Aaron Torres and Jason Martin talk NFL Super Wild Card Weekend!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports. Welcome in everybody, Fox Sports Radio,
Fox Sports Saturday, Aaron Torres, Jason Martin Here on a
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(00:24):
way tire buying should be. It is wild Card Weekend.
Earlier today, San Francisco took care of business against the
Seattle Seahawks forty one to twenty three the final score there.
But where I want to start, Jason Martin. We are
in the middle of a historic record setting wild Card
weekend game. That's because Trevor Lawrences throwing four interceptions in

(00:47):
the first half. Jacksonville currently trails to seven. Trevor Lawrence
four interceptions, as I said, overall five turnovers for the
Jacksonville Jaguars day trail twenty seven to seven at the half.
What's up, Jason Martin? How you doing? I'm doing better
than Jacksonville, and I'm doing better than Jacksonville fans right now,
I can tell you that much. This sucks. Let's just

(01:09):
be real like I think a lot of us were
excited about this particular game because you had two young
stud quarterbacks, one that you really you were starting to
see in the back half of the season. Why there
was so much hype surrounding Trevor coming out of Clempson.
Had you not been like us watching college football religiously
week after week and Ford to come in here and

(01:30):
be this kind of a dud where he couldn't do
anything right, Like the first one was tipped, yes, but
it wasn't a great throw. The second one should have
been dp I illegal contact downfield wasn't called, and that's
just gonna happen. The other two were just whatever they were.
But four interceptions and a half of football. It's only
twenty to seven. It could actually be worse than that.

(01:53):
The defense for Jacksonville was doing all that they could
just to just to keep them within, like shouting disc
it's down the neighborhood or something like that. But this
is the game. I think a lot of us were
excited for the one earlier today, I don't think a
whole lot of people were excited for at least we
got a decent half out of this. All out of
that this unless we're about to get Colts Vikings partner

(02:15):
in the second half. Uh, this has just kind of
been a dud. This hasn't been a great day of
NFL Wild Card football at all. And this nightcap, I
think a lot of people came into thinking would be
a tight football game where both teams would make plays,
and so far it's been the Bolts, the Bolts, and
nothing but the Bolts. It's interesting because we were obviously

(02:36):
on air last week when when the Jacksonville Jaguars did
beat the Tennessee Titans to clinch this spot into playoffs,
and that that was a big part of what we
talked about this time last week, right was like, you know,
Trevor Lawrence, like you know, coming out party probably wasn't
the right word, but didn't even play great last week.
But they win and now you get to see him
on this big stage. So that's I guess. I would say,

(02:59):
I don't know if they really is a takeaway to
be had in this uh you know, in this game.
But what I would say is, you know, this is
I guess why we play sports, right, I mean, all
week long, Brandon Staley is getting crushed for playing uh,
you know, many players among them Mike Williams. Obviously it
has not affected the Chargers at all today. And then
of course the Jacksonville Jaguars coming off the division win,

(03:21):
coming off the win over Tennessee late last week in
this Saturday time slot. It's just I think that's the
biggest takeaways. Disappointment is is because one, you never want
to see a young guy, uh fail on a huge
stage like this. But I think more importantly, I think
we were just all really excited about, um, you know,
seeing Trevor Lawrence on this big stage, right. I mean
Jacksonville is not a team that had a lot of

(03:43):
standalone games this year. I don't think they played on
Monday night football. They obviously had a Thursday night game
early in the year. Uh don't think they played many
Sunday night games that I remember. So I think everybody
was kind of excited. Okay, Like you said, this guy
has been he's been hyped. We've known about him at
the very least since his days at Clemson. He overcame
everything last year with Urban Meyer. Uh. Frankly, it was

(04:03):
just like a feel good story, right. This organization has
been so bad for so long, the Urban Mire Uh,
you know, whatever you wanna call. That was a disaster.
And now it seems like you got the right coach,
you win the division, you have all the momentum, but
unfortunately you show up and you know, this is why
we actually play the games and don't just talk about them.
It's been very, very very ugly so far. Yeah, I
mean steps in the right direction, to be sure. But

(04:26):
those that were thinking and and it was it was
right to at least consider. But I thought the ceiling
for this team was nowhere near where where Cincinnatis was
last year. But you had a year two quarterback, uh in,
Joe Burrow do what he did last year. Some were thinking, Okay,
let's see what Trevor can do. Let's see how special
he can be. And this seven chargers out of the ball.

(04:47):
The third quarter just kicked off. So if the defense
were able to make a play here, right, or if
they're at least able to force a punt, you give
the Jags the ball back. They score a touchdown. All
of a sudden, you're looking at a little bit different
of a football game. But this is a must situation
for the defense and they've been called upon to do.
I mean, if you look at it, it's a seven

(05:08):
to seven score, but the offense for the Chargers hasn't
had to do much. It's not like Herbert's been all
world or anything. It's sixteen and a touchdown. It's respectable,
but he hadn't had to do too much. He's been
sacked once and all this, but you give him short
fields over and over again, and it becomes the Austin
Ekeler show. As he has two touchdowns on the ground
in the first half. It's just not what you want

(05:29):
to see. Into your point, nobody wants to see a
young guys struggle. I mean, if you're a division opponents fan,
maybe you like it, but we want to see the
best quarterback play we can see all weekend long. And
that's gonna become a theme of this show, I think
as we move forward. Is Unfortunately we are not going
to get that in multiple games Tomorrow, especially the Monday

(05:50):
night game is glitzy enough with with Brady and with
Doc and everything that's on the line, especially for Doc
and maybe for McCarthy and all this, but you got
backups in two games of the three tomorrow, and then
here you get a dud performance from one of the
young stars in the league. Uh that that's just not
That's not what I was hoping for, quite frankly, and

(06:10):
I don't think I'm alone. Early on in the third quarter,
Jacksonville did uh put puts India. I was called San
Diego put Los Angeles deep. You know, on a third
and long Los Angeles did converted penalty on Jacksonville. So
things are not looking very much better as Jacksonville or Jacksonville.
The Chargers have already picked up two early first downs

(06:30):
on the first drive of the second half, so we
will keep you updated here. Let me ask you a
quick question, Um, if if Los Angeles does the Chargers
do what we expect them to do which closes out
this win? And maybe this is kind of a dumb question,
but I'll ask anyway, does it change anything for the
perception of Brandon Staley, because you know, I mean, one
defensive guy. The defense has been awesome, but to a

(06:52):
guy that's really I think just basically been maligned since
essentially that he took this job last year. It was
a lot of the fourth down to see you making
a lot of the analytics stuff. Obviously, I just referenced
a minute ago the conversation this week about playing guys
that maybe shouldn't have been playing. Last week, Mike Williams
goes down with an injury. Does this do anything to
because like, let me let me even pare aphra, let

(07:14):
me rephrase, because I remember I was filling in a
few days a few weeks ago with Dan Buyer, and
I think I was filling in the day that they
clinched a playoff spot, and I said to Dan, I said,
you know, this has kind of been the job that
everybody's eyeing. Um, you know, if this one were to
open up, this would be the one that a Sean
Payton would want, et cetera. And so I bring it
up because even after they clinched the playoff spot, I said,

(07:36):
you know, I think there was this perception, well, if
the Chargers make the playoffs, Brandon Staley probably did something good,
and you know he his job won't be up you know,
kind of up in uh you know, the status wouldn't
be up in the air. And so I bring it
up because, um, you know, I think even after making
the playoffs, after the debacle last week, I thought, if
you lost a game here, if it got ugly, if

(07:57):
something weird happened where you didn't look like a prepared
head coach. That there could be ultimately some talking and
it might be a conversation that we might have on
this show about you know, is it time to move
off of this guy? So maybe it means nothing. Maybe
we shouldn't judge anyone off any one game. But they
do look good. They do look well prepared. The defense,
which is obviously his side of the ball, came ready

(08:19):
to play. Does this change anything for you in terms
of how you perceive him or how you perceive uh,
this organization, that the trend, the way that they're headed,
anything like that. I'm glad you asked a question, because
it's all I've been thinking about, uh during the first
half of the game, in particular, was if they win
this game, he can't lose his job. Yeah, that's what

(08:40):
I thought the whole time. A team that goes to
the playoffs for the first time in a while. First
of all, the thing for the Brandon Staeus had to
deal with in his first couple of years, is everything
right that they do. Herbert's gonna get the credit for
and look for the most part that's deserved. They have
studs on defense, and we where Brandon Staye buttered his

(09:01):
bread when he was with the Rams, despite the fact
that he played quarterback at Dayton. Here was a guy
who called a great defense for the Rams, and if
you look at the game plan that they had in
the first half of this game tonight against Jacksonville, you
can see he knows what he's talking about when it
comes to defensive siety and defensive football. But them getting
to the playoffs, considering most people thought they had a

(09:23):
top five roster in the league and they were a
sheet pick for the super Bowl. In fact, they're my
pick for the super Bowl before the season, at least
out of the A F c Um. I felt like
they had to either win this game or it had
to be a dog fight, or he might be out
for a Sean Payton or whoever whoever else is out there.
But I felt like this one would sting him, and

(09:45):
especially coming off the Mike Williams steel if it had
harmed them, and if they were to find a way
to lose this game, now you can rest as Stewart,
he would be out of the job, I think. But
I think that when you win a playoff game and
you're in Brandon stay always shoes. I don't think that
the the organization at that point can logically make a

(10:07):
move away from you at that point in time. So
I think this is creating massive job security for Brandon
stay always should they go ahead and finish? I think
that's my takeaway too. And you know, I've been a
guy that's that's been pretty critical of Brandon Staley. But
I do think that, like you said, I mean, you know,
you enter the personally play obviously in a really tough
division with the number one seed um and you make

(10:31):
the playoffs, and then you get a win on the road,
I would think that he's safe. I still don't know
that I trust him in the bigger picture, but I
would say that I think, yeah, he probably this probably
clinches that he will be back next year. Chargers up
twenty seven to seven, eight left in the third quarter.
They are driving down the field. Earlier today, as we said,

(10:53):
there was another game. San Francisco takes care of business
forty one to twenty three against Seattle, and we will
discuss that next Rators and Jason Martin here on a
Saturday night. We are brought to you by Progressive Insurance.
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(11:13):
save at Progressive dot Com. Coming up, we look at
that earlier game San Francisco takes care of Seattle. What
does it mean for San Francisco. What does it mean
for Seattle's future as they move into their offseason. We'll
discuss all that next. Fox Sports. Fox Sports Radio has
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(11:36):
within the I Heart Radio apps. Search f s R
to listen live. Welcome back everybody, Fox Sports Radio. Aeron Torres,
Jason Martin here on a Saturday night. We are broadcasting
live from the tirect dot com studios. We're keeping you
updated on the NFL game. Jacksonville actually driving a little
bit here. So the Chargers are up twenty seven seven

(11:56):
about midway through the third quarter. But Jacksonville is driving.
Argers went up twenty seven nothing early uh four interceptions
in the first half by Trevor Lawrence. But they score
right before the half and they are driving again. So
we will keep you updated on that and and you
know we'll see if, if, if Jacksonville can make a
little bit more competitive. We just threw flowers at Brandon
Staley's feet. We'll see if they can hold on there

(12:17):
with the Chargers. Let's get to the early game, Jason,
San Francisco takes care of Seattle for twenty three. As
you said earlier, it was competitive for a half. It
was really competitive for about three quarters. Uh jackson or
San Francisco basically controlled the second half and really the
fourth quarter they scored I think twenty uh seventeen nonanswered

(12:38):
to kind of put the game away before Seattle scored late. Um,
my biggest stakeaway Jason, And and tell me if you agree.
And maybe maybe it isn't, but I just think it's time,
like we gotta move past like the brock Purty feel good,
like this guy's legitimate and with that defense and with
a great play caller and Kyle Shanahan, Like I watched
that guy and I get that. It's a cool story. Um,

(13:01):
you know, Mr irrelevant backup quarterback. Never thought he was
gonna play guy through for three thirty yards and three
touchdowns today he's a really good quarterback. Maybe it's the system.
I don't know, but that guy is really good at
San Francisco advances to obviously the divisional round next week.
I want to be careful, but I've kind of been
in the back of my mind kind of smelling this,

(13:24):
sensing this for the last couple of weeks. Right now,
that team is terrifying. I agree, they just started. That's
the best defense in the league. Shanahan has proven he
can win with just about anybody at quarterback. And that's
not a knock on brock Party. It's just he's one
with other guys that let's just say this, even a
lot of the great offensive coaches in the league, not

(13:45):
all of them, but a lot of them. You would
hand them some of the quarterbacks Kyle Shanahan's had to
work with in his system, and they would not have
the same level of success. You've got a credit Kyle Shanahan.
I was kind of skeptical of some of the hype
surrounding him over the last few years. No, he gets
all the flowers right now, no question about it. But
we can officially, as you mentioned, stop with the this

(14:11):
is you know, this is a great story for brock Party,
but when is it going to end? Well, it may
not end again. We've we've lived in a universe where
Nick Foles won a Super Bowl. Sure, that's a thing
that has happened, and it wasn't fifty years ago, it
was less than half a decade ago. This guy can move.
He's doing exactly what Kyle Shanahan is asking him to do.

(14:32):
And then you look at this Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle,
Brandon Aiyuk, Deebo, Samuel and then you can add Juwan Jennings,
and you can sprinkle in Mitchell and some of these
other guys. But he's got so many playmakers around him.
A lot of his yards today were yards after the catch,
like Deebo had like a seventy yard touchdown play where
the throw was like five yards. But it doesn't matter.

(14:54):
I mean, those are still quarterback stats. He's he's doing
no more than what he's being asked to do. He's
got all kinds of poys. It looks like the team
believes in him. So this is kind of just it's
an incredible story because of where he was drafted. But
now you look at the Niners and you say, and
we asked this question a couple of weeks ago, and

(15:15):
my answer was yes, and it's an emphatic yes, Now
this team can win the Super Bowl this year with
that guy at quarterback, because this team as a whole
is as hot as you can be and they are
talented everywhere. So I agree, And you know, I have

(15:36):
not really understood by the way the Jaguars are in
the red zone driving trailing seven to seven midway through
the third quarter. So what I would say about that
is is I agree, and I haven't really understood, And
I guess I do, but I haven't really totally understood
this idea of there are no great teams in the

(15:57):
NFC this year, and and I've sat there and said,
I guess it's because they look different. Because in the
a f C, the three best teams quarterbacks Mahomes, Josh Allen,
and Joe Burrow. So I I guess I get it right, Like, Okay,
that is what the blueprint is supposed to be. In
elite quarterback. You figure it else. You figure everything else

(16:18):
out from there. But if you can't start with the quarterback,
you can't win at the highest level. That defense is
so good, the play calling is so good where you're
getting talented players the ball in space, but then uh,
you know, Brock Purdy has been good enough where by
the way, And it goes back to like two or
three years ago with Jimmy Garoppolo in the Super Bowl,
Like like people want to say, Oh, Jimmy G can't

(16:39):
win the big One. He had that big overthrow late
in the game, blah blah blah. Jimmy G got the
forty Niners into the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl
with a double digit lead, Okay, And so I've never
understood the knocks on Jimmy G. But to bring it
full circle to this year, the defense is even better
than they were that year. Um plenty of skill position
talent around Brock already, and Brock pretty is just playing

(17:01):
good football and not making mistakes. And so I just
think that, you know, we're so conditioned, and I do
understand why, but we are so conditioned to believe that
if you don't have that elite quarterback that you cannot
win at the highest level. Not totally sure. I believe that,
and I should mention before I toss it back to you.
Jason Jacksonville has scored again, twenty seven to thirteen extra

(17:22):
point pending five minutes left in the third quarter. Jacksonville
trailing twenty seven to thirteen, extra point pending. Jayson. Yeah,
look now you now you get to a spot where
you're within shouting distance. Trevor has at least come back
out here. He just threw a touchdown to Marvin Jones,
wide open touchhouse. A nice move, but a good throw

(17:43):
and a nice nice everything really on that play. Now
the Chargers have to come back and answer. If the
Jags defense is up to the task again, you get
it back all of a sudden, you could score again
and and make it a one possession game. There's there's
a lot that is left to do, but you've got
twenty minutes in you're down thirteen. That's different than being
down twenty seven to seven with four interceptions and nothing

(18:03):
going right. You've got your home crowd that is waiting
for any reason to explode, and now you have one.
So maybe we're gonna get a football game out of
this um or maybe not. If they come back and
score again, meaning the Chargers, and make this thing, I
think that's over. And I think Jacksonville's defense has to
know that and go out there and play with their

(18:24):
hair on fire here. But there's at least a glimpse
of a football game emerging in Jacksonville right now, so
so so back to San Francisco. I mean, I just
look at it. I don't understand why we can't just
acknowledge that the forty Niners are a monster. And maybe now,
maybe now, I don't know that. Maybe I'm I'm, you know,

(18:45):
bringing up a conversation that's two three weeks old. But
I I just think, you know, we we've had this
notion in our head there's no great teams in the NFC.
I see a great team in the NFC, Jason. I
just see a team that's built differently than what we
think a team has to be built, like, if that
makes sense. Yeah, I think they are a great team.
They don't have like the all world cheat code at quarterback,

(19:08):
but they've got a guy that is more than capable
of leading the team as he's asked to to execute
what Kyle Shanahan needs him to do offensively, and he's
putting the ball exactly where his receivers need it. And
McCaffrey has been extraordinary as assigning for them. He has
he looks healthier to me than he did in the
last three or four years. In Carolina, which is kind

(19:30):
of amazing. I've been waiting for him to get hurt.
I'm gonna stop doing that. I'm gonna stop assuming guys
are gonna get hurt. Um because McCaffrey, it just seemed
like he was an injury risk waiting to happen over
and over again. But he's been special for them. They
have two Swiss Army knives on offense on that team.
They've got Deebo Samuel and they've got Christian McCaffrey. I

(19:51):
heard that said on a on a broadcast earlier today,
and it was exactly right. You've got guys that can
hurt you in a myriad of different ways and will
hurt you in a aread of different ways. Then you've
got that defense. Bosa is just disgusting, Fred Warner is disgusting.
Green Law like all these dudes just stepping up. Charvarius

(20:11):
ward Uh, he was having a rough day. He could
not handle dk metcalf at all. And I thought, to
Seattle's credit, when that thing was ten nothing, I thought
it might be about to get out of hand. They
came back and fought hard, showed why they ended up
in the playoffs. Side of that division Gino played pretty
well in the game. D K showed up, played well

(20:31):
in the game. They were fighting hard, and then you
just saw another gear from San Francisco, and at that
point there was no answer. And it's that gear that
wins you a super Bowl or put you in line
to win a super Bowl. That's a really, really good
football team right now, if you if you there's other
things we haven't seen, of course, and there's a lot

(20:52):
of talent across the conference. San Francisco right now, to
me is the scariest team in that conference. I tell
you what, I have one question on the Seattle Seahawks,
but we will save that for next Before we get
to it first time this evening, do you want to
toss it over to the news desk Steve to se
what's training my friend? About five minutes to go in
the third quarter. It is a Chargers lead of fourteen

(21:12):
now at Jacksonville and tonight's NFL playoff game. Now, the
Jags in November were down seventeen and came back and
beat the Raiders, and the Jags in December were down
seventeen and came back and beat Dallas. Their franchise record
is being down twenty one and still coming back to
win a game that was almost a decade ago against
the Giants. This was twenty seven nothing Chargers late in

(21:35):
the first half, and it could have been thirty five nothing.
Remember the Chargers settled for a couple of short field
goals in NFL history. Remember just a month ago we
had that Vikings come back from thirty three nothing down,
so the Charger lead was twenty seven zip. Now Chargers
do have the ball now approaching midfield already. That last
scoring drive for Jacksonville took up over seven minutes. It

(21:57):
was a fourteen play eighty nine yard dry but they
did cash it in. It was not looking good for
a while. Went on third and goal, they got called
for delay of game for crying out loud. They did
eventually get the Trevor Lawrence six yard TV pass, so
he now has two touchdown passes to go with his
four first half interceptions, three of those picks by Sante

(22:17):
Samuel Jr. Remember, the Chargers do not have wide receiver
Mike Williams out probably for the postseason with the back injury.
Test show the fracture recently. But the Jaguars with five
turnovers total in the first half, including one on special teams,
really put them behind the eight ball. We'll see if
they can come back. Fourteen Chargers in the league. By
the way, Justin Herbert nineteen of thirty two two one

(22:40):
yards passing, one touchdown as play continues late third quarter. Earlier,
San Francisco won it's eleventh straight game, beating Seattle forty
one to twenty three. So the Seahawks season is over.
They finished nine and nine overall. They went oh and
three against the Niners head to head, including today when
brock Party had four total touchdowns three thirty two yards passing.

(23:01):
He's six and oh as a starter. Sunday three wild
card games, and there's one Monday night as well. In
college basketball, number two Kansas six sixty winners against fourteenth
ranked Iowa State Number seven u c l A played
on Fox TV tonight and actually trailed Colorado at home
by nine points with about ten minutes left. Bruins then
went on a seventeen oh run and won at sixty

(23:23):
eight fifty four. Tenth ranked Texas survive coming back to
beat Texas Tech just finals seventy two to seventy, but
Tennessee ranked five lost at home to Kentucky and Arizona
ranked ninth, lost at Oregon. In the NBA. Boston won
its sixth straight game, Memphis won its ninth game in
a row, and mid third quarter, Philly leads seventy seventy

(23:45):
one at Utah. Again in the NFL playoff game at Jacksonville,
three and a half minutes to go in the third quarter,
the Charger lead is twenty seven to fourteen. It's rare
that a team has the turnover margin that the Chargers
have posted in this game. In fact, if you go
back thirty plus years of the playoffs, guys to have
a plus five turnover margin in just a half of

(24:08):
any playoff game had only happened twice before, and one
of those was when Troy Aikman and the Cowboys blew
the doors of Buffalo and one of those Super Bowls
in the early nineties. Back to you, thanks Steve Seger.
This is Fox Sports Radio, Fox Sports Saturday eron towards
Jason Martin Company Alive from the entire rec dot Com Studios. So, Jason,
as the Sager, just told you Seattle season is over.

(24:30):
Uh listen, you know I think it all goes without
saying it was Um to say an overachieving season is
an understatement. Um. You know, I don't know exactly what
the Vegas over under win total was, but I'm guessing
they had one of the lowest totals in the league.
You go back to last summer or you know, really winter,
when they traded Russell Wilson, and there's all sorts of
questions about, you know, who's gonna be quarterback. Pete Carroll

(24:53):
says they like Drew Lock. They obviously end up with
Gino Smith. So clearly a successful season. But I think
what also makes it very interesting, and you know this
all too well, Jason, because you are of course a
Denver Broncos fan, but the Seattle Seahawks have the number
five pick in the NFL Draft coming up, so one
future's obviously bright to I guess My question is and

(25:14):
and this is one I don't think that I have
a super strong opinion on Gino Smith was fine today,
I wouldn't say that he was elite. What do you
think the Seahawks next move is from here? Top five pick? Uh?
You know, kind of Both Bryce Young and c. J.
Strold looked pretty good in their bowl games. That's not
to say that either will be available when Seattle picks,
although you know could happen by the way Los Angeles

(25:36):
has kicked the field goal. They were up thirty to
fourteen on Jacksonville. But back to Seattle, Jason, do you
think this was the last we saw of Geno Smith
as the starter? Do you think the Seattle Seahawks prioritize
a quarterback or do you think they kind of try
to run it back with this kind of similar team
next year and try to plug a hole somewhere else
with that top five pick. See, I don't know. I've
heard different things. I've heard one more year for Gino.

(25:58):
Short matchis deal and basically tell him, look, if it
goes well again, then we will talk to you after
the season about something more long term. But let's do
this again on a one year deal. But here's the thing.
If you think that you have something, and I don't
necessarily mean in Gino, I mean in the team, d K,
Kenneth Walker, some of these defensive pieces, whatever it is.

(26:21):
If you feel good about where the team is, how
likely is it that you're going to have a number
five pick in the future. That's the question I would
I would need a real I need to sit down
and think about that one for a while if I
was Seattle, because it would be really hard for me
in position to draft as long as I like the

(26:42):
guys that are there, in position to draft potentially the
quarterback of the future, I think I'd have to do
it Aaron unless somebody came up and offered me the farm.
And I really did feel like Gino was the answer.
Gino should have a home in the league. He proved
that this year, and I don't even mean is a backup.
I mean there there are places where he could go

(27:02):
and help football teams, no question about it. Super impressed
with what he pulled off this year. If I'm Seattle
and I got the five pick, I'm taking a quarterback
because I still don't look at Gino and say that's
my franchise savior for the next decade. And if I
think that I'm gonna be middle of the road or
borderline playoffs, that's not gonna put me nearly as high
in the draft as Denverse five pick because they were

(27:23):
so just horrendously awful and I possessed their draft capital.
Even though I had a good season, I just don't
think I could pass up the opportunity to draft a
quarterback because it might not be anywhere near that good
in the future. Yeah, I just I see, I agree
with you. And obviously, again it's predicated on somebody that
you like being there. Obviously, you know right now we're
not talking about the possibility of them moving up. Obviously,

(27:45):
the Bears have the number one pick, so there's already
talking if the Bears could potentially move that pick and
move back. But I I just look at this league, man,
and it's just like, you know, you look, you look around,
and it's just like if you don't have a quarterback,
you don't have anything. And so and I know, I
just I say that after I just made the case
that San Francisco is so good they don't need a
lead quarterback play. But in general, there's a reason that

(28:07):
you know, historically, especially the last decade, fifteen years, whatever,
you need an elite quarterback to win at the highest level.
And I just look at these teams that that can't
get the quarterback right. Think about Indianapolis, who four years
they were set with Payton Manning and Andrew luck Now
they go one year after the other after the other.
They can't get it right. The Jets this year, and
the Jets were literally just competent quarterback play away from

(28:30):
being in the playoffs. Miami Dolphins, who will talk about
at some point in this show. Um, you know, all
the weapons around two A two, I can't stay healthy.
So why I bring it up is because again, it's
all predicated on on the guy that you want being there.
But I just look at it, and you know, like
you said, you don't know when you'll be in a

(28:50):
position to draft this high again, and frankly, it probably
won't be for a while. Um, And so I think,
if the guy that you like is there, you gotta
do it. And it's no disrespect to Gino Smith. And
oh by the way, keep Gino Smith around. You can
have them play next year. Let the other guys sit.
Geno Smith is coming off of a playoff appearance. I
get all that. I just think that man, like again,

(29:10):
the teams that I referenced, the culture probably the best
you know one right now. The commanders for years haven't
been able to get that position right. It just feels
like you're taking a big risk by passing on somebody
that you like at number five if they're there. To
continue with Gino Smith, even though he had a good
season for you this year. Yeah, Like, if you come
back with Gino next year, you're probably still gonna be

(29:30):
a pretty decent football team, assuming that what you did
this year was sustainable. But what's the ceiling they're compared
to what you think? Oh my goodness, this is getting
interesting in Jacksonville anyway, Gino Smith. Geno Smith gives you
a certain ceiling and if you like a quarterback that
is sitting there, five is a nice, pretty cushy spot,

(29:53):
especially considering if you're the Bears, you're probably not drafting
a quarterback at one. You will see one go to
Houston almost assuredly, but you're in prime position maybe to
take the second best quarterback on the board. I don't know. Um,
I guess it depends on who tries to leap frog
you at that point. But if you've got the guy
and you can see it and you know that you
can draft that guy, I think you have to do

(30:15):
that and take your chances with hurting Geno Smith's feelings
in this case, with all due respect to what he's
done this year, because it's been remarkable, real quick. So
Jacksonville has scored again another touchdown. It's now thirty to twenty.
They are lining up for two James. Where do you
just stand on this? Analytics? You know, go for the
two early. I know, I know this obviously makes it

(30:37):
an eight point game if they convert. Jacksonville trying to
convert a two point conversion, it is no good. Where
do you stand? I say, just take the point. I
don't understand this, Like we gotta outsmart the room and
we gotta get it to eight. Now. It's like, you know,
there's there's a minute left in the third quarter. If
your defense does its job, you're gonna have two three
possessions left. I don't know. I I prefer to just

(30:59):
take the point. Rates Do you have any strong opinion?
This might not be the best example of it, but
I just hate when teams start chasing points early in
games like this. Yeah, I guess it's just if you
want to get this thing to one possession, you're gonna
have to do two of these um or you're gonna
have to do a touchdown fuel goal. Maybe you feel
better about yourself if you get it to nine. I don't.
I don't have a big problem either way. I'm not

(31:20):
angry if they kicked the extra point and make it
a nine point game. But I'm not really wringing my
hands at the fact that you go for two. In
this case, there's a flag on the field, but I
don't I think it might have been sc offense will
find out, but I I just don't look at it.
I'm not upset either way. I can see an argument
in this case, specifically, where it's thirty to twenty with

(31:42):
basically a quarter of football left, maybe you go ahead
and do this. But if you don't get it, I
guess it almost feels like the last thing you saw
was instead of a success, because if you see the
extra point, you're thinking about the touchdown, if you missed
the two point conversion, you're thinking about what could have
been getting it to a one piece session game. I
don't know that might be looking too far into the

(32:03):
brain of all of it, but um, it's become interesting.
We'll say that it's still a ten point game. That's
much better than what it looked like twenty minutes ago.
That's right for people who are driving around, maybe not
in front of a TV. Chargers go up twenty seven
nothing early four first half interceptions for Trevor Lawrence, Jags
are driving though Jags are moving the ball, they just score.

(32:26):
They cut the lead to thirty to twenty, little under
a minute to go in the fourth quarter. So we'll
keep you updated on that coming up. Jason Martin, I
got a question for you that I'll let you answer
it on the back end. If you were a millionaire
with endless money and out of a job, what would
you do? We got the answer from one person in football.
We'll discuss that next Fox Sports Radio. Welcome back everybody,

(32:47):
Fox Sports Radio. Ed towards Jason Martin here on a
Saturday night. We could talk about how complicated other banks
make it to redeem credit card rewards. We could talk
about how we discover you can redeem your rewards for
cash in any amount at any time. I mean, talk
about amazing learn more discovered dot com slash redeem rewards
terms apply. Keeping the updated on the Saturday night Wild

(33:08):
Card game. Jacksonville trails the Chargers thirty to twenty. But
what's important to note here Jacksonville trail twenty seven nothing
at one point seven seven at the half and have
largely been pretty good in the second half. Early in
the fourth quarter in that one Jason, One team that

(33:28):
is not playing this weekend is the Arizona Cardinals. They
are looking for a new head coach. They're looking for
a lot of things actually at this point, new head
coach and new GM, etcetera. But why I bring it up.
We got an interesting report on our Fox Sports airwaves
prior to the prior to the San Francisco Seattle game,
as Peter Schreeger, how about this for how about waste?

(33:52):
Call it a Schreeger bomb. Back in the day, Peter
Schreeger reports on Fox that Cliff Kingsbury, the former head
coach of the Arizona Cardinals, has been contacted by a
number of teams about vacant offensive coordinator jobs. But according
to Peter Schrager, he bought a one way ticket to
Thailand and has told teams respectfully that he is not

(34:15):
interested in coaching at the moment. What do you think
of our boy, Cliff Kingsbury, Jason, It's look, man, it's
good work if you can get it. Even if you
weren't good at Texas Tech. You never want anything in college,
and that was probably the only job you could get,
and then you were not really fully qualified by the
Baker Mayfield, Patrick Mahomes Davis Webb as your quarterbacks. All

(34:37):
three still in the NFL. Neither here nor there continue
well to the Mahomes point. Ma Homes had a losing
record in college with Cliff Kingsburys as his coach. They
failed down the stretch every single year in Arizona. Likable guy,
I want. Anything wrong with him is like a human
being or anything like that, just not nowhere near an
elite coach, but gets the extension before the year, as

(35:00):
does the general manager. Both of them are now gone,
and you've made a ton of money. Like You've just
got a boatload of money and your Cliff Kingsbury and
you have, you know, women falling all over you and
all this other kind of stuff. So you're like, I'm
going to Thailand. I'm not taking your phone calls right now,
because why would you Like at this point, Cliff Kingsbury
could stay in Thailand, like he could be he plans

(35:21):
on it. Apparently it's a one way tickets. So yeah,
like you just go there and live and never come
back and never have to deal with football again. Because
he got plenty of people to pay him money, and
that is enough money to go ahead and retire on.
I don't even know how old he is, but probably
what in his thirties, somewhere in that neighborhood years, okay,

(35:42):
early forties. He could just disappear. He could just go,
I don't know, chill with the white lotus for the
rest of his life. That's that's that's good work if
you can get it. It looks as though he's been paid.
I think this number feels very low. It's I I
did a quick uh net worth search for Cliff Kingsbury.
It says fifth ten million dollars. It feels like it's
probably gotta be more. Um, because whatever he's been, you know,

(36:06):
like you said, he was at Texas Tech for about
five years. He wasn't you know, making two or fifty
k while he was there. He's making good money. And
then he's been in the NFL for the last three
four years. Yeah. I don't really have much to add.
I think it's an incredible story. Um. You know, this
guy continues to live just this insanely charmed life. It
was funny, right, like you know that Christmas night game
where you realize, like, oh, he used to play with

(36:26):
Tom Brady. Then he got the you know, the the
head coaching job at his alma mater that didn't work out.
People forget this. Jason was the USC offensive coordinated for
about ten minutes before he got offered the Arizona Cardinals job.
That was the That was the great Winter of whatever,
when Sean McVeigh was coming off his first Super Bowl
and me and Arni used to joke, if you were
young and had stubble on your face, you were getting

(36:48):
an NFL head coaching job. That's exactly what happened. Uh.
You know, we've seen the pictures of the hot remember
the NFL draft a few years ago, the picture of
him at the house. Now you just got millions, Like
you said, probably never have to work again if you
don't want to. I mean, this guy just really does
live the life that I think every guy would love
to live but actually can't. Like even you know, let's

(37:10):
let's just use like me as a hypothetical. I can't
speak for you, but like, even if if something happened
and I got fired and I had no responsibility and
I somehow had the money, I still got a wife.
That's like, yeah, I got a job. I gotta go
into work on Monday. And so this guy is just
grabbing a one way play ticket to Thailand and hanging
out for the foreseeable future. I mean, you know, I

(37:31):
guess good for him. I'm a little jealous because, like
I said, even if I could afford to do that,
you know, real life responsibilities wouldn't allow me to. But
Cliff Kingsbury sounds like he's gonna be off the radar
here for a little while. Yeah. Look like I said,
he's I don't begree to anyone who was able to
earn a living and get someone to pay them to
do something. So good on him. Congratulations to him. He

(37:55):
was mediocre. He was never going to be particularly good.
You could see it. Um it was falling apart beforehand.
The Kyler contract was probably the death now and all
of it. But I felt like this was a movie
that probably should have been made before, or should have
been made in the off season. Last year. They brought
him back, extended him, and now they're gonna let him go,
and he's just gonna go ahead and sit my ties

(38:17):
for the rest of his life. And more power to
him because he's earned the right to do it because
someone paid him money. And I I challenge a bunch
of people out there to not think I might do
the same thing if I had that kind of money.
Just disappear. At that point, you've got screw off money,
not even screw you money, just screw off money. Like
I'm done, like this whole life thing. I've won this.

(38:39):
I'm just going to sit on a beach for the
remainder of my life and wake up and do whatever
I want. All right, Cliff, good on. You homes have
to have a fun, fun time. I wish I were
you some of the time. I would say some of
the time I wouldn't. But in terms of that, I
can't imagine us being too um, too upset if that
turned out to be our lot in life. Yeah, it's

(39:01):
pretty cool. It's funny. My wife and I are rewatching
the show Entourage, which obviously ended many years ago. But uh,
there was a season that ended with one of Vince's
movies bombing, and he basically just went to Mexico and
got off the grid for the foreseeable future, and they
had to literally take a plane and go drag him
and drag him back to society. That's basically what Cliff
Kingsbury doing. He's just getting on a plane going to

(39:22):
sit on a beach for the foreseeable future, so good
for him. Cliff Kingsbury a one way ticket to Thailand.
According to Peter Schreegar, Fox Sports Radio, Fox Sports Saturday
errand towards Jason Martin. Here on a Saturday night. Coming up,
we start to look ahead to the four games remaining
of the NFL Playoffs. Slate, by the way, charges up
thirty to twenty in this one going on right now,

(39:44):
plenty more coming up Artors Jason Martin, Saturday Night, Fox
Sports Radio. Welcome at everybody hour to Fox Sports Radio
Erran towards Jason Martin. We are broadcasting live from the
tirac dot Com studios. Tirac dot com will help you
get there and unmatched selection and fast, free shipping, free
road hazard protection, and over ten thousand recommended installers ti

(40:05):
iraq dot com the way tire buying should be. As
the sager just told you, Jacksonville does have the ball
about eight minutes left to go in this game. They
trail thirty to twenty, but Jacksonville is making moves. Remember
Jacksonville trail twenty seven nothing late in the first half.
They have rallied thirty to twenty eight minutes left, forty

(40:27):
seven left, so closer to nine minutes. I really should
say here in the second half, Jason, we'll keep everybody
updated on that game specifically, but let's start to look
ahead to some of the games tomorrow and Monday night.
You know, listen, I I you know, we'll just go
game by game. I know some of them. You know,
it's gonna be hard to make a compelling argument for

(40:48):
some of these games. Uh. And let's start with the
first one, Buffalo at My Miami at Buffalo. We all
know the situation by now. Miami is down to its
third string quarterback. Uh, Skyler Thompson will get the start.
Buffalo a thirteen and a half point favorite in most
sports books. I'll just ask you straight up, Jason, is
there any chance at all that Miami can keep this close?

(41:09):
And I think more importantly, is there any chance at
all that Miami can actually win this game? I mean, yeah,
there's a chance because they have to actually play the
game in sixty minutes, have to take place. But no, like,
outside of that, I just don't think. That's what I
was saying earlier, Like I hate the fact that two
of the three games tomorrow featuring backup quarterbacks. Yeah, no,

(41:30):
no offense, but offense right, Like, this isn't what you
want in the playoffs. When you see backup, backup quarterback
in the playoffs, there's nothing more deflating than that. As
a sports fan, Buffalo might still be the best team
in the league. They probably are gonna absolutely murder the
Miami Dolphins. We'll see. Like again, football has to be played.

(41:51):
Weird things can happen. That's why sports is great. But
I don't see it here. I think the Bills probably
win this thing by three or four touch all right,
So let me ask you a different question than about Miami,
because I think, you know, it's been a topic of
conversation of late. Um. You know, I was actually on
air during that Dolphins game against the Packers when we

(42:11):
later found out that to Uh suffered yet another concussion.
You know, we talked a lot about earlier about kind
of the future of of a few different franchises, specifically Seattle.
What do they do at quarterback? They have the number
five pick in the draft. Do they stick with Gino
Smith or do they take a chance on drafting somebody.
What do you think that the Miami Dolphins do. Because
it was really interesting to to kind of in a

(42:34):
little bit sad, Maybe sad it's probably the more appropriate word,
but to watch this whole season play out where we
spend so much time talking about is two of the
guys he you know, how good is he is? He
is starting caliber guy, blah blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah. And then unfortunately, by the end of
the season, I mean, I think the conversation completely shifted
to not if he's good enough, but is he somebody

(42:54):
that from a health perspective can you rely on? I mean, obviously,
um to two really bad concussions. Um, you know, even
when he was on the field, he was good. But
but you know, again there was enough questions about him
pre concussions. But now, you know, you go back to
the history of injuries at Alabama, the hip injury that
almost you know, frankly at the time we thought it

(43:15):
was gonna cost him his career. He had a knee thing.
He obviously now has concussion issues. What do you let's
say this ends tomorrow the way that I think we
all think it's going to do. What does Miami do,
because they've obviously built this high power, you know, offensive
head coach with Mike McDaniel. They bring into Tyreek Hill,
they have Jalen Waddle. All the pieces are there, but

(43:35):
it feels to me, and I'm a to a guy
I want to to succeed, it feels tough bringing him
back though now with multiple concussions in the injury history
that he has. Yeah, and I didn't know the concussions
would happen. But before he was drafted, and you know
how I feel about Alabama, I'm a fan. I said
I wouldn't take him in the first round. And the
reason why was because of the injuries. He had back

(43:57):
to back seasons where he could not finish the SEC schedule.
So how is he gonna do in the NFL, especially
going to a team where the offensive line was going
to be bad, Because if you're drafted earlier, you're gonna
be going to a bad offensive line almost all the time.
So you're gonna be running for your life as a
young quarterback. So you better either be able to escape
or you better have the size to stand tall in

(44:19):
the pocket and take the pressure. He was undersized, he
was already hurt. It was just a bad scenario from
the get go. For me, I have and I've wanted
to be wrong to the same way you like I
would love to see to a succeed. Nothing but love
for t Attago Vloa. I just don't think his body
is built for the National Football League. And now that

(44:41):
you have multiple concussions that have happened in a short
period of time, that's when you start getting into the
worrisome stuff for a career. And how many of these
can you take before you finally have to shut somebody down.
If I'm Miami, I am thoroughly concerned. And this is
not a guy and I hate to say this, this
is not a guy that I'm gonn to open up
the bank account for as a quarterback because I just

(45:04):
can't trust that he's going to be available when I
need him to be. And I hate that because there's
nothing about him that wouldn't want would make you not
want him to be your quarterback as a human being,
outside of the fact that he might not be available
for you in a playoff game against the division opponent
that you have played well against with him. But I

(45:25):
just can't trust aim Aaron. And if you can't trust
your quarterback, to be available, then you're in a world
of hurt in the National Football League. Yeah, I'll use
another UM analogy is that I remember before the season,
I was really vocal about the tray Lands Jimmy Garoppolo
situation in San Francisco from the perspective that UM, I
just didn't understand why San Francisco felt like it had

(45:47):
to go to tray Lands if it wasn't ready for
the sole reason that they had a team that was
built to win right now. And so I bring it
up because that's kind of how I feel about the Dolphins.
All the pieces are here to win right now. This
is not the beginning of a rebuild. This isn't even
where say the Jets are. Where you have all these
young guys, Garrett Wilson and Sauce Gardner. I mean, you

(46:08):
have Tyree Hill probably frankly at the tail end of
his career. You have Jalen Waddle just entering the prime
of his career. You have, of course Mike McDaniel entering
what will be a second year as a head coach
next year. I just don't think that you can sit
around and wait and and hope that you know this
guy can play eighteen weeks because we, just like you said,
going back to college, going back to the SEC, going

(46:29):
back to a twelve game regular season schedule, we for
the most part did not see a scenario where he
could actually do it. So I'm with you. You know,
we have all offseason and kind of discuss who could
potentially be in. I've seen people suggest, you know, maybe
Derek Carr somebody like that. We could save that for
another time. But but I'm with you, is is I
want to be wrong on this um, but I don't
think that I am. Let's keep it going. Obviously, the

(46:51):
second game tomorrow on Saturday, by the way, the Jags
are driving, they have just crossed the fifty. They still
trail thirty to twenty with about six and a half
minutes to go. In this one, Jags trail thirty to
twenty at home against the Chargers. They are driving and
keep you updated there. Uh Minnesota hosting the New York Giants,
And I think obviously we all know the story right
now at this point with the Minnesota Vikings, it is

(47:13):
that they have a very nice win loss record and
on the season they have actually been outscored, so interesting
matchup these two teams just played a few weeks ago
in vintage Minnesota fashion. Uh, they want to game. They
won the game by a field goal, barely surviving against
the New York Football Giants in Minnesota back in week sixteen,
weeks seventeen. Excuse me, Jason, what do you see from

(47:33):
this one? Again? Minnesota? We all kind of know what
the narrative is with them. The Giants, of course, a
very nice surprise in year one under Brian Dable making
the playoffs. Giants are very well coached team that doesn't
make a ton of mistakes. They're not too flashy, but
they're just the kind of workhorse football team that can

(47:54):
expose a fraud. I'm not suggesting there for sure gonna
win the game, but don't be surprised if they win
the game. I just don't think Minnesota is very good.
I think that they've been exposed over the last month
of the season. They took advantage early, and more power
to them for that. They deserve it. I mean, they
they played great football early on, found ways to win,

(48:15):
but you look at their point differential and everything else.
If the Giants are able to run the football and
Daniel Jones can avoid the kind of turnovers that we've
seen Trevor Lawrence fall into, at least in the first
half of this game as he's trying to find it
a way with his team to to come back and
win this thing against the Chargers. I think the Giants
have the kind of team and the kind of brain

(48:36):
trust on the sidelines that can send Minnesota one and done.
I don't know that I'm ready to pick it yet.
We can pick it later, but this is definitely one
where if you're a Vikings fan, you're sweating bullets and
probably not sleeping well tonight. Yeah, Vikings five and three
over their last eight wins, pretty unimpressive. Patriots at home,
Jets at home, Colts at home, Giants at home, Bears

(48:58):
on the road. I'm you know, I I could see
this going in one of two ways, right I. I
could see the obvious upset right again, Giants are very
well coached team. There's no doubt that Brian Dable has
gotten the most out of that talent. I could also
see the scenario where this feels like the game that
everybody is gonna be on the Giants because everybody knows
the narrative about the point differential and all these close

(49:18):
wins that Minnesota has. As again, Jacksonville is driving thirty
to twenty. They trail will keep you updated on that one.
But that's the flip side of this as well, is
that I could see that scenario where this is the
one that seems like everybody thinks the Giants could pull
off the upset. I'm not saying it will happen, Jason,
but this is the one that I could see us
looking up and you know, Vikings win thirty one to

(49:41):
fourteen or twenty seven ten or something like that, and
it isn't as close as people think. Yeah, And because
we're saying it this way, and I think it's become
trendy to say the Giants are gonna beat the Vikings.
The Vikings may just show up and beat the brakes
off the Giants. They might. It might be a Justin
Jefferson kind of nobody can cover him virtuoso day. And

(50:02):
Kirk Cousins is just dealing. Speaking of dealing. Speaking of dealing,
Trevor Lawrence has thrown yet another touchdown pass. Jason, we
came on the air, we were saying branded Stanley finally
showed up in a big game. Well after leading twenty
seven nothing out of the gate. Jason, the Jacksonville Jaguars

(50:23):
have scored twenty six of the last twenty nine points.
That was a terrible set up. Chargers up twenty seven
nothing at one point. It is now thirty two, twenty
six with the extra point pending for the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Jason Bart We got ourselves a game at Jacksonville. Baby,
we do. Look, we we saw us a few weeks
ago with those aforementioned Vikings coming back and doing what

(50:44):
they did against Indianapolis. So now you're looking at this, uh,
it looks like a touchdown thirty six. You get the
extra point here as the Chargers missed a field goal
on the other side, and Dicker had been great all
year up to that point pretty much. But now you've
got at a three point game. You've got the Chargers
doing all the wrong things, losing their cool a little

(51:05):
bit here, and now you've got Brandon Stawey as your
head coach. Trevor Lawrence through four interceptions in the first
half of this game, and he now has four touchdown
passes as well. That's that's something else that speaks to
a lot of not just not just with him, But
it speaks to the team not just rolling over and
playing dead even if they don't win. This is this

(51:27):
is the kind of thing where Jacksonville fans can can
walk away and feel proud about the effort that their
team put in because that first half was as bad
as we could have possibly imagined. That was TCU Georgia
in the NFL. But this second half is very quickly
becoming super dramatic, and Chargers fans have to be because

(51:48):
no other fan base has been just tortured like this
late in football games that matter, whether it's Rivers as
a quarterback and Schottenheimer as the coach, or it's Anthony Lynn,
or it's now Justin Herbert in his first playoff game
and Brandon Staley, who has been much maligned for late
games situations, finding ways to lose games that you should

(52:08):
otherwise win. And now you're right in position to do
that knock yourself out of the playoffs. And I said,
if he didn't win this game, I thought he could
be fired. If you win this game, you can't fire him.
It doesn't feel like but now you're getting into that
murky territory era and where even if you win, you
don't feel particularly great. But how much of this is
Staley and how much of this is Jacksonville coming to

(52:31):
play and actually adjusting to what the Chargers did in
the first half and settling in am I crazy? This
is insane. Chargers are up by four points, extra point
makes it three. Jacksonville is going for two. Jason, what
is this? Let's see. I mean, if they get it,
I obviously understand the field goal wins it. If you look,

(52:53):
I don't know why you're doing this. I really don't.
I agree with sane. And they got the two points. Yea.
Trevor Lawrence almost got killed, but Trevor Lawrence with the
QB sneak, they go for two. So we got ourselves
a thirty to twenty eight game Chargers again. To set
the scene, Chargers were up twenty seven nothing as Jason

(53:14):
just told you, four first half interceptions for Trevor Lawrence.
He's now got four second half touchdowns. It is thirty
to twenty eight. Chargers will have the ball back and
we will see they need to do something. As the
Jaguars with a very risky two point conversion. I didn't

(53:35):
understand it. I still don't know that. I love it,
but it is now a two point game. Jacksonville, in theory,
could obviously win it with a field goal with five
twenty five left. Hey football fans, as Jason I have
been telling you, we got three more games in tomorrow,
be sure to tune into Fox Sports Radios Countdown a
Kickoff presented by Ben MGM Sunday morning, three hours before

(53:56):
kickoff as I tune in on Sunday morning at ten
a m Eastern as we you live all the way
to kick off on Fox Sports Radio in the I
Heart Radio app, presented by bet MGM. When we come back,
we will keep you updated on this game. Chargers up
thirty to twenty eight. They were up twenty seven nothing
at one point. Is now thirty to eight. Chargers have

(54:16):
the ball with five minutes left in this game. We
will keep you updated on what is a thrilling finish
down at Jacksonville. Eron towards Jason Martin here on a
wild Saturday night, Fox Sports Radio. Welcome back, everybody, Fox
Sports Radio, Aeron towards Jason Martin, broadcasting live from the
Tirac dot Com studios, and we are brought to you
by Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes bundling easy and affordable. Get

(54:38):
a multi policy discount by combining your motorcycle, RV, boat,
a TV, and more all your protection in one place.
Bundle and save at Progressive dot com. Jason, So, when
we last left you, the Jaguars had just scored a
touchdown and converted a two point conversion to cut the
lead to thirty to twenty. The Chargers were up thirty

(55:01):
to twenty eight. Jackson Villis since forced a three and
out and now has the ball back inside of Chargers territory.
They are inside the fifty one forty five left. Remember
Doug Peterson criticized by Aeron Torres on these airwaves less
than ten minutes ago for going for two. They are

(55:21):
a field goal away from winning this game. Jaguars have
the ball, They will have a fourth and one right
now with one tight left. But boil boy, Jason. We
let the show by saying, how about Brandon Staley and
his team showing up in a big moment. Brandon Staley
just saved his job. Now he's sitting there with a

(55:43):
little play sheet over his face, and he's saying, mercy, mercy, mercy.
This can't this can't be happening. This can't be happening.
Jaguars thirty to twenty eight. They trail one left fourth down. Jason, Yeah,
well we can correct that and say we said if
they finish, because they're it was football to be played.
We just didn't think that it was necessarily gonna go
this way. But when you came out, you stopped them

(56:05):
from adding more and then you scored another touchdown the
touchdown you ended up scoring near the end of the
first half. If you're Jacksonville after the four interceptions, it
was huge because you go in not seven nothing, you
go in t seven. Then you come out and get
a defensive stop, and then it's fourteen and then we
start talking about now you're within shouting distance. Now it's

(56:26):
a couple of touchdowns and you've got twenty minutes of
game time. That's plenty, especially against the Chargers, because this
is what the Chargers do best, not win football games.
They snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Now this
isn't over and it could still go. But if you
lose this football game, that might be it like Brandon
Stables on the sidelines wondering if this game is his job,

(56:50):
like right now, because if you win this. I don't
think you let a coach that when you will playoff
game go in this scenario. But if you tank right
here and you blow it's twenty seven to nothing lead
against a second year quarterback that was doing everything wrong,
that is a big deal. And that's a first down
and then some for Jacksonville. So Jacksonville does pick up

(57:11):
a big gainer. They are now inside the Chargers red zone.
One fourteen left, the clock is ticking Brander Chargers have one.
T's a big thing to one time out. And I'll
say this man, Doug Peterson, I did not like him
going for two. They now are going to have a
chance to kick a field goal to win this game. Again.

(57:33):
For people just joining us, Chargers were up twenty seven
nothing Trevor Lawrence through four first half interceptions. They get
a touchdown score before halftime, and they have held the
Chargers to a field goal. In the second half. Jacksonville
is now in field goal range. Chargers can only stop

(57:56):
the clock once a field goal will in it for
the Jacksonville Jaguars. It looks like, by the way, the
Chargers are not even gonna take that time out. They're
just gonna hold it. Probably ice the kicker. Twenty three
seconds left in this game. It appears as though the
Jacksonville Jaguars are gonna run down the clock, take a
time out, kick a field goal to win this game.

(58:17):
Jason tried to Now, we've seen kicks missed, right, We
saw Ohio State missed one. We saw a dicker for
the Chargers missed one that that may come back to
haunt them from earlier here, but you're gonna get here
it is. It's a kick that's gonna either win the
game or the Chargers are gonna escape this thing. Here's
what's amazing to me. So Herbert finishes at least for

(58:38):
right now, forty two seventy three yards, one touchdown. That's
it tonight, like no interceptions, sacked three times, eighty four
passer rating. I I texted you before the show and
said Trevor Lawrence was a zero point six pass or
rating at that point and he had thrown He ended
up throwing another interception. After that. His numbers were all
time bad. He had thirty yards in the first half.

(59:00):
It was looking terrible. I went to the athletic and
I looked at the comments, which you should never ever
look at the comments, but one of the comments is like,
this is the kind of game where you realize and
look at the guy and no, he's never gonna be good.
He's not good at football. He's seven eight yards now.
He has two hundred and fifty eight yards passing in
the second half, three touchdowns, had the one right before

(59:22):
the half. He has a seventy passer rating. That's what
that is. How it has changed in the second half
from an all time awful first half like something that
was Scott's Todds Level Office episode cringeworthy. It was so
hard to watch, and now this is this ends up

(59:42):
being an incredible story if you make this field goal.
Jaguars had our City Jaguars called the time out to
set up the field goal. I believe the Chargers have
now uh used their time out to ice the kicker.
Three seconds left. Again, the Chargers were up thirty two
the well, they were up twenty seven nothing, and it

(01:00:02):
is now thirty to eight as Jacksonville lines up for
this field goal, Jason, the kick is up. The kick
just gets through the Jacksonville Jaguars after trailing twenty seven nothing.
We do have a flag on the play. According to

(01:00:24):
our stats guru John Romo said, appears as though it
was on the Chargers, and it has been declined. The
Jacksonville Jaguars were down twenty seven nothing. They come back
to win thirty one to twenty seven in Lawson in Jacksonville.
Don't have them all them all over the place, Jason, unbelievable,

(01:00:46):
And I think the question becomes, what is the future
of Brandon Staley as the head coach of the Jacksonville
of the Los Angeles Chargers. I'll tell you what, Jason,
let's discuss that next. Before we do that, let's toss
it over to the news desk. Hey to Seger there
and they stole all your thunder. The final scores thirty
one thirty Jacksonville over the Chargers. Yes, it was twenty
seven nothing l a late first half. So the Jaguars

(01:01:09):
win a playoff game where they had five turnovers in
the first half. And just for the record, the Chargers
did not commit a turnover and still blew a lead
as large as that. That is incredible. And guys on
the air, I said, when the Chargers were up twenty
four nothing, it reminds me of another Charger playoff game

(01:01:30):
in the state of Florida when Dan Fouts was quarterback
the Classic at the Orange Bowl against Miami early nine eighties.
The Chargers were ahead that night twenty four nothing after
the first quarter and did not win in regulation. Miami
came back to tie that game. Those Chargers won on
an overtime field goal. These Chargers lose on a field

(01:01:52):
goal on the final play, and we can't skip over
the call on fourth down with they were out in
field goal range. Remember the call by Doug Peterson on
fourth and one at the Charger forty one under a
minute and a half to go after a time out,
they give it to E. T n off the rights
and voided it open up twenty five yard game and

(01:02:14):
that closed it out, and it made it a much
better field goal attempt, not just into field goal range,
but it was a thirty six yard or from Riley
Patterson that wanted thirty one thirty Jacksonville wins. We mentioned
earlier in the show. They had in November, these Jags
a seventeen point come back to beat the Raiders. In December,

(01:02:35):
a seventeen point come back to beat Dallas. This is
a franchise record comeback of being down twenty seven late
first half and in a playoff game, no less and win.
Here you had Trevor Lawrence in his first playoff game
throws an interception on his first drive, throws an interception
on his second career playoff drive. That's not happened in

(01:02:56):
at least the last thirty years. People are already starting
to cup. Okay, what's what's the record for interceptions in
a playoff game? Brett Farve apparently had six in a
playoff game and was not as only one. Trevor Lawrence
had only thrown two picks his last nine games combined,
and he had that kind of start. Four picks first
half and they still win. Jaguars thirty one, Chargers thirty final.

(01:03:19):
San Francisco won it's eleventh straight game, beating Seattle three
brock Party with four total touchdowns, three thirty two yards passing.
Three more wild Card games on Sunday and one on
Monday night. That'll be Dallas at Tampa Bay. In the NBA,
Memphis won it's ninth game in a row of victory
at Indiana. Boston won at sixth in a row of
victory at Charlotte, and Philadelphia has won by a point

(01:03:42):
at Utah one eighteen, won seventeen despite thirty eight points
from Jordan Clarkson. In college hoops, u c l A,
ranked seventh, came back to beat Colorado, Texas ranked ten,
came back to beat Texas Tech, and Gonzaga at number
eight ranked is leading against Portland with under twelve minutes
to go. What a comeback. Jags advanced to the divisional round.

(01:04:06):
San Francisco advances. I guess it is super wild Card weekend.
Three more games tomorrow back do you nothing? Super for
the Los Angeles Chargers. Thank you Steven Seger, Fox Sports Radio,
Fox Sports Saturday Errant Towards Jason Martin Company Alive from
the tire rec dot Com studios. We can talk about
how complicated banks make it to redeem credit card rewards.

(01:04:26):
We could talk about how we discover you can redeem
your rewards for cash in any amount at any time.
I mean talk about amazing learn more Discover dot com
slash yes, slash redeem rewards terms apply. Jason um. One
of our colleagues, Ben Maller, likes to say, the more
interesting story is often in the losing locker room, and
so I don't want to discredit the Jacksonville Jaguars for

(01:04:48):
a historic comeback. The game is over. No, not a
single Jags fan has left their seat. And if you're
Jacksonville Jaguars fan, UM, I want you to enjoy this moment,
appreciate it. You guys should be thrilled. But the story, Jason,
it has to be the Los Angeles Chargers up twenty
seven nothing in the first half, Trevor Lawrence for interception.

(01:05:10):
I know I keep saying it, but this was a
historic meltdown for the Los Angeles Chargers. We lad the
show saying, Jason. We led the show saying that this
was a guy that if he did not win this game.
Brandon Stalley, the head coach of Los Angeles Chargers, there
was buzz not just from us, but from people that
that you know, inside NFL, people that said they weren't
sure he was gonna be able to survive this. Now

(01:05:32):
you blow a twenty seven nothing lead in the playoffs
on national TV standalone game, what do you think is
going to happen? And what do you think should happen? Jason,
Should is a tough call. I think he's gonna be fired.
See I don't. I think should is not the tough call.
I think will is the tough call. But continue, Jason,

(01:05:53):
I think he I think he's gonna lose his job.
I think that. And I mentioned that when good things
happened to the Chargers, pretty much all the credit has
ended up with Justin Herbert. Justin Herbert tonight was fine,
but he was not Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen one of

(01:06:14):
those kind of performances. He had one touchdown and no
interceptions tonight. He ended up throwing for fifteen less yards
than Trevor Lawrence. In the game, they rushed for sixty
seven yards. Staley, I don't know how much of this
is on coaching. The office weren't able to do anything.
Jacksonville's defense stepped up in the second half. They got
short field after short field in the first half did

(01:06:35):
the Chargers weren't able to get touchdowns on all those drives.
But this is a scenario where I want to see
how many people over the next few days are actually
gonna say, you know what, Justin Herbert, all the hype
that we give him, he's the guy that needs to
will his team to a win. And but here's the
other side for Staley, And this was not a narrative

(01:06:58):
until right now because what I just told you about
the offense. Uh boy, they could have used Mike Williams tonight,
couldn't they. Now that becomes a story again. You win
the football game, we're not talking about it at all.
But you lose the football game, especially in the manner
in which you did, We're not gonna forget it. Gerald

(01:07:19):
Gerald Everett and Keenan Allen had twelve catches on the game.
Josh Palmer had a couple. Donald Parham Jr. Head for
DeAndre Carter had too. But Mike Williams matters. You not
having him in this game, playing him, getting him hurt
last week when it didn't affect your playoff seating. Now
we call into question everything. That's the difference between a

(01:07:42):
win and a loss for Brandon Staley. You win this game, hey,
you know, the Mike Williams thing stinks, But you end
up winning a playoff game and we're talking about what
Justin Herbert can do in the next round. But you
lose the way that you just did, Now all of
it's gonna fall on him. And I am cure is
if anybody is going to criticize the very average play

(01:08:05):
of a quarterback that so many people love and look
I like him too. I'm a big time fan of
Justin Herbert, but the hype train doesn't back up what
we just saw in his first performance. Trevor Lawrence ended
up with four touchdowns to go with his four picks
because an all time bad. But then he stepped up
in the second half and was all time good. Justin
Herbert was just flat there. It's like he just you

(01:08:28):
check present for him in the classroom. And now to
the offseason, the Chargers go. Their fans are very, very
used to the feeling that they have right now, but
I think their coach is done. I say, I'll say this, Jason.
We don't normally do this, but what I want to
do now, I actually want to open up the phone lines.
I want to hear from you guys and girls driving

(01:08:48):
around watching listening however you're consuming our show. What is
the future of the Chargers? Should they bring back Brandon Stalely?
And more importantly, do you think that it was actually
Justin Herbert who should take blame for the is our
phone number one eight seven seven nine on Fox one
eight seven seven nine nine six six three six nine,
call in let us know we're gonna open up the

(01:09:09):
phone lines one eight seven, seven six three six nine. Jason,
I'll say really quick, a couple of things come to
mind when you discuss what you said. One it is
you know you can say today was about Justin Herbert.
But ultimately I do agree with you that it falls
back to you weren't at a percent because you were
playing your starters last week and Mike Williams wasn't available.

(01:09:30):
So that is on coaching. That is on Brandon Dalely
and he is gonna take blame. The one thing I
would say about what you said, and I did kind
of reference it a minute ago, I think that what
should happen is a lot different than what will happen.
What should happen is I think he should be fired.
Brandon Staley should be fired. Um. And by the way,
you know, some people are a business all. I don't
talk about another man's job. No, when you have a

(01:09:50):
meltdown like you did tonight, on top of everything else
that your resume speaks to in the last two years,
I do think that we can talk about your job.
But what I would say is, while I think that's
what should happen, I will say what will happen. I
I do think it's a little bit more up in
the air because I think it's easy in this moment
for this to be the conversation. But we're gonna get

(01:10:11):
three games tomorrow, We're gonna get a game on Monday.
If the Cowboys lose, we all know darn well that
the conversation is probably gonna be about Jerry Jones, all this, Mike,
Mike McCarthy, what's the future, blah blah blah blah blah.
And so the Chargers uh a team that we know
the history. They don't have as much money as some
of these other organizations. It's a family owned business. This

(01:10:32):
isn't the Cowboys. This isn't the um you know, the
fill in the blanket, you know the cron keys that
own the Rams. This isn't the Walton's that own your
Denver Broncos. So I do think to me it is
a little bit more questionable on what will happen versus
what should happen. I believe that Brandon Staley should be
out as the Chargers head coach. Will see what does happen? Again?

(01:10:54):
For those of you just joining us, the Chargers were
up twenty seven, nothing in the first half. They end
up losing. Final score in uh in Jacksonville. Thirty one
to thirty is the final score. And again, if you
want to call in, we want to hear from you
one eight seven, seven ninety nine on Fox seven seven

(01:11:15):
three six nine. Coming up more reaction to this incredible game,
this incredible win for the Jacksonville Jaguars. We will take
your calls. Next Fox Sports Radio, Welcome back everybody, Fox
Sports Radio, Ara Torres, Jason Martin here on a Saturday
night into a Sunday evening, and we can talk about
how complicated other banks make it to redeem credit card rewards.

(01:11:36):
We can talk about how we discover you can redeem
your rewards for cash in any amount at any time.
I mean talk about amazing learn more discovered dot com
slash redeem rewards terms apply Jason again. By the way,
for people who are just tuning in driving around, you
just got out of something. The Los Angeles Chargers were
up twenty seven nothing at Jacksonville. They blow the lead,

(01:12:00):
need a last second field goal. Give to Jacksonville Jaguars
a thirty one to thirty win. Jason. The phone lines
are buzzing before we get to the callers, anything that
we missed the last segment. Uh and and we can
always obviously get back to the top of the hour.
Anything else you want to add about this game. Before
we take a few calls, I'll give you a couple

(01:12:20):
of stats. But I would say this, if Stawey's not out,
his whole coaching staff is gonna be like, it's gonna
be like, you gotta get rid of the coordinators, You've
gotta get rid of all these different things. I think
Staey is gonna be out. I do, and especially if
you actually look at what a lot of the blue
checkmarks are saying. I'm seeing it on the athletic Almost
all of them are like, is he getting pig slip Monday?
Is this gonna happen? But here's a few stats, and

(01:12:40):
then we'll get to the calls. After the twenty seven
to nothing lead with three minutes left, I think it's
a one point two percent chance that the Jacks could
come back and win the game. They found a way
to win the game. Here's what happened after they took
the twenty seven to nothing lead. On the offensive drives
for the Chargers for the remainder of the game, three
and out, kneel down, punt field goal, missfield goal, three

(01:13:03):
and out. They scored three points after that lost the game.
That's pretty dagon incredible in its own right. But my gosh,
the Trevor Lawrence second half. You gotta talk about it.
You have to start actually looking at all of what's
going on. But so many people are calling for the
job this This ends up being the third largest comeback

(01:13:24):
in postseason history. It's only the fifth most improbable comeback
of this season apparently by the by the analytics, But
four games in the Super Bowl era, including the playoffs,
where one team was a minus five in the turnover margin,
only nine times out of four games has that team won.

(01:13:46):
That's one percent. The Jags did it. It last happened
twelve years ago when the Jaguars beat the brown despite
David Garrard throwing three pick and losing a fumble. So
the Jags are the team that have done this the
last two times it's happened, and it's only happened nine

(01:14:07):
times in those are the stats. On tonight again, the
Jaguars beat the Chargers thirty one to thirty. Chargers blow
a twenty seven point lead in the first half. Let's
get to some of your calls. Let's start with David
in Florida. You're on Fox Sports Radio Erran towards Jason
Martin here on a Saturday night. David, what's up, man?

(01:14:27):
How you doing? What's up? Boys? Thank you for taking
my call. I appreciate that, but I just want to
talk about this crazy game that we just wait, well,
we we don't even thought we we need to know
Brandon Staley Monday. Are you giving him the pink slip? David?
If you run the Chargers, listen, I'm telling him, don't
even get on the plane tonight, buddy, Like, come on, man,

(01:14:50):
this guy, honestly, he goes and plays Mike Williams last
game of the season. Uh, that was a mistake. This
guy goes for it more than anyone I've ever seen
on fourth down. Doesn't really do out on you know,
those those plays. Honestly, I think from the top down,
it just needs to be a change I've seen. Also,
you know, as in Florida, I was actually watching it
with a lifelong Jack fan, so we were ready to

(01:15:11):
turn it off. After Trevor Lawrence throws out you know,
fourth interception there in the first half, and they they're
up two, and then we just start watching the game
and we're like, wait, we just got three, and now
wait we just we're just we just scored. Oh wait,
Dave Jones, Oh, Marvin Jones, Oh, oh my god, what's
going on right now? And then they're going for tow

(01:15:31):
on their last touchdown and we're like, you guys just
got to kick a field goal. We're ready to go
for the extra point. They go for two, they get it,
and now we're we're we're about to score the game
winning field goal, and we're just like, I can't believe
what they're going on. So David, thank you for the call.
We gotta get to some other ones. David, thank you
for the call. I do think David brings up an
important point one that you brought up last segment, Jason,

(01:15:52):
which is very straightforward. Uh. It is that you know,
you can say and you just laid out how how
Justin Herbert was in the second half. But part of
why Justin Herbert was the way that he was was
because of course the fact that you know, he didn't
have his best wide receiver. And so I think David
brings up that point is you can sit here and say, oh,
you know, it's not Brandon Staley that his quarterback couldn't

(01:16:12):
moved the football. Part of the reasons this quarterback couldn't
moved football was because he didn't have his best wide receiver. Well,
I mean, that's the excuse that you can give. Now.
That excuse wouldn't have been there if Mike Williams was playing.
And this still happens, and maybe it still does. This
is the Chargers we're talking about, after all. But the
reason why Brandon Staley I think we'll lose his job
isn't because they lost this game. It's because on the

(01:16:35):
road to get to this game, they were not impressive.
Despite what they did in the offseason, despite having a
top five roster by all the available metrics and being
the stat nerds favorites and all these other kind of things,
they were not impressive. They were a team that kind
of limped into the postseason and then found a way
to collapse like this on the road against the second

(01:16:56):
year quarterback who I don't know how you have the
guts and poise to throw four interceptions and then do
what Trevor Lawrence did in the second half of this
football game that speaks a lot to him. That's that
is part of the story. But they weren't impressive on
the way here and then to lose I think that's
the bigger reason. If you want to call in, we

(01:17:16):
want to hear from you. One eight seven seven Fox
one eight seven seven one eight one eight seven seven
N six three six nine. Couple of variables here, Jason.
One should Brandon Stanily lose the job? And I think
another one that you keep bringing up, and I do
think it's an important one, how much blame does Justin
Herbert get for this? Because I think we also have

(01:17:38):
to look at it this way, Jason, is that that
you know, not only do not only was he not?
Did he not do very much in the second half?
As you brought up a couple of times. You know,
with all of those turnovers, they really got a lot
of short fields in the first half that allowed them
to score pretty easily. So they do finish with three
twenty yards the total offense, but only eighteen first downs. Uh,

(01:17:58):
you know, they were decent on third down. But man
like this is a wild, wild, wild game. Again, if
you want to get in one eight seven seven ninety
nine on Fox seven seven six three six nine for
people just joining us. The Los Angeles Chargers were up
twenty seven nothing. Trevor Lawrence had four first half picks,

(01:18:21):
and then, as Jason Martin just told you, the second half,
four touchdown passes, the Jaguars rally, the Jaguars win. Jason,
I'll tell you a second next hour, we will talk
a little bit about the Jaguars perspective as well, because
I do think what you said is important, Jason. I
know we're coming up on the hour, but we gotta,
we gotta, we gotta give the Jaguars some credit as well.

(01:18:41):
But man, that was a a monumental, catastrophic loss by
There's somebody else we need to talk about, and we
will when we come back. Joey Bosa. Joey Bosa, Okay,
Bosa lost his head. It was his unsportsman like to
put the ball there, which led to Doug Peterson going
for two. Uh. There are a lot of people right
now that I'm seeing on a whole lot of websites

(01:19:03):
that are suggesting Joey bos is the biggest reason they
just lost this football game. Very interesting one eight seven
seven ninety nine on Fox seven seven nine six six
three six nine. If you want to call in who's
to blame for the Chargers loss? Will discuss all that next.
Jacksonville Jaguars are advancing to next weekend thirty one thirty.
That says Fox Sports Radio. Welcome back everybody, Fox Sports Radio,

(01:19:26):
Aaron Torres, Jason Martin here on a Saturday night, now
Sunday morning on the East Coast, and the celebration is
gonna go on long into the night in Jacksonville. For
those who missed, Chargers were up twenty seven nothing. Jaguars rally.
They win thirty one thirty with a last second field goal.

(01:19:48):
We are broadcasting life from the tirect dot com studios
Direct dot Com. We'll help you get there and on
match selection, fest, free shipping, free road hazard protection, and
over ten thousand recommended installers. Direct dot com the way
tire buying should be. Jason, It's interesting because, you know,
just browsing social media, and I know social media isn't
a be all, end all, but it does feel like

(01:20:09):
it's a little fifty fifty on who's to blame, So
just just just browsing. Um, you know, Jeff Schwartzer colleague,
who's obviously you know, knows football better than any of us,
or at least better than I do. Uh as a
Herbert fan, getting him a new coaching staff would be
a huge positive. Hope it happens. So that's the pro
Justin Herbert Anti Brandon Staley camp buddy mind. Brandon Walker

(01:20:31):
works for Barstool, does a good job covering college football.
He said today, I learned that a quarterback who led
his offense to three points in the second half after
being gifted five turnovers in the first half cannot be
blamed at all for losing a twenty seven point lead.
So that plays more into what you said in our two,
which is that Justin Herbert is probably not gonna take

(01:20:51):
as much blame as he should. By the way, we
have a couple of people on on hold. We will
get to you, guys and girls momentarily if you want
to call in who's to blame? What's next for the
Chargers one seven seven ninety nine on Fox. But Jason,
you brought up an interesting point before we went to
break in that maybe there's somebody else that's a little
bit more to blame uh than certainly I've given him

(01:21:13):
credit for. But it feels like some people are starting
to call him out, Jason, Yeah, it's Joey Bosa. Joey
Bosa got a personal foul, pendity penalty, um unsportsmanlike conduct.
As the Jaguar scored the touchdown, they ended up going
for two and we're asking why are they going for two? Well,
the reason that they went for two is because the

(01:21:34):
ball ended up on the one yard line for that conversion.
Because of that, and so Doug Peterson rolled the dice
and said we can get one, and Trevor ends up
putting and getting it. We were lying on air and
in my head, I was like, that feels like a
really short fourth down, you know, extra two point conversion.
Excuse me, Jason, Yeah, So that right there ends up

(01:21:56):
making it so the field goal can win the game
instead of tie it. If you're Jacksonville Bosa and we
weren't paying because we're on air, we couldn't pay attention
to every little thing that was going on. But Bosa
was not on the field. I don't believe in the
last drive at all. And what I have seen is
he was actually put on the bench by Staley because
of his act right there. He had one tackle tonight

(01:22:20):
and thirty five penalty yards for a hundred and twelve million,
I think guaranteed money, and people, from what I can
see what I've seen the Athletic and a couple of
other places, they're coming after him pretty hard. They're coming
at like I know Herbert is taking a little bit,
Staley has taken a lot. I would say that Boas

(01:22:41):
is probably gonna need to take some of this, if
not a large quantity of it, because I don't know
that you do that. If you're Doug Peterson, if you
don't get the ball on the one yard line, that
sways that opinion. And if you don't get it on
the one yard line, you're kicking a field goal to
tie and go into overtime and maybe the Chargers end
up winning the football game, or who knows what happens
after that point. You're taking a different kind of risk.

(01:23:03):
That's a big time swing. Late in this game, when
the momentum was going against you, Joey Bosa lost his
head and that penalty may have may have directly lad
to the Chargers losing the football game. I'll tell you what.
Let's get back to some calls here, because the phone
lines are buzzing a lot of people want to chime
in on this, Zach in Idaho. You're on Fox Sports

(01:23:27):
Radio Errant towards Jason Martin. What is next for the
Chargers after this debacle? Zack Man, thanks for taking my call. Guys.
First off, what a great time to be an NFL
football fan watching football on Saturday, and then we get
another day of it tomorrow and Monday. Um Man, First off,
I don't see Brandon Staley staying in that a fc

(01:23:48):
uh craziness over there with the Kansas City Chief. When
you say he doesn't stay, I mean he's not gonna quit.
So are you saying that he needs to be fired
or what do you say? I would say he definitely
needs to be fired. With the division with Mahomes in it,
and you have an awesome quarterback in Justin Herbert and
you're not getting the full potential out of him, I
think at that point you need to move on. You've

(01:24:09):
given Brandon Staley his time, and looking at that game,
if Kyle Vannoy intercepts that ball in the last drive,
we would not be sitting here probably talking about Brandon
Staley being fired, just talking about how close that comeback was. Yeah,
that's fair, that's that that is a fair point. Um.
I just think that the narrative has already set Aaron,

(01:24:32):
The narrative had been set now for over a year.
Justin Herbert is that guy, and if that's the case,
then everything else has to be placed against that narrative.
The only way to keep that narrative alive on a
night where Justin Herbert did squat in the second half
and the Jack's defense deserve some credit. But if Herbert
is all world a lot of quarterbacks, let me ask

(01:24:54):
you this, If Justin Herbert is playing in Dallas, how
has he perceived coming off the second half that he
had here? If it's not Justin Herbert, if it's Dak
Prescott that does the same thing, who can't take advantage
of the turnovers and they end up losing the football game?
I feel like that. I think that I believe, and

(01:25:15):
I think that Justin Herbert is great too, and I
agree that he should have the right head coach and
the right stuff around him and all of this other
kind of thing. But why does this never happen to Mahomes?
Why does this never happen to other guys? This is
something where you have to evaluate and look at all
of it and say Herbert could have been better here.

(01:25:35):
I don't know how much Brandon Stawey takes for what
he actually did tonight. I think it's just this has
been the narrative about Staey, It's going to continue to be.
And you have a dude that really loves Los Angeles
as a city in Sean Payton sitting there, and I
just I just feel like there was a shot. I
think they said that before the game that he would

(01:25:56):
coach this year or he would wait until next year.
It's what they were saying on nb you tonight, based
on what they had heard from sources. If the Charger's
job opens up, that's where Sean Payton's going, because it
just doesn't make any sense otherwise. A couple of things here. One, um,
you know, to the Dallas point. I think the difference
between Dallas and you know DAC and Justin Herbert is um,

(01:26:18):
doc is you know Doc is in year six, year seven,
year eight, whatever, Um, he kind of is who he
is at this point. And Justin Herbert this was still
his first career playoff game, and I'm not saying he
should get a pass. But I also think part of
this is that, you know, Brandon Staley. Like you said,
it's a year long track record of this guy seemingly
making the wrong decisions at the wrong time. And I

(01:26:41):
think the thing that would concern like like, like, let's
work under the scenario that he comes back, right. I
don't think it's gonna happen. Our callers yet have yet
to say that they think it's gonna happen. But why
I bring it up is because, like I just think,
how does he you know, how do you win back
that locker room? And then you're a year are further
into the Justin Herbert era. Again. We talked about this

(01:27:03):
with the with with other teams of San Francisco, Fornia, whoever.
You're in win now mode Miami with the Dolphins, like like,
you can't waste another year in Miami with TWA and
Jalen Waddle to see if Tua can stay healthy. And
it's kind of the same to me in Los Angeles.
I know Justin Herbert's young. I know we now have
quarterbacks playing into their late thirties early forties. But this
thing is here right now for the taking. The division

(01:27:25):
is more wide open than I think we thought it
would be. Uh. Denver does not look like it has.
It's you know what, together, the Raiders are a mess. Obviously,
the Kansas City Chiefs are gonna be there. But that's
why to me, I I do think it's a little
bit different than some other scenarios. And why I ultimately
think Brandon Staley has to go is because one, it's
not as though he just had a meltdown in a
big game in the playoffs. This is a track record

(01:27:47):
of you know, I was talking to the guys in
the back during the break. It's like, it feels like
every big decision he makes the wrong one at the
wrong time, and to you potentially lose the locker room.
And three and here's the other part. And I know
we all know this and it's obvious, but even if
justin Herbert's to blame, he is your franchise, He is
your future. He is better than any alternative that you have.

(01:28:08):
So you're not moving on from him, obviously, And so
that's why again, you know, I hate to I hate
to say it, but in a situation like this, when
something this bad happens, there has to be a fall guy,
and I think it's gonna be Brandon Staley. Yeah, I mean,
I think that's right. I think that's well said. Um
At if he keeps the job, they'll have to they'll
make him have to redo his staff and all these

(01:28:28):
other kinds of things, and I just don't sinse that's
gonna happen. There's some big names out there to coach.
And if you think Justin Herbert is a guy, and
by the way, I don't, I'm not suggesting he's not.
I'm just suggesting that tonight you probably have a little
bit of room to criticize what they were unable to
do offensively, um in the second half of that game.
But if he's the guy, then you have to give

(01:28:50):
him what he needs. You've got to make sure he's
got the right coach, you've got to make sure he's
got the right weapons. You have to maximize it. And
really you wanted to maximize it when you had his
rookie contract act window, because he's gonna command a ton
of money and then you're not gonna be able to
keep all the pieces that you're trying to acquire right now.
That's why it's a win now league. That's why I
don't believe in championship windows. That's why I believe it's

(01:29:12):
this year, this year, next year. I don't know what
the Chargers are gonna look like, but I don't think
you can afford to go back in there not being
completely certain that Brandon Staway can get you where you
need to go. If he can't, if you think his
ceiling is a first round playoff exit, you fire him tomorrow.
Well yeah, And I think that would be my concern
as well, is that this almost feels like a best

(01:29:34):
case scenario this year. What you know, you you clinch
a playoffs spot. Um, you know by the way, you
have the chance to basically rest the starters in Week
eight teen. You don't do it. Um, you get to
the playoffs and you lose. I think this is the
best case scenario with this coach, in this specific group.
I'll tell you what. Let's take one more call. Uh,
Let's head out to the phone lines. Tommy in Louisville.

(01:29:55):
You're on Fox Sports Radio air towards Jason Martin on
the on the on on on air. What do you
got for us? Tommy? All right, Tommy, Well you can
call back. Tommy can wait like everybody else. Let's get
to Kevin in Culver City, right down the road from

(01:30:15):
us here in Los Angeles, Kevin, you're on Fox Sports Radio.
What do you got my man? Bolsa? Of guys, I'm
a real passionate Chargers fan. I watched the whole game.
One thing people aren't talking about is the referee. Uh
the headlines man. He was. It was a dirty referee.
And I know why Joey Bosa got mad. The first
play the off sides. You call that on a third

(01:30:38):
and fifteen when they got a sack, allow them to
get a touchdown. And then he misses the false start
on the right tackle on the touchdown, and the announcers
even said that's a false start. So Bolsa takes his
helmet out. He loses his mind, he loses his school.
You gotta keep your cool. But I know why he
did it because he's yelling at the guy that that's
clearly a false starts a crucial part of the game.

(01:30:58):
They were jawing the whole games. So he finally left
both to have Another thing, don't forget about the kicker.
That kicker misses a chip sot and he hooks it.
He makes that feel go. The Charges are winning the game.
We're not having this conversation. Another thing, Brandon Staley. I
think he's gonna keep his job. But the thing about
Brandon Stany was he wasn't Brandis Stany the day. Fourth down,

(01:31:19):
he's kicking field goals, He's not going for the touchdown.
They played like a team who didn't want to give
up the lead in the first half instead of a
team stopping the Jaguars when you had him on the ground.
They didn't finish them and that's why they lost. USC
did the same thing against du Lane. When you got
a team on your heels, you gotta go for touchdowns
and win the game. You don't kick field goals and
put it in the kickers hands. That's how you lose

(01:31:41):
football games. This is uh Fox Sports Radio Torres Martin
and Kevin coming in hot. It was just like Kevin
co host the rest of the show. You know, he
brings up a lot of good points, right and I
do think we can discuss some of them after the break.
As a matter of fact, let's go ahead and do
that because there's so much more to react to for
people just joining us. The Chargers blow a twenty seven

(01:32:03):
point lead, they end up losing thirty one thirty last
second field goal will continue to take your calls you
want to chime in one eight seven seven ninety nine
on Fox seven seven six three six nine will react
to that. We do have to talk a little bit
about the Jags. We do have to talk about Sean Payton.
There is so much more two peel back, plenty more
coming up. This is Fox Sports Radio. Welcome back everybody,

(01:32:26):
Fox Sports Radio, Aaron Torres, Jason Martin here Saturday night,
Sunday morning on the East Coast and for everybody who
missed it, we are broadcasting live from the entirerac dot
com studio. Should mention, by the way, we are brought
to you by Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes bundling easy and affordable.
Get a multi policy discount by combining your motorcycle, RV, boat,

(01:32:47):
a TV and more all your protection in one place.
Bundle and save at Progressive dot Com. Again, many people listening, Uh,
if you've been with us for the last hour or so,
we had a melt down of epic proportions. Chargers were
up twenty seven nothing in the first half. Jaguar score

(01:33:07):
a touchdown shortly before halftime and then from their completely
control the game. The Jaguars on a last second field
goal win thirty one to thirty, and we've been basically
taking most of your calls trying to get a feel
for who's to blame. How much is it Trevor Lawrence?
How much is it justin Field? Sorry, Trevor Lawrence was
on my TV doing Trevor Lawrence things. But how much

(01:33:27):
of it is justin Herbert? How much of it is
Brandon Staley? Does Brandon Staley need to go? Joey Bosa
got a dumb penalty, but as our last caller said,
there were some very questionable plays that could have been called, uh,
you know, off sides, on on or excuse me, a
false start on the offense that that triggered Joey Bosa's frustration.
So it is just an insane, insane, insane night. Let's

(01:33:50):
take one call. Jason will continue the conversation because I
want to talk a little bit about the Jaguars and also, um,
you know what what what what could potentially happen for
the Chargers. Let's get to be j in Charlotte. He's
been waiting, BJ and Charlotte. You're on Fox Sports Radio.
Aaron Torres, Jason Martin and I apologize. That's r J.
In Charlotte, not b J. R J. That what I'm here?

(01:34:12):
What's up? How you doing? I'm doing alright this season,
and I appreciate you for taking my call. Fellas, thank
you for calling us. What do you got? What an
absolute pathetic performance by the Chargers. I mean they came
out hot and then you give me two point nine
yards per rush overall all game. As you know, when

(01:34:32):
you're up big, you've gotta be able to rush the
football and you know, run the clock and get those
guys up out of there. As far as the blame,
I'm gonna go Brandon Staley and Justin Herbert. This is
gonna be a big thing on his playoff resume and
him being a golden poster boy for these young quarterbacks. Man,
what a show that we received, Fellas. Brandon Staley, he

(01:34:54):
has to go, and I mean the Joey Bolts, the situation.
It just reminded me of in that Florida game versus
l Well, thank you for the call. R J. Listen.
I'll say this, Jason, is that I do think sometimes
and listen. Our our job and and we thank all

(01:35:14):
of the callers for for calling in um. Our job
is to react to stuff in the moment. You know,
Arnie Spanier in this time, so i'd always you just
say the show is tonight. Um. And what he basically
meant was we have to react in real time to
what is happening in Our opinions are based on what
is going on in real time. And why I bring
that up is because I do think there are times

(01:35:35):
where it feels like something happened, and like in the moment,
it feels so like just pressing, and then you take
a day, you take a couple of days, and you
realize that that maybe you blew it out of proportion
in real time. This Brandon Staley thing, I don't think
that we are. It seems like every caller feels the

(01:35:56):
same way. UM. And I you know, I I give
you credit for bringing up all the points I justin Herbert,
I think they're all totally fair. But we know you don't.
You don't give up on a franchise quarterback because he
doesn't he doesn't perform great in the playoffs. This is
just one Jason. I guess the point I'm trying to
get to is I think there are times where we
all in this business overreact in a moment to something
it doesn't. I don't feel like we're overreacting on Brandon

(01:36:18):
Staley here, and it's because again, we have a two
year track record, so many weird decisions at the worst
possible time. Mike Williams last week we said it to
lead the show. We thought he could be on the
hot seat if he lost this game, let alone losing
this game with a twenty seven point lead. This just
doesn't feel like one that I think we're overreacting to

(01:36:38):
in the moment. No, because it's not in the moment.
And that's the point that you just made, like, this
is not prisoner at the moment. It's not overreacting in
the moment because this was This is what we've been
talking about with Brandon Staley for the last year plus
because of what happened down the stretching games last year,
and then there was the debate, well is that being overrated?

(01:37:00):
Then all of those kinds of things, is it fair?
And then this year they were just mediocre and they
shouldn't have been. And then you get to this playoff
game and you find a way to lose this in
historic fashion. It's going to fall on him because when
it comes down to coach versus franchise quarterback stud that's

(01:37:20):
young and has all the football left in front of him.
Coaches going to the guillotine first, and that's really the
way it should be, because the star quarterback is the
most important piece now. The best teams are the ones
that marry the star quarterback to the perfect head coach.
And that's what you have with Brady and Belichick. That's
what you had and still have with Patrick Mahomes and

(01:37:43):
Andy Read exactly right, and it looks like even McDermott,
even being a defensive mind, what he's done offensively, whether
it was with Brian Dable and this year with Ken Dorsey,
he seems to have the right touch. With Josh Allen,
Justin Herbert, it's going to get the benefit of the doubt,
and I believe he is a massive superstar of the
highest order and can do basically anything with a football.

(01:38:06):
I get all of that. Tonight he wasn't great, But
it will be the coach that hits the guilloteam. It
will not be Justin Herbert, and it shouldn't be. He's
a young quarterback in a league where there is nothing
more important in all of American team sports than being
a franchise level winning NFL quarterback, and you look at

(01:38:27):
Herbert and you say he should be and if he's not,
it can't be his fault. It's gonna be this guy's fault.
And because you lose that game, it will be. And
it's another late situation where you had a lead and
then you found a way to lose it late and
in fact, on the last play, that's dog Staley for
two years now. So you're not prisoner at the moment.

(01:38:49):
You're not overreacting to the moment. The moment just confirms
the storyline that's been out about Brandon Stay for two years.
Don't disagree. Uh, And if it was like again everyone
that is called in, it feels like most of social
media and by the way, there are there is an
element of people that I'm seeing react to this game
that feels like two people can be beat to blame.

(01:39:10):
But that doesn't mean that Brandon Staley should come back.
So we'll continue this conversation, Chargers, just an epic meltdown
of epic proportions. We appreciate all your calls, all your tweets,
but let's throw it over the news desk to Sager.
I know we'll have more context on this incredible game.
What do he got? And also for the Chargers, I'm
glad you've kicked this around. This was very much a
team loss. Coach, offense, defense, kicker, Joey Bosa failures in

(01:39:37):
old department. Anyone who says there's only one reason for
is just being too simplistic. My big point on Brandon
Staley remains this, he's the defensive play color. He got
this job because he was defensive coordinator for the NFL's
number one ranked defense with the Rams. The Chargers run
defense this season allowed almost a hundred fifty yards rushing

(01:39:58):
per game. That was an average game against them was
almost one fifty on the ground, bottom five in the league.
And last season, his first year is head coach, they
allowed about a hundred forty yards rushing per game, bottom
three in the league. And then tonight they allowed defensively
points on Jacksonville's last five drives in a row Jacksonville
thirty the final over the Chargers. The obvious and very

(01:40:21):
legitimate question that's been battered around, and as the week
went on it got louder. Should he have played his
starters so long? Last week? The Mike Williams injury a
week ago happened in the first half. Do remember the context.
Tampa Bay played starters in the first half last week,
and they had already clinched their division and they were
locked into the number four seed. But Tom Brady didn't

(01:40:42):
get hurt, or Chris Godwin or the linebackers, etcetera. To
the point, Brandon Staley, if he's fired, will be fired
on his record. His record is now nineteen and sixteen.
The Chargers once fired coach Marty Schottenheimer after a playoff
loss because he'd hit his ceiling. To borrow your phrase,
offensive coordinator North Turner. Turner took over and they won
three playoff games in the next two years. Turned out

(01:41:04):
to be absolutely the right moves. Two lesser points on
inaccuracies I've heard recently, not just tonight. One was all
because Mike Williams is injury prone. He shouldn't have played
last week that play against Denver that hurt him. Any
wide receiver would have been injured. He got hit in
the back by three players over the middle. The others
Brandon Staley goes for it on fourth down too much
and doesn't usually make it. Actually, they went for it

(01:41:26):
less this season. They were not top five in the
league going for it on fourth down this year, and
when they did, they were good on fourth downs. They
made it fifty at the time. Though. I think that's
part of the problem with with Jaguars Charges fans, and
I think Jason might have referenced it earlier, is that
if that is who you're supposed to be and if
that's your ethos, now all of a sudden you're questioning that.
It's like, I just keep going back to it feels

(01:41:49):
like every every decision that he makes is the wrong one.
And so but I didn't mean to cut you off. No,
you're right. I'm glad you brought that up. And I
think we need to go by who they are is
who they've been the last event team games, the team
that didn't go for it every other time on fourth down.
The Chargers did settle for very short field goals twice
in the first half tonight, not going forward on fourth

(01:42:10):
down wound up losing on a field goal. I think
the conclusion of you can't have it both ways. But
I mean Chargers in Jacksonville had near identical stats on
going forward on fourth down this year. Most NFL teams
went forward on fourth at least twenty times this season
Jacksonville twenty seven times, Chargers twenty nine times. What an
incredible comeback, and we'll get to the positive eagle the

(01:42:32):
winning side of this in a few minutes in a
later segment. But to be down twenty seven nothing late
first half and still win a playoff games, astounding Jaguars
thirty one thirty the final after Trevor Lawrence through four
interceptions in the first deaf, they went in on a
thirty six yard field goal. Final play Jags have won
six in a row. San Francisco has now won eleven

(01:42:52):
straight games. They beat Seattle for three brock Party with
four total touchdowns three thirty two yards passing three more
wild card games on Sunday and one Monday night. In
the NBA, Philadelphia was a one point winner at Utah
one eighteen one seventeen, as Joel Embiad hit the game
winning shot with about five seconds left. He had thirty points.

(01:43:15):
The late game at Portland went to the Blazers, who
ended a five game losing streak beating Dallas one thirty
six to one nineteen. Damian Lillard thirty six points and
tenniss Boston won at six in a row Memphis when
it's ninth straight game comeback wins in the top ten
of college hoops for U C. L A and Texas,
but number five Tennessee lost at home to Kentucky sixty

(01:43:35):
three fifty six. Back to you, thank you. Steve Sager
will rejoin us here in about ten minutes to give
us an extended update with even more on this game. Jason,
you know again the final score thirty one thirty. Sager
just told you the Chargers do lose. I guess. I
guess the next follow up question. I already know the
answer because we already talked about it. But um, let
me let me ask you another question. Okay, let me

(01:43:57):
ask you a different question again. It's in the moment.
It's the US. It's that what if Sean Payton at
some point says I don't want to coach again. Now
I don't think that's how he's feeling, because he's gonna
interview with your Broncos and a couple other places whatever.
But is it is it Sean Payton or bust? Because
I do think that that this is the job that

(01:44:18):
he has been very publicly linked to it's obviously not available,
so I'm you know, but but this was the one
that it was like, Okay, if this one opens, this
is gonna be the one that he wants. If you
can't get Sean Payton for whatever reason, the Broncos offer
too much, he doesn't want to coach again, do you
run it back one more time? Is it Sean Payton
or bust or is it just clean start over, clean
slate whatever. That's a really good question. I guess it

(01:44:40):
depends on what your list looks like. Like we can
sit here and speculate about Shane stike In in Philadelphia,
or his name is Casey right now. But the Lions,
oh no, you know, like all those guys. You think
about what list the Chargers brains Truss would have, their
front office, their GM, their ownership group, like who do

(01:45:04):
they want? How many guys are on the list that
they would want to talk to If it is just
Sean Payton that they really just covet, and then maybe
you do bring him back. Maybe you do bring Stawy
back under those auspices, knowing, all right, we're gonna give
him one more shot. But he's aware and we're certainly
aware that this is it. Either this gets done this

(01:45:26):
year the way we think it should, we have the
result that we should, or he's gonna be out the door. Now.
If Peyton decides he's not gonna coach this year and
he's gonna sit there and he's still gonna be available
next year, then you probably keep Staway on as well.
But I think you might have to make that decision anyway,
because you're gonna have to make it in advance of
doing a bunch of interviews and fulfilling requirements and doing

(01:45:48):
all the things that you have to do. That's why
I feel like Stawey is probably out because I just
don't think Sean Payton is gonna make it known. I
don't want to go to the Chargers like that. That
doesn't seem likely to meet at all, especially considering I've
heard Colin Coward say a number of times that Peyton
loves l A, that he loves Los Angeles as a city.

(01:46:09):
He would love to live there as a head coach,
not just lived there over the last year or whatever.
So I think they have everything in place. They got
a quarterback who's young, who has a lot of football
in front of him, that can do a lot of
special things. And you have to look at Sean Payton
and say, why would you go to Indianapolis where you
don't know who the quarterback is? Why would you go
to Denver unless you think you can save Russell Wilson.

(01:46:33):
There's a lot of bad plasure. Why in the world
would you want to go to Arizona and join that mess?
But the Chargers, that's a different animal. The Chargers is
justin Herbert, who we all think is top five level
quarterback in the in the league. Now with your let's
just say, very confident to borderline arrogant belief in your

(01:46:53):
own offensive acumen to where you use Taysom Hill to
a degree that really has bothered me for a long time.
But if you go to the Chargers, you've got the
quarterbacks sitting there already, and that is something that that
just doesn't come available very often. Guys like Peyton aren't
usually available very often. But potential landing spots that nice

(01:47:14):
with the quarterback in place who's not going anywhere, that
would be very appetizing for Sean Payton. So I can't
imagine that that would not be at least a very
serious consideration for him. And if that's the case, the
Chargers may have to bounce Brandon stay Away to be
a part of that sweep stakes. Yeah, I and I agree.
And I think the big thing here is, you know,

(01:47:35):
this isn't one of those speculative I mean, it is speculative,
but it feels as though Sean Payton is not making
it a secret that he wants to coach again. I mean,
as I said, he already has interviews lined up. Um.
You know you mentioned Cowherd. I heard him say on
cow heard he goes, oh no, no, no, I'm gonna
coach again. Like, this is not retirement. This is not,
as an example, you know, us speculating. Is Jim Harbaugh

(01:47:57):
really interested in the NFL? Is he not? Blah blah
blah blah blah. This is a guy that's out of football,
that has said he will coach again, that has said
that is is actively interviewing for other jobs. Um. And
I think everything that you said is spot on. Is
I just I don't see the scenario where he's not interested.
And then I think when it really comes down to
and it's interesting, Jason, I don't I don't know if

(01:48:18):
this is a national conversation or not. But I know
locally here it certainly is. Is that obviously, like like
the Chargers their history of being you know, bold and fearless,
like that's just not how the organization has run, right,
Like part of the part of the reason they're in
Los Angeles right now, couldn't get a deal done for
a new stadium in San Diego. Wanted the the you know,

(01:48:40):
the financial windfall of being in l A. And not
only because it's good for business, but because like financially,
they kind of needed it for their business. And so
that's what's gonna be interesting to me is that, you know,
if this was Jerry Jones or stand Cronkey or one
of these aggressive, fearless owners you know in the NBA,
Mark Cuban or somebody like that, it's one thing, but
this is gonna be out of character for the Chargers

(01:49:02):
to go out, Um, do what you gotta do, get
the job done, get the guy that you need to
get to elevate this franchise. That's what's most interesting to
me is that, Um, I think I know, I would
say with most certainty that he does want to coach again.
I would guess that this is the job that he
would covet the most for all the reasons that you said, Jason,
But now it comes down to can this organization, the

(01:49:24):
Chargers essentially be something that they haven't been throughout much
of their history, which is aggressive, fearless, you know, not
cost Uh, you know what's the right word I'm looking for.
But but you know, not not afraid of cost or
what it's gonna take, because this is the thing that
could potentially elevate them. But they gotta go make it happen. Yeah, no,
I agree. I I think that's what it is. And

(01:49:45):
I think that you just sometimes you've got a coach
that's not awful, but you realize he's underperformed with what
he's been given. You spend money on J. C. Jackson,
You spend money on Khalil Mack. You have a receiving
core for your guy, you bring it every he's worked out,
You draft fairly well. Um, you've got Derwin James, You've

(01:50:05):
got Bosa, You've got guys, and then you've got your quarterback.
This is the same situation that the Jets possess with
the reason why Zach Wilson couldn't be allowed to continue
on because they had the team around Zack Wilson, and
they had a coaching staff. That seems like that could
be a long term answer. So the quarterback, you can't

(01:50:26):
just let it sit there because you have to strike
while the iron is hot. The chargers have too much
right to allow this to hold them back, which is
what I think ultimately is going to cost him that gig.
We can talk about how complicated other banks make it
to redeem credit card rewards. We can talk about how
we discover you can redeem your rewards for cash in
any amount at any time. I mean talk about amazing

(01:50:48):
learn more discovered dot com slash redeem rewards terms apply.
Coming up, the Sager joins us for his extended update,
and boy, oh boy, does he have a lot of
historical context on tonight's melt down by the chart to
Saga joins us. Next, this is Fox Sports Are Welcome
back everybody. Fox Sports radio eron tourist Jason Martin here
on a Saturday night broadcasting live from the Entirect dot

(01:51:09):
Com studios. One quick note before we get to the Sager,
our buddy Bernie Frado was gonna join us in about
twenty minutes. He just sent out a tweet. Ah, but
would Dean Spano's pay top dollar for an elite coach?
Me thinks no, but we'll see, so we'll ask Bernie
about what. Yeah, No, I I think that. I think
it's a two pronged question, which is should Brandon's daily leave?

(01:51:31):
Who should Brandill be forced out? Probably? But if you're
not gonna be if you're not gonna put on your
big boy pants and go get the guy that you
know you need to go get, then what's it all worth?
We got another hour to discuss it before we do that.
I do want to toss it over the news desk
to Saga joins us every Saturday into Sunday at this
time to Sag, I know you've got a lot on
Tonight's incredible And I've thought about that for weeks with

(01:51:52):
the every time he gets mentioned to a possible Chargers opening.
You know, the Charger is better than anybody. I mean,
it's just not in their DNA to do something like that, right. Uh, Well,
if you're talking about money, yeah, the Chargers, I almost
would equate them to the Raiders, except the Raiders paid Gruden.
I'm overpaid for Gruden. Uh. The Chargers and Raiders, though,

(01:52:13):
remember when they were moving and wanting their own place,
neither had the money to build their own stadium. And
so there literally was with these two rivals, a Charger
and Raider joint proposal to build a stadium, and then
that fell apart and the Raiders wound up Vegas. I
am told that the Raiders wound up using those plans

(01:52:35):
that they already paid for to build Las Vegas stadiums.
I'm not kidding. And then, of course, the Chargers had
the good fortune of being in l A and the
Rams owner spent his billions on this beautiful stadium. Whether
the Chargers called co home, but they're a tenant, right
like they pay rent. Basically they have an agreement. Yes,
they did not build it themselves. Put it that way. Uh.

(01:52:57):
Keep in mind as we get to next weekend's divisional playoffs,
it could be this Jacksonville team at Kansas City next weekend.
Because here we have in the a f C, for example,
you have seven playoff teams. Well, the number five seed
Chargers are out. Nobody expects the six seed Ravens to
win with a backup quarterback, and even fewer people think
the seven seed Dolphins with a third stringer is gonna

(01:53:17):
win tomorrow. So if form holds, that means you're four
that advance in the a f C to next weekend.
Are the four division winners, it would be number four
Jacksonville at number one Kansas City. And again if form holds,
it would be Bengals at Bill's next week. Trevor Lawrence, though,
is in some sensational company throwing four interceptions at a

(01:53:39):
playoff game, and he did that in one half tonight
before the comeback victory. But we had just a couple
of years ago in a wild card game, Ben Roethlisberger
do it. Russell Wilson in a conference title game once
through four picks in a postseason game. Andrew Luck has
done that Dan Fout's Charger Hall of Famer twice through
five interceptions in a playoff game. Brett Farve wants through

(01:54:00):
six interceptions in a playoff game about twenty years ago.
He tied the NFL postseason record there, So good company
for a guy who I mean, look at the video
from the first half. Would you have imagined him coming
back to win this game? And yet he threw four
touchdown passes in the comeback. As for the comeback, yes,
it's the largest comeback win in Jaguar's history. Will get

(01:54:21):
to that in a moment, but it's the biggest blown
lead in Chargers history to lose and one of the
largest comebacks in any NFL postseason game. But it's worth
noting that these comebacks keep coming from this Jacksonville team.
We're not just talking about history or a decade ago.
In November, Jacksonville was down seventeen and beat the Raiders.
In December, Jacksonville down seventeen and beat Dallas tonight in

(01:54:46):
January down and beat the Chargers and their franchise record
had been down twenty one and winning a game that
almost a decade ago. You remember the Tom Brady famous
Super Bowl comeback where they want and overtime again, it's
the Falcons that had been the number three playoff comeback
of all time. That's been replaced by this one tonight

(01:55:06):
because that Brady team was down late third quarter three.
This was twenty seven nothing against the Jaguars late second
quarter before they came back to win in spectacular fashion.
The top two all time postseason comebacks Andrew Luck against
the Chiefs this was almost a decade ago. Now, Chiefs
were up thirty eight ten early third quarter, and the

(01:55:28):
Colts beat him forty four and most famously Frank Reich
at quarterback. In Buffalo, the Bills were down in the
third quarter thirty five three to Houston and won their
wild card game in overtime January three. On the positive
side for the Chargers, when Austin Ekeler scored those two
touchdowns in the first quarter, that gave him for the

(01:55:48):
last two seasons forty touchdowns forty t d s in
the last thirty five games. This guy's about five ft nine,
He's continues to be incredible, and yet by the end
of the night and l which gets me to something
that you mentioned earlier on the show, the amount of
pain that Charger fans have had in various games. I'll

(01:56:10):
narrow it down to just playoff games, and just playoff
games in this century, the last twenty years, let's say,
because when the Chargers finally amazingly got good again, when
Marty Schottenheimer was Coach of the Year two thousand four,
they got a home playoff game. Drew Brees was the
quarterback and he had been drafted by the Chargers. Some
people don't remember that Breeze gets a late touchdown to

(01:56:33):
send it overtime against the Jets. Chargers in overtime drive
into field goal range and Marty Schottenheimer's offense just hands
off to the middle of the line three straight plays
and sends the field goal kicker in and the rookie
in the rain missed the field goal in overtime, and
the Jets drove down on their possession the other way
and one on a field goal, and the Chargers were out.
And they had been a first place team that year.

(01:56:55):
Two years later, the Chargers were the number one seed
in the a f C went four routine into La
Danian Tomlinson was m VP of the league that year.
All of this meant that they got Tom Brady at
home in the playoffs and led New England in the
fourth quarter, and New England got a touchdown and field
goal in the last five minutes to win, most notably

(01:57:17):
because the Chargers picked off Brady and the fourth and
the defensive back, instead of taking a knee or going
out of bounds, tried to run it back and fumbled
it right back to New England. New England got a
field goal with about a minute to go to win,
and finally you got Chargers Jets in the playoffs again
just about a decade ago with the Chargers were a

(01:57:37):
thirteen and three first place team, great offense, and lost
at home seventeen fourteen tack on tonight. This is I
would say that this has happened before, but to this degree,
to this extent, though, this has not happened before. And
kudos while we're still here to the Niners Brock Party.
The rookie quarterback had four touchdowns, three passing, one rushing.

(01:58:01):
Compare that, Ape says to Jimmy Garoppolo, who's had six
playoff games and four total touchdowns in the six games.
Brock Purty four touchdowns in his first playoff game. So
Jacksonville's won six games in a row. San Francisco has
now won eleven in a row. In fact, the Niners
during this stretch beat Seattle twice, beat Tampa Bay, beat

(01:58:24):
the Chargers beat Miami. The streets started in late October.
Last time the Niners lost the game was in October
against Kansas City. That is, Steve Sagar. Sager has always
we appreciate your update and really just all the information
you have, especially on a night like tonight. Nobody knows
the Chargers better than you. Uh. And it's a tough
night to be the Charger, to be a Chargers fan.

(01:58:44):
Coming up. More reaction to this game and we start
to look ahead to the three games tomorrow. Bernie Freto
will join us. Plenty more one hour left arra towards
Jason Martin Wild Saturday Night, Fox Sports Radio. Welcome back everybody,
final hour Fox Sports Radio eron Torrest, Jason Martin again,

(01:59:06):
we are taking to the top of the hour. Bernie
Fratto will follow us. Bernie Fritto, of course, we'll join
us in his normal spot at one twenty Eastern, about
twenty minutes from now. I got a lot of good
stuff on Jim Harbaugh and some of the betting trends
from this weekend on the situation with the Chargers, a
lot of good stuff from Bernie Fratto. The Chargers, what
a night for them. And we are broadcasting life from

(01:59:27):
the tirect dot Com studios. Tirect dot com will help
you get there and a match selection, fast free shipping.
Free road has a protection over ten thousand recommended installers.
Direct dot com the way tire buying should be. Uh, Jason,
I think at this point we've talked enough Chargers. H.
For anybody who missed any of of the conversation, UH,
you go back and download the podcast. Chargers were up

(01:59:47):
twenty seven nothing. They lose thirty one to thirty to
the Jacksonville Jaguars. I do want to move on to
some of the other games. We talked a little bit
about Vikings, uh, Giants. We also talked about Bill's tight
or Bill's Bills Dolphins. Excuse me really quickly, UM, I
don't want to spend too much time on the Sunday
night game because I do want to talk about the
Monday night game. But you know, obviously, UM, obviously you know.

(02:00:12):
The talk is the Bengals just played the Ravens last week. Uh.
You know, Bengals won, but it wasn't an overwhelmingly dominant game.
But at the same time, and I think everybody knows
by now, we've heard Doug got Lee during the break
talk about the Lamar Jackson situation. Lamar obviously will not play. Uh.
Tyler Huntley right now is expected to play, but that's

(02:00:32):
not even certain. So there's a possibility we were down
to a third string quarterback in Anthony Brown for the Ravens.
UM is this one third third time that obviously, the
Bengals will be facing the Baltimore Ravens. Do you see
this one being close? Do you see this one being competitive?
Do you see potential upset? What do you see in
this one? Jason? In the Ravens Dolphins, I see or

(02:00:53):
not the Ravens Dolphins, but Bengals. Yeah, Yeah, I mean
I think since night is gonna roll, I just they're
one of They're the a f c's version of the
Niners in terms of the team that I just think
you don't want to see right now in any way,
shape or form, because they're really peaking at the right time.
They're getting healthier. For the most part, at least, all

(02:01:15):
their weapons on offense seemed to be there. They've lost
a couple of pieces defensively, which hurts them, But I
don't think there's a challenge here at all. I we
we can talk about the Ravens side of this in
much greater detail, obviously, because it's all surrounding Lamar and
whether or not he wants out, whether or not he
wants money, and how he wants it, and what they

(02:01:36):
want to do, and all of those kinds of things
that's been talked about acknowledge him. But on the field,
without Lamar Jackson, the Ravens just ain't gonna have enough
like that. If the Bengals lose, that's gonna be on them.
That's gonna be a horrible day and it's gonna be
a knock against somebody on that team. But he actually

(02:01:58):
can't get blamed for this one. Like this one, he
is impervious on this. I just think the Bengals are
really good and I think they're gonna show it, and
I don't think that's going to be a particularly inviting
game to watch in the second half. So really quick,
you mentioned Lamar Jackson stuff. Obviously, we we saw the
tweets this week Lamar Jackson basically telling the world that
he has a you know, a sprain pcl uh and

(02:02:21):
and you know it's not gonna play in this game.
Do you have any thoughts on that whole situation. I mean,
to me, I do think, you know. I saw Michael
Vick reference that he has played on that on that
injury before and he said, you need to play. You know,
I don't know. I don't really think it's a hot take.
I I don't think he's a percent um obviously, And

(02:02:42):
I think this was the point that Doug has made
during the commercial breaks, is that you know in the
replay of Doug Show, is that part of what makes
him successful is his ability to run and use his legs. Uh.
If you can't do that, that limits why you're even
playing him in the first place. And then, of course
we know about the contract situation. Do you have a
hot take on Lamar Jackson. I I wish we could

(02:03:04):
see him. I think it would make this, obviously a
much more compelling game. We all know that. I'm not surprised.
I didn't expect to see him play. Do you have
any strong opinions on them? No, I mean, I definitely
think that it reads like Lamar doesn't want to go
out there unless he's got his contracts set in order.
And basically he's told the Ravens, look, your season's coming

(02:03:24):
to an end because you didn't take care of me.
And that's not really a hot take, it's this was
something that had bubbled during the off season and that
has probably dogged him more and more. I don't know
who has advised him and who has been in his
ear and and how much of this is him, but
I can also tell you that not only could the

(02:03:45):
Ravens have gotten this done in the past if they
wanted to, the biggest reason they haven't gotten it done
is because of the Cleveland Browns, yep. And that's the
biggest point of all of this, and that is why
everybody in the league outside of Cleveland laughed their butts
off at how bad the Browns were when Deshaun Watson

(02:04:08):
got in the game. And explain what you mean by
the brown screwed up everything. I know what you mean,
but for the listener driving around that might not totally
follow that ludicrous, over the top, fully guaranteed contract to
Deshaun Watson that also benefited him by the way, that
only paid him a million up front, so that even
the fees weren't gonna hit if he was suspended for

(02:04:28):
a long time. They gave up their souls basically financially
to get Deshaun Watson to come play quarterback for them
when he had a stink on him, unlike virtually anybody
we've ever seen that was still available to to play
in some capacity in the NFL, and them giving him
a fully guaranteed contract screwed the market for everybody else

(02:04:52):
who believed themselves to be as good or better than him,
and in effect, Lamar Jackson looked at that and said, well,
that dude with that kind of rep is going to
get that kind of money than me, who's never been
in trouble, who has been great in the community, who's
done everything you've asked, who puts his life on the line,

(02:05:13):
his body on the line because of the way he
plays and all the other things. And I'm not gonna
get that money. That's the problem. And this is we
could have seen this coming, and a matter of fact,
we did see it coming. But that's the biggest reason
that Lamar Jackson is not going to be on the field.
It's not to me. I'm not saying he's faking the injury.

(02:05:34):
I'm just saying that he's not going out there at
He's not going out there because of digging in his
heels and maybe the organization digging in there's And the
reason why this is not a done deal is because
their division rival, the Cleveland Browns, decided to give a
contract that was unprecedented, unwarranted, undeserved. And now you have

(02:06:01):
this kind of problem for other young quarterbacks that look
at that and say, well, if that situation is that way,
then mind better be just as good, if not better.
You had keywords you used there, and again just for
the audience that might not totally follow fully guaranteed. Uh,
it was unprecedented. Nobody else has done anything close to it.
Kyler Murray's deal was nothing like it. Uh, and Lamar
Jackson obviously, UM, you know, looking for something similar. And

(02:06:24):
I think the other thing worth noting, and I heard
again Doug reference this in the rejoin during the commercial break,
is that Lamar has a unique set up because he
does not have an agent, and so you know, I
don't know if if it's the right thing or the
wrong thing, but I do know that probably uh he's uh,
an agent probably would have advised him otherwise as far

(02:06:45):
as you know, realistic expectations whatever. Really quickly, let's get
to the Monday night game, which is as you referenced
much earlier in the show, before we even got deep
into the Chargers. UM. Really the probably the marquee game,
the one that we're all looking forward to, Dallas at Tampa.
Dallas is actually a slight favorite, I think we all know.

(02:07:06):
But they played in week one. UM, that was the
first Sunday Night game of the season, and in an
ironic twist, Jason, I think you could probably argue it
was probably the highlight of Tampa season as they took
care of Dallas very easily in that game. That was
also the game at dak Prescott got hurt. On credit
to Dallas. They weathered the storm with Cooper Rush, and
now they're in a position where, yes, they're coming off
of a loss last week to Washington, but have also

(02:07:28):
had a mostly successful regular season. I will say this
step blew me away. We all know about the Cowboys
playoff struggles, have not one. How about this, Jason, a
road playoff game since nineteen nine two, nineteen ninety two
their last road playoff win. But they are favorite in Tampa.

(02:07:51):
They are favorite in Tampa against the Bucks. Jason. It
just comes down to Doc. It comes down to that offense.
It comes down to can we just get Seedee Lamb
the football as opposed to spreading it around and doing
all these weird things. Can we get the guy that's
a stud wide receiver one? Can we get him the football.

(02:08:12):
Tampa's defense is played better down the stretch, but Tampa's
offense at times has just been anemic and unwashably bad
this year. This is Tom Brady in the playoffs, so
you're not gonna catch me betting against him. The defense
for the Cowboys is kind of it's kind of pulled
a no show a few times late in the season.

(02:08:32):
They're gonna have to show up. But if they show up,
they've got a better football team. Then then the Bucks
do with their offensive line woes and everything else. But
the Cowboys are absolutely capable of finding a way to
screw this up, and Dac is unfortunately coming in with
the wrong kind of narrative surrounding him. Turnover factory, all
of those things. This game is so important for the

(02:08:56):
perception of Dak Prescott going forward. If he comes out
there and he craps the bed, that's gonna be hard
for him to overcome. If he goes out there and
plays the way that we have at times seeing Dak
Prescott play, it might be the exact opposite. I don't
think there's anybody on a football field this weekend, including

(02:09:16):
the games that we saw yesterday now at some parts
of the country today and others, and what we're gonna
see over the next couple of days, there's not one
player on the field with more riding on them than
Dak Prescott. This is Fox Sports Radio eron Torres, Jason
Martin here on a Saturday night, and we are brought
to you by Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes bundling easy and affordable.

(02:09:38):
Bundle and save at Progressive dot Com. Coming up, Bernie
Fratto will join us. Bernie's got some good stuff on
the Chargers meltdown. We'll discuss that with him, as well
as the Jim Harbaugh situation. Nobody knows more about the
Jim Harball situation than Bernie. Plenty more to discuss Bernie Fratto. Next,

(02:10:03):
this is Fox Sports Radio. Welcome back everybody, Fox Sports
Radio air tourist Jason Martin. We could talk about how
complicated other banks make it to redeem credit card rewards,
or we could talk about how we discover you can
redeem your rewards for cashing any amount at any time.
I mean talk about amazing learn more discovered dot com
slash redeem rewards terms apply. We are broadcasting live from

(02:10:25):
the tirect dot Com studios and following us at the
top of the hour, Bernie Fratto, The Bernie Fratto Show.
But just like he does every week, Bernie joins us.
Right now, Bernie, what's up? And I'm just gonna jump
right into it. You are plugged in in the college game,
you are plugged in the NFL game. What are you
hearing about the situation with the Chargers? For people just

(02:10:46):
joining us? The Chargers blew a twenty seven nothing lead tonight,
lose thirty one to thirty and Brandon's Daly's future is
very much in doubt. You know, there's an old saying
success as a thousand fathers, but failure is an orphan
and there's plenty of blame to go around tonight. But
clearly Brandon Staley is presiding him over a culture, a

(02:11:06):
dysfunctional culture that he created and as a result tonight,
can you can anybody listening? Are you guys? Can you
really say you're surprised by what happened? Exactly? Okay, thank you?
That went well even better than it didn't rehearsal thinking.
But the bottom line is this, I think Staley does

(02:11:28):
have to go. He's probably got a role somewhere in
this league, but no longer with the Chargers. But I
don't think Dean Spanos is gonna be willing to pony
up big money for an elite coach like a Sean
Payton a couple of reasons. First of all, we're hearing
that Sean Payton may command twenty million dollars in the
Walton family might be willing to Payton Denver. And let's

(02:11:49):
not forget the Saints are gonna require compensation. They're gonna
want at least one first round pick and additional draft
assets after that. Do you think the Spannos family is
going to do that. This is a family that after
they fired Marty Schottenheimer after going fourteen and two and
twenty six. Since then, they've hired Norv Turner, Mike McCoy,

(02:12:10):
Anthony Lynn, and now Brandon Staley. And much like a
lot of executives, look at the situation with John Gruden
twenty years ago, where the Raiders got two first round picks,
two second round picks, and eight million dollar check from
Tampa Bay and returned for John Gruden. The Saints are
gonna drive a bit of a hard bargain too, because
you know what happens if Dallas loses. Now that Mike McCarthy,

(02:12:33):
rumors are gonna start. And O by the way, even
before Schartenheimer Schottenheimer, the Chargers had legends like you know,
Kevin Gilbride and June Jones and Mike Riley. So do
I think Brandon Staley has to go? Absolutely? This is
a debacle. This is not something you recover from. Uh.
You know, I've I've never liked the guy, and tonight
he just rubber stampeded. But at the same time, do

(02:12:55):
I think Sean Payton's going to the Chargers? No, I don't.
How much of this do you look at Justin Herbert
and say, with all of what we say positive about you,
in the second half of the game, you were notably
absent in terms of trying to will your team to
a victory. Well, again, I think there's plenty of blame
to go around. Uh. In football is played in three phases,

(02:13:17):
and you know, the defense feel free to make a stop.
The offense couldn't run the ball in the second half.
I just think you have a systemic culture from the
top down. And and when I look at the Chargers
from a panoramic view three and sixty, Justin Herbert's my guy.
He's going nowhere. So he staked them to a twenty
seven and nothing lead and they couldn't hold it. And
I grant you that he was instellar in the second half,

(02:13:40):
but you cannot. I mean this adds new dimension to
the word charging. You cannot lead twenty seven nothing after
forcing first four first half interceptions and lose. This is
a franchise that continues to find ways. What do always
say at the top about you every week, greatest reality
show going. You can script everything but the India step.

(02:14:00):
You can script the Chargers inning because he always in
bad well and it speaks to exactly what you just said, Bernie,
is that it's incompetent. Isn't the right word, but it
starts at the top with ownership, and I think that
that's probably why you see the results on the field
that you get. I do want to switch gears, though, Burn,
because you're obviously super plugged in a lot of places,
including Big ten country. UM and it is interesting the

(02:14:24):
NFL draft deadline is this week. I believe right there
is one notable name that has well, there's a couple,
but the one that I want to ask you about
um here and some interesting things on c J. Stroud.
What do you got on c J. Stroud Burn, Well,
first your spot on UH. If you're going to declare
for the NFL draft, you have till Monday. This this
coming Monday, and of the thirty two projected first round

(02:14:48):
draft choices, twenty nine have declared. C J. Stroud has not. Now,
he's been very vocal about the fact it bothers him
that he lost the two games to Michigan and the
way he both games, and it bothers him. They couldn't
close the deal against Georgia. And there's this little thing
rolling around UH circle called the n I L And

(02:15:09):
that's some pretty good moles that tell me they're in
the process. And and Aaron, you're plugged in a college
basketball What did Oscar schweebe get to come back to
Kentucky iro ten million? Is that wrong? That's probably a
little bit high. There's complications because he's an international student.
So what he can do and what he can't he
he is probably clearing seven figures for sure. There you okay,
So fair enough, it's going to come down to whether

(02:15:31):
or not um there is an n I L deal
that c J. Strold You know has to his liking,
but it's on the table, and they don't book these
kind of odds in Vegas. It's on the table, meaning
that C. J. Strout could return to Ohio State. I'm
not predicting it, but it can happen. Now, Vegas doesn't
post these types of odds, but plenty of offshore, far

(02:15:53):
away places books and other secondary books have already shifted
the odds with will Levis move up to the number
one slot, going from twenty to one to ten to
one overnight. That leads me to believe somebody has some information.
So watch your ticker on Monday, because one way or
the other, we're gonna find out if C. J. Stroud
returns to Ohio State. And it's definitely a possibility. Alright,

(02:16:15):
So that's Ohio State's quarterback. What's the state in your
mind and with your moles of Michigan's head coach. Alright,
So Monday Hardball had a two hour zoom call with
the Denver Broncos and uh, you know, it's been pretty
well reported. Hardball's even had been and he'll talk to anybody.

(02:16:35):
He he talked to David Tepper Carolina and there'll be
more conversations, and we'll still wait for Jim Mercy to
check in one of the differences. This time, Michigan has
a new president by the by the name of Santa
oh No. And this guy is a big time hardball backer.
He's the upolar opposite of the last president they had,
was convinced everybody was gonna diet Covid. Remember Schlitzel, that

(02:16:57):
was his name, Schlissel, right, because in tight uh So.
The bottom line is this, he has stepped in. Santa
Ona has stepped in, and they have crafted a five
year extension. Now Harball just got a five year extension
last year, thirty six million. They up to too. I
think the base is nine point five million year with
incentives that could take Hardball to thirteen million, and Hardball,

(02:17:19):
I'm gonna hold my fingers a centimeter apart. And Hardball
was all set to sign it this week and then
he didn't. And there's a tiff between Hardball and his boss,
Ward Manual, the athletic director. And I'm not sure that
I've confirmed it with three people. And the bottom line
is this, I'm not sure what it involves, but it's
there now. That doesn't mean that Carball won't sign that deal,

(02:17:41):
and it doesn't mean he won't take an NFL job.
Gun to my head, Circle January. It's a fluid situation.
My best moles tell me it's about sixty forty Hardball
returns to Michigan. But we're not processing enough, Dady. Yet.
They're still offers to come. There's still games to be played.
You know, Hardball was at a prospect camping and lansing

(02:18:02):
just this last Friday with the staff of five guys,
so he was continuing to do his job while talking
to the NFL. I know he likes the attention, but remember,
at the end of the day, Hardball still wants to
win a Super Bowl more than anybody will realize. You
can't do that, Nan Harbor, and that was gonna be
my follow up. Burn Is. It just feels like to me,
especially now we're talking about the Chargers potentially being open,
et cetera, it just feels like there's going to be

(02:18:25):
an offer at some point. It's just whether he wants
it or not. What what do you think a timeline
on this would be, because obviously it's gonna be you know,
it's gonna take a few of these teams a couple
of weeks to even talk to Sean Payton, so it
could be a lot. How any idea on what a
timeline would look like for his decision one way or
the other? Well, I think thirty by. You know, it

(02:18:47):
should be resolved within thirty days from now, Madem, that's
a long time. Well, yeah, it's March, but that's after
the super Bowl. No, no no March, it's after the super Bowl. Okay,
today's ja the super Bowls February twelve. Do I think
he could extend to the Super Bowl? Yes, I do.
This has to it has to play itself out. And again,
Hardball is not finished talking to the other teams, and

(02:19:10):
we've got to see where the dominoes start to fall.
And he's in no hurry. And you know he did
this last year. I mean, where was he on on
on signing day? Right? He was flying to Minnesota on
a job he had no chance to get, just to
play games. And I think Hardball is still a little
bent that he got his contract chopped in half a
couple of years ago. But it's not gonna We're not

(02:19:31):
gonna have an answer anytime soon. I don't. I don't think.
What do you think about Mike McCarthy. So we talked
about we talked about Staley. Now we've talked about hardball.
Do you believe what Jerry Jones said that Mike McCarthy's
job will not be affected in any way win or
lose Monday. No, But I will say this, I I
give it it probably probability that McCarthy is not fired.

(02:19:56):
I'm not giving it a percent. Jerry Jones, like Subserviyan coaches.
If he had just stuck with Jimmy Johnson, how many
Super Bowls might that team of one in the nineties,
you know, they could have named him. And then he
brings in Barry Switzer and he does it with Jimmy's
guys and Jason Garrett lasted a long time. He's a
good guy, but he's a better soldier. Mike McCarthy's twenty
four and ten over two years. He hasn't piste off

(02:20:17):
the players. He's a players guy. The problem is Jerry
Jones is north of it. He wants to win a
Super Bowl. Desperate people do desperate things. I think he's desperate,
and I think it's on the table that he'd fire McCarthy. Yeah,
but I don't think it's really in Jerry Jones DNA,
because Jerry Jones really likes guys. Jerry wants to be
the star. Off joked. He does a radio hit every
Tuesday for Cut Out Loud. Right, He's he's team president,

(02:20:40):
vice president, director of player personnel, chief cook and bottle washer,
team spokesman. He's Jerry Jones. He's front and center. He's
the face of the franchise. It's a weird deal. And
Mike McCarthy's okay with it. He just said, you know,
they joked about Mike McCarthy. Hey, Mike, are you a
yes man? No, I'm not, because when Jerry says no,
I say no to. That's what Jerry wants. Jerry wants

(02:21:00):
a guy who shuts up and falls in line. And
you know he's ten. Now, do I think Mike McCarthy's
gonna win a Super Bowl? No, I don't think they're
getting past Dampa Bay Monday night. But at the same time,
you know, Jerry Jones is a wild card. He likes
the attention as well. But you know, it's my long
winded way of answering your question, Jason. No, I don't
believe Jerry, but I gave it an that McCarthy's back.

(02:21:22):
I'll just tell you, guys both just finished Jimmy Johnson's
biography and the the exact quote that Jerry used was
that that basically fracture the relationship was how come you
get to have all the fun? In other words, when
the winning started, it was Jimmy that got the credit.
It was Jimmy that did the interviews all that stuff,
and Jimmy said, I knew then that I was in trouble.

(02:21:42):
And from there, obviously history spoke for itself. And Jerry
was on the Rubber Chicken circuit right after the second
Super Bowl and his famous quote was, you know, fifty
coaches could have won a Super Bowl with this team,
and that got back to Jimmy and that wasn't smart, No,
not at all. And it speaks to again that Ry,
Jerry wants to win, but Jerry wants to do it

(02:22:03):
on his terms. Uh. And that is all so Bernie Fratto.
You can hear him at the top of the hour
of the Bernie Fretto Show. We didn't even ask you
about any of the games, but there's so much going on.
We know you're gonna cover it all. Thank you for
the time burn. Make sure to follow Bernie on Twitter
at Bernie Fratto as well. Bernie, we appreciate it and
we will be listening to you in about thirty minutes.
Thank you, Bernie, I appreciate that. Thanks guys. That is

(02:22:24):
Bernie Fretto again. He will be on following us at
the top of the hour. Follow Bernie on Twitter at
Bernie Fretto. Coming up, Jason, how about how a don't
we talk a little Georgia TCU. We haven't even hit
on that, yell boy. Yeah, there's not there's not that
much to talk about five six days after the fact,
but we'll discuss that next final time this evening to Sager,
what's trending, my friend? NFL playoff wins for San Francisco

(02:22:45):
and Jacksonville looking ahead to next season by the way,
you know the schedule isn't out, but we know the
opponents for every team home and road for next season.
Jacksonville will be hosting Kansas City and hosting San Francisco
next year and at Buffalo, and of course jack Sinville
against Cincinnati and Baltimore. Just looking ahead well in the
Super Bowl era, So this is about fifty five years

(02:23:06):
worth of postseasons. No team had ever had a plus
five turnover ratio and lost a playoff game until tonight.
In fact, even in the regular season, it had been
a decade since the team was plus five and lost
the game. Jaguars five turnovers in the first half, Chargers
did not turn it over at all in either half,

(02:23:26):
and still the Chargers did not walk away with the win.
Chargers were up twenty seven nothing late first half. Jags
win thirty one thirty on a thirty six yard field
goal on the final play. Trevor Lawrence four touchdown passes
in the comeback. Charger wide receiver Mike Williams was out
with the back injury test show to fracture recently. Jacksonville
in the first half on third down conversions oh for seven,

(02:23:47):
while the Charger offense was five for ten a complete
flip in the second half. Sante Samuel Jr. Had had
three picks on the Charger defense in the first half,
three out of the four interceptions thrown by law But
Jacksonville wins it's sixth straight game, a team that last
Saturday night clinched the a f C South on a
late fumble return for a touchdown. Jacksonville last season went

(02:24:09):
three and fourteen. The year before they were one and fifteen,
and here they are not only in the playoffs as
a division champ, but still alive. And it can't be
forgotten among the many reasons the Chargers as a team lost.
About five minutes left in the game, Jacksonville scored again,
but they still weren't ahead. They were gonna be down three,

(02:24:29):
and Joey Bosa got called for unsportsmanlike conducts throwing his
helmet twice, and with the enforcement of the penalty and
a yard closer to the goal line, Jacksonville went for
two and got it. That means that meant the last
second field goal was not the tying field goal, it
was the game winning field goal on the field goal
side for the Chargers. Don't forget that their kicker made

(02:24:50):
a fifty yard or late third quarter and the very
next drive attempted a forty yarder and missed. Chargers lose
by one. Sam Francisco won it's eleventh straight game, eliminating
Seattle three. While the Chargers overall record finishes at ten
and eight. The Niners B two Seattle team that finished

(02:25:11):
nine and nine, Dak mccalff did have ten catches a
hundred thirty six yards two scores, but Seattle went oh
and three against the Niners. This year, Brock Party four
total touchdowns over three hundred thirty yards passing. He's six
and oh as a starter. San Francisco had won the
division by four games over Seattle and then beat him
head to hit again today. Christian McCaffrey on only fifteen

(02:25:33):
carries at a hundred nineteen yards rushing one touchdown, receiving
the Niners offense over five hundred yards. San Francisco trailed
at half, but the Niners did score on eight of
their first nine drives today, four touchdowns and went four
for four on field goals. And this is a game
where George Kittle and Christian McCaffrey each only had two
targets two receptions each, and the Niners win by double digits.

(02:25:56):
Quarterback Gino Smiths, who did have two touchdown passes to
turn overs. He is expected to return as Seattle starter
next season, according to NFL Network, his contract is running
out well. All of this weekend's matchups are teams that
already played each other during the regular season, including the
three wild card games. Tomorrow, starting with Miami at Buffalo
one pm Eastern time. Temperature about twenty five degrees for

(02:26:18):
that one. Did you see Bill safety to marr Hamlin
visited his teammates at the club facility today. Get out
of the hospital on Wednesday after the cardiac arrest January two.
Indoors at Minnesota tomorrow on Fox TV, It's the Giants
and Vikings. At four thirty pm Eastern Time Sunday night,
It's Cincinnati. Predicted temperatures thirty three degrees for the rematch

(02:26:39):
from last Sunday when Cincinnati beat Baltimore and the Ravens
were missing two injured quarterbacks for that one. Today, Bengals
running back Joe Mixon, it was reported, was fine thirteen
thousand dollars for his coin flip celebration last week. Conversely,
linebacker for Green Bay K way Walker was fined about
thirteen k for shoving the trainer on the field. There
is a Monday night game Dallas at Tampa Bay NBA.

(02:27:01):
Boston won at six in a row, Memphis one, it's
ninth straight game. Philadelphia got a late bucket for a
one point when at Utah College. Hoops top ten comeback
wins for u c l A, which is one thirteen
straight and for Texas but number five Tennessee lost at
home to Kentucky. Back to you, thank you very much
to say to say you have a great evening. We
will talk to you next week. Fox Sports Radio eron Torrest,

(02:27:24):
Jason Martin, we are coming to you alive from the
tire wreck dot Com studios. Let's talk a little National
championship Jason and I. I reference we should talk about it,
and he said, oh boy, And uh, that's really the
only reaction to have. And obviously we're only talking about this.
We talked so much college football turning this time slot. Uh,
it feels like we should put a bow on this season.

(02:27:44):
But I was actually at Sofi Stadium on Monday night
with our buddy Dan Buyer from here from Fox Sports Radio.
Dan hung out till halftime, then he had to go,
you know, go do some podcasting stuff with Mike Harmon.
I stayed till the bitter end. Um it was bad.
Congratulates to Georgia second straight national championship and now the

(02:28:05):
floor is pretty much yours. Georgia played pretty much a
perfect football game, and TCU, I think is better than
they showed, But like, I don't think that game if
you play that game a hundred times, I don't think
that score happens a hundred times. But I also don't
think TCU is within twenty points about of those games

(02:28:26):
at least. There's just a huge difference when you look
at the guys on the field, and I think the best,
maybe the best kind of analogy, the best kind of
description of the talent between the two, was already Wasserman
the athletic, who suggested, there is precisely one player on

(02:28:49):
TCU starting offense or defense that would have played for
Georgia on their first line, and that's the receiver Johnson,
who is stud outside. Out of that, not one dude
on TCUs team would have started over the Georgia player
at the same position. Maybe you would have been a backup,
but he would not have been the first guy. So

(02:29:10):
you've got twenty two guys right there, and only one
of yours is objectively better or by the numbers better
or by the star ratings better than the other side.
And that's what you get when you have twenty one
to one in favor of Georgia. Then you get sixty

(02:29:34):
to seven and that's what we got, and that was
a disaster. At least the at least the semis were good.
At least we got a couple of other good Bowl
games along the way. But that championship game, I knew it.
And I think I even sent you get you and
Bow a text message fairly early, and I said this
thing is over after I watched the first drive, because

(02:29:54):
I looked at TCU and I watched Georgia, and I'm like,
one of these teams doesn't look like the other one,
like in any way, shape or form. That was difficult.
Like by the third quarter, I was out. I don't
know if you stay until the bitter end and hung
out and did all that kind of stuff. But that
thing was never a football game. From the very beginning,

(02:30:14):
it looked like one of the biggest mismatches, and a
lot of us got it wrong. We were trying to say, yeah,
you know, keep it within fourteen. Most people weren't picking TCU.
But I don't think anybody suggested that it was going
to be that much of a blowout. No, that was.
That was as big a butt kicking as I've ever
seen in sports. Yeah, I did stay till the end,

(02:30:35):
only because obviously working on Saturdays, you know, you don't
get to be around uh you know, get working on
Saturday's in living in l A. You don't get to
be around Georgia football very much. And for me, it
was more listening to Kirby Smart in the postgame press conference,
talking to the players after the game, trying to get
a feel for what makes Georgia Georgia um Miley really
lingering thought And it's something I know that you and

(02:30:56):
I have talked about in this time slot. Is id
you think this felt like a preview of what a
twelve team college football playoff is gonna look like? And
I know I bring up this point all the time,
but you know, now on top of oh by the
way Georgia getting in and and Ohio State back back
during their way in, now, Alabama's gonna be in now

(02:31:20):
in any given year, Texas A and M team maybe
as an eleven seed with enough talent to beat anybody
in college football is going to get in, uh An L,
s U A, Florida, somebody like that. And so I
only bring it up because I think we kind of
saw the blueprint, right, is that I think we can
now go back in hindsight and say tc was probably
pretty lucky to get by Michigan. Two pick six is

(02:31:42):
for thrown by J. J. McCarthy for TCU and overturn
touchdown on the goal line that easily could have should
have been called a touchdown for Michigan, and Michigan probably
wins that game. And maybe it's a little bit more
competitive against Georgia, although if Georgia played the way they
did Monday, nobody's beating them. I just think we're headed
towards a world where a TCU or a team like

(02:32:03):
them in Kansas State, maybe a Tennessee this year with
the backup quarterback, uh, you know, uh, you know, a
USC whoever. Those teams that aren't those super upper echelon teams,
they're gonna be able to pull off the upset. But
can they do it to three weeks in a row.
Probably not. Uh. And that's really all that there's to
say about that TCU a great season. One thing I

(02:32:24):
will say, Jason, one last thing, this idiotic quote unquote.
They didn't deserve to be there. It's just so stupid,
and you know, and then it became the whole like, well,
you know, Alabama would have put up a better fight
and it's like, well one, I don't know that, um
because oh, by the way they had, they played plenty
good competition. They didn't look at in any of them.

(02:32:44):
But to TCU deserve to be there even if the
result wasn't pretty. Fox Sports Radio errant towards Jason Martin.
Here one segment left will give you our picks and
preview of tomorrow and Monday night's NFL games. That's next
Sports Patterson's kicking up the field goal if good, good good,

(02:33:05):
But Jack wife Ever wanted, but Jack warfe Ever wanted.
They have come back from twenty seven nothing to win
the game. That was courtesy of w j x L
A M ten ten and FM N five Jaguars Radio Network.

(02:33:26):
That was the Progressive play of the day, obviously brought
to you by Progressive Progressive makes bundling easy and affordable.
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(02:33:48):
talk about how we discover you can redeem your rewards
for cash in any amount at any time. I mean,
talk about amazing. Learn more at discover dot com. Slash
redeem rewards terms apply. Jason, let's make some picks for
the Monday, Sunday and Monday games. Uh, Ramos, if it's
not too late, well, we love a little NFL music.
Sorry to put you on the spot here, I apologize.

(02:34:08):
It's all my fault. Terrible host. Thank you Ramos, coming
through as you always do. All right, Jason, let's get
to these games. First one, it is the early game tomorrow.
It is Dolphins Bills. Bills are a thirteen and a
half point favorite. Last time I saw a team favored
by thirteen and a half it was the Georgia Bulldogs
on Monday. Does Georgia go? Does Buffalo go? All Georgia

(02:34:31):
on the Dolphins and win sixty five to seven? And
this we're gonna be a little bit more competitive. What
do you got, Jason? I think I would have taken
Miami against the spread against Georgia, but I might have
still taken No, no, no, no, It's an NFL football team.
But the Bills are a much better team. They're driven,
They're not going one and done. I think they're gonna
dominate this game. I don't think this is gonna be

(02:34:53):
a very fun one to watch. I don't think so either.
I think it's ugly. Um. I think I could see
this scenario where it's low scoring. I don't think the
Bills are in this for style points for obvious reasons.
Right there, they're trying to survive. In advance, I'll say
the Bills win twenty eight to seven, which would obviously
be a cover. That sounds like an impressive win. I

(02:35:14):
think they could probably win by that margin, and it
probably isn't even that all that exciting. Let's go to
the afternoon game, the New York Giants at Minnesota Minnesota,
and these two teams actually played just a few weeks ago.
Minnesota one by three. The spread is three in this one,
Minnesota three point favorite. Who you got, Jason? Ah See,
this one's really tough because I kind of wanna want

(02:35:36):
to go with the trend of thinking that Minnesota it's
right for the upset, and I still think that they
are also. Just look at the Johnston I'm just like,
they're not that spectacular. I don't really believe in Minnesota.
But I just don't know that the Giants are the
team that that's gonna beat them. They're gonna play sound
enough football, but I just tend to think the Vikings
are not gonna go away this fast. Yeah, I'll I'll

(02:36:01):
go contrary to what everybody else is saying. I think
this is the game that everybody thinks could be the upset,
and with good reason. Right Minnesota has a negative point differential,
which is insane despite their thirteen and four record. Um,
this feels like the one that everybody is on one
side and it ends up going the other way. So
I'll say Vikings. I'll say Vikings twenty four, Giants ten,

(02:36:25):
and the Vikings cover final game on Sunday Sunday Night
Football since anti Bengals eight and a half point favorite
against the Baltimore Ravens. Right now, Tyler Huntley is expected
to start, but there is a possibility that it could
be Anthony Brown, the third stringer. What he got in
this one, Jason, It's just that, I mean, they don't
have a quarterback. I mean they don't have a quarterback
that can compete and win this football game. This one

(02:36:47):
could be an ugly game, though, Like I could see
this one kind of being a little bit awkward, even
though I really like Cincinnati and what they're what they're
putting out there on the field, at this point in time,
I just kind of look at Baltimore is just like
they could may this ugly. The defense could show up
and just be annoying. And it's a division team that
you've already seen twice, so that always makes it a

(02:37:08):
little bit more sketchy. I think Biggles winning the game.
I wouldn't be surprised that this one is closer than
maybe it should be on paper. I'm with you on
that one. I do think there's a scenario where it's close.
These two teams just played last week, but uh, Cincinnati again,
like Buffalo, probably just trying to advance the next weekend
really quick. Monday Night Football, Dallas Cowboys a two and

(02:37:29):
a half point road favorite in Tampa. I'll be quick
on this one, Jason, I'm gonna take Dallas. I just
think there's this Tom Brady narrative that doesn't exist anymore.
There's nothing special about this team. There's nothing special about
Tom Brady's two seasons. Specifically, I think it ends with
a whimper. Monday Night in Tampa. Yeah, so do I.
I kind of think the exact same thing. Like I,

(02:37:49):
I can understand why you would take Tampa, and I
don't necessarily believe fully in Dallas anymore. They definitely have
kind of crumbled down to stretch a bit. I just
kind of tend to think they're better and the Bucks
have just been hanging on. And even with Brady in
this situation, he could will him to a win. I
just don't trust the offensive line. I don't trust. I

(02:38:11):
just feel like Dallas is right for a good performance.
I'll take Dallas. We gotta get out of here. I
want to thank the crew, Ramos on the board, producer
Bo Steve Di Seger, for my partner Jason Martin. I
am er tours. If you missed anything, download the podcast.
Bernie Fratto is next The Bernie Fratto Show. We'll be
back next Saturday, Fox Sports Radio

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