The Steelers Take Down The Browns and Head To Philly

Marc:
Here we go, let's go

Chris: Oh yes, it is that time again. It is time for the Sportsports Black and Gold Edition here in the underground porch in Monroeville. You are watching us right now live on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube X and two channels on Instagram. And of course, I'm going to drop the show right after the show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or or anywhere you get your frigging podcast. That's right. And if you'd like to take a gander on over to YouTube. A gander. A gander. That's right. You can always follow us on YouTube at the Sports Porch Podcast. You betcha. That's right. Our followers are actually growing now, believe it or not.

Steve: Who always gets the gander?

Chris: What I love is, pardon me, you guys have no idea what I got to go through to set up this show. I just got to tell you. Yeah, I do.

Steve: I set it up every week.

Marc: Is it harder than children starving in Africa? Yes.

Chris: Is it that hard? Yeah, you set it up every week, but you don't set it up with Mark singing like weird songs.

Steve: How do you know I don't call Mark up? Yeah. And say, Mark, sing that song. I'm pretty sure I help them out.

Marc: I think it helps, you know, concentrate.

Steve: Yeah. Sometimes that happens.

Marc: Yeah.

Chris: Well, anyway. The Grand Schwabini is across from me in the studio. Mark, we've got Hockey Jesus to my left over here. Actually, he's over there on the screen. And I am your technical director. People call me Calvin when they want to. And you can always listen to our live internet radio station, Radio PGH. I dropped that link in the comments a couple times a show. That is a streaming link to our internet radio station, Radio PGH. You can also follow it on So, what do we do here? Well, we're going to talk about the Cleveland game yesterday.

Marc: The brownies. Do we have to? We had ourselves a brownie sandwich.

Chris: That game was so horrible. We do. We're going to do good, bad, and ugly there. Of course, we're going to do our NFL predictions. We picked three games. try to pick the winner. We do have a Trader Joe's snack time that my lovely wife, the Pittsburgh property diva will bring down to us. That is fantastic. Approximately eight o'clock. I think you guys, well, let's just say your guys are going to appreciate my effort this time. Oh, okay. Yeah. Cause you're not doing anything. Oh, for God's sake. And, uh, at least it'll come down. I don't know if we're going to have a grand Schwabini prediction, right? No, you never know. You never know. We'll see. The spirits come when they come. We have a stump the answer question this week that I will see. It's Steelers related. Hockey Jesus is going to talk and then we have a what we're watching. So let's guys let's get right into it. This is the and of course you guys out there participating in the show on Twitter or whatever. Drop your comments. Get involved. We want to know what you think. about everything we're talking about here. We're just a bunch of fans who've been watching football for 30 years. I think Pat's on track today. Steelers are the best AFC team. Yeah, there you go. That's a big claim right there. Thanks for that.

Steve: That coming from a Buffalo fan.

Chris: Yeah, Jeff Paulus, my buddy from York, is in the house. Thanks, Jeff, for being here. The Steelers' revenge game goes well against the Browns, the good, bad, and the ugly. So

Steve: Amy, welcome back. She hasn't had a call. She hasn't had a comment in a while. I know she listens to us, but she's been refraining from comment.

Chris: Yeah, it's a very creative comment, too. Hey, guys. Hey, she's here. We love it. She's our number one fan. Please tell her that the I believe the cinnamon bun spread that she likes to get to feed your dog, Bella, yes, is now out of stock.

Marc: Oh no. Why stop? Why be such a bearer of bad news?

Chris: I'm just, you know, because she's going to stalk me again. She's going to show up down there or send me a text. You know, I got a story to tell you about Scott. I saw him, the counselor yesterday. He told me that you had words. Did he tell you that I threw edamame at him?

Steve: No, he didn't remember the conversation at all. Oh really? Because I did. I said, he was like, I don't know. I talked to him for like five minutes.

Chris: Was he hammered? I don't know. He was at the game. I don't think he was hammered.

Steve: I think this health care thing has got him a little frazzled.

Chris: Yeah, maybe it does. I don't think he's got much to worry about.

Steve: Yeah, I think he's good.

Marc: He doesn't work anymore.

Chris: So Jeff says he says, I have a trivia question for you all. Jeff, can it wait until we do the Stump the Yenzer or do you want to get it in now? Let's wait till Stump the Yenzer. Maybe we'll have we'll have a question and then a follow up question.

Steve: or you can ask it now. We don't have, we don't have to listen to it.

Chris: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I want to get into the game here. Steelers revenge game. It goes well against the Browns, good, bad and the ugly. Um, let's start with you Schwaber, the good from that game.

Marc: The good. Um, I mean, I mean, I'm just going to say the good was just, uh, simply getting the job done and winning the game. Kind of like our other show. Yeah, it was just, you know, the Steelers are a much better team. They won the game handily, so it wasn't anything to sweat over. So, you know, I think that's all you can really ask for. You know, I mean, I guess if I would give a game ball, maybe I'd give it to Russell Wilson. Thought he played well. Yeah. Considering. Made some throws on the move that were very nice, especially the touchdown, the Friar move. And the other one to Van Jefferson. Is that his name? Yep. Yep. Okay. Van Jefferson. Yep. So, yeah. So, I guess I'll give my game ball to Russell Wilson.

Chris: Um, and Chris Chada on Instagram says the sports porch, my favorite frigging podcast. Welcome back OC OC. Uh, that was your good. Okay. Uh, H J you're good.

Steve: Well, I was going to say the good is playing Cleveland twice a year, but that just seems too obvious. So I'm actually going to go with the fact I'm going to go with the good was they were able to show they can win a game without George in the game. Right. George didn't play, and it was kind of a surprise. When I turned on the television, I was listening to the pregame, and they said, Pickens won't be playing today. I was like, what the hell are they talking about? He was healthy as of Friday, and then I guess he tweaked his hamstring in the final walkthrough on Friday. And they decided not to play. And by the way, the hamstring injuries are tricky. I wouldn't be surprised if he maybe even sits out this week just to have them healthy for Baltimore. But but I think the good is the fact that they were able to win that game with when your number one wide receiver, surprisingly, You know, they didn't, they couldn't plan for it, so they just kind of had to wing it, and that's what it looked like they did. Because it took them until the second half to figure it out. But they did, they finally figured it out. And honestly, I think Mike Williams is a really good receiver, but they say he's never open, and that's why he's not on the field. I say put him on the field, and just, maybe he will get open. Because if you throw the ball near him, he's got great hands.

Marc: Got open a couple times yesterday. Yeah, yeah.

Steve: So that's my good.

Chris: Yeah. Uh, Mike Lawrence chimes in. Thanks for being back, Mike. My good is Russell Wilson's leadership and no critical holding penny penalties by Broderick Jones. Um, and 93 seven said Pickens is out for the Eagles game. Yeah. I don't know that they would make that decision so quickly though.

Steve: I, I just, they might just be saying that quickly.

Marc: Or is that just somebody's opinion? I mean,

Chris: Yeah. I don't know. Well, we'll, we'll have to, that that's going to be a developing story.

Steve: Yeah. Listen to Tomlin tomorrow. He always tells you the truth. Yeah.

Chris: Yeah. Yeah. He never says anything that's vague.

Marc: Um, my going to be going up this week against Mr. Barkley.

Chris: My good, my good from the, and we're going to get to that, but my, my good from this game actually was, um, kind of split in half. One was Russell Wilson, 15 to 26 or 158 yards and two touchdowns. He created, basically, those touchdowns with his, you know, his out-of-pocket presence. And also the defense, just from the standpoint of when they had to come up with a big play. Like, so for me, I watched the tape of the game today. I'm watching the game. And all of a sudden, Corderell Patterson coughs up the ball. Now, yes, Hopkins missed those two field goals, a very Cleveland Brown thing to do. But Patterson coughs up the ball, and if that leads to a score, now you've got a game, you know? That was late in the fourth quarter. It was late, but you know how these games work. Look what happened the last time. Yeah. So he coughs up the ball, and I thought, oh God, you know, here we go again. It's going to come down to the wire. But the defense, you know, Winston, who's famous for trying to force the ball when he shouldn't, he had that check down he could have gone to, but instead he tries to go long and who was a Jackson that came up with the the interception late. So I think the defense did their job.

Marc: I think the great interception was the Benton interception. Oh, that was incredible. That was a great play.

Chris: Yeah, that was a great play. That was incredible.

Steve: You didn't see that coming.

Marc: No, not at all. Not at all. And that's when the game was still in the balance.

Chris: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. They, they all, they got off to a slow start and then next thing you know, there's that interception.

Steve: When don't the Steelers get off to a slow start?

Chris: Yeah. We talk about that all the time. So I, I'm saying that Russell Wilson managing the game correctly, uh, not, not giving up the ball, not turning the ball over. I do really like the way they used Harris and Warren in this running game. knowing that it was going to be a hard-fought game. You know, Harris 16 carries for 53 yards in that touchdown, and Warren 9 carries for 47 yards. Doesn't it always seem that Jalen Warren is able to get the big run when they need it?

Steve: Yeah, he's really unbelievable with making a nine yard run when you know that there's no way Najee could make that run.

Chris: That's exactly right.

Steve: They seem to know. I do love that they're using them both. In fact, I actually think I would be using Warren a little bit more. Right. But I think they're just bringing him on slowly because he was injured. Right. So I think I think they will eventually even out the rushes. And I think you'll see I think you'll see, you know, more like 10 or 12 from each of them.

Chris: Yeah, so that was my good. Schwaber, how about your bad?

Marc: I have one for the ugly. Bad, boy, I really have to stretch for a bad. I mean, I don't think anybody was particularly bad. I agree. So I'll just leave it at that. Okay.

Steve: H J. I'll say the bad was their slow start once again. Yeah. I mean you can't allow the Browns to come down and score a touchdown and take a 10 three lead on you. That's ridiculous. It just seems ridiculous to hockey Jesus. It drives me crazy because they don't need to do that. It's like they have, they get excited when the other team goes ahead of them so they can prove they can come back.

Marc: Who was responsible for the Jerry Judy touchdown? I'd say that's the bad. That was Minka.

Steve: Was it Minka? I went back and looked at this, so I'll be honest with you. I don't think it was Minka. I think Minka was coming up because remember, Deshaun was… I wanted to say Deshaun Watson. Jameis Winston.

Marc: Jameis Winston.

Steve: Jameis Winston was coming out of the pocket and it looked like he was going to run so he jumped up. And that cornerback is supposed to follow that guy across. They had two guys on that side and I don't know if it was Jackson or if it was the other guy. Bishop maybe. Or Cam Sutton maybe. Okay. And they just didn't go with him. And when that happens, then it makes it look like Minka blew it.

Chris: Yeah, he got caught.

Steve: Minka is supposed to have the middle of the field. But once that happens, you have to recognize what's going on. And they just didn't recognize it quickly enough.

Chris: Yeah. Yeah. So.

Steve: I think, by the way, I think Minka should deserve a bad game. He's never called. He's not on any interceptions. He's just a nobody out there right now. It's just, I don't know where he's gone with his talent.

Chris: Well, this is what the counselor was telling me down at TJ's. 400 plus yards last week, 50 yards at halftime, question mark. I guess I'll go with that for what Yoho Sun said. and Pat off track says they were playing zone.

Steve: If they were playing zone, then it was Minka's fault. There's no way he should have came up and tried to tackle Winston when he, when there was a guy coming.

Chris: And that's what I, that's what, that's what I, that's what I'm saying. And on the replay, that's what it looked like. So, uh, the counselor last night when I, when I saw him down at TJ's was telling me he was having a debate with you about Minka and how the reason Minka appears to be having a bad season is because they're playing one single safety high. to keep that deep play, you know, keep teams from going over the top. And I mean, I think that's a good point. I think that they've, they've tweaked the defense a little bit to try to prevent that because I think that touchdown to Judy, that was the longest play. It was the longest touchdown they've given up all year. So that kind of points to his point, but at the same time, it doesn't seem like he's having the impact that he's had in previous years back there and who knows why. So my bad from this game was

Steve: Not getting Darnell Washington into the I thought you were going to make that you're ugly.

Chris: No, I was just baiting you for that. I think my bad for this game, if there I honestly I don't really have a bad or an ugly at all. I'm not saying it was a superb performance because it wasn't. I think this is kind of we, you know, we do our Philadelphia show at 6 p.m. Eastern time, right before we do our Pittsburgh show. And I was talking about that game in Carolina where the Eagles, they kind of struggled to win that game. And this is kind of the same thing. Both of these teams are on a trajectory to meet each other next week. And we're going to talk a lot about that in a second. um this game for both of them was against a team that now granted cleveland had beat pittsburgh just a couple weeks back and it was a division game right but against a team that's really got nothing to play for other than pride and also nothing to lose so my bad from this game is that they they didn't really go out and make a statement It was almost like they were overlooking this because they know that next week is the true test of this season so far. And so they won in spite of that fact. But I don't know that I could call that a real bad. I think the play calling was well. I think they're trying to get Mike Williams into the offense more because he does have good hands. And, uh, they did mention that they spoke to Tomlin this week in prep for the broadcast about Mike Williams and why, why is he only have one catch for a touchdown? And Tomlin just said, give it some time, you know, time will tell. And I think that's one of the things that we kind of overlook. is that he's coming into a new team that already has people that have defined rules and trying to fit in there and also learn the offense. I think Mike Williams down the stretch is actually going to end up playing a much bigger role. only because Russell Wilson distributes the ball very well. He's using Van Jefferson. He's using Pat Friar-Muth. Yo-Ho Son chimes in here. I'm telling you, Skoronek needs more offensive snaps. He can get a first down whenever he gets the ball. But he is using him. I think he did have a catch this week. Mike Lawrence says, bad, didn't Joey Porter get burned a couple of times? We're going to talk about that.

Steve: I don't think so. No, but he had some, he had some past interference.

Chris: He had, he had a, well, he had a really bad, uh, uh, unnecessary roughness call where he just needs to keep his, keep his mouth shut again, you know, keep his hands, he's handsy. So that, that was my kind of bad and ugly together. Schwaber, what's your ugly?

Marc: Well, you guys might be surprised by my ugly. But was it just me or was I watching the Philadelphia Eagles fans? The Pittsburgh Steelers fans for the first quarter and a half when Russell Wilson was struggling were booing him. Why? Why are they booing him? I mean, come on. He's the first quarterback they've had since Ben Roethlisberger, right? I mean, and he's playing fantastic, right? I mean, it made no sense. I was just really shocked by it. I think there's a little bit of similarity between those fan bases as much as you might want to hate to admit it.

Steve: No, I think that's actually a brilliant bad. I didn't even think about that because I was too busy focusing on the bad refereeing and That's true. It wasn't great. So that's gonna be my ugly. My ugly is the refereeing Just because they were so inconsistent with it It's like when a guy runs into the quarterback as he's kind of you know Got a step. Did he take another step to get to him? It just seems too ticky

Chris: Yeah, that call on her big. Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. And even some of the past interference penalties, like if they're both, if they're both pushing each other either way, I mean, whether you want to say that one on, uh, 81 for the, for the Browns and the one that, uh, that, uh, uh, uh, Joey Porter got on him or, I mean, uh, one of our offensive guys, Mike Williams got him, right. I just like, let them play. Yeah, just that drives me crazy.

Chris: It seemed a little ticky-tack to me.

Steve: Yeah, I didn't like those I didn't think I didn't think the refereeing but honestly the real ugly belongs to the Cleveland Browns and no I'm not gonna go with the L Can you believe that the Cleveland Browns have not swept the Pittsburgh Steelers since? 1988 yeah guys we were in frickin high school.

Marc: Yes. We're 18. Oh Yeah, that is ridiculous.

Steve: Can you have such a terrible franchise that you can't sweep us like once in 40 years? That's crazy. That is crazy. That is a crazy streak of all the streaks that don't make any sense. That one does not make any sense to me that the Browns can be that bad for that long.

Chris: Well, I mean, that is ugly. It just, it makes perfect sense to me. I mean, it's the Browns. So, uh, what are the Steelers need to do to beat the Eagles? Let's go there. What are you guys out there in a social media land and podcast land? Um, uh, think about that. Uh, some of Steelers nation is getting out of control playoff when desperate. Yeah. You know what? Actually, I want to go back to what you were saying about the booing with Russell Wilson. Yeah. I think what happens is because of the last couple of years with the horrible offensive scheme that they've been running. Right. I think it's kind of like a little PTSD. You see that slow start. You see Wilson not playing too great. First three series. And it's kind of like, Oh God. Yeah. That's Canada. Yeah. Here we go. Yeah. Canada derangement syndrome. Yes. We seem to have a lot of stuff.

Steve: I did look up the Pickens stuff online, and I think where it's coming from that he's not going to play is Jerry Dulac says the expectation is he's not going to play. Yeah.

Chris: So that doesn't mean he's not going. He's going to play. I'm telling you, he's going to play.

Steve: It's just that's going to be the mantra throughout the week.

Chris: Tomlin said in the pregame meetings he had with the staff on whatever it was, CBS or whatever, he said that the reason they held him out at the last second was they didn't want to risk the limited number of plays that he was going to be on the field, aggravating that. They wanted him to be ready for the next game. So I have a feeling.

Marc: You also have to think about this though. Part of the reason, maybe part of the reason why the Steelers haven't won a playoff game in seven years or whatever it is, they've really gone into these playoff games not healthy. You know, like with no T.J. Watt. And they, I listened on the radio, they went down a list of them with, you know, all the players who were out. So maybe they are looking, look, they're 10 of three, they're gonna make the playoffs, there's no doubt about that. No, still, the one seed is still in play, although it's very unlikely. So, but, you know, to me, I just sort of feel like maybe they are really taking a longer look at it and saying, You know, I'd rather have pickings on the field in our playoff game versus, you know, on the field to play the Eagles, re-aggravating it.

Chris: Right. Yeah. Well, I mean, like we said, this is a story that will develop as the week goes along. Jeff wants to know, when is the last time the Steelers beat the Eagles in Philly? You want to look that up, Schwaber? And OC on Instagram says you got to put heat on hurts and try to contain saquon. Did you just spray that stuff in your mouth again, dude?

Steve: Yeah. Yes. He needs to remain healthy. Yeah, I agree. I agree. We want him spraying things in his mouth.

Chris: So while he's looking that question up and Mike has actually a really good question. Mike says, can our defense contain Barkley and pressure the QB? Yo, son, Boswell for 18 to 21 points and the Eagles will lose. John says, as far as Pickens is concerned, Jeff Paul, Schwabini is correct. So he thinks you're right about maybe they want to leave him out, you know, for the Eagles game. And John Edberg says 1965, 59 years ago. Is that really the last time they won in Philly?

Steve: That's what it says. That's what these guys can use. Google.

Chris: Yeah. Well, I know that. I'm just, I'm just surprised.

Steve: I mean, I know it's been a while to us.

Marc: So sometimes it just happens, you know? Yeah. So I mean, keep in mind that they're playing once every four years. Yeah, that's true. You know?

Chris: Yeah. So, okay. So what is, what is a long time? It is H J. What do you think the Steelers need to do to beat the Eagles? Let's start with on offense.

Steve: I think on offense, they're going to have to make the big plays because the Eagle defense is very good. And I think their cornerbacks are solid on both sides. So I think they're going to have to attack the middle. They're going to have to make Braun become the guy who's the run stopper and try and throw over his head and make him want to stay off the line a little bit to loosen up the run a little bit. I think if they can do that, it's going to be a tight game, I believe. But they're going to have to, they're going to have to open up the middle by pushing Braun off the line a little bit. Cause that guy's a monster. He's definitely an all pro. He, uh, he's, he's just a very excellent linebacker. And, um, I'm worried about the ends a little bit. Uh, Dean, the Kobe Dean, uh, he's another guy that that's worrisome for me. Their defense will be the best defense we've seen all year. So I just hope our offensive line is up to the challenge. The Steelers can't. They can't let go of the run. It's going to be hard to run against this team. So I think that will be the key on offense.

Marc: Yeah, I was Grand Swabini. Yeah, I mean, look, I mean, I watch all the Eagles games, so I feel like the best way to beat the Eagles is to control the clock. So I think you want to have long drives. You know, you want to be hitting your third and twos, your third and threes, you know, get the Eagles defense a little tired, keep the Eagles offense off the field. So they're out of sync. And I think you can dink and dunk pretty well against them. I think, you know, your, your screen pass to your Warren or your Najee and continuing with the run, You're over the middle pass to Friar Mooth. I mean, I think those are the areas where they're susceptible So I think if you control the clock They have a chance for some pretty good success Yeah, I I

Chris: I think that the steel, one of the things that Steelers does do really well is they contain running quarterbacks and they play very, very well against Lamar Jackson. So I, I think that the, you know, what Mike Lawrence was talking about as far as Saquon, they, they, prior to this, prior to the Cleveland game, they had the fourth, number four rushing defense in the league. So they can stop the run, but I don't think that they can ultimately stop Saquon Barkley. I think that's more of a situation where they're going to have to limit him. If they can hold him to under a hundred yards, I think they win the game. And I'm talking, even if that's 99, you know, if they can't, that means something worse is coming on. And here we have my lovely wife. She doesn't want to be on camera. She's delivering our Trader Joe's snack time. I love you, sweetheart. Thank you. We'll give her a shout out. when it is time. John Edberg says, the Steelers need this battle test of the Eagles game for their playoff psyche. Make Hertz win the game with his arm, not Barkley or him running. I agree. I think we have to contain Hertz and limit his ability to create in space. And look, this is a tough game. I mean, the Eagles secondary is going to be challenged. And When we get to the defensive side, I have some things to say about that. So, um, did you guys did your Eagles, the, the offense stuff, right? I'm trying to manage six screens right here. You, you both, we did on offense.

Marc: We said, what are the Eagles? What does the Steelers have to do on offense?

Chris: We didn't get the Steelers defense. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And I just did the Steelers defense. So as far as offense goes, I think they have to run the ball. That's what I think they have to do that. I mean, I think they have to be they have to get nausea go and they have to use Warren correctly. I like the way they used both of them in the Cleveland game, but they're going to need a bigger dose of that. I think they need to get the ball to Friar Muth. And if Pickens is not playing, I think that's going to be an issue. I, I, I really do. I, I, I mean, you're going to have to bring Mike Williams into this offense and take a chance because he's big and he's tall and he's good. So, um, that, that, and, and Boswell is going to have to continue his amazing streak of, of long field goals. Cause I think that they're going to end up having that opportunity. So, um, that was me. Okay. Defense, let's go to Schwaber. What do they got to do on defense to stop the Eagles?

Marc: Well, they gotta get a pass rush. You know, look, the Steelers win games by being a big play defense and getting turnovers. If they win the turnover battle, they'll probably win the game. So, if they're able to get to Hurts and get a strip sack, or somebody punches the ball out from, say, Juan Barkley or A.J. Brown, that's how they can win the game. Big plays on defense are, I think, the kryptonite for the Eagles. You know, there aren't too many teams that you can say consistently do that. And the Steelers are one of those teams. So it's just going to be up to the Eagles to be able to play smart football and not let that happen. So it's I mean, it's kind of like a toss up. Yeah, it really is.

Chris: You've got to you've actually what you have is Two great defenses. I mean, this could come down to that, H.J.?

Steve: I think what the Steelers have to do on offense, when Cam takes a break, and he does take a break in series, they have to make sure that Barkley doesn't run the whole way down the field on a 70-yard run. Cause that's where they're absolutely susceptible on the, on the series that the Browns went down before they threw that touchdown pass to Judy Chubb was running the ball really well. And it was because cam was out of the game. And when they can do that, if the Eagles can take advantage of that. There's nothing the Steelers can do on defense because that's that that'll be a 75 yard run for a touchdown That'll be a backbreaker But if let's say the Steelers can contain Barkley because I think they will be able to absolutely absolutely Stop him when cam is in the game, but when he's not they have to contain him. So then what do you do? They when they get down the field the Steelers have to have to force field goals not touchdowns Yeah, because right now Jake Elliott has got the yips like anybody that I've

Chris: ever seen. Except, except Dustin Hopkins.

Steve: I mean, how many, how many, how many, how many kickers against the Steelers have missed field goals? It's really kind of bizarre, isn't it? Yeah. And, um, I think if that happens, boy, those Philly fans are just going to be, they're going to be all over that team missing field goals, especially if they miss more than one. Those fans will go nuts over that. So we'll see. I mean, I agree with Mark, though. I think Mark hit the nail on the head on how the Steelers' defense needs to play, and it's really going to come down to turnovers.

Chris: Yeah, I think so. I think it could be a defensive struggle, to be honest with you. Because I don't think if Pickens is not in there, Philadelphia's defense has a much easier game to play. And not that it's going to be easy, but it's much easier. You could see that in the Cleveland game. And on the reverse side, the Steelers D is good, but they are a splash play defense. So they can give up a lot of yards. And the Eagles, all of their weapons are healthy, and that's a lot to ask for. The weakness that I think- Tanner Iskra Well, Dallas Goddard's out. John Del Vecchio Well, he is, but I mean, okay, so Dallas Goddard's out, but you got Smith, Brown, Barkley, and Hertz. They can all score at any given time. And I put them myself, I think Detroit's a great team. I put them just a step below Detroit. And the only reason I do that is because Detroit is riding on adrenaline and they're really, you know, and coaching. They do have weapons, but- Tanner Iskra, MPH- Well, they have Minnesota on their heels. Yeah. That helps the one week link. And I'm going to, I love saying this, the one week link that I think that we have where H H J is just going to go ballistic. I'm telling you, I need a lighter here. In my opinion, in my opinion, in my opinion, Steelers nation, JPJ is a liability right now. He's a liability. I do not like the way he is playing. I do not like that post-snap penalty he got, which was very unnecessary in that game. I'm not saying that I don't think he's good. I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is that the hype- You're saying he's a liability, which means he shouldn't be on the field. right now. So I'm not saying he shouldn't be on the field.

Steve: I, your choice of words are poor.

Chris: This is like, this is like Meechkov derangement center.

Marc: Go ahead. Well, I would say this, um, you know, look, I mean, mr. Still appears in the house.

Chris: Hello everyone.

Marc: Go ahead. If, if you are Joey Porter jr. Then this is a game that you should relish, right? This is a game where, you know, if you want everybody to talk about you like you're one of the best corners in the league, go out and shut down either A.J. Brown or Devontae Smith. Piece of cake. So if you… Not easy, but… But if you do that, but if you do that, look, I mean, look, it's as simple as this. If he does that, I'm going to feel a lot differently about Joey Porter Jr.

Steve: after the game. Here's why I say a piece of cake, because he can push Devonta Smith around. The guy weighs like one hundred and sixty five pounds. Yeah. And if he tries to push A.J. Brown around, you're not even going to know because the guy's so big, he's not going to be able to move in. So you can put your hands all over AJ Brown and you won't even notice that his hands are on him. So I think they're the perfect duo for him to go up against, honestly. It's that mid-range wide receiver who kind of has some speed, who can get behind him, who's not that big but big enough to be able to jump over him. I think that's the problem J.P. Jr. has. Him being handsy is not a problem. I'm sorry. I love it. I think you need a cornerback out there that's physical, a guy who can get close to the receiver, and at some point you have to turn around and knock down the ball, and that's it. That's all you have to do.

Marc: Mr. Steeler Finn actually has a really good point here. There you go. Yeah, bring it up Russell Russell Wilson has been a thorn in the Eagle side Yeah, we we never beat him. And so he's I'm assuming he's right when he pulled that up Yeah, five and O against the Eagles. They never beat Russell Wilson.

Chris: Yep, and I love this John Edberg says Calvin is right. Joey penalty jr. Is suspect, right? I

Steve: Hey, even our fans are allowed to be wrong.

Chris: Yeah. Well, I mean, here's the thing. I, I, I do want to clarify. I don't think he's bad. I'm talking about right now, these last few games, uh, starting three games ago when he started to have penalties called against him and then following that up with his play in this particular game where I did, I kept an eye on him and he, he seemed to be out of position more than not. I just think that that he might be getting a little out over his skis. And look, you guys, we should talk about hard knocks, the AFC North. Right. That was very impressive. But but Mike Tomlin needs to use a little of that magic on him, kind of the way he's trying to use it on pickings. Like, look, you're good. You're not great yet. Okay. You got to reign it in. You got to, you got to learn how to cover these guys. You got to study the tape. Every game is different. Every receiver is different. You're not going to be able to play every receiver the same way. And if somebody punches you in the face, turn around and walk away, you know, what are we trying to do here? We're not trying to get Tik TOK videos out. We're trying to get another trophy in the trophy case. And if you want to be part of that, which your father was part of, And everybody says, oh, well, he had his own scuffles. Yeah, he did. Of course. Like father, like son, I guess you just you got it. He's got to rein it in, man. And this game is the important game. This is the game where it doesn't matter what side of the field he plays on. They got a guy who can take it to the house every time they catch the ball.

Steve: So if they lose, this is not an important game from a win loss standpoint.

Chris: No, I mean, it's an important game for Joey Porter because he's playing against probably because they didn't put him on Jamar Chase on either side of the ball or on either side of the field. He's playing against two of the best receivers he's probably played against yet. So and and. You know, what do you do? So let's get in some of these comments here. Let's see, Mr. Stiller's fan. He also says that the Eagles game is relatively useless. And he goes in, you know, 1965, Pat off track says, give me three stats, touchdowns, red zone efficiency, and third and fourth down conversions. And I'll tell you who won. Mr. Stiller fan says the O-line has to play their best game yet because their Eagles defense is tops in the league. Absolutely. And One more from Mr. Stiller, JPJ isn't suspect right now, in my opinion, backing you up, H.J. I think the real issue falls on the refs. You know, I don't like that. I don't like blaming the refs for everything. Not that you're blaming them for everything, Stiller fan, but it's kind of like, look, you got to learn how to play the game right, and he's a little handsy. Um, AFC North, Hard Knocks, AFC North. Uh, you guys watched the first episode?

Steve: Yeah.

Chris: You didn't watch it? No, I watched it. I'm not watching. You're not going to watch it?

Steve: No, I'm going to let you guys tell me about it.

Chris: Okay, well go ahead Schwaber, give me your take on it real quick.

Marc: Well, you know what? I listened to somebody on the radio make a comment and I would say I kind of agree with it. They said what we watch were three NFL coaches and a movie star. Right. With Tomlin being the movie star. That's exactly right. Right. Yeah. And you know, look, I always tell you guys, the reason why I like watching these things is because you can really get a sense as to who can coach and who can't. Um, And I was impressed with Tomlin. Yeah, me too. I was definitely impressed with Tomlin. Um, you know, you could see that some of the things that happened in that game, they had worked on during the week, like the, the herbic sack, you know, he called it right before it happened. Right. You know, I thought that was really impressive. And just the way he, you know, the way he talks to the players, I think is, is really, um, Think he does it in a way where he holds people accountable, but at the same time he encourages them. Yeah, so I was impressed with him I I Wasn't really I mean You know the other teams are just all so bad Except for the Ravens. You know actually let me make a comment actually I I was actually, you know, I was not that impressed with John Harbaugh. Yeah. I was not impressed. I sort of felt like he was kind of like, um, not really in tune with the team. Right. Like he, he's kind of like, he's like talking in a language that like, isn't for the players. You know, it's just like more like the coaches and the general manager would understand. I don't know. Um, that really surprised me. I was expecting a lot more from him. Yeah. Those are my two, two takeaways.

Chris: My, my, my takeaway was one same thing as you would Tomlin. Um, finally we get a chance to see what we always see in these press conferences and we take these little clips away and we turn them into what we call Tomlin isms. Right. And then now you, you watch him coach in the meetings and you realize that, Like when he, when he strings it out into a coaching session or a meeting, it actually makes more sense. Right. And he does have a way of connecting with the players. Like after Herbig's strip sack, right. They, they showed him on the sidelines right before the play. He said, strip sack coming, Herbig's coming in and bang, he got it. Herbick runs off the field and he's, Herbick looks all surprised and happy and he grabs him and he, and he says, don't act surprised. Don't act surprised. This is what you do. This is what you're supposed to do. No, no reason to be surprised. And I thought, wow, that's a brilliant coaching moment where he's like, this is exactly what I expected of you.

Marc: Well, and they also showed him, they showed him talking to Herbick the whole week saying, They brought this guy, I think Orlando Brown, to stop you because we abused the guy from last year. They said they got rid of him. They brought in a new left tackle to stop Highsmith and you. And so your job this week is to get a sack around him. Yeah. And he did, you know, right. And, but they talked about it like all week. Yeah, they did.

Steve: Well, it was really good. You got to see the highlights of what they talked about. They can push whatever narrative they want on the cam.

Chris: Right. Yeah. But the fact is they did talk about it. Yeah. Yeah. That's the thing. Like they, they did talk about it. So now the, yeah.

Marc: The negative, I would say, is that, of course, you know, like they're not really showing much of anything that's controversial.

Chris: Yeah, no, you know, well, we haven't seen the rest of the I mean, there's more to come. But in that one, no, it was kind of it was it was kind of watered down a little bit. I was not impressed at all with Zach Taylor, the Bengals coach. I just think, I mean, I can't, the only reason that their offense is so good is because of Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase. The way he coaches, it was kind of like, he was like, honestly, I got to say, he was like a little white guy, a little white guy in the corner talking about football. You know, like it wasn't, it just, it just didn't seem to me to be any kind of coach.

Steve: And you wonder why I'm not worried about the Bengals.

Marc: Yeah. Well, he and Stefanski, let's face it. I mean, their teams just really aren't that good. So it's almost like it's really hard for them. And it would be interesting to actually, it would have been interesting to see Tomlin doing this with like an eight and eight team, because that's where you really get to see some really good coaching because, you know, these guys are still like, they're trying to like still hold their team together. Right. Right. You know, and that's a different, that's a whole different thing.

Chris: So Mr. Stiller fan says, does the rookie right tackle if he's ready for the postseason? Does he start? And Jeff chimes in and answers the question for us. No. Thank you, Jeff. I mean, he might.

Steve: I mean, it's hard to say if Tomlin thinks that Roderick Jones has solidified his position on the right side or not. Yeah, I don't know. Because if he hasn't, then he'll put Fatanu back in.

Chris: All right, let's get some predictions in for this game, and then we'll move on to our predictions, and then we'll move on to snack time. So if you're watching this live right now, you're probably watching on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube X, or Instagram. This is the Sports Porch. It's the black and gold edition here in Pittsburgh. I'm going to drop the podcast right after the show, the Sports Porch. You can find it on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify. or anywhere you get your frigging podcasts. And of course, I've put up here, please head on over to YouTube if you're watching us there now. Thank you. Subscribe to us at the Sports Porch Podcast. Predictions for the game. Grant Schwabini, Steelers, Eagles. I do have to say that Mark is so superstitious that he won't watch the game anywhere else but his own house, and he demands that we come there if we're going to watch it together.

Steve: In fairness, his wife does make really good snacks.

Chris: Exactly. You were listening to the earlier show. It's true. I mean, I'm not, I'm not, not to say that your wife doesn't. No, no. I even said I will, I will go anywhere else cause we come down here all the time. We could go to your house and where your wife makes no snacks whatsoever.

Steve: You're not invited to my house. Not anymore. I have a dying cat.

Chris: We're just waiting for a cat to die. Really? So once that cat is out of here, I can come over to your house. You're going to get two more?

Steve: Oh yeah. Susan's already said like we're getting two more cats within two weeks of the cat dying.

Chris: Does that make you anxious?

Steve: I thought maybe we'd have like two months without any animals.

Chris: Yeah. Were you looking forward to that? I was. Yeah.

Steve: No, you're not. I'm not looking forward to having little kittens running around, you know, scratching up all my shit.

Chris: Yeah. Well, All right, Mr. Stiller fan says Steelers 31, Eagles 30, Boswell game winning field goal. I think special teams make makes a huge difference. Pat off track, Eagles 28 to 20. Grant Schwabini, what say you?

Marc: I'm going to go Steelers 27-20.

Chris: Yeah, this is this is what he does. See, this way he figures if he's wrong, then he's happy. No, I mean, I just sort of really think the Steelers are going to go in there and win.

Marc: Well, you know, the more, actually, I wasn't really thinking that way until the guy made me think about the Russell Wilson effect. They really don't play well against him. And look, I mean, let's face it, I mean, I'm hoping that the Eagles' poor performance last week, you know, burns a fire, and they come out and they're passing the ball like crazy. But that's easier said than done. What we're dealing with right here is actually in this last game, they're not playing that well. So, you know, every year that the Eagles have gone to the Super Bowl, they always seem to have a little skid at the end of the season. Right. So you're thinking this could be part of that? It could be part of that. So, you know, I'm just going to say 27-20. I also just sort of feel like You know, the Eagles just clinched the playoffs. I mean, no disrespect to the commanders, but it's gonna be pretty impossible for them to win the division. I mean, they have to win out and the Eagles have to lose out. Yeah, I know.

Chris: No, the Eagles have the division.

Marc: I just feel like they don't nearly have as much to play for. So that's my take.

Chris: OK, pad off track. I'm hoping no batteries are thrown at the Steelers.

Steve: Hey, as long as you don't dress up in a Santa suit, you'll be fine.

Chris: Or a Redskins jacket. Put your helmet on. Jeff Paulus, Eagles 33-24. H.J., what do you think?

Steve: Well, I think the Steelers are looking past this game. I think they're already planning for a Baltimore win, and I think they're, honestly, I think they're going to get everybody healthy. I don't think they're looking at this game as a statement game. I don't think they're looking at this game anything but, you know, we're just going to go out there and play the best we can, but they're not going to go through any special Special thing to go through. I do think Barclay is having that magical year I do think he'll get a good 60-yard run against the Steelers and I think that'll be the backbreaker sometime in the third or fourth period Period third or fourth quarter. I'm sorry.

Chris: Yeah.

Steve: Yeah, he's coming up hockey Jesus So I think for that reason I'd like the Eagles to win. I I don't know, 24-14.

Chris: This is a tough one for me because I think this is… And by the way, the Steelers won't get any turnovers on defense in that scenario. I think this game comes down to a field goal. Okay. We went back and looked at the last five or six, uh, Eagles Steelers games, and they were kind of lopsided, you know, one game, it was a victory by 25 points. Then the next game was 16 to 10. Then it was back and forth. I just feel like this game is going to come down to a field goal. I feel like, um, especially if Pickens isn't in, but you know, we can't make any assumptions. I know that Russell Wilson is five and O against the, um, but he played for Seattle and it was in the NFC, all of those games. So, uh, unless he played, they played Denver, but I don't know. Right. So, uh, and I think this is kind of like the Jake Elliott redemption game. Yeah, I do. It might be.

Steve: I mean, he's really not that bad of a kicker, but this year he's horrible.

Chris: I think it comes down to a long field goal. This is how the Eagles win these games, by the way. This is how they do it. You know, it's a tough game. It's a brutal slog. They haven't been playing well. They know they have to win. And in my mind, every NFL team looks at a game like it's a must-win game because you have 17 games. I mean, you can take all the implications of head-to-head matchups, divisional matchups, you know, whatever you want to do into it. But to them, this is a must-win game because it's going to solidify. They're a little closer to maybe that No. 1 seed, and they're playing a good defense and a playoff potential Super Bowl contender. I think it's going to be 21-18 Eagles. I hate saying that. I want the Steelers to beat them so bad. I just do. Because I know the Eagles, they're going to be in the playoffs. And I really want to see an Eagles-Steelers Super Bowl, which is kind of on the possibility scale now. Man, we would have some good times.

Steve: It's about 5% likely.

Marc: Yeah, of course. I would have to say. If that happens, I'd rather be the loser in this game. Right. Right. You know, for sure. Yeah. Because, you know, then you take them lightly. We beat him before.

Steve: You know, let's get on our picks.

Chris: Yeah, let's get on to our picks. So, uh, what are we going to do here? We're going to make our picks on the sports porch. Uh, if you're watching us live on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and X and the Graham list of the podcast after the show, if you want to catch up on the I heart radio app, Apple podcast, Spotify, or anywhere you get your frigging podcasts, you can follow us on YouTube at the sports sports podcast. So we pick three NFL games every week. Uh, last week I was one in two. Steve was one in two. Mark was two in one. Which means for the year, Mark is 25 and 14, Steve is 21 and 18, and I am 18 and 21. So what is the Sunday night, or I'm sorry, the Thursday night game this week?

Marc: We got a good one on Thursday night. It's the 7 and 6 Rams at the 6 and 7 49ers. One game separates first place.

Chris: All right, Rams. How about that Rams victory yesterday?

Steve: That was an incredible game. Yeah. Yeah. If you had Josh Allen, congratulations.

Marc: Fantasy kind of makes you think Buffalo doesn't have much of a defense. Yeah. Yeah.

Chris: Well, that seems to be.

Steve: Well, you know, it doesn't seem like they care.

Chris: They look like they're rolling towards the playoffs and a Super Bowl every year and then they lose to the Chiefs. OK, Thursday night. The Thursday night game is Rams at the 49ers. What's your pick? Put it in the comments. H.J., what is your pick?

Marc: You're supposed to start with me.

Chris: Grant Schwabini always goes first. Oh, he always goes first?

Marc: No, the winner from the previous week.

Chris: Oh, yeah. My fault. I'm sorry. Grant Schwabini, please excuse me.

Marc: I will go with the Rams. I just think without Christian McCaffrey, it's just a little too much for the 49ers.

Chris: OK, so the Grant Schwabini is going with The Rams.

Steve: I love the Rams is a team, but I'm just going to take the 49ers because. OK, I gotta catch up. I mean, they're playing at home. The 49ers aren't a terrible.

Marc: No, they're not. They played pretty well yesterday.

Steve: The Rams. I don't know coming off of a big win like that. Always seem to have a letdown. I'm going to go with 49ers.

Chris: Yeah, Pat off tracks going with the Rams. He also did say is it would it be a Wawa versus sheets? a Superbowl. We could have a lot of fun with that and still our fan sheets. Now that they brought back the nacho Grande, this is great guys. I love it. Okay. Steve, I know that my daughter worked at cheats for a while. I don't even know who that is. 49ers is picked by Steve. Mark picks the Rams. Join the dark side. Yeah. This is a, this is a, this is a must win.

Steve: Go with the Schwabini. You can catch me.

Chris: Yeah. Uh, yeah, this is tough, man. I'm going with the 49ers. Okay. That was a Thursday night game. Uh, what is the Sunday night game?

Marc: Another good game on Sunday night, the nine and four Packers go to Seattle to play the eight and five Seahawks. I'm going to go Jordan Love in the pack.

Steve: Yeah, I love the Packers too. I think they got it all going on. I think the Seattle Seahawks are a pretender of a team.

Chris: So this Packers at Seahawks and you're going with the Packers. Mark and Steve are going with the Packers. All right. I'm going to pull a Calvin and I'm going to go with the Seahawks only because it's at home. And this is what I do. You betcha.

Steve: Sarah called them the Seahawks. I've never heard that before.

Chris: The Seahawks. And I love it. Okay. Now the Sunday Pick'em game, which by the way, I got that one. That's the one I got right. Jaguars, the Titans, I picked the Jaguars.

Steve: Did you see that came down to a final tie?

Marc: I know. The Sunday Pick'em game. We'll love it so bad. We got a no-brainer here, no-brainer on Sunday afternoon, 425, not your Eagles and Steelers, but we've got the Bills at the Lions. Oh, man. Oh, yeah. The 10-3 Bills at the 12-1 Lions. Oh, boy.

Steve: Who does Minnesota play this week?

Marc: I don't know. And I am going to get… A little crazy here. A little crazy. Can't do tie. I am. I'm not going to. Monday night bears at Vikings. So that's not a good one.

Steve: Until Monday.

Marc: You know what, I'm gonna go out on a limb here. I'm taking, believe it or not, this week, I'm taking three road teams. I'm gonna take the Bills to beat the Lions on the road. I just don't, look, the Lions are good, but they're not 15 and one good, or 16 and one good, right? We're gonna find out. So, I don't think they are. Yeah. So, I'm gonna take the Bills. Coming off a heartbreaking loss.

Steve: I feel the same way. But it's, it's always a tough thing because they won their division. So they're in the playoffs. You don't know how much they just want to heal up and watch how much they want it. Nah, I changed my mind. I'm going Detroit. Steve's going with Detroit has to win. Minnesota is playing the bears. There's no way they're going to lose.

Marc: That's true.

Chris: They have to win. You're right. Yeah. Jeff is picking the lines. Mike Lawrence lines by six Pat off track lines, money line. Um, Yeah, I gotta tell ya, if Minnesota, what are they, 11-2 now, right? Yeah, they would be at a few losses. I mean, who'd have thunk Sam Darnold? Good God.

Steve: They're the Eagles of last year.

Chris: Yeah, seriously. Oh, you think they're gonna start losing like crazy? They could be.

Marc: Well, if they lose to the Bears.

Chris: Yeah, if they lose to the Bears. You know what? I'm going with you on this, Steve. I'm taking the lines only for the reason that Minnesota is on their heels and they have to keep winning. They're only separated by one loss.

Marc: Yep, that's it. Will the defensive injuries finally catch up with the Lions?

Chris: Yeah, I don't know. We shall see.

Steve: It unfolds before us.

Chris: So that's it for our predictions. You're watching us live every Monday night, 7.30 p.m. Eastern Time, all over the world, all over social media. You can catch the Sports Porch Podcast also on Spotify, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, and subscribe at the Sports Porch Podcast on YouTube. And are you guys getting kind of hungry? Yeah. Are you? All right. You didn't like what we had last week either.

Marc: Traitor doing it again.

Chris: Okay. It is Trader Joe's snack time. And what does that mean? Well, everybody who watches on a regular basis knows that I work at Trader Joe's down in East Liberty. It's a great grocery store. It's a great place to work. They have great food. They are not an official sponsor, so they're not paying us for this, but they did give me permission to do it. And what I do is I pick a Trader Joe's product every week. I bring it home. We sample it. We give you our honest opinion. If we don't, Steve didn't like the vegetable pouches. They were horrible, but Mark and I liked them a lot. Yep. Yeah. So, um, this week, uh, and, and the preparation of course, was done by my lovely wife, the Pittsburgh property diva. Thank you, Lauren Klein. You can visit her at pittsburghpropertydiva.com. Uh, she prepared for us. These are chicken taquitos.

Steve: Oh, I've had these.

Marc: Yes.

Chris: I've had them not with Trader Joe's, but I've had them and they are served with a Trader Joe's white queso. So We're really highlighting the chicken taquitos, but here you go. Dip it in there. She brought napkins down. Dip it in. You guys get to listen and watch us chew.

Steve: I do like good queso. Do you think it's spicy?

Chris: This white queso is not that spicy, but it's really good. We demoed it a few weeks ago and it was pretty popular. Okay. So can you reach those? All right. Don't mess up my setup here. Here it is. Can you hear that? I'm going to give you a picture of the package if you're watching. That's the chicken taquitos. There you go.

Steve: It's a pretty good seller. This is what it looks like.

Chris: Pretty good seller. Dip it in that queso. What do you think? I think very good.

Marc: Yeah. I'm a fan of this stuff.

Chris: Yeah. Yeah. How about you, buddy? I have not, I have not had these. Have you had the Trader Joe's chicken taquitos? I believe I have.

Steve: Oh, okay. Wow. They're a max favorite. He likes them. Oh, okay.

Chris: All right.

Steve: Those are the samosas. He really loves it. Oh, the samosas are awesome. Yeah. Oh yeah. He gets your top notch. These definitely fill any hole. You got a little snack. You just stick it right in that hole. It's good.

Chris: All right. Okay. So we're giving a thumbs up to Trader Joe's chicken taquitos. How about the queso? Did you like that? Yeah. Pretty good. Yeah. It's decent queso. Let's see what we got. Some comments. Yeah. Amy says we have had them, Mark. So of course. Okay. Well, you know. You got to have them again.

Steve: Yeah, they're crunchy on the outside. They got some good chicken. You can get a decent amount of chicken in there.

Chris: Yeah, yeah. And there's a lot of them. There's like 10 of them in the pack. And it was only like, it's like five bucks. So it's worth it. All right. That's Trader Joe's snack time. Thank you, Trader Joe's. Taste the biscuit.

Marc: Taste the goodness of the biscuit.

Steve: They passed that queso.

Marc: All right, Trader Joe's snack time. It is better with the queso. Oh, yeah, because it's a little dry.

Steve: You know, you have to have something to dip it in.

Marc: Right. OK, where's the queso now?

Chris: H.J. 's got it over there.

Steve: Coming over.

Chris: Any predictions for his Grand Schwabini? Moving on to next week. Moving on. Moving on to next week.

Steve: His spirits are not flowing with him right now.

Chris: Okay, let's do Stump the Yinzer. What is Stump the Yinzer? Well, we have a resident Yinzer here to my left in Hockey Jesus. He has pierogies in his DNA, or he has DNA pierogi. They're inside my brain right now. Or his DNA has pierogies in it. Then we have our transplant here, who has lived here for almost 30 years, Mark, originally from the Philadelphia area. We give a Pittsburgh-related sports question. If the yinzer gets it right, well, obviously he is a yinzer and he should get it right. But if the non-yinzer gets it right, then he becomes a yinzer for the week. Yinzer of the week. And we still haven't decided what that truly means, but these guys don't really seem to care. Stump the yinzer this week. For Super Bowl 30, and by the way, Schwalber, that's three Xs. X is 10 in Roman numerals, so three in a row, that's 30. Now I have to wait till it scrolls back around. For Super Bowl 30, Cordell Stewart was listed third on the depth chart for what position? That's a very interesting… Yeah, I thought that might be intriguing for you.

Steve: Well, there are only two positions it could be. So if I get it wrong, Mark gets it right. So, uh, I'm going to say he was third on the depth chart at wide receiver.

Chris: I mean, you can give the same answer if you want, but you don't win anything quarterback. Yeah. It was wide receiver. It had to be one or the other. Yeah. Yeah. It was wide receivers. So Cordell Stewart and Super Bowl.

Steve: And that's why they lost.

Marc: Was that the Neil O'Donnell Super Bowl? Yes.

Steve: Yes, please. We don't need to bring any more bad juju. I think that was the last time that Dallas was actually in the Super Bowl. Uh-huh. Me too.

Chris: I think it was. Yeah, it was the last time. 29 years ago. Yeah, they won. Yeah. You're welcome, Dallas. OK, also to my right, the resident Yenzer is somebody named Hockey Jesus, who you can follow at the Sports Porch podcast on YouTube. And Hockey Jesus preaches on his podcast after every single Penguins game. I love what you're doing with the clips on TikTok. By the way, guys, we're the Sports Porch on TikTok. You can follow us there. And Hockey Jesus gets on. He does a video podcast and a podcast drops it after every Penguins game.

Steve: I'm getting some reels out there now too.

Chris: And you are getting some reels out there. I love it. So HJ, Hey, what's going on with the pens?

Steve: Well, first I have to apologize to my fans because I actually have not given a hockey Jesus for game 29 against Toronto because I was violently ill, ill the last two days.

Marc: Wow. And that's a big win. Well, yeah.

Steve: Actually, I thought the Florida win was a bigger win, to be honest with you. To beat Florida, even though you played them at home, Florida is a really good team, and they dominated them for two periods. Now, of course, Florida's going to come back. They're an amazing team. I love that Florida team. They remind me of the Penguins from the early 90s who won those Cups. They had another level that nobody else could get to. And that's what happened with Florida. But they ended up winning. They won 5-4, thank God. And then they blew it in New York on Friday night. But they did come back. They've rebounded really well in these back-to-back situations. I think they're like 5-2 or 6-2 in the second game of a two-game back-to-back situation. So that's promising. But I'm still where I was a week ago, which is where I was the week before that. The penguins are somewhere in the 76, 82 range. If they beat the avalanche on Tuesday night, they'll be right on pace for 82 points this year, which gets them nowhere. But it makes them relevant. Everybody still talks about them. They're still wondering what they're going to do. Tom Asino has been one of the good finds that Dubas did go out and get. He's really solidified that second line. He did not play against Toronto because I think he has a concussion. They say upper body. He got hit really hard after he scored, I think it was against the Rangers. And he got hit really hard. And you could see, instead of him celebrating, he was like, guys, don't touch me. He was hurt. But I like the way they're playing now. It's different in the sense that they're not playing full blown out sully hockey, which is everybody goes down to the net and everybody has to run back when they get the puck behind them. They're being a little bit less aggressive in that stance, and you're seeing less shots because of it. So if you're wondering why the penguins are only getting 20, 22 shots, that's why. Because they're actually taking better shots. If you look at the shot chart, and I suggest you do download the PENS app, On, on there, the, um, you can see what I call, uh, high danger shots is anywhere, uh, right basically in front of the goal between the dots from there down to the net. That's, those are high danger shots. Those are shots that should go in almost every time unless they get knocked down. But if they make it on goal, if the goalie makes his save, um, Then it's a ten bell save and that happens by the way no doubt about it And that's what happened shister can made a save like that, and I think save the game for the Rangers so Penguins are still in the mushy middle this week. They have they actually have a pretty easy schedule this week They have the avalanche coming into town and And the evidence aren't great by the way. They're like a third in their division. I think they've got like, uh, the penguins have, I think they maybe have 30 points or something like that. They're not doing that great. Then they play, uh, Montreal. I think that might be the last game against Montreal, but that's in Montreal. And then they go up to Ottawa on Saturday, but those are all three winnable games. Um, and if they do win those three, I still am going to be where I am right now, which is, Good that they won three in a row and that would be like Six out of their last ten. So that's a good thing. They're playing actually much better Yeah, you can see you can see it and I think bringing up pickering On the defensive side. I don't think Carlson's making as many mistakes. Also, I think that's helpful But we'll see. I mean, you know, the penguins are what they are. They're a team in decline. You know, Sully played his 700th game, which is amazing. You never hear a hockey coach making it the game 700. That's just that's one. Yeah, that's rare territory, honestly.

Chris: What about O.C. 's question here? It was on Instagram. I typed it up for the sports porch there.

Steve: Is it possible the pens can be bad, but not bad enough to get a high draft pick? Yeah, that's exactly where they are. O. C. He, um, the, that's exactly, that's exactly where they are. They're, they're, they're bad, but they're not bad enough to get like a top five pick because teams like Chicago, they just can't, they can't put it together at all. And, and I know, uh, Philadelphia is having a good season and so is, so is Columbus, but they're right where Pittsburgh is right now. So their good season is a crappy season for us. And, and, and those two teams are on the up already because they have some good young talent. I know Schwaber likes to, uh, uh, likes to joust me about a Mitch cough. And I do think he is a good player, but I don't think he's a superstar, but I think they're, they still have enough good players to be competitive. and they're exactly right where the penguins are, only their youth, they have their talent in their youth and they're only going to get better. Our talent is only going to retire. So that's the big difference. So you need to be thinking not just this year, if you're the Pittsburgh penguins, you need to be thinking two or three years down the road when you don't have Geno, maybe don't even have LaTang. I think he'll be in his last year of his contract by then, and what does that team look like? And that's the scary part, to be honest with you. So yes, I believe that's exactly where they are. Bad, but not bad enough.

Chris: All right, H.J., you can follow Hockey Jesus at the Sports Sports Podcast on YouTube and also on the Sports Sports Podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere you get your friggin' podcasts after every single Penguins game.

Steve: Two weeks from tonight, by the way. Oh, is it pen spires?

Marc: Yep. Mm-hmm. Not here.

Chris: Oh, it's a home game home game for the penguins Yeah, so maybe we should just all go down and do a sports porch from there.

Steve: Oh, um, okay Hey, I'm off that week what it is a Christmas week That is Christmas.

Chris: Oh, yeah, I'll be in there. I'll be in the Bahamas. Never mind. Oh, yeah Let's go down.

Steve: Oh, I'll be in the Bahamas. I will

Chris: All right, H.J., thanks, man. You do a fantastic job. Make sure you pick up the Sports Porch on TikTok and on Instagram as well, and on YouTube, where we're posting shorts and reels and all that other good stuff, getting our TikTok on. Schwalber, do you want to explain to us what this means, what we are watching and why we do this here on the Sports Porch?

Marc: Of course, I would love to do that. Thank you. You're welcome. Zulu. There are so many streaming channels. There is Netflix, Amazon Prime, Zulu, Freebie, Fubu, Tubu, Gubu, and I'm just making some up at this point. But the point is that there's so many. What are you going to watch? And we solve that problem for you. Yeah, we do. We help you in one of two ways. We help you in terms of gearing you towards the good and steering you away from the bad. That's right. So let us do our work and help you to enjoy television and movies.

Chris: That sounded great, Schwaber. Only qualification is that if you're watching a show, you have to have completed the current season. You don't have to have watched the entire all 10 seasons or whatever, but you have to complete the season. Or if you've chosen to watch a documentary, you have to have completed the entire documentary or a movie. You can't have walked out of the movie and then given a review like, it sucks. I walked out. So this week, I actually don't have one. And I'm going to tell you right now that the reason I don't is that I'm doing some unselfish watching. Unselfish. Yeah. And for those of you who are new to this show, Unselfish Watch, I'm accused of being a selfish watcher, which means when these guys give recommendations, I never watch what they recommend, which is completely untrue. I've watched plenty of things, but they just like to take shots at me because I'm easy like that. But I'm doing some unselfish watching and I'm hoping that next week, I'm thinking that at my current pace, next week I will have finished the season. Is it a Steve or a Mark?

Marc: And I'm not going to tell you that.

Chris: So this week we only have two. We will start again with the Grand Schwabini. Grand Schwabini, you are watching

Marc: What the hell is that? This is a movie. What the hell? This is a movie that is now, I saw it in the theater, it's now on Apple TV Plus. Right. And it's called Thelma. Right. Okay. And it's shockingly really good. Really?

Steve: It looks like a bunch of really, really old people.

Marc: It looks like Dr. Miss Daisy the opposite way on a little thing or tractor. What it is, is it's based on a true story, the writer who wrote this wrote a story basically about his grandmother who got scammed. Oh, and so basically what you've got is you've got, uh, this grandmother gets scammed and like she gives up like several thousand dollars. I ain't so bad. And the family, and the, and the family is, you know, like concerned and thinking like, Jesus, we got to put her in a home now, that kind of thing. And she's like, this is, this is BS, man. Like I'm going to figure this out. And so, you know, and so basically it's, uh, it's really fricking good. I mean, like it's, it's, it's a comedy. It's only like an hour and a half. And it's really funny. I mean, it's funny. Like, you know, like she's basically tries, she basically seeks out and finds out the scammers and like takes them on. And it's hilarious.

Chris: Is it a true story? Did you say that?

Marc: It's true to an extent, you know, I, you know, I don't think, I don't think there's some artistic impression. I don't think in real life, the grandmother confronted the, uh, you know, the, the, the thieves, but, okay. But I think that, um, Uh, you know, they did actually like, you know, get those people in trouble and stuff. Gotcha.

Chris: Okay. So Schwabini recommends Thelma now on Apple TV+.

Steve: Good for family watching.

Marc: Very good for family watching. Susan will be like, that was so good.

Steve: That's exactly what I'm looking for.

Chris: Maybe you'll be able to convince her only to get one cat. Steve is watching.

Steve: The biggest heist ever. Actually, I just watched this today because I was sick, so I actually didn't go to work. Called in sick, and I was watching Biggest Heist Ever instead of being at work. Full disclosure, this, I didn't have an idea what it was going to be at all. I'm like, Biggest Heist Ever, I've seen like a lot of heist movies, like that one with the art one up in Boston.

Marc: Yeah, yeah.

Steve: And like, I'm like, what can this be about? And of course, it's about Bitcoin. I don't know shit about Bitcoin. I don't know nothing about it.

Chris: I don't know nothing about Bitcoin.

Steve: I don't. I have no clue. But they go through the beginning and they kind of tell you what Bitcoin is. It's a new currency. It uses blockchain technology.

Chris: I think everybody out there watching and listening has heard of Bitcoin.

Marc: We've heard of it. Nobody knows it. Nobody understands.

Steve: So what happened is somebody stole five billion Bitcoin before it went crazy. Yeah. Wow. No, no. Five. It was five million, five million, five million Bitcoin. And it turned into. five billion once it, once it, once Bitcoin went off the charts. Yeah. Okay. So, so the FBI was trying to track it down. They're like, because I guess, and this is why I was talking about Bitcoin a little bit. You can go and look at every single transaction that happens, right? But you can't know who owns the wallet because of the blockchain. Yeah. Right. So, so they're like, they could see the money and they, they watched the money go from place to place to place to place. And then it went up on the dark web and they lost it. And it turns out, put the picture back up. Okay. It turns out these two people, They're the people. Yeah. They're the people. Nice. And I'm just going to leave it at that. And if you want to watch it, it's, it's actually worth it because that, that, uh, let's see, who's the, who's the woman, uh, Heather, of course, of course, Heather, Heather Morgan is, is the woman's name and Ilya Lichtenstein. And yes, that's a Russian name. So guess mother Russia, there's some Russia thing going on in there. Right. So, uh, it's really wacky.

Marc: Do they, in the end, do they have $5 billion? Are they rich?

Steve: Uh, no, but they live a lavish lifestyle before getting nabbed. I don't even know if they really got nabbed.

Chris: Really? You have to watch it.

Steve: You can't give it away. No, you have to watch it because their lifestyle is whack. Okay.

Marc: Yeah. Okay.

Chris: That's interesting. More whack than my lifestyle.

Steve: Oh, way more whacked in your lifestyle. Like if you could have your lifestyle the way they have their lifestyle, then they would be like me.

Chris: Yeah. Okay. I'm still trying to make sense of that. I was thinking like I'd be dead is what you're going to say.

Steve: Oh no, they're not dying. They love living.

Chris: No, I mean I'd be dead if I could have that amount of money.

Steve: Oh no, you would have more fun.

Marc: What were they doing before this thing?

Steve: Well, some of them were hooked up in Silicon Valley, and some of them were in the AI stuff. And she was like all over the world. But she wants to be this influencer, and that's why you see what she is. She has like 10,000 videos of her up on YouTube. She actually created a persona, I forget what it was called. Oh yeah, it was called Razzlecon. She created this whole persona for herself, and they think that it had to do with the money and how she was trying to spend the money and how they had to launder it, but they couldn't do it. It was just too much.

Chris: Yeah. All right. Interesting. Biggest heist ever, Netflix, H.J.

Steve: Not a…

Chris: Alright guys, that's it for this edition of the Sports Force Black and Gold, where you've been watching us if you're watching live on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X, and LinkedIn all over the world. I am going to drop this podcast in about 15 minutes right after the show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere you get your friggin' podcasts. And you can always follow us on YouTube at the sports sports podcast. Listen to us on radio PGH at radio PGH dot com. Visit the website. The porch is live dot com. The porch is live dot com. The porch is live dot com. Jeff says have a great week for the Grand Schwab Beanie for Hockey Jesus. I am your technical director and I am out. Let's go pens.

Steve: Jablonsk. Tomorrow.