Full Transcript for Pregame Show - Mark Returns, Steelers Bully Ball

know, that's a great call, and you know what actually proves your point from that game in Cleveland, that his arm isn't what it used to be, and no one's really talking about this because DK deserves the blame on this play, but Rodgers could have put some more air under that ball and led DK more towards the sideline. 00:05:44 Speaker 1: Maybe he's walking in for a touchdown. Who am I kidding? 00:05:46 Speaker 2: He would have dropped the ball anyway, but at least it wouldn't have bounced into Denzel Ward's chest. Rodgers had DK hang up a little bit and have to jump up and meet the ball. 00:05:55 Speaker 1: I was listening to another program yesterday on my way back from the airport. I was flipping the dial. And when you guys were break, I went to the other station and they kept calling him Denzel Washington. Over and over again. And I'm not even being critical. I kind of get it. Was it a nickname? Like, did they want to call him Denzel Washington? No, no. It was on accident. It was like deadpan. I like it, though. No, I do like it. Now, if you trade for a wide out, and certainly that's the talk of the town, I don't think a move will be made at any position more than token, Tom. But what's the most you would give up? for like a legitimate number two level wide out it's risk and reward it it ties into how good you believe you can be like i would give up a second rounder for the right wide out if i thought it for sure for sure wins the playoff game and gives you a legit chance to win a second. 00:06:51 Speaker 2: Brian thomas jr second round pick if that's the guy i'd give a second round pick for him and maybe like a fifth round pick as well why is he available i'd be aggressive I don't even necessarily know if he is available. I feel like there's just a lot of talk around him, and then we'll have November 10th pass next week, and he'll still be a Jacksonville Jaguar. 00:07:08 Speaker 1: That team could win the Super Bowl. 00:07:11 Speaker 2: I also think it would be very odd for them, Mark, to trade Thomas Jr. to the Chiefs, the Bills, the Steelers, any team in the AFC that they would then have to probably go through in the playoffs. 00:07:21 Speaker 1: We'll get to this at length later. Oh, yeah, you're right. Jacksonville. Well, it depends what they get in return. Still, you would not want to give them to the Chiefs. Well, they're not going to get nothing that would help them now. You wouldn't want to give Brian Thomas to the Steelers. Exactly. It's very likely the Steelers and Jacksonville could play in a playoff game. Here's my predicted matchups for the Steelers. I think the Steelers win the division. Okay. And if they do, they play whoever finishes second out of Kansas City and Denver. The West. Which would not be a great matchup. And if they get a wild card, I bet they play Jacksonville on the road. I would rather play at Jacksonville than host either Kansas City or Denver. How about you? 00:07:56 Speaker 2: I actually think I'd rather host Kansas City than any of those teams in that situation. 00:07:59 Speaker 1: Why do you say that? 00:08:00 Speaker 2: Because Kenneth Walker's all they got, and the Steelers are great at stopping the run. I have a lot of confidence that they'd be able to stop Kenneth Walker. 00:08:06 Speaker 1: You dissing Patrick Mahomes? 00:08:08 Speaker 2: He's not doing that much this year, and they don't have many weapons for him on the outside. 00:08:11 Speaker 1: So you think the Steelers could beat Patrick Mahomes in a playoff game? 00:08:14 Speaker 2: I think that we're thinking of Patrick Mahomes in the light that he was in two or three years ago when they had insane weaponry and Travis Kelsey was in his prime. Right now, the Chiefs are just a Kenneth Walker offense. Maybe that changes. Maybe they make a big trade and get a weapon in. But I'd have more confidence against the Chiefs than the Jags on the road. The Jags are really good. The Jags might be the best team in the AFC. Taylor Swift could come to Pittsburgh. 00:08:37 Speaker 1: Again, right? Wasn't she here for Christmas? 00:08:39 Speaker 2: Or no, she skipped that game when they were here a couple of years ago for the regular season Christmas game. 00:08:42 Speaker 1: She's performed here, right? In Pittsburgh? Oh, yes. 00:08:45 Speaker 2: I think she has the highest or the largest crowd in Pittsburgh history. 00:08:50 Speaker 1: Man, it looks like a scarecrow mated with Lucille Ball, and she's the biggest pop star of all time. That's incredible. Tom, how can you not play Renegade? If I don't buy the ticket, I'm asking for a refi. I 100% agree. What happened? It's part of the experience, right? Do we know what happened? 00:09:05 Speaker 2: No, I think maybe they say because there was no opportune moment to play it. Who cares about that? Like, do you actually think it has mystical powers? Like when you play Renegade, it automatically turns into this big stand for the Steelers defense. 00:09:17 Speaker 1: It's a song. It gets the people fired up. Who cares that you didn't need the stop? Just play it. It's a party in the fourth quarter. You're up by three scores. Somebody asked me today if they should play a Donnie song in place of Renegade. And I go, yes. And they go, well, what Donnie song? And I go, doesn't matter. I hate Renegade. 1059. iHeartRadio Alter Ego 2027. Presented by Capital One. The lineup is huge. The question is, wanna go for a ride? You can win an exclusive VIP experience for two in Los Angeles to see The Offspring. La, la, la, la, la, la. Hey, hey. You got plenty of time. Big time plumbing. What do you want? Damn it. The X at 105.9. If I were Aerosmith, I would have tried to have Greta Van Fleet there. I'd let the kids play one. I kept hoping Jimmy Page was going to walk out. And I knew he wouldn't because Jimmy's, what, 80, I don't know, 82, 83 now and hasn't played live in a long time. But that's who inducted Zeppelin of the Rock Hall, Aerosmith. I mean, definitely a two-way

street of big-time respect there. But let's keep the Steelers talk rolling with Tommy Football. Tom, what about McCormick body slamming verse? And I mentioned Brisker... planning Deshaun Watson to I think it's okay to give away those 15. 00:11:01 Speaker 2: Yards yeah if you're smart about it and I think both of them were smart about it first of all the brisker one I think was very ticky tacky very bang bang I don't blame him for that McCormick one wasn't no it was not but Jared verse jumped into the air like basically jumped into his arms and that's what you get you're gonna get dumped on your head that way if you leave your feet as a defensive lineman it just so happened it was perfect that it was Jared verse who was running his mouth that decided to leave his feet in front of Mason McCormick plus It's on field goal. So like you add 15 yards to a Boswell, he can kick that. You're fine covering that penalty. 00:11:31 Speaker 1: Well, I'm not bothered because first talk trash. I don't believe in bulletin board crap. I don't believe it decides games or inspires team. I think it's more after the fact. But that slam, that early, set the tone in a game that figured to be physical. 00:11:47 Speaker 2: Yes, and I think the Steelers have done that, not just in the Cleveland game, but they've done that in this four-game winning streak. Not the Tampa game so much, because that game got out of hand a little bit from them. They had to come back. But the other three, they've been masterful at setting the tone for that football game, whether it was the jumbo package early against the Saints, where you just blow them right off the line and establish your run, or the physicality that you hit Watson twice on that first drive, and then the McCormick dump. They're doing an awesome job of setting the tone. And how many years was that a problem for Mike Tomlin towards the end of his tenure? They never started games, meaningful games, fast, with a tone-setting manner. They let the other team set the tone, and then they'd always have to play catch-up. 00:12:26 Speaker 1: Now, at 6-2, after a convincing win over Cleveland, there's a lot of overreaction. I keep hearing the phrase, belt to ass. And if you use that phrase a lot, I think you've got something going on there. But... They beat you a couple weeks back. It's a split. So you split with the Browns. It feels like a good team. It feels like an improving team. And that's McCarthy. Under Tomlin, like I said earlier, Tom, the Steelers felt like a finished product in September. They were what they were, never really got better, and very often went backwards. Yeah. Yes. 00:13:04 Speaker 2: And you're seeing this team get better every single week. Position groups are getting better every single week. I think the offensive line is a shining example of that, where it's playing itself into elite form as the season goes on. And that's why I think it's okay to have a little bit more optimism at this bye week. Six and two, you

set yourself up well for the second half. Then in years past, because you see the team improving and you see aspects of the team that you could tell yourself we'll win games in December, in January, good offensive line and defensive line play running the football in bad weather. All of that looks good right now. And it, 95% of it is falling on the coaching. It's basically the same team that's here from last year. The coaches are the different variable. 00:13:44 Speaker 1: Tomlin is being shown as a fraud. I had somebody ask me if I'm going to say that all year. And I go, well, yeah, if it stays accurate. And I see no sign of things changing. But the test will be down the stretch because the schedule does get better to some degree. And it's a team that traditionally fades down the stretch. Can McCarthy change that? Now, how good is Jalen Warren? 143 rushing yards. He's breaking off a big run just about every game. I hear people say he should get MVP votes. 00:14:15 Speaker 2: I mean, that's, I think, a little ridiculous because no running back gets MVP. Even Bijan will get like maybe one or two MVP votes. That's a quarterback award. But if they want to say offensive player of the year. 00:14:24 Speaker 1: What about All-Pro? 00:14:25 Speaker 2: I think he should probably get a couple looks at All-Pro as well. That's going to be tough to snag. I think there's only two first-team All-Pros, two second-team All-Pros for running backs. 00:14:32 Speaker 1: So it's tough. I think he's doing great. And he's got a lot of word of mouth right now. I just think we rushed to crown a guy like Kim King. before he's even polished the scepter very much i i just uh that came out kind of sexy kind of like kind of like belt to ash yeah but uh but no i think he's doing really good and i i think the big thing with warren and the steelers offensive game plan in general you're seeing one or two big plays every game like you had the long game by warren and the long game by washington. 00:15:05 Speaker 2: Should have been another one but dk screwed up and dropped the pass but Yeah, you're seeing the explosives now out of the Steelers' offense every single week. 00:15:11 Speaker 1: And again, that's coaching. 00:15:12 Speaker 2: That's scheming it up on the offensive side of the ball to get a guy like Washington that open with momentum down the field so he can have an explosive play. I'm confident that Warren's going to continue to be this level of a back, though, because of Rico Dowdle and the fact that they're spelling him in with Warren. It was almost a 50-50 split as far as the carries were concerned. 00:15:30 Speaker 1: No, that's good, though. I mean, I want that. I think Dowdle's a key. You need both. He's good. Warren's a real good back. He's not... a classic workhorse. I think with him less, not a lot less, but a little less, will continue to be more. 100%. 00:15:45 Speaker 2: You'll get the 100-yard rushing performances, the good passing game performances from him

as long as Dowdle is still in the mix and allowing the durability question for Warren to kind of be put at bay because Dowdle's eating into some of that workload. 00:15:57 Speaker 1: And again, Dowdle's good. He was good. 00:15:59 Speaker 2: He set the tone on that first touchdown drive for the Steelers with big runs. 00:16:02 Speaker 1: Now here's the thing about Mount Washington. People want him to do more. I don't think he's capable of more. I think he's capable of exactly this. And I think it's a tribute to McCarthy that he's scheming open a 300-pound tight end who really don't move so good. But when he gets the ball in his hands, if he doesn't drop it, he's a bit prone to that. He's going to drop in this game. But the stuff he does do when he does it, it's incredible. I just don't think it's going to happen with great frequency. You hope it happens frequently. Once a game and at the right time. 00:16:35 Speaker 2: I think it can happen with decent frequency with McCarthy as the coach. And by frequency, I mean like what we saw, you know, two or three big catches in a game, not like a catch Travis Kelsey type of production from a tight end. You talked about, could we get more out of them? I think we saw the more that we're going to get out of him against Cleveland. They finally started going vertical with him. It was always just drag routes or you just go five yards and sit there and catch it. Now they had a move in pre-snap and they had him going up the field in a wheel route. 00:17:00 Speaker 1: Yeah, but when he goes vertical, that's when he's going to drop it. He didn't then. He didn't then. But that's when he's going to drop it. He has trouble in that situation, and I've been told this, by the way, not just witnessing, where you're turning and positioning. You have to actually play receiver, right? Like, track the ball, catch it. Boom, boom, boom. It's like a three-part sequence, and he has trouble with it. Not taking the long handoffs. But not then. 00:17:23 Speaker 2: No, he didn't then, and I continue to try that with him down the field. Because if he can get past linebackers, and it was Schlesinger who was beating in coverage, too. It wasn't exactly like it was some bum linebacker, one of the best in the league. if they can continue to get him moving with some momentum like that and have him hit those big plays, it's, it's going to be a massive problem. 00:17:40 Speaker 1: And he's so athletic. Like, He almost tiptoed his way into the end zone on that big play. Every time he has a run like that, I think of Harrison in the Super Bowl. Oh, just because it's just like, when's he going to run out of gas? Yeah, right, right, right. And Harrison made it all the way. Not Muth yet on one of those so far. Not Washington, rather. Freudian slipped there because Muth has arrived. We got the tush-push. Enough said. But what the freak is up with DK? It's like he's turning heel. I know, and it felt like he was. 00:18:11 Speaker 2: kind of getting over that in the previous couple of weeks like he didn't have amazing performances every single week but he had that 11 catch performance with jeremy bernard a couple of weeks back he had a 100 yard performance during that stretch and. 00:18:23 Speaker 1: I give dk credit not not for this past game but but there have been occasions where he does hang in there and like he had the big fourth quarter the one game or he will is that the game where he wound up with 11 catches what game. 00:18:33 Speaker 2: Was that i can't it was tampa bay tampa bay right right right had the 11 catches right I think that also he has his head on straight as far as doing the little things well and blocking and the team aspect of the position. 00:18:45 Speaker 1: He always does that despite him sucking at the wire. They don't have a number one receiver. In fact, check that. They don't have a number two receiver. Their receiving core might be among the very worst in football. That's the thing. 00:18:57 Speaker 2: You can't just be a very good Skoranek if you're DK Metcalf getting paid $ 33 million and you have the body type that you have. You have to be able to hit those explosive plays effectively. Quite frankly, you just have to be able to catch the ball. It's amazing you see some of these receivers at the NFL level not have hands. 00:19:13 Speaker 1: How did they get to that point? If you beat Cincinnati this next game after the bye week, do you win the division? I think so because Baltimore is shot. Lamar's too brittle. And by the way, he might be done in Baltimore. That's kind of the talk. I know. 00:19:28 Speaker 2: Done for the year, I think, is feeling like that's definite. And then this career over, they own a ton of cap money next year, the Ravens. It'll be a weird situation to follow in the offseason, but they're done. I think it's a three-team race right now. 00:19:40 Speaker 1: Well, they should keep him. I mean, is he going to want out? Yeah, they should keep him. I mean, the only reason they should keep him, though, is because you know, you've got to pay him, and who else you got? You're going to play Snoop? I mean, I just don't think Lamar's a winning quarterback. He's not healthy. He can't stay healthy. That's clear as day now. And won't ever. No. And now everything's cumulative. It's always something. Right. 00:20:00 Speaker 2: And he's getting older, too, so all of those superpowers that he had are going to fade just naturally. It's a two team race. The Browns are still in it, but I think it's between the Steelers and the Bengals. And I do think the winner on Sunday night in a couple of weeks is going to end up taking the AFC North. And you were talking matchups a little bit earlier in the show, Mark. I would not be surprised if the loser is the wildcard team that has to go for the third matchup between these two. Like if the Steelers lose to the Bengals, then they could be the five seed go into the four seed Bengals in wildcard round. You get my drift

or vice versa if the Steelers win that game. 00:20:32 Speaker 1: No, that wouldn't shock me if the two teams atop the AFC North met in the wildcard. A 4-5 finish. I think so. You know, I've always believed that you shouldn't do that. Play a game? You should switch matchups if it's divisional foes. Divisional foes shouldn't meet in the first round. There's no way to justify that but because... Then what if the Steelers were playing New England in the first round, but they've already played? Does it change just because they don't happen to be in the same division? I just don't like it, is probably what I'm saying. Okay, I'm actually on the opposite end of that. 00:21:05 Speaker 2: I always liked those round three matchups that the Steelers had with the Ravens or with the Bengals in the playoffs. 00:21:11 Speaker 1: Well, here would be Tomlin's whole explanation for the preview. Well, it's AFC North football. Halftime. Well, we're playing AFC North football out there. After the game. Well, it's AFC North football. What a... dimwit he was is and it was all talk with him by the way he's running out of uh tv if you. 00:21:28 Speaker 2: Know what i mean yeah it was all talk with him though mark like he would just say that while the steelers were getting afc north football played on them what was the way to describe what you saw on sunday that's legitimately afc north football 200 yards on the ground sacking the hell out of the quarterback extra physical jared verse some guy from the west coast from la slamming him into the turf welcome to the afc north That's walking the walk, not just talking that, oh, this is the kitchen. 00:21:52 Speaker 1: It's the AFC North. You know what sucks? There's one thing that sucks about McCarthy. He has the press conferences during my show. He can't go. A, he sherps my audience. B, can't go talk to McCarthy. C, no free meal. D, don't get to hang out with Jim Wexel. 105.9. It's the Woody Show. Weekday mornings at 6. Yeah, it'll be enlightening. On 105.9. The X. No, it's Mark Madden. And now the super genius, Mark Madden. Hey, Mark, how you doing? We're all going to rock to the rules I make. Double M, big fan. How you like it now, bitch? VX at 105.9. It's time for Hockey Talk. Vegas is in time. The Golden Knights, 7 p.m. puck drop at PPG Paints Arena. Come watch the game with me at Pittsburgh Brewing Company just off Route 28 in Creighton. big big screen and I got some Mario merchandise to win a signed mini stick a bobblehead whole bunch of Sidney Crosby plaques too so stop on by Pittsburgh Brewing Company in Creighton tonight to watch Depends with Double M Saturday at Montreal was not encouraging Sid played terrific three points maybe his best game of the year Eric Carlson played terrific also three points Raquel scored again he's heating up finally But the defending was horrible. Morozov in goal was terrible. And let's face it, Morozov has not been very good. Not at all a phenom so far. Awful numbers, bad optics, no wins

and five losses. The Penguins are already four points out of a playoff spot. Record of five wins and nine losses. It's not a good team. It can't defend, especially not against a rush team. So I think it's finally time to tear it down and rebuild, and too bad if the locker room doesn't like it, because that crap has gone on long enough. Trade Raquel ASAP while he's hot. Trade Carlson. And call up kids in wave-empty jerseys like Kuzmenko and LaPierre. So let's talk now to Tommy Hockey. Tom? Can the Penguins be in the playoff race? Besides in theory, I know they're only four points out, but I also know that if you're not in a playoff spot, come Thanksgiving, you usually don't make it. And that's not that far off. 00:24:17 Speaker 2: No, they're going to be in it in theory, maybe for a decent while into the season, but I don't view them as ever going to really be into this playoff race. I mean, look at the teams that they got to jump already to get to the top three in the Metro. They got the both New York teams already on top of them. And then Carolina, New Jersey, and Washington, we all had pegged at the beginning of the season, is probably likely to finish top three. New Jersey more so now that they got Hellebuck. 00:24:39 Speaker 1: Right. It doesn't look good for the Penguins. Sid jump-started in Montreal against kind of his hometown team. Tonight's big for Sid to stay out of that funk to put together two good games in a row, preferably another multi-point game. Yeah, and I think he's going to. You're just starting to see Sid heat up. 00:24:56 Speaker 2: Even when you go back to the last time the Penguins in Nashville, the Nashville game, the last time they won in overtime, Sid set up Raquel, big goal for him there. You're starting to see signs of life from Crosby. I would not be surprised, maybe not a goal tonight, but a couple assists, a multi-point game would be in the cards for him. And maybe it really was the early start to the season for him, right? Maybe it just took him a little bit more time with how weird it was to get comfortable. 00:25:18 Speaker 1: I want him to score goals because what often is the first thing to disappear with the star players is the goal scoring. Gretzky, his final year with the New York Rangers, scored nine goals in the season. 00:25:31 Speaker 2: So if you see more assists than goals this year, you start to wonder a little bit. 00:25:34 Speaker 1: Well, no, I mean... I meant a massive amount of assists. Yeah, yeah. He always has more assists than goals. I think Gretz had like 60 assists and nine goals. A big disparity like that would be alarming. Yeah, it certainly was to Gretz because he retired. What would you do in goal? I'd say to send on Morozov and call up Blomqvist, but Blomqvist ain't been great in Wilks. Maybe they should just play Morozov more. Yeah. 00:25:57 Speaker 2: They're not going to make the playoffs this year. You can go through some growing pains with some of these young players. 00:26:02 Speaker 1: It's different with goalies. You don't want his confidence to get shot? No, because it's one thing to try to develop. And I think they hired Dan Mews to be the developmental coach. He should have more young guys in the lineup. Let him develop. Let him do his best at it. But if a goaltender's playing bad... and you keep playing him, you're sabotaging the team on a nightly basis. And that trickles down through the locker room in a bad way. 00:26:27 Speaker 2: But I wonder if he needs to play more to play better. If it's just too far between starts for him to get comfortable. 00:26:33 Speaker 1: Tom, ordinarily, I would say you're right. He's looked so bad. I can't justify playing him more. There's no reason to put him in. The numbers are bad. Like I said, the optics are terrible too. 00:26:43 Speaker 2: I mean, and Muse didn't hesitate today through Shelov's right back in the net for tonight against the Knights. 00:26:47 Speaker 1: So, I mean, I, I guess I can't blame him. 00:26:51 Speaker 2: It just really, really sucks because I put a lot of eggs in the Murashov basket. 00:26:54 Speaker 1: I still am. I still are. 00:26:56 Speaker 2: I just, I hope it comes true because he was their only legitimate blue chip prospect that they have. Well, Kendall, I mean, he's, he's, I don't even view him as a prospect anymore though. 00:27:06 Speaker 1: No, right. But he's, but he's 19. I mean, Murashov is like, like what? Three years older than Kendall. It's weird to think like that. A few things I'm wrong about currently. Murashov ain't the phenom I figured, but I think he will yet come good. And here's one I didn't see coming. It's not been easy to replace Shea and Wotherspoon on defense. For example, Carlisle is diabolically bad. After playing, like, what, two or three real good games at season start. Yeah, Carlisle's been awful. I mean, Cooley was picking on him. 00:27:36 Speaker 2: Like, that goal that he scored at the death to put Utah into overtime... That was because he saw Carlisle at the net and he just went right to him and he was like, I'm going to score an easy goal. Well, Logue's no dummy, but yeah. But that's the point. Like, it's just everybody's noticing just how bad he is. Such an empty jersey on the ice. Yeah. 00:27:52 Speaker 1: The blue line's an incredibly bad problem for the Penguins. Well, they caught up with the Navage for the game tonight, but it doesn't look like he's going to play. What's the freaking point of that? I don't know why they do this. 00:28:02 Speaker 2: They had juice when Hayes and McGrody were up here and they won two games. Then they just sent them right back down. 00:28:07 Speaker 1: Well, like I said a moment ago, I think Kismenko and LaPierre are empty jerseys. I don't see the point of them being here. Wave them. You're not going to get to where you want to go. Even if you do, it won't be because of them. 00:28:19 Speaker 2: No, and I'm not trying to make it out that Hazen McGrody will come up and you're

going to go on a 10-game winning streak because they're going to score goals like crazy, but it's very clear that the Penguins are a better version. 00:28:29 Speaker 1: Of themselves when those two are in their lineup. Now, would you start making trades or would you have more patience? 00:28:34 Speaker 2: I'd make trades. I think Raquel, like you said, he's playing great right now. You can get a lot for him probably. carlson is i think carlson's the one that everybody's going to be after right because i think he's still playing at a pretty good level this year teams are going to be hungry to get him in as. 00:28:48 Speaker 1: A rental yes expiring you wouldn't be stuck with a big ticket beyond this season they'll. 00:28:52 Speaker 2: Look at him as like we can push our chips in and he'll be a final piece to help us win a. 00:28:56 Speaker 1: Cup especially a team that needs somebody to upgrade their power play. 00:29:00 Speaker 2: Yeah so carlson's a big one maybe you hold on to him a little bit until the trade deadline and the value goes up when teams get desperate there. 00:29:06 Speaker 1: If um Kyle Dubas, I'm listening to offers on anybody and everybody right now. Listening, mind you. Anybody and everybody? Well, the big three ain't going nowhere. But Sid's on an expiring deal. Besides that. No, that ain't going to happen. He ain't going nowhere. 00:29:19 Speaker 2: But they need to sign that deal because he's going to get questions about it as the deadline approaches. 00:29:24 Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe he doesn't care. Maybe he's not sure if he's going to play next year. That's true. And to be honest, I thought he'd be getting questions about it already, and he didn't even in Montreal. I think what Elliot Friedman said in the off season trickled down to the Canadian media, which, which is if it was going to leave, he would have already left. Yeah. They actually started to buy it. 00:29:45 Speaker 2: When Elliot said that in the summer, that this is legit because you're right. Montreal and Colorado are the two hotspots. And for him to go through the bell center and have a game like he did and not have anybody mentioned that. I. 00:29:55 Speaker 1: You know why I bet he had such a big game. Hot dogs. 00:29:58 Speaker 2: You said those Bell Center hot dogs are amazing. 00:30:00 Speaker 1: They're the best hot dog in the world, and I'm not exaggerating. He actually eats them, right? Sid will actually have one. Sid will have three. Those are probably the only three hot dogs he eats all year. His Bell Center trip. But they are that good. What's Sid's reaction if Raquel gets traded? Not good. 00:30:17 Speaker 2: He'll do the quiet quit thing, right? Where he won't say anything out loud, but you might see his game slip a little bit. 00:30:23 Speaker 1: Well, here's the one disclaimer to that. He has to know this is going nowhere. He has to know that. 00:30:29 Speaker 2: He's a champion three times over. He knows what it looks like when the teams win.

Give him some truth serum. He'll tell you that this ain't it. 00:30:36 Speaker 1: I don't know about that. I don't know about that. Mario was like that. Mario knew when it was bad. That this team can't win. I think Sid always finds a reason to think they could win. I don't know. 00:30:45 Speaker 2: You'd have to have a little self-awareness this time, I think, to recognize that it's just not. 00:30:50 Speaker 1: Playoffs, maybe, but anything other than that, no way. You know, and when I say, you know, practice patience before you make a bunch of trades, I'm not reflecting on 14 games. I'm looking at eight years without winning a playoff series. That's the, to me, the determining factor which direction you go in. It's just too stale and stagnant. 00:31:11 Speaker 2: And last year, they made the big change with the coach, and look at what happened. You had a little bit of a jolt, but now it's just that jolt's gone. That spark that Muse brought in in his rookie season is gone, and I'm not blaming Mews on this. I just, I don't know how he gets it back, how he gets this team to kind of drill down on the details like they were last year. 00:31:28 Speaker 1: Well, don't forget Tom. I don't feel like he was ever meant to be the long-term guy. I don't think his job's in jeopardy anytime soon, but I think he was meant to develop, which is why I think it makes no sense to have the LaPierres and the Kuzmenkos. And you know what's weird about Mews too? Here's my one big criticism of him. You know, they're out there trying to protect that lead against Utah, and Blake Lizotte's out there for the final minute and not Sidney Crosby. That makes zero sense to me, but it strikes me as a guy. Bosma was like this. A guy who wasn't much of a player seeing himself in a Blake Lizotte and wanting to force-feed him responsibility. 00:32:06 Speaker 2: You can carve out a very important role for him. You can make him the— Third period face-off guy in your own zone. F. 00:32:12 Speaker 1: Blake Lazotte. I could drive my pickup truck down any main street in Canada and come back with 10 Blake Lazottes. 105.9. From the Dollar Energy Fund Weather Center. This report is sponsored by Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. Double M, big fan, big fan. I'm not sure. It's just big and it's soft and I use a bunch of pillows and I snore. The X at 105.9. Uh, Cabaldi says the reason they didn't play Renegade is because there wasn't a window to do it, which is the biggest bunch of horse manure I've ever heard. What, did the whole fourth quarter get played without a whistle? Without a stoppage? Without a commercial break? Just play frickin' Renegade. Uh, what do you got for the trifecta, Tom? 00:33:17 Speaker 2: For today's trifecta mark, it's election day, midterm elections, so I've got three movies that feature a scene where something non-political is put to a vote. Number three, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, when Jack Nicholson tries to get all of the patients to vote for watching the World Series instead of having to do their night shift that day, and he loses the vote, and he's like, where's your American spirit? Come on, vote for the World Series. That movie's so good, Nicholson's so good. 00:33:44 Speaker 1: He won for that, I think. Yeah, he... I read... a story about that movie recently where one time Nicholson, you know, in, in the dialogue that asked the question and he just sat there staring straight ahead for like, like 45 seconds before he answered, he kind of snapped too. And, and I remember seeing that in the movie that got over his insanity more than anything. 00:34:06 Speaker 2: And that was a Nicholson ad lib. Nicholson's insanity was great. Uh, Christopher Lloyd and Danny DeVito too, in that movie were just awesome at portraying that kind of character. Number two, and this is the end when they vote Danny McBride off the island. And literally that is the line. He goes, so you're voting me off the island, huh? 00:34:22 Speaker 1: And he disappears in the fog, flipping him the double bird. 00:34:25 Speaker 2: Well, the best part is they give him the prop gun. They vote to give him the prop gun. And he immediately turns around and starts bang, bang, bang, bang. 00:34:32 Speaker 1: But it's empty because it's fake. You gave me a prop gun while you were going to shoot us. But the number one has to be in semi-pro. We're going to vote. Then we're going to fight. Top four teams should go. Yeah, that might have been the last funny thing Will Ferrell did. And maybe the best thing Will Ferrell's ever done. His peak and his finale. He's just not funny anymore. Did you see that golf show that he did on Netflix at all? Like The Hawk? 00:34:59 Speaker 2: Yikes. 00:35:00 Speaker 1: Yeah, he just... Adam McKay. I met this guy, Matt, in Hollywood. Had dinner with him and his lovely wife, Madeline. And Matt works with Adam McKay. And, you know, just like I think Adam McKay should do a documentary on the death of radio through my eyes. 00:35:17 Speaker 2: Oh, I would love to see that. I'll sign up for anything McKay does. 00:35:20 Speaker 1: Yeah. Put it this way. 00:35:22 Speaker 2: We know who was the brains behind that operation because McKay still putting out really quality movies and quality things. 00:35:29 Speaker 1: And Farrell has gone downhill. Tom, that's the trifecta brought to us by Danny's Pizza and Hoagies, family-owned and operated since 1960. That's Danny's on Route 88 in Bethel Park. Tom, should the Steelers make a big trade for Wieda, like a blockbuster? Garrett Wilson from the jets. And I know he's supposedly not available, but make them an offer. They can't refuse because deals like that are being made. Like that Simmons dude went to the bears and there was one other big deal. What was it? 00:35:57 Speaker 2: Uh, Simmons went to the Seahawks. It costs a lot for Simmons to first round picks to get a player like that. 00:36:04 Speaker 1: You think you could win? The bears are, the bears should have done that. 00:36:08

Speaker 2: The bears can definitely win, especially now that they have Jeffrey Simmons and Caleb Williams is the guy. You don't need those first round picks for years, but, When it comes to the Steelers, they're not quite at the same spot that the Bears are in. They're going to need to find a quarterback of the future, probably in the draft in the first round. So I don't know if Garrett Wilson's the person that you go after. I think Brian Thomas Jr. is the biggest fish you can hunt. 00:36:31 Speaker 1: And you'd give up a second for him? Second for him, yeah. Did you see The Penguins New Jersey? I like it. What's it called? The Hometown... The Hometown Remix. Hometown Remix, yeah. It's kind of like... What shade of blue would you describe that as? I don't know. It's not like a midnight blue, right? It's a little bit later. It's like. 00:36:46 Speaker 2: Well, that's what they said about Lou Gramm. Like a grayish blue almost going on to it. I like the Warhol kind of nod, too, with the dots. Yeah, some funky trim. Artistic stuff, yeah. 00:36:56 Speaker 1: Although... As I've repeatedly said, the best Penguin jerseys ever were mid-70s, dark blue with black and white trim, and they never should have changed their colors to black and gold to mimic the Steelers. I regret that probably more than I should. You know how they changed it? John Doolin was the equipment manager back then, and he just had a black and gold set made up as a surprise. They never asked the league permission because they knew the Bruins wouldn't want it. Those are the Bruins colors, but they just went ahead and did it and they got it to stick. Yeah. 00:37:29 Speaker 2: I mean, part of me likes the fact that all three teams have the black and gold color scheme. It's unique as far as Pittsburgh is concerned. Not many other cities have that, but. I get where you're coming from because you grew up with a team that was blue and white. I've never seen a team that I root for change colors like that. Actually, that's not true. Pitt changed colors. They went back to the old school look. But that was correcting a wrong for them. 00:37:48 Speaker 1: The Pirates kind of went to more gold than they had prior. Back when it was black and white with just a little bit of gold. And now you're saying they have a little bit more gold? Don't you think? Probably. 00:37:59 Speaker 2: Although they really like to wear those black uniforms a lot. The black with the curse of Pittsburgh across their chest. That seems to be their go-to right now. 00:38:07 Speaker 1: Did you see what happened in soccer, the Spanish second division? No. There was a play. There was a long ball, and a striker went after it. The goaltender came out, and they collided, and the striker died. Died. Right there on the field. Oh my God. Just a head, head trauma, right? It would have to be. I didn't see details beyond that. He's dead. And to be fair, I don't know that he died right on the field, but that, I mean, I saw the collision. It was because of the collision that he passed. And the goaltender no sold it. He like got up and just walked away. Like nothing had happened. That's just a freak accident. Is that manslaughter? Is that, I mean, what happens to him? I think that is manslaughter, right? 00:38:45 Speaker 2: Like now you probably are able to go through court and trial and get that plea down or whatever. And, and not have to serve any jail time for something as freaky as that. But we have a charge for accidental death. It's called manslaughter. 00:38:58 Speaker 1: I don't know if the Spanish have that. Tom, you got to see it. Although it, although I watched it once, I'll never watch it again. Yeah. Cause you could tell right away, dude was in trouble. 00:39:06 Speaker 2: I just don't really want to go through watching a video where I know someone's going to die. 00:39:09 Speaker 1: Um, the first hour of the show brought to us by Dr. House center for hair restoration at premier plastic surgery. Um, Get your calls in now. I'm going to talk a lot about the Steelers to open up the next hour, and also I'll tell you about my trip to L.A. to see Aerosmith and the Steak Place and the Sports Bar and, oh, street food. Street food, just incredible. And my phone's going off, so I better answer it. 1059.