defense is playing back. So they're giving, he knows what you can get. He knows that they're giving the under, he has to, as a quarterback, he needs to be able to recognize. And he even said this, or I think maybe one of the, uh, maybe one of the, uh, wide receiver said they weren't, they were taking away the deep ball. So we had to cut our route short. And that's what they, that was what they were giving us. Their, their play plan was to throw it deep and then to open it up a little bit. But that was never an option because the cornerbacks for, for the 49ers were always covering that deep pass. So they, they should have adjusted knowing that that was happening to be able to, you know, get the 15 yard in to do the 12 yard out. to do something different. There was something on the internet, I didn't see it but I heard about it, that showed the pass chart and there were like half of the plays, I think half of the passing plays was like 25 passes or 26 passes. 20 of them were either less than five yards or behind the line of scrimmage. That's terrible. That's not acceptable.

35:50 Chris No, that's not.

35:51 Steve That's Matt Canada calling the play. That's not acceptable. And that's not going to make Kenny Pickett a better passer moving forward. He needs to be able to throw the ball 10, 15 yards down the field.

36:01 Chris Further than that. I mean, it's just, I look.

36:05 Steve Look, that's enough to get you a first down. I get it. When, when, when you're struggling, when you have one yard to their 199 yards, Taking 10 or 12 is a big deal. Yeah, right? Yeah, so I mean this is this is this is what the Steelers are gonna have to do next week against Cleveland and I don't know. What do you think? Do you think they're gonna rebound?

36:31 Chris No I do not It is you it's just not the live well, yeah, I do not think that the Steelers I Look, it's a small sample size this year. And again, everybody's going to point back to, uh, but it was the best team in the NFL kind of, kind of BS. But honestly, they, they had their asses handed to them. And I don't think that in Cleveland.

37:06 Mark That was the problem. I mean, both of you guys felt that they were going to lose. Oh, yeah. Right. But it's how bad they lost. Right.

37:13 Steve Now, I'm not I'm not caught up in that, honestly. Really? No, I'm not. Because, look, I said that if the if the Steelers Um, linebackers couldn't tackle CMC, right. That they were going to get slaughtered. And that's what happened. They, they weren't able to tackle him and they got slaughtered this. So I, I w I thought they would come out and score more, but I really thought it was going to be a low scoring game. Um, and true to form the Steelers did have a low scoring game.

37:42 Chris This is going to be a dog fight on Monday. I agree. So literally. Yeah. Yeah. It's going to be a dog fight. All I all I know is this is how we're going to sum up the the game yesterday. If you can see the screen, that is all you need to see right there. And if you're listening on radio, PGH or catching the podcast, that is a picture of Mike Tomlin looking up in the air, possibly praying. That wasn't what he was wearing. And I know I know this. I read this. I ripped this from the internet. I like it though. Looking at a, at a moment near the end of the half where the Niners had 199 total yards and the Steelers, a blistering one. And I'm not even sure it was one. It might've been a half yard.

38:29 Steve That was one yard in their first five possessions.

38:32 Chris Yeah, that's insane. And to me, that is indignant. Look, you're playing against a great team. You got to play better than this. You got to play better than this. They were not ready for this game. Kenny Pickett wasn't ready to play. The game plan was absolutely horrible. And I'll tell you what- The secondary game plan was non-existent. We're going to get, we're going to move on to our picks, uh, because that's going to be more fun. We're going to erase this and we're going to start over next week. We're going to start with this positive. Cause I, I hate being negative about the seals. I really do. I want them to win every game, just like every fan does. But I look at what I'm seeing and I am not happy. I do not think that we're headed in a very good direction.

39:15 Mark I'm not going to send you any stars. Thank you. I appreciate that.

39:20 Chris Is that, they're too negative. That's coming, is that coming from, uh, that's the Bucco stock. That was the Bucco stock. All right. We got another comment here. I just want to check it out here. And it is DG again. If they couldn't perform at a high level in front of a riled up opening day home crowd, which by the way, disappeared by the second quarter, my optimism, no, I can't. My optimism for future performances has tanked.

39:43 Steve And that is really unfortunate. Well, David, 25% of the fans were actually San Francisco fans. That's true.

39:49 Chris That's very true. All right. Listen real quick, before we go to our NFL picks and the games for this week what I want to remind everybody of is that hockey season is right around the corner. Oh yeah. You want to talk Novak Djokovic? How about Coco Gauff?

40:06 Steve Come on. No. And I, I'm ready. Let's go. I 24 titles.

40:12 Chris Yeah. I, uh, mama mentality. Yeah.

40:15 Steve Youngest winner of a grand slam.

40:18 Chris Can I please talk about Jesus? I'm praying for hockey. Jesus. Right. So Hockey Jesus is coming up soon. Thank you. I'll take your prayers. When do you anticipate the preseason spectacular to happen? Just give us a ballpark on that.

40:32 Steve It will happen a week before the first game, which will be two weeks from this past Sunday.

40:38 Chris Okay. That was really simple. And I know exactly when that's going to happen.

40:42 Mark Yeah, you know, two weeks from this past minus one week. Yeah. Two weeks. Yeah. Multiply by three.

40:48 Steve Divide by four. There you go.

40:49 Chris You got it, Mark. Throwing up, throwing an order of bad chicken tenders with to tease to steal.

40:54 Steve No, no, nothing, nothing but good wings. Curly. There you go. There you go. All right. Out the curlies.

41:02 Chris All right. Thank you very much. Our NFL picks this week. If you're new to the show, new to listening, what we do every week, Is and we keep track of this every year is we pick the Thursday night game the Monday night game Wait a minute. Why aren't we picking tonight's Monday night game?

41:20 Mark We never do money.

41:21 Steve No We do the Thursday the Sunday and then we and then a pick'em game so this week we're doing the Vikings at the Eagles and I

41:38 Chris Hey, listen, the Eagles didn't look horrible. They looked a little rusty and the Vikings got beat because it looks like their defense is crappy and cousins through his proverbial interception. Minnesota at the Eagles on Thursday night. Who do you got, Steve? I got the Vikings.

41:56 Steve Oh, wow. I just don't think they're as bad as they looked. Wow. And I think the Eagles look worse than I thought.

42:04 Chris Oh, interesting take. Should have him on the Philly porch. That's where I'm going.

42:08 Steve Sorry, Mark.

42:09 Mark Schwaber K. I'll take the Eagles. I think they'll come back and play better.

42:14 Chris Yep. And Chris is going Eagles too, because I think the same thing.

42:17 Steve Um, I mean, I am worried about cousins. Don't get me wrong. I don't think it's a slam dunk.

42:21 Chris He overthinks things. We've talked about this. The guy like, it's like, Oh, I got to go get acupuncture now. I mean, come on, practice. Uh, all right. Study the playbook.

42:31 Steve You have three days.

42:32 Chris The Sunday night game, uh, Miami at new England and wow. Did Tua put on a show yesterday? He did, didn't he? He did. So did Herbert. DG takes the Eagles at home Okay, Miami at New England hockey Jesus who you got I Think Miami's for real.

42:51 Steve I'm gonna stick with Miami. I Think it's once again gonna be a good game I thought the New England had a good game plan against the Eagles, but I think Miami's got much more firepower

43:03 Mark You know, I'm, I'm going to take new England in a surprise shock me. I, you know what, I, I think the big difference, uh, maybe with new England this year, they had a good defense last year. They have a good defense this year, but I really think bill O'Brien back as the, uh, offensive coordinator. is really going to help out Mac Jones. And I think they may be better than we think.

43:28 Chris DG takes Miami. I agree. I agree with him. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you what, Mac Jones did not look horrible yesterday. He did not.

43:36 Steve Actually, I thought he did, but he was running for his life quite a bit.

43:39 Chris Yeah, but but I mean, he was engineering a comeback there. And if it wasn't for a couple, you know, distinctive play about an inch. Yeah. I, yeah, that's exactly right. It's that foot down. I mean, they're inside the game. You got three shots at the touchdown.

43:53 Mark I got to learn how to toe drag. This is the NFL.

43:56 Steve I do not go up after that ball. If that ball was stronger, better, he would, they would have won.

44:01 Chris I do not. I do not. I think Miami is for real as well, but I don't think after watching the new England, a Philly game yesterday and, and, and watching new England's defense, And this is a conference game for them, uh, or a divisional game. I I'm going with new England. I don't see Belichick losing two in a row and it's in new England. Miami's going to new England. So, yeah, so far we're all surprised. Yeah. Yeah. So no, I, I'm taking Miami, Miami. Yeah, I'm definitely, no, I know you took Miami and Schwaber and I were your take Schwaber and I are green and you're, you're the outlier. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you mean the winner, right?

44:44 Mark It's not what happened last year.

44:45 Chris He's hockey Jesus.

44:47 Steve I made a valiant effort to get back in it at the end.

44:50 Chris He's not football Jesus. He's hockey Jesus. All right. Now we have a pick'em game every week and we just thought this would be fun. We'll see how much fun it is. We're not going to watch the game. This, this promises that, uh, and Jeff has taken the Eagles and the Dolphins. This promises to be one of the most exciting games of the year. One of the most anticipated match-ups in NFL history. Yep. The Indianapolis Colts at the Houston Texans. Everybody's been waiting for this game. Gardner Minshew, the mustache, because I think Richardson is out.

45:29 Steve Uh, he got hurt, but he'll be back.

45:31 Chris I think he'll be back. I'd rather see Minshew.

45:33 Steve Well, he probably will make a that's actually a big deal.

45:38 Chris Yeah in terms of calling the game Yeah, well, I think if Minshew's in they win you don't know anything about Not much he can run the ball.

45:48 Mark Yeah. I mean, why are you saying he's out?

45:51 Chris Well, then he got hurt. Well, he got hurt He got hurt at the end of the game. It didn't seem like it was anything any big deal No, it was nobody watching the game. Did you know?

45:59 Steve I don't know. Mark's going to look it up because he wants to make an informed decision. I, however, I'm going to go with my gut. Yeah. And that's Anthony Richardson will play. He will rush for four touchdowns and they will win the game. All right. Steve's going with the Colts. There's no overthinking this year.

46:15 Chris No right into it. No overthinking. Who did Houston play yesterday?

46:19 Steve Did they play Atlanta? Here, I'll pull it up.

46:25 Chris I think they played Atlanta. Yeah. And Atlanta won. I'm pretty sure. Yeah.

46:30 Steve Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I can tell you the Houston was in the game for quite a quite a while because I was like, oh, they're going to get they're going to get slaughtered. Yeah. But they were actually in the game quite a bit more.

46:41 Chris I don't know what. Yeah. Baltimore. Twenty five to nine. Yeah.

46:44 Mark Anthony Richards are nothing serious.

46:46 Chris OK, good. So Richardson's in. OK. Colts at the Texans.

46:51 Steve Colts. It's the 0 and 1 battle. Yeah.

46:54 Mark Stroud versus Richardson. And it's in Houston. Yeah. And what was the score of the Baltimore?

47:01 Steve Houston only scored nine points. Indianapolis scored 21 against Jacksonville. Yeah. Houston probably has yet to get a touchdown.

47:11 Mark Are there any good players on Houston? CJ Stroup. I mean, are there any good players on Houston?

47:17 Chris Jeff said, Damien Pierce, Jeff, Jeff says it's going to be a tie. Jeff Grabiak says Colts.

47:23 Steve I like it. I like it. That's a bold pick.

47:25 Mark You know, I go with the tie. I probably should think better of this, but I'm going to go Texans with a victory.

47:33 Chris Alrighty. And you want to know what I got it. I got to take the other side of this. I think it's going to be the Colts since Richardson is playing. And we can't have the exact same, you know, picks for every single game. Mix it up. I should go 3-0. I like to.

47:50 Steve You probably will. You get off to these hot starts. Yeah, you do.

47:55 Mark By the way, a little funny one from yesterday. Did anybody hear the comment that Jamar Chase made about the loss to Cleveland? No, I didn't hear it. Well, you know how much you love the elf in the middle of their feet.

48:08 Chris Oh, yeah Yeah, DG says Texans Richardson's gonna get killed running for his life.

48:13 Mark He said He said I can't believe man. We lost a bunch of freaking elves I

48:22 Steve which is why we'd hate to be, which is why I'd hate to be Baltimore.

48:26 Chris And that's it. I can't take it anymore. All right, guys, thank you for watching the sports porch, Pittsburgh, all over social media, all over the world on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube. And we are also live on radio pgh and you can find radio pgh at radio pgh.com And you can visit the sports porch at the porches live.com the porches live.com the porches live.com Let's go stealer and we're gonna thank you Jeff for being here. Thank you. Jeff Paul is for being here Have a good week. We're gonna drop the podcast right after the show The Browns or anywhere you get your friggin podcast matey Maybe I'll bring the pirate back to the Steelers season. There you go. Catch you next week DG I think that's it. I am your technical director and I am out. Here we go Steelers go