11-3-23 After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 1

Let's face the facts. Everyone wants to feel valued, especially your employees. In fact, a 2023 study found 78% of business owners say benefits and retirement plans improve employee retention. Employees want to feel secure in their jobs and their finances. At Principal, we help you invest in your people. Because investing in your people is investing in your business. Learn more at principal.com slash benefits. Products and services offered by member companies of the Principal Financial Group, Des Moines, Iowa.

For important information, visit principal.com slash disclosures. Commuting to work again? Welcome back.

Just breathe and remember, you got this. And the all-new Hyundai Kona is there to help. Class leading interior space means you can stretch out. Intuitive tech like Remote Smart Parking Assist makes parking stress-free. And complimentary Blue Link Plus allows you to set the climate controls remotely. Learn more about the all-new Kona and your best commute ever at HyundaiUSA.com.

Call 562-314-4603 for complete details. Hey, hey. Happy almost Friday.

You can say it with me. Happy almost Friday. We are hours away from ushering in the start of the weekend. We consider it to be our job.

Our honored and esteemed privilege to usher in the weekend. And so four hours until we set you free. Fly, sports fans.

Fly. If you love something, you set it free. If it comes back to you, it's yours. Was yours all along.

If it doesn't, it was never yours in the first place or something like that. I am not the type of girl who needs to be writing greeting cards or trying to remember cliches because that's also not my area of expertise. But I do know how to usher in a Friday.

And so happy almost Friday to you. Man, these next four hours are going to fly because there's so much happening again. Stop me if you've heard me say that before.

It's nutso. Sports never stop. Here we are in early November. You guys, I had this revelation earlier. Three weeks to Thanksgiving.

Exactly. Three weeks to Thanksgiving. David Shepherd just reacted to my revelation. Three weeks to Thanksgiving. This time in three weeks, many of us will be five to ten pounds heavier.

All right. I'm okay with that. I cannot wait for Thanksgiving. It's my favorite holiday. It's my favorite meal of the year. This year I'll be celebrating Thanksgiving at the beach for the first time ever. Never done that before. Excited for what's to come in three weeks.

Not that I'm mailing it in because I'm not. But can you believe it's only three weeks from now? And we are into week nine of the NFL season. Week nine. Week ten of the college football season. Also, when we're talking about other sports, did you see there was a score in hockey tonight? Ten to one.

Ten to one and it was actually ten to nothing before it was ten to one. Oh my gosh. Anyway, it's a smorgasbord. It's a buffet and not the kind you would get at your local Golden Corral.

No, this is a fancy schmancy buffet and there's a lot. There's something for everyone and so we're gonna pack as much as we possibly can in. It's maybe practice for Thanksgiving when we pack as much as we possibly can into those few hours where it's okay. It's accepted to be thankful for all the food that we have in front of us or all the football or all the family and friends.

All the fun. Whatever it is, I'll try not to think about Thanksgiving too much while we're here these next four hours. Just week nine is something to be thankful for if you're a football fan.

My goodness, we talked about this briefly on our last show. We've got some enticing matchups. This week nine features the first ever NFL game in Frankfurt, Germany. Normally, I wouldn't care that much about the international games other than they start earlier on Sunday. For those of you listening on the West Coast right now, the game between the Dolphins and the Chiefs.

Very high profile game. The two best records in the AFC and there are two others, right? All four division leaders have the best records in the AFC at six and two and these are a couple of them. The Dolphins and the Chiefs on the road in Frankfurt. The Chiefs have looked maudling, middling, mediocre the last couple weeks. The Dolphins, they're feeling themselves. Oh and Tyreek Hill, he's got a message for his old team.

You'll hear that coming up. But Dolphins and Chiefs, is that the after hours game of the week? Or is it two other first place teams?

I know it sounds weird when I say it, but yes the Seahawks are a first place team. Seahawks and Ravens, that's got to be another after hours game of the week option. Or the Cowboys and the Eagles, top two teams in the NFC East, two teams that went to the playoffs, two bitter rivals. Or maybe it's the Bills and the Bengals on Sunday Night Football.

You know what it's not? The Chargers and the Jets on Monday Night Football. Let's hope we have the Monday Night Mannings to keep us company during that game. It all started in Pittsburgh just a couple hours ago and so we're going to get to Steelers and Titans and all the implications thereof.

It was a pretty entertaining game, not high scoring, but I can't imagine that you expected it to be high scoring, not with these two teams and not on a short work week. I don't know how this happened, but in my fantasy football league, because the Steelers were on a bye a couple weeks ago, I had dropped them as my defense. I had to add a different defense. Somehow they were still available. A couple hours before tonight's game, I went to drop the commander's defense because why in the world would you keep the commanders now that they've traded away two of their best players in Chase Young and Montez Sweat?

But I digress. I had to drop the commander's defense and lo and behold the Steelers were still available. Nice.

Every now and then a blind squirrel finds a fantasy nut. So I did in fact put the Steelers back in my lineup as the defense. I also had Derrick Henry.

I haven't yet checked the numbers, but it makes me nervous. Does it make you guys nervous when you have two players or two entities in your fantasy lineup from the Thursday night game? Yeah, not optimal, but I didn't want to remove either one of them from the lineup. So it's a pretty entertaining game. It wasn't putrid.

It wasn't a tough watch, but I thought it was interesting. Pair of young quarterbacks, Will Levis, the rookie getting his second career start. He may start from now on. I don't know that Ryan Tennehill will ever be invited back to the starting lineup.

He's in the final year of his contract and Will Levis has shown some real flash and the offense has opened up more. Steelers fans were booing in the middle of this game. They were not Pat Fryer moo-thing because he's injured, but they were booing. There were some major stops and starts, some ugly moments, and a lot of people on social. Now this is just social, so it's a small cross-section of football fans, but a lot of people on social, especially those in my business, they were looking at the two quarterbacks in comparison and they were commenting about how much better Will Levis looked than Kenny Pickett. And there were times that was absolutely the case. Pickett missed a bunch of throws.

He missed high a lot of the time. And yet a win is a win is a win is a win and if you hang around long enough and you're within striking distance, we know this happens all the time in the NFL, when you've got a defense that's good enough to keep you close, good enough to keep you within spitting distance. I like that better than striking distance. Why are we striking anyone? Although why are we spitting?

Ever. But it wasn't that long ago, just as a side note, that I was walking through our newsroom before the show and a male colleague hocked a loogie right in front of me into a trash can and it was gross. And he looked up to see me walking by. I was hoping to just get by without being noticed because I didn't want to have a conversation about him spitting into a trash can.

But he did look up and he noticed, oh I'm so sorry, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, I didn't know you were right there. Yeah it was gross. So no one really needs to talk about spitting either. Spitting or striking, touching. We're not supposed to be touching people either, that's against HR policies.

We really can't do any of these things. But on a football field, it all makes sense. In sports, it all makes sense. You got a defense that can keep you close.

It's just boring to say it that way. Got a defense that can keep you close, which the Steelers can do, and certainly talented pieces. And Kenny Pickett adds to his resume of games in which he has led the Steelers to a come-from-behind win, a go-ahead score, in the fourth quarter. We just saw it a couple weeks ago against the Rams. And I was so disappointed because we did not see a repeat of that in their next game. I was expecting that the Steelers would pick up where they had left off after the come-from-behind victory against the Rams, except against the Jaguars.

What do they have? Seven yards in the first quarter. It was so bad against the Jaguars and then he got hurt. But even on a short work week, with a rib injury, Kenny Pickett was game. First and goal at the 10.

Pickett stays in the gun. Four-man rush. Hands it off.

Cuts it back and into the end zone. Comes Najee Harris for a 10-yard rushing touchdown, his second of the season. Normally you get a little thunder, then you get the lightning. Now you got the lightning person. In comes the thunder.

My goodness. On Steelers radio, that's how you start. That's how you get the crowd fired up and into it. And they definitely were. Now at that point, they were happy because Najee Harris goes 10 yards into the end zone on a 10-play drive. But it wasn't long until we heard the booing as well. It was a dog fight. Like I say, wasn't pretty. It was much more of that tough, hard-nosed, blue-collar football. But I actually like that. As long as it's close, I'm okay.

As long as we don't have a blowout and it's not unwatchable like Jets and Giants. Levis motions. Simmons give Henry on the left side. Henry diving forward, stretches the ball. Touchdown Titans! Derek Henry was stopped, but he had the presence of mind to lean that football, to break the plane, and to give the Titans the lead in Pittsburgh. Mike Keith on Titans radio capped a six and a half minute drive. So even with Will Levis, even with the energy that he brings and the various options that he brings, they still can play the ball control game.

And Derek Henry is a big reason why. So the Titans take the lead there in the second quarter. And we had a couple field goals that kind of kept it interesting. So we weren't punting every single drive, every single possession. And actually, if you were keeping score at home, following that Derek Henry touchdown, there were five drives around halftime. Four of them were field goals.

So yeah, points on the board, just not into the end zone. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Thanks for hanging out with us as we talk about the start of week nine in the NFL.

You can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio, also on our Facebook page. The game is actually re-airing right now. It's in the third quarter and they're tied at 13 on NFL Network in case you wanted to see it again.

Or you could just listen to us. The scoring drives themselves tended to slow down a bit. There certainly were a ton of penalties. So a couple of drives that were extended by flags thrown against the defense. But remember a couple of weeks ago when Deontay Johnson returned to the lineup and the question was posed to Kenny Pickett multiple times. What does this do for your offense? How does this help your offense?

And he talked about options and he talked about opening up the offense and he talked about having another threat, a deep threat, a veteran that could give them another look against defenses. Pickett in the shotgun. Slot to his wide side right. Gets the snap.

He's back. Throws that pass down the right sideline. The pass is pulled in. That is Deontay Johnson getting behind a defender inside the 30, inside the 25, to the 23-yard line of the Titans.

He beat former Steeler Terrell Edmonds on that play. Scoreboard asking the fans for quiet so the Steelers can operate this goal line offense efficiently after the defensive hold is called on the Titans. First and goal at the three. Pickett in the shotgun. Gets the snap.

Looks right. Deontay Johnson wide open. Touchdown Pittsburgh. The Steelers march at 92 yards to take the lead. That's Deontay Johnson's first touchdown in what a couple seasons.

Yes. 20 games. 20 games.

Are you kidding me? Way to go Deontay. You saved the best for when the Steelers needed it most.

That would explain the ginormous grin that spanned the entire width of Deontay's face after that touchdown. So yeah he called, he caught the deep pass. He hauls in the deep pass from Kenny Pickett. 32 yards on a third and six and then he's the one who is able to pull in the three-yard touchdown and yeah great play call by Matt Canada. Good execution by the team because he was wide open and the Steelers go ahead with about four minutes left in the game. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. I would say though the confidence, the moxie, the boldness, the confidence to win.

Not just confidence to go out there and compete. But if we're going to talk about Kenny Pickett, we're going to talk about the offense. Well we have to go back to the defense. We're keeping it close and then ultimately protecting this lead against the Titans because the last two Tennessee drives featured a failed fourth down and another foiled opportunity. Wide side to his left. Slocked that way on third and five at the 19 with 11 seconds to go. Here's a snap. Four-man rush.

He looks. He fires for the interception and that is Kwon Alexander. His first of the season in this game is over.

How about that? Kwon Alexander dropping deep in the middle of the field and he launches himself upwards and stretches and catches that rock as it's coming in. What a great grab by Kwon Alexander. You got to love that. That's the way to finish it.

It's a drop the mic moment. Take that pigskin. Take it home. Put it on your mantle because by golly you deserve it Kwon.

Great job. Obviously it could have been cleaner first and foremost from a penalty perspective. Part of being a tough team to beat first is not kicking your own butt man and we kind of been doing that some and we got to own that and so we will. We'll review it. We'll learn from it. We'll look at it. We'll bring some officials into our practice setting in an effort to to be cleaner because that was catastrophic really in a lot of instances to our efforts tonight. We can kick ourselves in our own butt.

I feel like I do that sometimes. Kick myself in my own butt and he does refer to the penalties. 10 penalty flags for 80 yards and so they maybe made this a little harder than it needed to be. However, they were effective at slowing down Derrick Henry. He had 75 yards as well as a touchdown. They had Kenny Pickett playing on a short work week with the rib injury and yet he was the gamer. The stats, well they don't reflect a game that you want to hold up on a highlight reel but a win is a win is a win is a win and on a Thursday night in Pittsburgh when the AFC North is a gauntlet.

It's a buzzsaw. This is exactly what the Steelers needed and Cam Hayward returned as well which is also cool. So right now in the AFC North the Ravens are six and two. They'll be hosting the Seahawks this weekend. The Steelers are five and three. Browns and Bengals four and three.

It's tight. Could you imagine if every team in this division finishes above 500? There are benefits to playing each other multiple times per year.

You're battle tested. You're obviously going up against some of the best in the conference and so you're more prepared but also there's attrition with these games as well. So the North is a buzzsaw. It doesn't sound as good as the NFC Beast which is what I called the East division last year. The AFC Worth? Nah. I'm gonna have to come up with a new nickname for the NFC North. The Nasty North?

Except that could be taken the wrong way. Steelers and Titans start us off week nine in the NFL. Week nine, oh my goodness, in the NFL. So find me on Twitter, ALawRadio.

Also on our Facebook page we'll have the After Hours Game of the Week poll up before long. Top of the hour, our friend Hondo Carpenter will join us from Sin City in Las Vegas. What's it been like since Josh McDaniels was fired? Devante Adams speaking out on Thursday. Aidan O'Connell, he will start this weekend. He was speaking out as well. How much has it changed since the moves were made by Mark Davis?

Hondo, I'm sure, will have some insight. We're just getting started. Happy almost Friday. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours podcast. Get the best workout with the best kept secret in fitness. Hydro, the state of the art at-home rower. Hydro engages 86% of your muscles, delivering the ultimate full body workout in just 20 minutes. From advanced to beginner, Hydro has over 4,000 classes that are shot all over the world and are taught by Olympians and world-class athletes. For a 30-day risk-free trial with free standard shipping, go to hydro.com and use code FIT500 to save up to $500.

That's H-Y-D-R-O-W.com, code FIT500. I'm Kate Abdo, the host of Kicking It, a new weekly show from the CBS Sports Galasso Network where Clint Dempsey, Charlie Davies, Mo Adoo and I connect with the biggest personalities from global soccer and beyond to learn about their journeys and what makes them tick. This is the place for football fans to hear unfiltered conversations with the game's most familiar faces. So what are you waiting for?

Follow and listen to Kicking It on the Audacity app or wherever you get your podcasts. Ew, gotta get rid of this old Backstreet Boys t-shirt. Tell me why. Because it stinks, boys. Tell me why. I've washed it so many times but the odor won't come out.

Tell me why. No, you tell me why I can't get rid of this odor. Have you tried down your rinse and refresh? It doesn't just cover up odors. It helps remove them. Wow, it worked, guys. Yeah. Downy Rinse and Refresh removes more odor in one wash than the leading value detergent in three washes.

Find it wherever you buy laundry products. Will Lemus with 11 seconds remaining. Facing a four-man rush. Takes the snap. Looks.

Looks. Fires toward the end zone. It's intercepted. Intercepted in the end zone and picking it up for the Steelers is Juan Alexander. Off the field, on the money and after hours, it's time to talk football with Amy Lawrence.

Steelers defense seals the deal after the offense is able to take the lead with a fourth quarter touchdown drive that goes 92 yards and lasts more than five minutes. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Bill Hillgrove is the voice of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Mike Heath play-by-play on the Tennessee Titans radio network. Yeah, so the defense for the Steelers, well it certainly is full of marquee stars. Gets Cam Hayward back.

Alex Highsmith, we know about him. Obviously T.J. Watt, at one point his helmet gets ripped off by a Titan and he still gets the sack and so lots of pressure on Will Lemus. Though I thought Lemus performed well and he had not thrown an interception in his two starts until the very last drive there with Tennessee where the Pittsburgh Steelers are able then to run out the clock but he goes 22 of 39 for 262 yards in the pick. Sacked four times though and hit another 10 times with plenty of pressure by that Steelers defense and also successful for the D not allowing Derrick Henry to run wild. Cam Hayward was back you know and Cam's presence is significant guys like particularly in terms of defending the run.

You better put four hands on that guy or you're not going to have a day. I feel good. A lot of reps but just glad to be out there. More reps than what you had planned?

I don't know how I should answer that but I'll take all the reps I can get. Welcome back to Cam Hayward, the longtime Steelers defensive lineman, the captain 34 years old and not only is he trying to work his way back in but that voice in the locker room matters so much. How many times we had talked about the Steelers or even when we talked to Missy Matthews, Steelers side round reporter, she had mentioned that part of what they're missing is Cam Hayward and so glad to see him on the field again and hear that humor. Kenny Pickett does end up playing and he didn't appear to be limited in his motion. Now could it have affected his throwing?

Maybe. Uh not real accurate. 19 of 30, 160 yards and the touchdown pass to Deontay Johnson but he battled and he was still out there in the end for those Steelers. Nothing that he does from an intangible perspective or toughness perspective surprises me. I think that we're all really comfortable about those qualities in him and you know his desire to to rise up big for some moments and be significant down the stretch. Can't say enough about it.

Shout out to our trainers Gabe and Gabe leading the way helped me get ready to go and Sonia and Dino you know short week did a great job helping me get ready and I felt good. Is it possible that the Titans gave the Steelers a little extra motivation? Does this come from social media? It's just in the locker room? All right so Landon Roberts was telling the story that he heard about the way the Titans were disrespecting Pittsburgh before the game.

Man I heard that they uh went stood on the logo. I don't know how true it is but that really got to me because one thing you don't do is disrespect us you know so you know. You know every play I took every play personally you know and this team and we got something special and I'm not trying to take anything from the win but we got something special and you know it was a big win tonight because we played a complete 60 minute game and you know all we could do was build off it. Clearly in the locker room and so at the end you kind of have Roberts drowned out a little bit but you can tell the guys are fired up and he says he took every play personally. My favorite part is that he doesn't know if it's true but he still took it personally. I don't actually know if it happened.

I didn't see it myself and I'm not sure if the reports are true but whatever I still took it personally. That cracks me up. As for the Titans they fall to three and five now and oh and four on the road and Mike Vrabel's facial expressions the body language during this game it told you the entire story. Just troubling to lose or you know I mean whether you're at home or on the road or in London you know you lose you put a lot into it played hard you know I think we played well enough in really any phase to take control of the game when we had an opportunity.

Felt like we had some momentum and you know couldn't capitalize on it. I don't know what happens with the Titans following this season. It certainly does seem like Will Levis could be the QB of the future. I don't know why you would put Ryan Tannehill back out there. He's at the end of his contract. It gets very stagnant and stale with Tannehill now when he's under center.

Derek Henry performs better with Levis. I mean there's just the threat of both the pass and the run and he has shown some some intelligence some cognizance of what's happening around him even as a very young quarterback. So a lot of people really high on what they've seen from him so far. In terms of the coaching staff, in terms of personnel, it's it's hard to imagine that they move forward in Nashville and keep everything the same. Not if they continue going down this road because at the end of last season they coughed up the AFC South title, could not win a game to save their lives, ended up losing to Jacksonville the last game of the season and that made the Jaguars the division winners. It's just been backward progress not forward motion over the last year-ish or so and not real great at all last season but it's obvious that when you don't have a quarterback who has the threat of a deep ball or just the threat of being able to deliver in the passing game, well then it's easier to stack the box and to prevent Derek Henry from finding any real traction and the Steelers definitely were focused on slowing him down.

He's the best offensive player they've got but Will Levis has shown that he is going to find DeAndre Hopkins, look for DeAndre Hopkins. I didn't have a real product, well I shouldn't say never productive game, not eye-popping numbers for Hopkins in this game. It was a Thursday night after all, credit the Steelers defense, but the fact that they have to respect both the pass and the run that's different for Tennessee. Maybe it changes as they move forward though Jaguars are six and two now and as I say the Titans are three and five. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio.

Marco Belletti is here in studio and I'm completely changing the subject. Did you see the videos that were making the rounds on social of the opossum that was being dragged off the field at a college football game? Yeah, TCU Texas Tech. Yes it did. I normally am not big into gifts and memes and little videos like that but this was the funniest thing. That possum was angry. He was burying his teeth. Uh yeah and also it doesn't I don't know he look okay look at that look at the opossum. He was yeah clinging to try to stay on the field. I'm not exactly sure why. He was trying to dig his claws into the field but which is turf right?

It's hard to tell from here but it looks like turf. Have you ever seen an opossum like that though? I thought they were didn't have hair and were gray and ugly and I'm not the expert on that but maybe it's not an opossum. Could it also be sick too though? Sick? I mean yeah when when animals get rabies or anything like that like they become different they can get angry and you know froth at the mouth and all that kind of stuff. I would assume that's similar to that's kind of like when you see nocturnal animals during the day uh not good you know that usually means you're sick.

His teeth are hissing. Yeah I don't know enough about them though I'll be fair. Oh well how do you get out there? I don't know I mean we see this all the time like you know cats on the field. How the hell did cat get in there? Like you know like I don't know I have no idea I would imagine you're somewhere near I don't know outside where it got through the tunnels and it was able to figure out a way. I don't know how they did that but I would imagine yeah a door here or there just like anything else any other rodent that gets into something that it's not supposed to be into is the only thing I can think of. Oh my gosh I mean the the gifts the memes the captions the the humor on social media I feel bad for the animal though because he was obviously terrified and angry and angry for sure yeah I mean it's an animal like I don't think it realizes there's a football game going on it's just kind of like what the hell you doing?

I'm trying to go this way what do you what's your problem man? And then they're dragging him off the field Jay if you want to retweet so there's a video from the account of Taylor Carr K-A-R-R-H Taylor Carr and it's it's relatively benign it just shows the video of the possum running on the field and then and then getting dragged off the field and he would like to see the opossum play there's all kinds of funny comments about how the opossum had more rushing yards than the two teams put together and all that kind of stuff I just that honestly was as exciting for me as the titan stealers game in stretches oh it I think it got more play on social than did stealers titans you know well that is that I believe that I believe this is the uh the stealers just play the ugliest games they do fun they don't hide it no but I'm saying that they're fun because you know what it is it's gonna be sloppy it's gonna be ugly it's gonna be defensive it's gonna be flags it's just gonna be it's gonna be a mess and then you know it's gonna be tight down at the end that's it's they don't deviate from this close they don't deviate from the script week to week it's really it's quite impressive that they can play the same game 17 times but they do that so as much as it is kind of like you know it's rough it's I don't know I like it because it's just kind of I don't know it's like a go back to animals when you look at an animal and you're like that's so cute because it's so ugly that's pretty pretty much what the stealers are they're cute because they're so ugly ugly like the opossum yeah when you look at it you go look how cute it is because it's just so oh yeah opossums are definitely ugly so that's kind of there you go it's fitting for the stealers night they're they're good they're fun they're fun to watch because it's ugly as hell you are what your record says you are right and anybody counting them out no but anybody really believing in them no like they're just kind of if you have a defense like that and you keep it close by making it ugly if you can get your opponent to play ugly you always have a chance to win and they do every week and that's why like do you look when you step back does anyone I know we're halfway through the season anyone truly believe like the Steelers are a Super Bowl threat the answer is no but do we would we anybody look at it and go would you be surprised by the Steelers win in playoff game you're like no of course not no they could be so they're just such a weird club because you don't really believe right now in Kenny Pickett and the offense putting up points when they need to for yourself however whenever it seems like there's a play that needs to be made in the fourth quarter they make it aren't all five of their games rallies from I think all five sorry all five of their wins have been rallies from behind I'm sure it is yeah and all eight of their games have come down to the wire like this that's why like I'm not even kidding like I'd have to look at the actual it feels like they play the same game week in and week out it really score it's tight it's always between a three and four point game there's going to be one play that differentiates and there's going to be a play at the end where either they make it or they stop it like that's just it's every week it's the same thing over and over and it feels like it's been going on for what 25 years like it just doesn't deviate I don't know how they do it but it doesn't deviate well when they had Roethlisberger and Le'Veon Bell and Antonio Brown they were a team that put up a ton of scoring more their defense was worse but the game was the same but instead of being 20 to 16 it was 38 35 the game was the same well it has a little more entertainment value in terms of offense is what I'm saying okay and then the defenses couldn't stop anybody when the defenses stop everybody the offense can't score like it's just it's funny then they play the same game they force you to play the same game if their defense is really playing well you can't score on them and it winds up being a low scoring game if their defense stinks and they put up points left and right you're going to put up points left and right but you can't stop but don't forget the stat that drives Steelers fans crazy Mike Tomlin has never had a losing season since he's been there all right coming up soon well first of all check out our show twitter so you can see the video of the opossum he needs a name really but also on our show twitter the after hours game of the week poll and this is going to be a very lively and spirited vote because I have no idea uh how you guys are going to choose or how I'm going to choose our facebook page too after hours with Amy Lawrence coming up top of the hour we will get the thoughts of Hondo Carpenter what's happened in Las Vegas since Josh McDaniels was fired and straight ahead James Harden I never ever ever need to hear him again and yet he's got stuff he needs to say you are listening to the after hours podcast he chose to handle things certain ways that I wouldn't have he might feel the same on us that we should have moved quicker whatever look he's a he's a great player he's going to do great things for the Clippers I think that'll this will just this will just be a blip and something uh you know we uh we you know something that we won't remember when we're at James's hall of fame induction someday this is after hours with Amy Lawrence Daryl Morey taking the high road with James Harden now a member of the Clippers suppose it's no longer Daryl's problem though the reports are that James will never speak to speak to his former boss former general manager ever again it's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio Hondo Carpenter from Las Vegas coming up at the top of the hour you'll hear how things have changed and how they might change even more moving forward after Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler were fired by Mark Davis and the Raiders we've got your poll up the after hours game of the week and no the Raiders game is not part of it instead we've got four really high profile matchups Dolphins Chiefs Seahawks Ravens those are battles among first place teams Cowboys Eagles is a battle of the top two teams in the NFC East both playoff teams that are rivals Bills and Bengals in the Josh Allen and Joe Burrow arrows oh yep I just transposed my syllables my sounds in the Josh Allen Joe Burrows eras oh the Swifties would be so upset with me the eras they've established a mini rivalry too but who wouldn't sign up to see those guys on the same field not at the same time exactly but at least in the same building so that's one heck of a poll check it out on our show Twitter after hours CBS also on our Facebook page and we'll get back to some football again at the top of the hour but we'll look ahead to week nine we've got some QB news and other nuggets to throw out there but the big news from basketball not so much Wembe although he was brilliant on this night a weird rematch or I don't can't even really call it that but just a home and home between the Spurs and the Suns San Antonio in Phoenix on this Thursday night and Victor Wembenyama the overall number one pick 19 years old takes 26 shots 15 of 26 from the floor that is far more than anybody else took in this game including Kevin Durant including Devin Booker 15 of 26 he hits a handful of triples five of six from the charity stripe goes for 38 points by far a career high in what game number five I think and 10 rebounds along with two assists two blocks a steal only a couple of turnovers though he's handling the game or the gambling the ball a bunch that's not actually your top story from the NBA we're gonna sprinkle this in throughout the show because well it's comic relief in some cases James Harden speaking to the media for the first time about being a member of the Clippers I was back at Artesia I was just trying to make it out and change the directory of my family and make it to NBA and now being my 15th year something special so and then being having an opportunity to be back here with literally you know my entire family is uh it's even more special so I'm definitely excited so we had heard from our Clippers insider Law Murray who joined us in the wake of that trade on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning that one hallmark of this team and the core of this team is that these guys are all from Southern California and James Harden mentions that he just wanted to be back home in LA and now he's there with his entire family okay so that's relatively tame but why will things be different in Los Angeles than what we've seen in his previous brief stops like Brooklyn and Philadelphia if you're just talking about strictly basketball then you know we have definitely have an opportunity when you talk about other things that you can't control then you can't control those things you know I mean so hopefully none of those things happen and we can just focus on basketball and and giving ourselves the best chance except they don't just happen you make them happen they don't just happen you're part of the reason why they happen the trade demands the barbs flying around the lack of professionalism until you get your way it's as though he's pointing to everyone else around him signaling that they are the problem and he has nothing to do with it these things don't just happen you're the common denominator that's why they happen he definitely took aim at the Philadelphia 76ers me leaving Brooklyn and thinking I'm gonna retire as a sixer you know I mean and the front office had other plans you know they didn't they didn't want me and it's that simple Philly didn't want me Philly didn't want to give you a max deal not the one that you thought you deserved and so I guess if that's where you draw the line we'll see what happens after this year right because he's playing on this one-year option what happens then this one-year option what happens then there's more to say maybe you've heard the quote out there from James Harden I would rather you hear it from him but the Sixers gave him what he wanted right you can believe that it was just about going home or that the Sixers didn't want him but if you look at the arc of his career the past few years pitching a fit acting like a jerk until Daryl Morey traded him in Houston goes to Brooklyn didn't want to be there either after a year and a half gets his way to be reunited with Daryl Morey gets his way to be reunited with Daryl Morey back in Philadelphia but then doesn't get what he wants and so it's the same old song and dance that's Philly not wanting him it's After Hours with Amy Lawrence CBS Sports Radio now streaming only on Hulu this holiday season give concert and comedy tickets to their favorite artists choose from thousands of the hottest upcoming shows plus other great gifts for every fan on your list like vip packages artist merch gift cards and more you can also ask for concert and comedy tickets with a live nation wish list just sign in add your favorite shows and share with friends and family get what you really want this year and gift the unforgettable at live nation.com slash gifts that's live nation.com slash gifts