Stephen A. says it’s NIGHTMARISH for the Baltimore Ravens to miss the playoffs! 😬 | First Take

Stephen A. says it’s NIGHTMARISH for the Baltimore Ravens to miss the playoffs! 😬 | First Take

All right. So, Pickkins not great last night. Five receptions for 37 yards, but he’s saying that it wasn’t for a lack of effort. Do you agree with Pickkins or I guess do you agree with Sherman in this instance? I agree with Sherman. I agree with Sherman because I know Sherman knows football just like RC knows football, just like Cam knows football. That’s not to, you know, Sherman, let’s be very clear, Richard Sherman didn’t engage in condemnation for George Pickkins overall. He was saying the man has been exceptional all year long. He’s a He’s an elite player, but what we saw on too many occasions last night, we should have seen better effort. That’s what he was saying. And I totally get that. And with George Pickkins, because of how great you are, but also because you were in Pittsburgh and some of the some of the things that they brought up and you know that better than most, you got to guard against it because when you talk to George, I’m telling you right now, he seems like a great guy. He really is. And we know he’s a great player, but you got to be to me where the disappointment really really kicked in was the knowledge of yo bro, you approaching a contract year. You know you deserve your bag. You know you deserve to get paid. Don’t give these people any ammunition. That’s all it is for me more so than anything else. I want the brother to get paid because he deserves it. And I don’t want you to do anything to get in the way of your money. And I don’t care who it is in the world of business. They can hug you. They can love you. They can praise you. They can do everything. Watch how the attitude changes once negotiation comes. Once negotiations come around, all of a sudden, you treat it differently and a a concerted effort is made to minimize you just to make sure they don’t pay you what you believe you deserve. Not that they don’t want to keep you, not that they don’t want to pay you. I’m talking about paying you what you want. They don’t they’re allergic to doing that in business. If they can get away with it, they’re going to do it. and he’s 24. So I understand there’s a appreciation for it that he may lack. But let me tell you how that appreciation is going to elevate in just a few months. In just a few when he goes to the negotiating table, when Mullet goes to the negotiating table on his behalf. And don’t think for one second that somebody ain’t going to try to bring it up to shave a few dollars off of it. That’s all I’m saying. I think the the disconnect between what Richard Sherman was saying and what George Piggins replied was George was talking about production. Richard Sherman wasn’t talking about production. It wasn’t about just 37 yards. It was about the effort on the route and running. It was about the effort and coming back to the football. It was about the strain it takes to make plays. I agree with George as well. Especially once CD went out, there was more attention paid to him. And there were times he wasn’t going to get the football because the defense dictated it had to go elsewhere. What we’re talking about is when you’re supposed to push off of the ball so you could push the corner up the field for the stop route, you do that. When you’re supposed to get up the field straight, when you’re supposed to get up the the field out of your stem and then get back hard inside that you actually sprint out of those first two hard steps out of the cuts. Those were the things that Richard Sherman were talking about. And Stephen A is right. when it comes time for contract negotiations, they’re going to say, “Once you get this money, because we know now you’re playing for money, once you get this money, are we going to get more games like this or more of the games where you’re giving allout effort to prove that you’re one of the best players in football, Cam?” Yeah. Well, in Richard Sherman’s case, I’m not I’m not I’m not the person that’s to tell him that he’s wrong, but in that type of heat of the moment, when it’s right after the game, you only can go by the optics, and you don’t get a a lot of time to kind of really evaluate to the degree. Now, the optics does show that this is not good film effort-wise. So for George Pickkins, he has to understand those bad habits that has gotten him that he’s been able to get away with because of his talent. Now moving forward to ascending to the top tier earning group, those games have to be minimalistic, if not just full-blown, you know, erased as a whole. We know who you are. We know how much talent you bring to the table. It doesn’t look good that in your route you’re looking back. that that’s the first sign of did you know the route? So for that whole thing and when you have Dak screaming those frustrations uh visuals can kind of make a person assume that something’s wrong in Richard Sherman’s case. But for George, he has to understand it. It has to click and say, “Hey, bro, if I’m garnering this much or that I want this much in negotiation talks, I have to make sure that it comes off the right way because perception can be reality and it definitely will come up in negotiations.” Pittsburgh allowed Baltimore back into the race after they stumbled out of the block by losing five of their last seven games. Lamar Jackson and the Ravens, meanwhile, have not looked like themselves all season. They have yet to find their rhythm. So, the Ravens have the best chance to win the AFC North at 59% with a win over the Steelers. That percentage jumps to 75%. Falling to a 31% chance with a loss. The Steelers need this game. They got to get back on top of the division if they want to have it. Having a 63% chance of taking the North with a W this weekend. Which team would be the bigger disappointment if they miss the postseason this year, RC? Is it the Ravens or the Steelers? It’s the Steelers. And anybody who comes on here and says that it’s the Ravens is just being disingenuous and they just want to try to do good TV. Now, don’t get me wrong, beginning of the season, we looked at the Ravens roster and we said, “Okay, this is a Super Bowl roster.” We found out right away that it was not. We also saw that Lamar Jackson, their all world quarterback, has been injured. Not only has he missed time, but he’s missed practice at least at some point every week or been limited since he came back. They not at full strength. No likely to start the season. Patrick Ricard is hurt. But the Pittsburgh Steelers are sitting up there looking pretty living good going in to play the Cincinnati Bengals where they can start really putting some distance between themsel and this sorry tail uh division and they lose to Joe Flacco. They score dang them 40 points and lose to Joe Flacco. Joe Flacko out there running and stuff and then after that you got people just running the football down your throat. They quarterback talking to your most tenure defensive player. you can’t do nothing and you just lose and lose and lose and you lose so much and you’re so sorry that people start saying fire the longest tenure coach in the entire NFL and you want to be more disappointed with somebody else if they don’t make the playoffs. Man, you’d have to be a double dutcher. You’d have to be You have to be the king of double dutching in order to figure that out. Double Dutch. Well, I’m double dutch. I knew it. You know, see laid you out. I knew it. Let let me tell let me let me let me tell America something. That’s an old adage. If you feel differently, you’re this to try to dissuade you from, you know, don’t feel that way. Bump that. Who are we thinking about? We had people that picked the Baltimore Ravens to win Super Bowl to win the Super Bowl. We were looking forward to Lamar Jackson being in Santa Clara. Now we hoping he practice on on a Wednesday or Thursday. He set out this past week because of the ankle injury and what have you. He hasn’t had a full practice since week 10. I get all of that. You look at Baitman last night with Zay Flowers in the crew. Only got like four four catches on 11 targets. Everything is going wrong in Baltimore. But the bottom line is this. Making the playoffs put you in a oneanddone situation. And if Lamar Jackson is on that field at 80% or better, you’re praying then you got a chance. You have no chance if you don’t make the playoffs. Nobody expected the Steelers to be in a position to make the playoffs. Even with Aaron Rogers, there wasn’t expectations for the Steelers. You ended last season losing five straight games. You ain’t won a playoff game since 2016. You’re 0 and six in that time. You’ve been down 21 points in every single playoff game. Okay? You’ve been outscored 73 to nothing in the first quarter of those playoff games. It’s been so bad for the Pittsburgh Steelers. People don’t want to see him in the playoffs. They don’t want to. They say, “Why go? Why bother?” You understand? with the Baltimore Ravens. They’re like, “Yo, you’re supposed to be in championship contention. To miss the playoffs. Miss the playoffs. You don’t expect it from them. You don’t expect it from Kansas City. You don’t expect it from Buffalo. To miss the playoffs is nightmarish for those especially Buffalo and Baltimore with Patrick Mahomes. Even though that would be bad. Damn. You’re three time Super Bowl champion. You’ve been a five Super Bowls in the last seven years. We’ll forgive you.” You understand? Baltimore and Buffalo. Nobody want to hear that. You got to make the playoffs. Of course, the answer to this question is Baltimore. And I’m double dutching to the finish line saying that. Yeah, I know you. Right. Hopscotching. Ain’t nothing wrong with it. Ain’t nothing wrong with it. Steelers or Raiders. More disappointing. am uh Shay, you may not know this, but they’ve been showing this double dutch and you know, I don’t know if it’s AI uh thing all year, and I still can’t find me in the whole life. Put me in Shay on the bleaches or something. That’s a good point. I’m like, yo, bro. Like, who’s the other side? Dan Alowski’s back there. First off, Cam not built like my man. said, “I can’t do that.” No, no, no. That’s too many ribs. Too much stuffing. Too much stuffing. Nah, nah. I skipped all that. But, uh, on on this topic though, what I will say is it’s the Pittsburgh Steelers for me. And given the climate of where they are right now, getting booed on your own, you know, your turf and and and everything that you tried to do didn’t kind of pan out how you wanted it to. If the Steelers miss the playoffs, I don’t think nobody is going to question if they move on from Coach Tomlin. And it’s it’s almost blasphemous to even fix my mouth to even say that because of the respect of, you know, just the the all have sheer, you know, appreciation of what just just what he’s been able to bring to this game. So, that is going to come down to it. But even this, you have to pose this question. even if they do make the playoffs, do you really think that they have a Super Bowl contending team? And that’s been the ongoing situation for years. We’re going to get a mid, you know, 20 pick. You know, we’re not going to have an elite player in a play uh uh in a draft, so to speak. Now, there’s been players that have definitely, you know, upheld their end of the bargain. Uh but nevertheless, it’ll be the Pittsburgh Steelers for me. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music]

On First Take, Cam Newton, Stephen A. Smith and Ryan Clark join Shae Cornette to discuss George Pickens’ and Richard Sherman’s comments after Dallas’ loss to the Lions. Plus, who needs to make it to the postseason more, the Pittsburgh Steelers or the Baltimore Ravens?

0:00 Do you agree with George Pickens’ or Richard Sherman’s comments?
4:50 Who will win the AFC North?
5:30 Steelers vs. Ravens debate

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