Recap of Steelers Ugly Win vs Patriots… Problematic Vikings Await… More Pittsburgh Sports News

Welcome back for a Monday edition of the Steel City Sports Report where we talk everything Steelers, Penguins, and Pirates. Today’s report will include:

– Steelers find elusive New England win in ugly fashion
– Aaron Rodgers makes history
– Pirates end final home series on a high note & more

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Heat. [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] Hello ladies and gentlemen. And welcome back for a victory Monday edition of the Steel City Sports Report where we talk everything Steelers, Penguins, and Pirates. I am your host Brady Vene. And wow, what a game that was yesterday. Not calling it good, not necessarily calling it bad. It was ugly. That certainly uh is the truth. It certainly was an ugly game on both fronts by both teams. But there is a ton to talk about and thankfully we are talking about it today with the Steelers getting out of New England with a win. Mike Tomlin enters his house of horrors where he has only had one win in six tries. He is now two and seven all time in Gillette Stadium as the Pittsburgh Steelers head coach. So what do we do now? We do what we always do here. We will recap the Steelers versus the Patriots game here in a couple of moments. We will talk about some winners and losers of that game. Some interesting stats in there as well. Uh what’s on the docket next, that being the Minnesota Vikings next weekend in Ireland. Uh any other, you know, loose notes about the game. All of that and much more we will get to along with some other Pittsburgh sports news topics. There’s some things to talk about the baseball team. They just had their final home series of the year and also the Pittsburgh Penguins. day tonight in action for their first preseason game. So, tons to talk about here tonight. If you are new here to the channel, please hit that subscribe button and turn on notifications so that you never miss when I am live or upload a video again. Also, I would appreciate it if you smash that like button, share this live stream so we can continue getting more viewers in here. And also, leave a comment in the comments section. Any thoughts, questions, or opinions that you may have, get those in there. We already have a commenter in the section here. It is Steelers prods number 57. Welcome back. Uh he says, “Yo, just to let me know that he is in here.” Welcome back as always. And if you uh also uh want to go give the channel a follow at SteelCity SR on Instagram, Facebook, and X. And be sure to come back later tonight for a new edition of SCSR60. With that said, ladies and gentlemen, lots to get into here today. So, let’s just dive right in with the big one, and that is the Pittsburgh Steelers getting a very elusive and ugly win in New England yesterday. We talked about it a bunch heading uh into this weekend’s game. Mike Tomlin, all time as Steelers head coach, 3-10 against the New England Patriots. He is 1 and5 on the road in New England. So, cards uh the deck stacked against him. He did however also go into that game with a 3-0 record against Mike Vrabel uh in a head coaching duel. So looking into uh the game yesterday, Steelers went in with an all-time uh low in the optimism department last weekend. There was a fiasco against the Seattle Seahawks. The Steelers, they never win in Foxboro. And the defense banged up with injuries. The Steelers yesterday down Deshawn Elliot down Joey Porter Jr. Alex Highmith as well. The Patriots, however, they too were injuring on defense a little bit. They were without Christian Gonzalez, their top corner. None of that bothered the Steelers early, however, those defensive injuries. The defense forced a fumble and recovered it on the opening drive of the game. The Steelers thanked the defense by marching right down the field for an opening drive TD. Uh that drive mainly carried off of the legs of Jaylen Warren. This was the second time this season that the Steelers offense has scored a touchdown on their opening drive. Remember when those things used to be a myth? And they have now put up points in all three uh games this season on the opening drive. So that’s at least one thing we can put in the old positive department for this uh Steelers uh offense. They do get off to hot starts, so we are thankful for that. Uh the Steelers uh defense then back out there on the field. The Patriots uh little success on their second offensive drive as well. They needed to punt the ball. Derek Harmon, rookie, uh defensive end, first round pick out of Oregon, his first NFL regular season game after suffering that injury in the final preseason game. He was out there. One of his first snaps of the game, he records a sack. So that was very exciting to see. Steelers uh offense again did their thing. Took them a little bit longer this time and it was a little bit tougher to do, but a uh 90 yard touchdown drive capped off by Aaron Rogers finding DK Metaf at the beginning of the second quarter. That ladies and gentlemen was a history-making touchdown throw. Aaron Rogers now has 509 passing touchdowns for his career. that moves him solely into fourth place ahead of Brett Favre on the all-time passing touchdowns list. So, congratulations to Aaron Rogers there. Also, uh something I saw yesterday that they that I uh did not mention on yesterday’s game stream, he’s not only now fourth uh all time in passing touchdowns, he also moved past Philip Rivers yesterday for the sixth most passing yards in NFL history. So, uh, A-Rod, congratulations to him there. After that, saw a tiny bit of the momentum shift. The Patriots responded with a touchdown of their own on the following drive. I thought it really wasn’t that legitimate. Uh, Brandon Eckles, he got called for a non-existent DPI in my uh, opinion. There was no grabbing the arms uh, between him and the Patriots wide receiver. They weren’t really all that tangled. If that’s DPI, might as well throw the flag on every single, you know, shot down the sideline now because I certainly did not see it. Uh that terrible DPI call was one of the turning points in the ball game. Like I said, as the Steelers offense went three and out, uh then the Patriots, they went on a slow drive down the field. again looked like that they were going to put up points to tie the game or at least uh put up points before halftime, but Cam Hayward, Captain Cam, welcome back. I will say on behalf of all Steelers fans, he makes a big play, gets a couple of fingers on a Drake May pass, slows down the velocity of the ball. Brandon Eckles steps in front of the intended receiver, picks it off, and the game goes into half. Steelers up 14-7. The Patriots after halftime, they returned the favor. Former Steeler Robert Spelain, he had an interception and set New England up with excellent field position. Again, Patriots right on the doorstep, ready to tie this ball game up. Cam Hayward again, welcome back. Makes a big play. Raandre Stevenson tries to plow through some bodies to get into the end zone. Captain Cam pops the ball loose. Payton Wilson falls on top of it in the end zone for a touchback. No points for the uh Patriots there. That case of fumbilitis that started with patient zero or Andre Stevenson that spread to others on the Patriots. Steelers offense three and out again. Another Patriots running back Antonio Gibson. He takes over as the main guy for that drive. He too fumbles. TJ Watt having himself a hell of a game yesterday. I guess we can say welcome back to him too. More on that in a little bit. He gets the punch out. And former Patriot Jabril Peppers looking to get some revenge against his old team. I said it pregame yesterday. I want to see him have a big play against uh his old team. He said he wanted to do that as well. Getting that recovery certainly did the trick. Again, the Steelers offense off of another turnover. They spoil uh that opportunity. I think that at that point was their third straight threeand out. And to begin the fourth quarter, the Patriots finally tying the game. Drake May a touchdown pass to Hunter Henry on fourth and two. A horrendous uh blown coverage there by the defense. Similar situation. Steelers couldn’t do anything offensively. Patriots get the ball back in Steelers territory. But again, saving the day, number 90, this time with his Badger, Wisconsin Badger brethren, Nick Herbig. Those two combined for the fumble caused by Herbig and the recovery by Watt. Steelers one last chance on offense. They finally after they originally uh were one for one, you know, capitalizing on turnovers with the opening uh offensive drive, they went another three turnovers without putting up any sort of points off of them. They finally click a little bit. Nine plays, 62 yards. Calvin Austin, he caps it off with a back shoulder uh catch down the sideline for a touchdown. Uh beautiful uh pass by Rogers. Put it right on the money. Great job by Austin adjusting. Corner had no chance of defending it. Back up by a touchdown. The Steelers defense had to make one final stand. Even though up by a touchdown, they had to do it uh one last time. It was a lot to ask for them, but they did it. A better late than never stop. on fourth down. Brandon Eckles, who picked the ball off earlier, he gets the rare fourth down stop, making another great play. Uh wide receiver Deario Davis for the uh Patriots catches the ball is pretty much right at the line to gain to uh get the first down instead. Pulls a Deontay Johnson, runs backwards, Eckles trips him up at the legs, he goes down. Ball game. Couple of kneel downs for the Steelers. They escape another road venue with a onecore lead and victory 21-4 right there ladies and gentlemen your final score and usually I mean I might be able you might still be able to tell it by my voice usually you know you’re fired up for games like this but it’s really hard to you know be like hell yeah that was the game we needed to see this this team for once clicking on all cylinders getting a win they were far from That was a uh really tough game to watch at times. The Steelers squandered uh many opportunities both offensively and defensively. They still have a lot to figure out, but hey, it’s Mike Tomlin says, “Better to uh work on your problems with the win instead of a loss.” To the comments section we go. Seven of you in here right now. Get any instant reactions that you have uh to the Steelers win over the Patriots yesterday. in the comments section. We go to a uh new but still reoccurring viewer of ours, Al the Prow. Glad they won. We met a team just as bad as us. Uh yeah, that game was uh I answered this question on yesterday’s game day stream. It was does the Steel Do the Steelers like really deserve to win this game? And I I don’t think it was, you know, who deserved to win more. I think it was, you know, who really deserved to lose the game more than who deserved to want it to win it. Patriots certainly deserve to lose that game more. Five turnovers, uh, an interception and four fumbles. That was, uh, not good football by them. I’m sure Mike Vrabel is going to have those guys carrying around footballs 24 hours a day until their next game. So, uh, yeah, Steelers did meet a team. Uh Steelers I think still are a mediocre uh team right now. They unfortunately just met a team that uh kept stubbing their toe more than they did. So lucky to get out with the win there. The real Patriots are back. The Patriots before Brady lol. Not going to say that the uh that the you know the Brady era Patriots are back here. I will say though even though he had the fumble impressed with Drake May. uh did not really see him coming out of the draft a couple years ago as a guy with really, you know, you can clearly see this guy has intangible qualities like upper 90th percentile uh things at, you know, one skill or another. But I will say does his job uh very smart, can is very uh much more elusive than I thought heading into yesterday’s uh game. So Drake May, I think he is going to be one of those guys that kind of fits that Patriots mold. He’s not going to, you know, beat you with some super uh good skill, but he is going to dink and dunk you. He’s going to be uh calculated and taking his shots, and he’s going to beat you up here more than he beats you uh with physical gifts. So uh the Patriots uh the the real Patriots are back. The Patriots before uh Brady. So, you’re saying, you know, the old Patriot days, uh, back when they were really bad. I I won’t say that. I do think that they are still a team on the rise. Drake May showed a lot. Uh, that defense of the Patriots still underrated. They had a couple of chances to force uh, you know, nearly as many turnovers as the Steelers defense made yesterday. Uh, but they didn’t. So, Patriots still a team on the rise. I think we just, you know, escaped with the victory more than anything. Out of the prow there. Cam is awesome. Yeah. Uh I think that was Cam saying, “All right, you guys made fun of me for about a month and a half now. I wanted more money. You guys really got on my ass for that. Saying this is Pittsburgh. We’re hardworking. You already signed your contract. I’m Cam Hayward here. You already yelled at me uh for that. First two games, I’m pretty much uh invisible. I had a tip pass that resulted in an INT last weekend. Sure, you guys said that was a good play, but still are hard on me. Cam finally back to captain Cam things. What we are expecting of him getting his hands up active in the pass game. Another tip pass. That’s two in a row now. Uh two weeks in a row where he’s tipped a ball that’s gotten picked. And uh also on top of it got to the back field. I think had at least half a sack uh with Derek Harmon. And then also uh also Cam with the fumble at the goal line punching that loose from Andre Stevenson. That was huge from him as well. Couple other things here from Al uh on the prowl. Hate the Pats. I remember the Cordell Stewart game in the 90s. He literally beat the Patriots by himself. Liked, shared, and subbed. Good show. You’re honest about Steelers. Thank you, Al. Uh, I appreciate that. I try to uh be the uh voice of what Steelers Nation is feeling. I add in my two cents as well. But uh yeah, this game yesterday you you get the win. A win is a win. But in this case, kind of hard again to uh see that. Still lots of uh still lots of things to work on here. Uh with that, ladies and gentlemen, going to uh stick with the ball game here, but change gears a little bit. Instead of talking about what happened in the game, let’s talk about uh the winners and losers of that game yesterday. Today, uh this morning, you know, did a little bit of a watching back of the game yesterday and came up with some winners and losers. I think I got three winners and three losers here. Let’s start off with a winner here. Uh we just talked about them there. Alan the prow a little bit. You said it. Uh Cam is awesome. He’s one of my winners here. The big defensive money makers. Uh TJ Watt and Cam Hayward. They are winners to start off this segment here. As the saying goes, defense wins you games. And while that is true, uh mostly true especially for yesterday’s game, these two certainly deserve the biggest credit. Uh, I think a stat got put out there uh ahead of this past weekend’s game that TJ Watt has had has not had a single sack in his last six games. He responded in a big way yesterday. Watt game record looked like it uh back when, you know, he was in contention for Dp all the time. Uh, two sacks, five total tackles, two for a loss. Uh, one forced fumble and a fumble recovery. Excellent stuff from him. Uh, continue it, please. You’re still uh gonna need to be the uh guy that gets to the back field more than anyone else on this uh line. Please do not go another six games without a sack, TJ. That is all we are asking here. Uh Cam, like we said, also a vintage performance with him. Six total tackles, three solo, one sack, one pass defense. Uh that resulted in the Brandon Eckles int. Uh there were a couple of other solid performances to talk about from yesterday. Cohulcom uh he had a bigger role yesterday. I thought he played fairly solid. Jabril Peppers the uh recovery against his old squad. Nick Herbig, eight pressures, I think according to PFF plus a strip sack. Derek Harbin, he had a uh he had a sack, the first of hopefully many in his uh NFL career. But even with all those guys doing their things, when your leaders are making big plays throughout a game like that, you’re going to win more games than you don’t. So, uh, that was very, uh, encouraging to see from, especially those two. Lots of questions about them and their production so far this year. Hopefully uh that is a sign of more of that to come and it’s not just a uh a oneoff say when we come back uh a week or so from now. Uh real quick to the comment section again on the prow would be nice if Detroit could beat the Ravens. Yeah, that game certainly going to be uh on my TV here once we are uh off the uh air here this evening. Detroit against Ravens. Is that game is that game in Baltimore or is it in Detroit? That’s the one thing I do not know. Uh on the prow, I think we can beat the Vikings. Well, that makes one of us. Uh there alikings here uh later on in the program. Do not think that I am going to uh just cast them off until later. Okay, that game is in Baltimore. Then yeah, uh it’ll be tough for Detroit, but you know, hopefully they can uh pull one out for us. take out the Ravens uh tonight. Uh yeah, I think we can beat the Vikings. Going to get to them in a minute. That makes one of us. I am very very nervous uh about this game coming up uh next weekend in Ireland. Uh back to the winners and losers of last of yesterday’s game against the uh Patriots. Loser. I think this one is very easy. Arthur Smith, Steelers offensive coordinator. You can cite multiple different problems uh with the offense from that game yesterday. Uh firstly, this one kind of ties into the defense as well, but looking at the box score, the Steelers, they should have been blown out by multiple scores uh to the Patriots yesterday, let alone, you know, win a game. Uh the Patriots, they dominated at times on offense, but they kept stubbing uh their toes. total yards in the game. New England’s offense 368 yards. Uh the Steelers 202. Total plays offensively. The Patriots with 71, the Steelers with 49. The defense, they did a lot of bending, but they didn’t break and they got a couple of turnovers. Uh off of those turnovers, the Steelers many, many threeand outs. Again, it reminded you of Matt Canada back as offensive coordinator. Uh, all I’m saying here, Arthur Smith, he better have bought the entire defense steak dinners for keeping them in that ball game and, you know, still, uh, keeping it with the Steelers, uh, with the lead uh, for most of that ball game yesterday because the play calling was absolutely horrendous, especially in the second half. Hot start. Sure, Steelers offense is notorious right now for getting off the hot starts, but then for the rest of the game, it was a rinse and repeat cycle of plays. Run, screen, run, run, screen, pass, run, screen. You had the occasional go route uh down the sideline as well that you know either was incomplete or you drew uh pass interference on, but it was the same thing over and over again. Same you know uh same play calls and same results. It was very very nausey. There we go. Did a uh refresh there, ladies and gentlemen, of my uh screen here. Hopefully that comes across clearer on uh your uh and now. But yeah, just back to Arthur Smith. It was the same stuff over and over again. It was really getting annoying. I was like, “Oh, watch here. Here comes the screen. Here comes the run.” And to the comment section here on the prow. Warren is not tremendously fast, but he is effective. using him in the flat is helping our running game right now. Uh yeah, looks good. Yeah, Jaylen Warren, he made a lot of that. And on some certain cases, he made chicken crap uh into chicken salad. Like there was one play, I think it was on that touchdown drive late in the game. He uh in the flat got the ball. It it was one of those screen passes, but I don’t think anybody leaked out to uh block for him, made two Patriots, missed, made one move and then was gone. He doesn’t have, you know, top end speed, Jaylen Warren, but he does have that burst where he can be in front of you one second and then, you know, 10 yards behind you the next. So, uh, Warren did make a lot of that look good yesterday, uh, in my opinion. But Arthur Smith, his play calling and all that, uh, very suspect. Sure, there were some miscommunications between Aaron Rogers and a couple of his receivers that, you know, aided in those many three and outs, but questionable game plan, questionable play calls against a defense that didn’t have much star power, and they were down their top corner as well. Not good. Not good. Uh, sort of transitioning here into my next winner. Maybe that uh maybe the quick screens and the uh runs were to protect the Steelers offensive line. I have them as a winner from yesterday. Similar to the entire offense, uh the Steelers O line first quarter absolutely imposed their will on the Patriots defense. They were blowing uh linebackers and defensive linemen off the line of scrimmage. That’s what helped get the running game uh going in the first quarter. and then steady decline uh after that for the rest of the game. Sure, the running game became less effective as the game wore on and Aaron Rodgers still took a couple of big hits, but let’s stick with the positives here with the Steelers offensive line. Heading into yesterday’s game, the Patriots, they were leading the NFL in sack percentage and in sacks with nine. And this offensive line, I think they have given up at least, you know, three sacks in each of the first two games. Zero sacks allowed yesterday. Aaron Rodgers not sacked a single time. That is a massive positive uh for the Steelers offensive line even though the uh game plan that Arthur Smith put in was probably to protect them. Also, according to uh NFL’s NextGen stats, no Steelers offensive linemen allowed more than one pressure. Zack Frasier and Isaac Seamalo, zero pressures. So, simple math. Futanu McCormick and Brick Jones. Those guys only giving up one pressure yesterday. Solid outing for the offensive line. we can we can uh you know come on here and still critique all the other things that they are still struggling to do but a performance in past protection like that where you have had some struggles uh early on this season bit of a breath of fresh air there however on the prow saw you put it in there think you can beat the Vikings that is uh one of the issues that I uh have they have an elite beat defense with a fantastic pass rush. More on that here in a little bit. This will be the greatest test for the Steelers offensive line yet and will probably be one of the biggest ones of the season coming up in Ireland. Uh so let’s wait and see if this pass protection thing that the offensive line got certainly better at yesterday if that will be sustainable. Uh on to my second loser of yesterday’s ball game between the Steelers uh and the Patriots. I’m going to go away from the Steelers here. It’s hard not to put these guys as a loser regardless of what side of the matchup you’re on. The Patriots running backs, uh they were pretty bad yesterday. I’ll admit it. I hyped that group up heading into yesterday’s game, especially after per after uh their performance in week two against the Miami Dolphins. But yesesh, they’re not only probably the biggest losers of yesterday’s game, they’re probably one of the biggest losers of the entire weekend across the NFL. Their lead back, Reandre Stevenson, two fumbles, one uh on the opening drive that resulted in a touchdown and then one at the goal line when they were looking to tie the game up. That going to be demoralizing for not just him, but for the team as a whole. After that, he was pretty much benched for Antonio Gibson. Uh Gibson took over, had a little bit of success, had some solid runs up the middle, but then he fumbled as well. Uh after that, Patriots, they turned things over uh to their second round rookie, Trevon Henderson, and if my memory serves me right, I think the Steelers did a good job bottling him up. I think he was held to, you know, just two yard gains at most on most of his runs. So, solid job by the Steelers uh punching the ball out and holding Henderson to little gains. They still the Steelers defense here gave up 119 yards on the ground. But when you give these guys fumbleitis that bad uh really um you know puts anything else what you gave up on the ground uh out of mind. You can bend, but do not break. Get the ball back. I’m going to take it. Uh my last winner here before I get to the uh last loser uh of the game that I have here. My last winner, sticking with the Steelers here, Brandon Eckles. This guy probably the most underrated addition of the off season. Uh he was, you know, brought in before uh Jaylen Ramsay was brought in. He was looked at as the guy to take over slot duties over Beanie Bishop. Um, and so far this season, you know, after they traded for Jaylen Ramsay, and they still have Darius Slay, so you got some star power there, he’s been uh overshadowed or overlooked a bit, but yesterday he reminded us that he can make plays. and uh having the game-winning uh tackle and an interception that literally took points away from the Patriots that is uh going to get you a winner on in just about uh every single game. I’m not going to hold my breath here that that performance is going to turn uh Brandon Nichols into some sort of superstar, but if he can continue making plays like that more than once in a while, uh you know, maybe have a you know, solid play a game, end up making getting his hands on a ball uh every other game, that will go a long long long way uh in stabilizing this questionable secondary. And uh the final thing uh here, my final loser of the ball game, that is the uh Steelers coaching staff as a whole and the players I guess just the Steelers in general and the middle of the field. That is some place that is like no man’s land here for the Steelers. We kind of covered this a little bit talking about Arthur Smith with his runs and screens and uh deep shots down the sidelines. Steelers yesterday especially didn’t use the middle of the field all that much. Uh but that problem now we got to realize the Steelers they have a middle of the field problem on defense uh as well. I couldn’t count keep track of how many times the I saw the Steelers give up eight to 14 yard gains in the middle of the field to tight ends and wide receivers, especially Hunter Henry. Like, how the hell do you let Hunter Henry go off on you like that? It’s absolutely terrible. And it’s even worse when this Steelers defense, they run a three, four scheme, so they already always got, you know, two middle linebackers out there more often than not, they drop them back into coverage. How do you just let Hunter Henry or or a slot receiver go out there, run a, you know, six, seven yard route, stop and then catch the ball completely uh uncontested and then get maybe a couple of extra yards off of that. It was absol absolutely sickening to watch. that exact problem uh caused the Steelers to give up the game tying touchdown to Hunter Henry. And uh this is something that has been a problem and an issue for them uh for the first three games of the season. And it’s a big uh contributor to the Steelers defense giving up 1,158 net yards of offense uh so far this year. So, they really need to uh improve upon that. uh big time both sides of the ball. Please use the middle of the field more. Watching that game yesterday and the Patriots just dink and dunk their way down the field at times with those uh nice catch and goes in the middle of the field uh makes me very very nervous about the Steelers going up against the uh the Vikings here on Sunday. They’re gonna need to cover TJ Hawinson, Josh Oliver, the backup tight end for the Vikings, who caught a touchdown pass yesterday. Uh I think Adam Theland, uh they put him in the slot a little bit. So, it’s going to be a hell of a uh a hell of a challenge here for the Steelers against the Vikings. Uh real quick, just a couple of extra notes here before we move on from the game yesterday for the Steelers. Uh some snap count things uh right here. Uh let’s see here. Uh running back snap counts. Uh the Steelers yesterday, they elevated Trey Surman. And uh after they elevated Trey Surman, you thought that they would uh scratch uh Caleb Johnson for yesterday’s game. Sort of uh I guess put him in the doghouse say uh more or less for his gaff against the Seahawks last weekend. Um but Steelers elevated sermon did not uh inactive Caleb Johnson. They dressed four running backs yesterday but only two saw the field on offense. Jaylen Warren for the first time in his career getting a 80% share of the offensive snaps 43 in total. Kenneth Gainwell he had the other 20 uh 14%. So, more Jaylen Warren, please. Uh, I mean, sure, things did not uh go to plan rushing the ball later on in the game, but uh still though, very impressed with his play thus far. Uh, some snaps on the defensive side of the ball. Steelers, they made some changes uh from week two to week three. We were calling for some of these. Cole Hulcom, he outnapped Pton Wilson. I think uh you know Wilson did have a better game in a lesser role and Hulkcom had a solid outing. I think that might be something they continue moving forward until uh Wilson earns that role back or Hulkcom falters. Uh also the safety uh snapshare bit interesting here. Chuck Clark, who you thought, you know, heading into the game yesterday with Jabril Peppers in a more prominent role, you would have thought Chuck Clark would have been the uh Steeler safety with the least amount of snaps. He actually had the most. And then it was Jabril Peppers. And then Juan Thornnehill among the three legitimate uh safeties out there for the Steelers. Juan Thornnehill the least, Chuck Clark the most, Jabril Peppers somewhere in the middle. That was a bit surprising. Uh, also last thing here about snap counts, Derek Harmon, uh, playing his first NFL game yesterday. We heard from, uh, defensive coordinator Carol Austin earlier in the week that if Harmon would be a go, he’d be on a judicious snap count. Harmon confirmed that himself, that he was on a limited snap count. However, I wonder what the limit uh for snaps was because he played 35 snaps and if that’s a limited snap count, then hey, you know, keep him on a limited snap count uh more often than not. So, uh yeah, that was uh great there to see from Derek Harmon. 35 snaps uh really made his mark. Uh last couple of things here from the game yesterday, couple of postgame interviews. Uh Aaron Rogers on the field, said that the defense came to play uh came out and played incredible. He said that uh he didn’t have a good game and said that the Steelers offense still has a ton to work on. No kidding there. A-Rod also said that Calvin Austin uh the touchdown the game-winning touchdown pass that he had with CA3 that was off of a subtle signal that Rogers and uh Austin relayed to each other. Uh he said he was on the same page. I didn’t throw the ball but uh the best ball, but Cal’s so damn fast. He made a great play. So uh nice to see at least one in the most important time that Rogers and his wide receiver were on the same page there. Last Stealer that we heard of uh yesterday that we heard from yesterday talking about the former Patriot. He was a big story line. Jabril Peppers said that he received a game ball for the win against his old team. He said, “I needed this one.” I think uh I heard someone say postgame like five different New England reporters came into the Steelers locker room because Peppers is that is such a charismatic and likable guy that they wanted to interview him postgame as well. Uh Peppers about that turnover, that forced fumble that he recovered. Uh he said that I envisioned it last night. I wanted to let the fans know I miss them, but I’m down with the Steelers uh now in the Steel Curtain now. So, hell yeah. Jabril Peppers, you can stay a Steeler the rest of your career. That dude seems like an absolute trip to have in the locker room and he’ll go out there and he will uh run some shoulder pads through chests of players as well. So, love his uh game. But that does it for the Steelers and the Patriots. wasn’t the uh prettiest game on either side of the ball. Steelers on offense couldn’t capitalize off of a majority of the turnovers from the defense. Play calling was questionable on that front. Steelers defense. Sure, they made splash and sure the big guys came out to play. Watt and Hayward, but uh another issue for them. Third and fourth down. Uh really struggling on the money downs as Mike Tomlin likes to say, getting off the field. They struggled with that yesterday, but they escaped with the win. On to the Minnesota Vikings. More on them in the uh extra Pittsburgh Sports News segment here a little bit later on. But uh they get the win two and one now on the season. Just imagine I I saw this tweet from Brooke Prior. Just imagine if this team for once were to play complimentary football where the offense has a performance where they click on all cylinders just like they did in week one against the Jets. And the defense, I know it’s hard to replicate five turnovers on a weekly basis here, but the defense, you know, goes out there and uh gets some turnovers. Uh if both sides can click, then maybe you uh take off this designation of a mediocre team and you can go and uh maybe make a run when playoffs get here. So, uh we’ll see you there. on to the Vikings to the comments section here real quick. A couple more comments. Uh Al on the prow ar looks good, better than I thought he’d look. Uh he was terrible last year on the Jets. Vrabel has his hands full. Uh yeah, Rogers still does look better than the Jets. I think when he was with the Jets, he had a ton of nonquarterback issues put on his plate. he was more or less not just the quarterback of the team. He was the facto GM, you know, getting his guys like Allen Lazard and before that Randall Cobb and and and stuff like that. So, Rogers had a lot more than just being a quarterback on his plate uh in New York, but here in Pittsburgh, he’s coming into, you know, we may not like how the team performs, but it’s a stable situation. And I think Rogers uh likes that. Knows the head coach isn’t gonna get fired. Uh he’s just got the guys to work with. He doesn’t have to go shopping for his own ingredients here. He’s just going to uh make whatever he wants with the stuff he got with the stuff he’s got. So, uh I think that’s why you’re seeing Rogers get off to a good start uh for the most part this year. Uh Vrael has his hands full. Yeah. Uh, I like Mike Vrabel, the head coach. Better yet, I like the idea of Mike Vrabel, the head coach. Former player, line uh linebacker, is a, you know, old school tough-nosed football coach, but I I don’t know if it if he does this, you know, on other occasions, but at least against the Steelers, he just makes questionable uh decisions. I think when he when he was with the uh Titans one game, Dererick Henry was an absolute unstoppable force running the ball. Then he had Ryan Tanahill throw it a bunch that ended up costing uh the Titans the game and uh there really wasn’t anything, you know, massive a massive decision that blew up in his face yesterday. Uh but you know, Brael does has his hands full, but uh I’m not sure if it’s in the way that maybe you and I are thinking here. Uh Jamal McCollum here, dude. Come to Game Blitz with Izzy 6 Steelers at 9:00 p.m. Come give your opinions. Everyone welcome. Sounds good. Jamal uh Allen the prowl. Again, the entire league has a middle of the field problem. I’ve never seen defenses this bad. And it’s not uh just us. I hope you’re right. Uh you know, I just Please, they did it a bunch in week one. They did it a little bit in week two, but today it was just middle of the field and like not even real. It’s just a figment of our imagination. The middle of the field. I’m interested to see. I haven’t seen anyone post it yet. Aaron Rogers uh spray chart with his throws. I want to know how much he threw to the middle of the field. All right, ladies and gentlemen, six of you in here right now. Welcome to the live stream. If you are new, please uh hit that subscribe button, turn on notifications so that you never miss when I am live again. Also, uh like, share, and leave a comment in the comment section. Just real quick, uh before we continue on here with the Pittsburgh Sports News, see if we have anything new popping uh on X. See if there’s any uh new news that we have to talk about here. Seeing a ton of uh Pittsburgh Pirates and Pittsburgh Penguin stuff. We’re going to start uh a quick conversation about the Pittsburgh Penguins here in a moment. They in less than 40 minutes are going to take the ice against the Montreal Canadians in their first preseason game of the year. Not seeing uh much here. So, we are going to uh we are going to get into uh some Pittsburgh Penguins news right now. Like I mentioned, tonight they begin game one of the preseason against the Montreal Canadiens. I know I said last week that Penguins hockey was back with training camping, but tonight literally is first preseason game. Uh yesterday rosters for this game uh were revealed and it was filled. the Penguins roster that is a mixture of prospects still getting their footing for pro hockey and legit NHLers who may be jockeying uh for spots on the opening night roster. Some of the names uh to keep tabs on uh tonight. Just going to go through the whole lineup here. Robbie Fra uh Robbie Fabry number 12. Uh, I think you know how it for the Steelers we talk or Steelers fans, we latch on to that one like undrafted free agent guy who has like some super great talent, but he’s, you know, kind of bad with everything else that you say, “Watch, I’m latching my wagon to this guy as being a sleeper pick to make the team.” I’m not saying this guy is, you know, elite or bad at anything here, but Robbie Fabrey, he’s kind of like that guy, a dude who won the Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues. Injuries sort of uh, you know, derailed his career a good bit, but now late signing, I think, on a PTO with the Pens. could be a guy to watch, you know, to make this team uh out of out of training camp if he puts together a good couple of preseason games. Uh also playing tonight, Boo Amama. Love him. Yuna Copenin, Tommy Novak, number 18. He is in the lineup tonight. We still do not know uh what we have in him. Pens acquired him from Nashville at the trade deadline last year for Michael Bunting and a couple other pieces in that deal, but came here to Pittsburgh, I believe. Bounced between the third and fourth line and then got injured. Uh used to have high upside uh with the Predators that sort of uh dimmed a little bit. Pence still don’t know what we have in him. So maybe we get a you know an inkling to that um answer tonight. Sam Puland, former first round pick, uh, also playing uh, tonight, number 22. I think he’s running out of time to, uh, stick in the NHL in my opinion. I believe he was, was he the first? No, I I want to say Pulan, he wasn’t the first first round pick of the Dubis era. I want to say he was the last first round pick of the Ron Hex era. So, uh, yeah, Sam Puland, I know he’s gone through some stuff in the, uh, AHL, has, uh, you know, taken breaks from hockey at times, but I think it’s reaching now or never time for him to, uh, make his case for the NHL. Tristan Bros, number 26, he’s in the lineup tonight. Lit it up in the AHL last year. Uh, he could reach the NHL at some point this year. I know, uh, fans and people inside the Pens organization are high on him. Uh Anthony Mantha, new Penguin is in the lineup tonight. Danton Heinen, Volter Pinan, they’re there as well. Number 49, Raphael Harvey Pinard, former Montreal Canadian. Was a solid prospect for them. He plays his old squad tonight. Uh Ben Kindle, Penn’s number one overall pick in this year in this year’s draft. Uh he is in the lineup tonight wearing number 81. Solid number he picked for them. Maybe he can be uh just as big of an impact for the Pens as the last wearer of 81. Uh and then last two forwards here in tonight’s lineup for the Pens, Atley Calbertt, and then uh Avery Hayes. Hayes like Bros. another AHL guy who lit it up last year. You could see him at some point in the NHL. Uh defense tonight for the Pens. Ryan Sheay, Matt Dumba, new Penguin. He’s going to be in the lineup tonight. Pens acquired him from the Dallas Stars. I am very curious about him. Used to be a solid top four defenseman with the Wild, went to Dallas, things didn’t really work out there. Now he’s in Pittsburgh. Uh I think, you know, as a right shot defenseman, he’s clearly behind Eric Carlson and Chris Latang right now. So I wonder, you know, what his role is going to be with this team. And I wonder uh you know how he how he’s going to contribute honestly. Uh then another uh other defenseman you got in the lineup tonight. Uh you got the teammate Punisher Ryan Graves, Owen Pickerin and Harrison Brunick. They should both be in the lineup tonight. Uh very excited to uh hear and maybe watch back later what those two do. I think they are the top two defensive prospects in the Pens organization and they have been paired together in training camp thus far. Final two defenseman for the Pens tonight, Finn Harding, another prospect and another new Penguin in Connor Clifton. The goalenders tonight for the black and gold, Sergey Mirishave and Yoel Blumquist. So, the two youngsters, the two excellent goalending prospects with high upside, they that uh they both will split time. Blumquist will get the start and uh he said Mirishave will come in at some point later on in the game. If I had to guess, they’ll probably find uh you know some spot in the second period. It’ll be a whistle or something around the midway point of the period. Plumquist will come out. Mir will come in. two excellent young goalenders uh that you are going to want to watch or at least listen to uh tonight. reason why I say listen to think the bad news for tonight’s game. Uh the game can only be listened to on the Penguins official flagship radio station 105.9 uh the X unless uh it for some reason is going to be aired on NHL network or uh either of the team’s official websites. So we’ll need to check that out after the uh live stream tonight. But um yeah, Pens in action tonight. First preseason game against the Montreal Canadians. Even though we cannot watch this game, good news. Uh we found out today, surprise, the uh Sports Net Pittsburgh, they will be uh airing and will be uh on air for Mark Andre Flurry’s final uh game as a Penguin coming up on Saturday the 27th. All right, ladies and gentlemen, saw 10 of you in here uh just a moment ago. Let’s go to the comments section. It is blowing up and we have got some commenters uh in there going off. Freight train, welcome back. Freight train uh out here coming in late. Buying a new car. That’s exciting. Freight train, what you buying? Don’t mean to be, you know, too nosy there, but sounds like uh an exciting endeavor right there. Freight train Mulan now saying he might continue play in hopes to stay in the Berg. Yes, uh we did cover that. Uh not sure if we covered that on Friday or Thursday, but yes, Gino said uh that if he has uh a good year, he would like to continue playing. However, him wanting to continue playing and staying in Pittsburgh, that’s a two-way street. The Pens uh they too got to commit to bringing him back at that point. Uh if I still had to guess, you know what what’s going to happen here. Dubis still going to meet with Gino and his agent over the Olympic break in February, I believe. Uh Malcolin may want to continue playing, but I think Kyle Dubis, he is set in his way for a good reason. For for a good reason. He is set concretely in I’m going to do whatever it takes to build back uh this Penguins in my image without uh any sort of shortcuts taken. Uh, so I think Duvous Gino may want to continue playing, may want to come back, but I’m not sure the Penguins, which I think they’re still going to be in a rebuild after this year, are going to be in a place to, you know, give a roster spot to a 40-year-old Gino on the last legs of his career. So, um, yeah. Uh maybe we uh see Gino finish out this year and then go give back to his country a little bit, play a couple of years uh in the KHL before he hangs him up uh for good. And yes, Ray Train, that was real. Al on the prowl again, good time to be a sports fan. Yeah. Uh really this is this is I think the biggest sports time of the year because you got football full swing right now both NFL and college hockey right around the corner starts here in early October October as well you got the NBA starting up here soon enough and then on top of that the most exciting baseball of the year uh in the postseason unfortunately it’s the most predictable thing ever you know cuz you got the teams more often than not every single year. The Yankees, the Dodgers, all that, the Phillies. So, but yeah, all four major North American sports, they are going to be in uh full swing here. Hockey and uh the NBA starting up, football in full swing, and then uh baseball in the postseason. Uh Montreal is good at getting rid of good players. Uh talking about uh did Berseron retire? Uh so starting here, Montreal good at getting rid of uh good players. Uh you talking about Raphael Harvey Pinard who I mentioned is going to play them tonight. Uh not don’t know too much about Harvey Pinard. I thought he was a solid prospect for them. And then really the Canadians, they are one of the most young talent uh stacked teams in the NHL. So, uh, they’re going to, you know, see a couple of good prospects go off, uh, go, you know, off to other teams because they got so much in the NHL. And, uh, Berseron, who are you, uh, who are you referring to here? Are you referring to Patrice Berseron? If so, I think he is, uh, long retired by two years now. Uh, oh, real quick before I get to Darren there, uh, freight train again. Mitsubishi Outlander 23 Outlander needed an uh all-wheel drive and wanted a loaded uh outride. Nice. Nice there. Uh freight train. Solid choice there. I would also uh here in Pittsburgh, you know, I listen to 937 the fan more often than not. That is like one of the cars that they always uh promote there. Honestly, like they say, go get this Mitsubishi Outlander at this dealership now. like sounds like a, you know, solid card to get. Darren Clayton here, Arthur Smith and Terrell Austin both are horrible. Their play calling is horrible. Uh, no, no lies detected there. Uh, I think, you know, the high-end talent on the defense, bailed out Terrell Austin more than, you know, he schemed up a good play. Uh, for example, I mentioned this, you know, in the loser part of the winner and losers of yesterday’s game. How do you constantly see Hunter Henry and Kahan uh Booty just go and then stop there right in the middle of the field or or come to a damn near complete stop and then your linebackers aren’t, you know, jumping in front of them or on top of them to knock the ball away. They they get easy catches to the middle of the field all the time. And then Arthur Smith, I mean, I’m starting to lean more and more towards his heavy run and screen pass game was meant to uh, you know, protect the offensive line. But still, you’re allowed to take a risk and throw in a play to the middle of a play designed to the middle of the field to mix things up because the Patriots picked up on it. the the screen and the run game as the game went on. They picked up on what you were doing. Adapt a little bit. Let’s change it up here. So, come on, XC Concepts. Welcome back, Concepts SCSR. Hope you’re doing well this victory Monday. It is a victory Monday. Not the most jubious uh or jubilous, however the hell you say that. It’s not the most exciting victory Monday where you’re like, “Hell yeah, Steelers back on the right track. excited for next weekend’s game. It’s not that, but it is a victory Monday nonetheless. We can be for five minutes after yesterday’s ball game. Hell yeah, won the ball game. But now back to the drawing board here. How can the Steelers fix these issues that just seemingly will not go away? So, uh, for the price, you can’t beat it. They’re loaded and not expensive. Absolutely. Their freight train, uh, Outland X Concepts, again, Outlanders are solid cars. Catalytic converter issues like crazy. Work on them all the time. All cars have their own issues though. Yep, indeed. Concepts talking about Outlanders here. Did not expect that to not expect the stream to go that way. Uh Concepts again. My bad. Not sports related. It’s all right. Five turnovers is crazy. Drake May will be a good quarterback. Good win for sure. We need Elliot back. Bad. Yeah. Uh Deshawn Elliot and Joey Porter Jr. back would be uh sights for sore eyes on that defense. Five turnovers. Absolutely insane. I think that however that we know that that’s not going to be uh sustainable. We know that this is probably going to be their only time where you just see the defense go out there and create turnovers like crazy. So, uh yeah, may going to be a good quarterback. Defense five turnovers, good win, but very very ugly. Lots to work on. It’s all right, Freight Train. All right, 10 of you in here right now. Welcome to the live stream. If you are new here to the channel, please hit that subscribe button, turn on notifications, like, share, and leave a comment in the comments section. Super chats and, uh, all that now enabled. Also, uh, go give the channel a follow at SteelCSR on Facebook, Instagram, and X. And be sure to come back, tune in to uh SCSR60 later on tonight. Last comment here from Freight Train before we get into the extra Pittsburgh Sports news uh of the day. Freight Train, we basically ran no slants uh to the inside. Quick passes on the slant uh could have produced a few first downs. Yeah. Uh I I called for that yesterday’s game. I said, you know, even line up Metaf in the slot one time or, you know, use someone there. Throw a quick slant. I want to say Calvin Austin caught a quick slant uh later on in the game. And I was like, yes, finally they threw something to the middle of the field, something quick to, you know, let the defense know, hey, we’re still, you know, mainly going with this screen game, but we can also break one off uh inside here. So yeah, just it it doesn’t have to be every single time to the middle of the field. Just don’t abandon it completely here. Like it’s not that hard. All right, ladies and gentlemen. Now we are going to get into the extra Pittsburgh sports news of the day here and we are going toh head over to baseball here uh for a second. Ladies and gentlemen, let’s get the Pirates out of the way. Since we last spoke on Friday, they had a three-game series against the Oakland Athletics, their final home series of the 2025 season. Friday night, Mitch Keller on the bump for the Pirate or for the Bucks. The Pirates uh got out to a hot start. Wound up being 3 nothing after the first inning. Spencer Horowitz doubled in Jared Triolo. That made it one- nothing. Then uh singles from Brian Reynolds and Andrew McCutchen plus an error uh from the Athletics made it three to nothing. So Mitch Keller getting some run support. Then as the game went on uh the Athletics ended up making it 3-1. Mitch Keller had 11 consecutives out outs. But then Nick Curts, who is a solid first base product uh prospect for the Athletics, I like this kid coming out of the draft. I want to say it was two years ago. Uh Nick Curts out of the draft. I want to say the athletics took him sixth or seven who is uh another first base prospect. He’s with the uh Casey Royals. If either of those two would have fall fallen to the Steelers at number uh fallen to the Pirates at number nine, I would have been over the moon. Unfortunately, both of them got picked uh before the Bucks selection. Bucks ended up taking Connor Griffin. Still uh no uh complaints there. Anyways, uh Curts Homerred then as Mitch Keller’s day was winding down a backbreaking three-run home run on one of the final batters of his outing, Lawrence Butler, outfielder. Another young guy uh for the A’s. A three-run home run uh that ended up making it 4-3. The Bucks could not recover from that. Uh they ended up scoring three runs in the first, but then the bats completely uh silent from there. Tommy Fam, a game-ending double play with the tying run at third base. Onto uh Saturday’s game. A very uh great thing we saw, ladies and gentlemen. Uh I think I think uh yeah, I was live streaming. Well, not, you know, live streaming when this happened, but we talked about it. Uh, the scary situation that happened earlier this year with, uh, the young 21 yearear-old fan who fell from the top of the Clemente wall, ended up, uh, seriously injuring himself. The game was stopped. Lots of people uh, were very shook up, players included, from that. Well, some good news. that kid Caven Markwood is his name uh on the road to recovery. He’s had quite the uh comeback throughout the first pitch for Saturday’s game. So that was uh that was uh very great to see him do that. Pirates then they went out played a solid game for Caven. Uh Bubba Chandler got the start his second I believe second. Is that his second or his third? I think it was his third uh major league start. Anyway, Bubba Chandler after that dud of a first big league start uh went out and had another solid outing. Five scoreless innings for Chandler. One hit allowed. Uh did hit a batter and walked uh did hit a batter, did not walk anyone. Six strikeouts only through 68 pitches. That’s all right. Season means nothing at this point. just uh put your top pitchers in bubble wrap until next year. Uh anyways, Pirates ended up winning that game two to nothing. Nick York and Brian Reynolds uh they credit they were credited with the runs scored on a pair of home runs. Chandler uh after Chandler pitched, then came in Braxton Ashcraft for three innings and then Dennis Santana uh closed it out. A combined one hit shutout for the Pirates. Uh Chandler now in his last two starts, by the way, 11 innings pitched, three hits, just one earned run, no walks, 13 strikeouts. Seems like he’s uh adapting well to MLB hitters. And then yesterday’s ball game, ladies and gentlemen, we were live covering the Steelers uh game while that game was going on, and we missed uh we missed quite the game. The Pirates a route of the Athletics a 11 to nothing victory that you see right now on your screen. The Pirates that was their league leading 19th shutout of the season. The most lopsided shutout that they have had since 2019. Looks like everyone got in on the fun. Joey Bart, Jared Triolo, uh they both had solid games. I think both of them actually finished a triple shy of the cycle. And uh Andrew McCutchen, he had an RBI single and was celebrated accordingly. Uh if you missed it, I had to go back and watch the videos. McCutchen, his final atbat uh of the ball game, took his time out before uh he even got in the batters box. Uh fans accordingly there gave him a thunderous uh standing ovation. Cut drinking in the moment of what could possibly be his final atbat at PNC Park. Uh if if that was if that was it, his final uh his final atbat at PNC Park, I got to say thank you to Cut. Even though the team for most of my life has sucked, those years uh you know when I was uh 12 years old through uh 14 2013 through the 2015 uh years. You were the head of that. couldn’t uh thank you enough for giving that brief commercial break of success and happiness and joy watching the Pirates and being a Pirates fan that uh Cutch was certainly the top guy uh there uh after the game and after that moment said we’ll see what happens. Obviously a lot of uh that that stuff uh is out of my control talking about his future with the Pirates. I need to do my part. Obviously, I do want to continue playing uh Kutch. I believe he’s now what, 38 years old. I think, you know, if the Pirates are still going to continue to suck and not even try to win, even though they say the right things uh in the media, but they do the complete and total opposite. If you’re going to suck and intentionally do so, at least bring back Cut. at least, you know, bring in likable guys and icons to this city. Cut there saying that he wants to continue playing. If he wants to come back, bring him back. But do you really have any sort of faith or confidence uh in this, you know, front office to say, “Hey, Cutch, we’ll bring you back again here.” Like I I think now they’re going to cut bait with him when you’re supposed to go all in towards a championship or towards not forget a championship towards a freaking playoff birth or at least intending for one here. But if that was it for touch uh that sucks. Anyways, Pirates uh off tonight. They will uh start a new series tomorrow night in Cincinnati against the Cincinnati Reds. And even though the Pirates, they have nothing really of value to play for, the Reds over the weekend, they swept the Chicago Cubs. And they right now are in a wildcard spot. So the Pirates, they could do the funniest thing. They’ve been notorious for doing this, especially against this team. Go ahead and uh play spoiler to the Cincinnati Reds. I believe the matchup tomorrow night, Johan Oedo for the Pirates against Brady Singer. uh for the Reds. Last couple of things here for the Pirates. Got a bunch of uh stuff going on here. Um Paul Skins, he spoke out I believe on Friday. A wasted year if we don’t learn what we need to do. Looks like uh Skins is starting to speak his mind more. Excellent. And uh telling I think that shot we that quote we all know who it’s uh who it’s directed at. We all know that who that quote is meant for tells you uh Ben Sherington bomb nodding, please figure it the hell out. Let’s get this team uh winning again or at least competing, you know, past the first two months of the season. reason why I say, you know, Ben Cherington get his stuff together. It doesn’t sound like he’s going to go anywhere. He had his uh radio show over the weekend said uh this about his future with the Pirates. Uh he said, “I’m certainly doing the job that way, meaning that he’s going to be back here as GM in 2026. We talk all the time. Haven’t heard anything to the contrary. I don’t know if any of us in this room ever have full assurance of anything, but I want to help the Pirates win more games. That’s it. I don’t do the job because of the job. I do the job because I want to be a part of making this thing work. Winning more games, being able to leave PNC Park at night feeling better, and everyone feeling better. That’s why I do it. I still want to do it. I badly want to do it. What did I just tell you guys? They will say the right things. I want to win bad. I want to win so bad. I want to, you know, fill up the ballpark and have us win on a nightly basis. But then he’ll go out there and he’ll sign the Tommy Fams, which I don’t mean to disrespect Tommy Fam. He’s been the Pirates better hitter for the second half of the year. But he’ll go out there and he’ll get these retreads. Either guys past their prime or players on teams who flamed out there because the Pirates are some oasis of reclamation for for players and it never works. They’ve done the same thing for three years now and it never works. And it sounds like they’re from Cherington. I want this to work. Do you really believe he’s going to do anything different? So, uh, that’s that. Uh, some extra Pittsburgh, uh, Pirates sports news. Uh, Pittsburgh Pirates news. Aside from that, wrapping up baseball talk for the day here. Couple of minor league, uh, things to talk about. Connor Griffin. He tonight named Baseball America’s minor league player of the year. Griffin becomes just the second Pirates player to win the award. Uh, Mike Bleki in 1984 was the last pirate to do so. honestly couldn’t uh have been a more deserving guy to get that award. Uh best minor league player. I think he started the year, if I remember correctly, as the 27th prospect in all of baseball and just a rocket on his back throughout the year uh to where he is the clear-cut consensus number one prospect in baseball. Congratulations to Griffin there. Griffin, by the way, uh his se his baseball season brought to an end uh on Friday. We mentioned that the Altuna Curve, they were going into a winner go home game three against the Eerie Seaw Wolves in the league semifinals. Unfortunately, Curve did not win that game. They lost 3 to1. So, Griffin, his season is over. And across three different uh levels of competition, low A, high A, and uh the last one, double A, Griffin. Got some hope for this kid for the future. He finishes his season a 333 batting average, 21 home runs, 94 RBI’s, 117 runs scored, and 65 stolen bases. That is a hell uh of a year. Every single level uh through the minor leagues uh he’s gone to he’s excelled and has earned himself a quick callup. I know he’s I think going to turn 19 in April or turn 20 in April of next year. But as soon as that kid turns 20, I know it’s hard for, you know, prospects to quickly, you know, get to the MLB before they’re 19, but this kid clearly, you know, give him a couple weeks, he figures it out at the le at a new level and he excels. So, if he does well out of training camp, put him on the big league roster, dare I say, because you need all the help you can get offensively. If not, stick him in AAA. I’m sure after a couple of months he’ll start mashing there and then you can call him up midway through the season. Uh couple other things related to pirate prospects. Congratulations to Nelson Velasquez with the uh Indianapolis Indians. He was named the international player of the week and I believe this is the last thing here for Pirates prospects today. Congratulations as well to Bucko’s pitching up Hunter Barco. He is their number four overall prospect in their system and he is the number 82 prospect in MLB pipelines top 100 uh in both double A and AAA combined this year. Barco. He has had a 4 in1 record, a 281 RA, a 10.5 uh strikeout per nine innings ratio in 99 uh in two-thirds innings pitched. So, this kid is legit. He’s the best pitching prospect we got behind Bubba Chandler, lefty pitcher, and I’m sure some way, shape, or form he will make his MLB debut before the end of the season. to the comment section real quick. Couple more comments here. Uh see uh concepts here. Gonna get back into some football talk right now. Concepts though. Cam said defenders are leaving their assignments to play hero ball that they need to be more disciplined in that area. Makes sense with all the gap issues and random big plays. What’s your thoughts? Yeah, I did see uh Cam saying that that players are, you know, getting out of position trying to make a play instead of doing their job. I honestly think that that’s uh one of the issues that got Minka uh traded away. He wanted to uh make plays more than, you know, just do what he was uh instructed to do on a play. That is an issue. Players need to not be selfish and just do their job. Uh hopefully, you know, they realize it’s a, you know, 11man unit out there on the field and not a oneman. So, uh hopefully that’s something that gets out of their system sooner rather than later. That’s what I’ve heard a lot about Queen uh especially on X. Just please get five to 10 games over 500 next season. Now, that is a lofty goal there for a train talking about the Pirates. 5 to 10 games over 500 next season. I just appreciate them being five to 10 games under 500. Like, how do you go? I think their record the past two seasons was 76 and 86 and this year you’re going to be worse than that. At least be five to 10 games under 500 by this point next season cuz if you’re hovering around 500, you’re more uh likely than not still going to be in the playoff race. So, yeah, just please figure it out, Pirates. the Buckos. Uh if the Buckos gets get there next season, we have a shot. Yeah, just get them to the dance. If you get to the dance, anything’s possible. Especially with this Pirates pitching rotation in baseball, uh we say like in football in that defense wins championships. In baseball, pitching, if it strikes right at the right time in the postseason, it will carry you to the promised land. and the Pirates Skins Chandler uh you know when he’s not second half Mitch and more first half Mitch Mitch Keller Johan Oedo seems to be on a solid track back to uh a decent form. Mike Bros is an underrated guy. Jared Jones will be healthy uh hopefully by this year by this time next year. Just yeah get into the dance and the pitching will get you a shot. You just got to have the offense good enough to get you there. That’s all I’m saying. All right, ladies and gentlemen. Uh let’s continue here with some extra Pittsburgh sports news. Football. Uh going to stick with football here. I did mention, I think it was, uh Al on the Prow earlier who brought up the Minnesota Vikings. I told you, Al, that we were going to get uh back to them. Looking ahead to this upcoming weekend’s matchup, Steelers against the Vikings. the black and gold. They will not see this young man, but interestingly enough, quarterback JJ McCarthy will travel to Ireland with the Vikings. Uh still, I think uh now entering into week two of a two to four week recovery time for an uh high ankle sprain. The Vikings do play two games uh over there in VI over there in Ireland. two backto back uh across the pond games. But McCarthy traveling over there thought was interesting. And speaking of the Vikings, uh I’m not going to act like I went back and watched their game against the Bengals from yesterday, but sounded like that they are a better unit with Carson Wentz at QB than JJ McCarthy through two games uh judging by the final score which was 48-10 uh in favor of the Vikings. I saw they had two defensive touchdowns. Wentz pretty accurate throwing the ball. He used his tight ends a lot. And let’s not forget who their defensive coordinator is. That is former Steelers coach uh Brian Flores and his defense. They put the pressure on the opposing quarterback. So, an offense with a QB guru head coach uh that can put up points at will with the right quarterback. And that quarterback used the tight ends last week, plus a defense uh led by an aggressive, innovative uh defensive coordinator whose defense can get the turnover, get uh turnovers and put pressure on the opposing quarterback. Doesn’t look like it’s a good recipe. And it sounds like a lot of things that the uh Steelers have issues with heading into next weekend. So Al, I believe you said that uh that you have confidence that the Steelers can beat the Vikings at least, you know, six days away from that game right now. Uh that makes one of us. So we’ll see uh what happens between now and that early Sunday morning game. That may change my mind. Uh looking even further than that, uh looking at the Steelers week six matchup against the Cleveland Browns, the Browns yesterday, they defeated the Packers 13-10. They had a game-winning walk-off field goal. Come on, Packers. I thought you guys were good and you sold to the Browns. Come on. Uh anyways, something to look forward to in that matchup uh a couple of weeks from now. Brown’s head coach Kevin Stfansky today confirmed that starting right tackle Dewan Jones, an absolute mountain of a man out of Ohio State, he is out uh for the season with an injury that I do not remember uh what it is, but whatever it is, it’s season ending. So, it looks like, ladies and gentlemen, a favorable matchup for TJ Watt. He will be going up against a backup at right tackle for the Browns twice this year now. All right. Uh couple other Steeler notes here, ladies and gentlemen. Uh heading into the college football world here for a minute. The Steelers, they were back at it again scouting uh quarterbacks for this upcoming 2026 draft class. two quarterbacks uh confirmed to be uh on the Steelers radar for this past weekend. A scout uh on Sat on Saturday was confirmed at the Illinois versus Indiana game and that scout got quite the show from a fast rising QB prospect in Indiana’s uh Fernando Mendoza. Mendoza. Do not know much about this kid, but I certainly am going to do a bunch of uh more work on him now. 21 for 23, 267 yards, and five passing touchdowns with no interceptions. Outstanding. I think that final of that game was like 63-10 uh Indiana. They just poured it on. Domination. Uh, another scout was also confirmed uh in Miami watching Miami Hurricanes quarterback Carson Beck, the former Georgia Bulldog. Wasn’t the most impressive performance for Beck. 17 for 30 uh 116 yards and an INT. I do think Miami uh did ultimately win that game, but Beck had a couple of solid weeks to start the college season uh this past weekend. not the best for him. And uh winding things down here for the Steelers. Do I have any other uh yes uh right here as well? Uh wanted to mention this on stream yesterday, but did not uh get to it. Patrick Queen, we just talked about him a couple moments ago. His wallet a little bit lighter had to uh pay a Thought that that was worth noting. Last Steelers uh extra news story here for the day. Yesterday, how about it? A bad day to be a former Pittsburgh Steeler running back. Arizona Cardinals James Connor carded off the field yesterday. suffered a season ending uh ankle injury that will require surgery. And then the most recent ex Steelers running back, Naji Harris for the LA Chargers, non-cont injury, tears his Achilles, his season and probably even some of next season. Uh it is over. So that absolutely sucks for Naj and it sucks for James Connor. Both guys who unfortunately their time in Pittsburgh didn’t work out. But you know personality and character-wise I think we can agree that they are very very likable. Uh sucks that they suffered that fate uh their seasons ending the way that they did. So uh that sucks. Real quick before we uh get back into the comments section. Just uh wrapping up some extra hockey news here. Matter of fact, that game between the Canadians and Penguins probably starting right now. Uh some news over the weekend for the Penguins. They did continue continue some training camp practices. Uh Taylor Goier, a goalender for the Penguins. Solid AHL tendee. Uh he is going to be sidelined longer term due to an undisclosed injury. uh signed to an AHL contract back-to-back years now. Matt Goier uh I think probably you know the third best goalending prospect behind Blumquist and Mirishave. It’s the third year in a or second year in a row that he has had an injury in training camp. That sucks for him. Penn’s continued training camp practices over the weekend and into today. today. I think it was just, you know, a light skate with whoever was left in Pittsburgh that didn’t travel to the uh preseason game to play there. Uh Nick Bonino, Penn’s assistant coach, working on faceoffs. We know that Bones was one of the best at faceoffs for the Pens back when he played. And also, uh Sydney Crosby, when does this guy not uh do anything hockey? spending some extra time out there on the ice today with new Penn’s goalender Arthur’s Shalovs. So, uh, that’s always a sight, a good sight to see Sid doing extra work with the new goalie. And the, uh, last extra Pittsburgh News story here for the day. A very nice gesture from the National Hockey League Friday night. Uh, former Penguins general manager Ray Shiro passed away earlier this year. the NHL naming him the recipient of the 2025 Lester Patrick Trophy for his outstanding service to hockey and the United States. Shouro uh couldn’t have deserved that anymore alive or uh onto the great beyond. He was one of those guys. Eat sleeved and uh breathe hockey. Very deserving of that award. All right, to the comments section one final time before we hop off here tonight. Concepts again in the comments section. Pirates just need to score more than three runs per game. That scheme stat is wild. Yep, they can score three or four or more runs a game. They’d be in much better position than they are right now. That’s one thing I think people gave the Pirates a lot of flack for. I’m not sure if it was yesterday’s game uh or Saturday’s game that they won. The Pirates put out there our league leading 18th or 19th shutout of the season and fans were like, “Oh, you lead the league in shutout wins. That must mean that you’re uh in contention for, you know, a playoff spot. No way. you’re way uh way way way in last place in your division and so far out of a playoff spot. And another thing the Pirates didn’t mention is that them I think they’re tied with the Colorado Rockies. They also lead the league in getting shut out most times. So, they’re leading in both uh both ends of that double-edged sword right there. So, uh NFL finds are a joke. Should find the refs for being uh trash at their jobs. Yeah, full-time NFL referees are are they need to happen. Like they miss so much and then the players they ended up getting blindsided by fines after the fact. So that’s crazy. So sad for Naji. Artificial turf should be banned. I miss Naji and our offense uh is missing Naji. Four yards per carry isn’t as easy as some fans uh claim it was. Naji and Warren together were an amazing duo. Yeah, but the thing is is that, you know, if Naji would have stayed here, I I don’t necessarily think that uh, you know, Mike Tomlin would give Jaylen Warren the lion share of the snaps. I think more than we realize, they look at, all right, who’s the first round pick and who’s the undrafted free agent? They still would have given Naji, I think, more uh reps over Warren. If it was the other way around, if Warren, you know, gets more carries than Naji on a consistent basis, then yeah, that would have been a great duo. But, uh, yeah, Pens or the Steelers still missing Naji a bunch right now. Uh, and it sucks that injury. Just hopefully Caleb Johnson can uh develop into that big bruising back someday. I’m not going to go down the Caleb Johnson rabbit hole here today. Didn’t play on Sunday, so no reason to bring him up or slander him right now, but at least uh Jaylen Warren is making the best out of what he’s given right now. Going to take one last stroll here through Twitter. see if there is uh anything else going on. Looks like uh we have an injury update here and it is about our uh the upcoming game for the Steelers. Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell confirms rookie left guard Donathan Jackson out with an injury. guarded. Blake Brandle will step in at left guard. So Cam Hayward, he’s going to be going up against a backup left guard this week. There’s a there’s a uh positive matchup for the Steelers. They’ll need a lot more uh help, you know, to pull this one out. But that’s a start at least in here. Not seeing if it’s uh not seeing anything uh here yet for the Penguins game. I see here Pittsburgh. Penguins.com. Uh that game. Wow. It just started. They’re not even a minute and a half into the game. So puck drop, I guess, was that 7:08 or something? Uh I guess. Anyways, uh why don’t we uh wrap it up right here for the night. Uh ladies and gentlemen, on here for over an hour and a half. Had a lot to talk about from the Steelers game yesterday, from the Pittsburgh Pirates weekend series with the Athletics, and about the Pittsburgh Penguins in their ongoing game right now, preseason game with the uh Montreal Canadians. With that, gonna call it a stream there. Lots to talk about today. I think we hit on most of it and I’m sure following tonight’s uh game with the Pens and the Canadians and then Mike Tomlin’s press conference tomorrow afternoon, we’ll have more to talk about tomorrow. So, going to call it there. Have a good rest of your Monday night, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining me one last time. Uh please subscribe to the channel, turn on notifications so that you never miss when I am live again. Uh, like this live stream, share this live stream, uh, leave a comment in the comments section after the fact. Uh, go give the channel a follow at SteelCity SR on Facebook, Instagram, and X. There it is right there. And come back a little bit later on tonight for SCSR60. Thank you. Uh, thank you for the comment there, Concepts. Appreciate you guys always coming in. you freight train Jamal McCollum uh Al on the prowl. You guys coming in here regular viewers of mine. I appreciate your comments and I will see you all back here tomorrow. Let’s do it again tomorrow night. Same time around 5:30ish. See you then. Have a good rest of your Monday night. Peace.