Breakfast With Benz category, Page 147

Friday’s “First Call” gives us gambling odds for Pitt football in the ACC. And for Notre Dame, too. We also try to scout the Pittsburgh Pirates’ next opponent. A pair of former Pirates pitchers square off this weekend. And an epic Big Ten rivalry just got more salty. Irish odds...

Whatever you pick, you aren’t wrong. Just about any complaint you want to raise about the Pittsburgh Penguins in their preliminary-round series against the Montreal Canadiens, you are right. • They aren’t scoring enough. • They are getting out-worked. • They are getting out-coached. • Montreal’s goalie has been better....

Fantasy sports aren’t all about regular-season baseball and football. Jeff Erickson and I start this week’s fantasy sports podcast talking about results in the two “bubble sports,” as the NBA and NHL are underway in Orlando, Toronto, and Edmonton. In the hockey playoffs, Evgeni Malkin is off to a slow...

Our weekly reader-reaction question for Pittsburgh sports fans is “U mad, bro?” Well, the Penguins just blew a 3-1 lead to the Montreal Canadiens in Game 3 of their best-of-five preliminary round series. The franchise is now on the verge of losing its third straight playoff series. This time, it’s...

Just because former Pitt Panthers offensive coordinator Matt Canada has returned to Pittsburgh doesn’t mean his offense has. Not entirely anyway. Now in his first year as quarterbacks coach with the Steelers, Canada spoke with members of the Pittsburgh media this week. He took great measures to reiterate his specific...

The Penguins may have scored enough to beat the Montreal Canadiens on Monday. But that’s a far cry from saying that they are scoring … enough. The team’s 3-1 victory in Game 2 of its preliminary-round series was a rarity of late. The Penguins had lost their previous seven postseason...

Wednesday’s “First Call” recaps a tough day on the legal front for former Steeler Antonio Brown. Another former Steeler is opting out of 2020’s season because of coronavirus concerns. And Austin Meadows makes an impact in his return for the Tampa Bay Rays. Gavel comes down on Antonio Brown The...

Tuesday’s Pirates-Twins game was delayed in the top of the fifth inning when an unauthorized drone flew over Target Field in Minneapolis. Welp, this is a first. Pirates vs Twins game delayed because of a drone on the field. pic.twitter.com/uMPPcv8nOL— Michael Schwab (@michaelschwab13) August 4, 2020 The delay lasted about...

Tuesday’s “First Call” looks at former Raven Bart Scott sticking his foot in his mouth about Steelers great Troy Polamalu. Cleveland Browns wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. isn’t happy about the state of the NFL. New York Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole has his Bronx debut. And Marc-Andre Fleury’s status in...

What happened there? What was that about? In October 2019, those questions scrambled through Jason Mounts’ mind. A quick, three-mile run wiped him out. It was supposed to be just a warm-up for an extended workout. But he was whipped. That was odd for Mounts. A former soccer player at...

Challenges made. Challenges answered. Well, in some cases anyway. The Penguins lost Game 1 of their NHL Eastern Conference preliminary round series to the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 Saturday. And it was very clear which players and which aspects of the Penguins game needed to improve for them to get a...

The NFL may have given Antonio Brown a road map for his reinstatement. But plenty of questions remain before he steps onto a field again. The result of Penguins-Canadiens in Pittsburgh wasn’t exactly a hit. But the NBC ratings were. Marc-Andre Fleury won’t start in goal for Las Vegas Monday....

Since the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 3-2 overtime loss in Game 1 to the Montreal Canadiens, Mark Madden and I have spent a lot of time grousing about the result and what the Penguins did wrong. We could use another day or two to get through it all. But what did the...

After the overtime loss Saturday to the Montreal Canadiens in the 2020 playoff opener, Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan blamed a lack of offensive net-front presence as a major factor. “We generated a fair amount of scoring chances,” Sullivan said after the defeat. “It’s not that there wasn’t opportunity....

For a team that is supposed to have a lot of finishers, the Penguins haven’t finished much of anything during the playoffs lately. And if that trend doesn’t change fast, they’ll be finished in the reformatted 2020 NHL postseason a lot quicker than the hockey world anticipated. The Penguins lost...

For Friday’s “First Call,” we take a closer look at ACC football’s sudden addition of Notre Dame this year. And we try to dispel some of the knee-jerk, negative reaction to it. Although it’s totally understandable. I mean, c’mon. It’s Notre Dame. Ugh. On Wednesday, a torrent of anti-Notre Dame...

A week into Major League Baseball’s return, we are already seeing some interesting trends in the fantasy sports world. So far, most of them aren’t great for the Pirates. Especially when you look at their bullpen and batting order. In our weekly fantasy sports podcast, Jeff Erickson and I dive...

The impact of Ben Roethlisberger’s absence on the 2019 Steelers offense extended well beyond who was throwing the football. Sure, the Steelers’ starting quarterback does that better than his backups, Mason Rudolph and Devlin Hodges. That’s why the Steelers were only an eight-win team last season instead of one that...

For “First Call” Thursday, Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson is applying a full-court press when it comes to former Steeler Antonio Brown. He wants him in purple and black. On three different occasions since Apr. 1, Jackson has either worked out with Brown, propped him up online, or spoken of...

There’s one continuing narrative about the Penguins preliminary round playoff series against the Montreal Canadiens. “The Canadiens have a chance to steal the series if Carey Price stands on his head in goal!” Sure. That could be true. But our TribLive hockey beat writer, Seth Rorabaugh, has a different theory...

During the Pirates’ rebooted training camp at PNC Park, starting pitcher Mitch Keller identified two specific goals to hone his arsenal. • Develop a changeup. • Get the spin and movement on his fastball to equal its often-electric velocity. So far, so good to start Year 2 of his big-league...

If you are a Pirates fan who has ever been to PNC Park, you know who Joe Klimchak is. You may not know his last name off the top of your head. But you know his face. And his voice. Klimchak is the longtime Pirates in-game host at the stadium....

Wednesday’s “First Call” checks on Antonio Brown’s latest plea to get back into the NFL. Is he appealing to a former team once again? We also talk about future plans for a Steelers draft choice and a former coach. Plus, a look at how the Montreal Canadiens did in their...

Steelers and Pirates fans shouldn’t be mad about anything. Because this week’s “U mad, bro?” is coming a day early. I was looking at the rest of the week’s schedule and realized it was best if we just got our rage out a little earlier than normal. Because, apparently, a...