January 6, 2020 • 43 mins
Big Ben says the Vikings win over the Saints in the wildcard game was Kirk Cousins signature moment, Carson Wentz getting knocked out of the game versus the Seahawks proves he's officially injury prone and Ben makes his prediction for where Tom Brady plays next season.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Mallers
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
from two to six Eastern eleven pm to three am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and to find your local
station for The Ben Mallers Show at Fox Sports Radio
dot com. You can find it there or stream us
live every night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
(00:23):
This is the best of the Ben Maller Show on
Fox Sports Radio. Kirk Cousins finding Kyle Rudolph the red
nose tight end in the back of the end zone
on the opening drive of overtime, and the Minnesota Vikings
(00:44):
gobsmacked the New Orleans Saints the big Ben bullies right.
People said the Saints the most talented team. Blah blah
blah blah blah blah. That dead, That Saint said dead.
Here's how it's sounded. Third and cold, following the four
yard line, Cousins in the gun three by on his right,
Saints joy pressure. They bring pressure Lobbitt to the back
(01:04):
of the end zone. Touchdown Kyle Rudolph. That's a full
extension with the right arm by Kyle Rudolph. And of
course this would come down to a review, the officials
are jogging off the field. It appears no officials are
jogging off the field. I mean, there's nothing song I
can do as far as the time out is concerned,
and the officials jog off the field. In the Superdome, P. J.
(01:25):
Williams takes a hand right to the middle of the
numbers in the back of the end zone on the
game winning catch and stuff falling out of the rafters
towards the officials. Completely unbiased on the WWL Saints radio network. Absolutely,
I don't if you saw this or not if you
miss it. It has become like clockwork in recent years,
(01:46):
and I'd like to thank the New Orleans Saints franchise
for making my life easy. Right they the New Orleans Saints.
They put up video game like numbers during the regular season.
They look like this amazing ug or not of a team,
and they turn out to be total frauds year after
year in the postseason. Right, the doomsday prophecies kicked in
(02:09):
again for the Saints. That those guys from the Bayou.
There you heard all the noise last year, right, all
the noise after that Ram Saints NFC Championship game. Right now,
I am dancing on your grave, New Orleans. I shot
in Freud. I'm overdosing on schotten Freud is what I'm
(02:29):
doing here. Oops, it happened again. It's an old song,
but it did happen again, and that smug Sean Payton
and all those cry baby Saints fans. So congratulations to
the Vikings who have aspirations, and now I might. I
had legitimate aspirations to make the Super Bowl, and somewhere
(02:50):
Jim in Providence took my advice. I said before the
NFL season, ben on the Vikings. Go with the Vikings.
They've got the Zimmer defense that can run if if
anything eventually happens with Cousins where he figures it out,
the Vikings are set up. If you beat the Saints
in New Orleans, you can certainly beat the forty nine
Ers in Santa Clair. Of course, the opposite alternative universe
(03:14):
as well for the Vikings. Now that Cousins has won
a game, he will morph back into a stooge, and
he will go out and throw two interceptions and look miserable,
look like a lost puppy dog against the forty nine
Ers defense next week. So let us discuss then, we
know the better stories and losing locker room, and we're
not gonna pretend like it's not died. The Saints get robbed,
(03:36):
were they hornswaggled by the referees yet A get of
course not. It's ridiculous. Now my thoughts. You've got John
Hancock microscope and Dunce cap and we will combine all
these things together, will make some boba ganosh. I've made
boba ganush in a couple of weeks. I hope I
still know how to make boba ganush. I was gonna
(03:57):
make chicken alfredo, but I'll make that next hour because
I found some good Alfreda Feduccini. Alfreda's the way to go.
So hey, Kirk Cousins, listen. We can say what we
want about the Saints. That we will get to that.
But Kirk Cousins stepped up the Saints defense, which had
been highly rated and celebrated by many of the NFL
mainstream media. We're not mainstream around overnight. The mainstream media
(04:20):
had celebrated the New Orleans defense, but they were unape
unwilling to slow down the Minnesota offense in particular and overtime.
But it wasn't just the overtime, the much maligned quarterback
of Minnesota goes on a nine play march down the
field seventy five yards in New Orleans, and all that
(04:42):
braggadocia of the Saints defense and this ferocious attacking ball
hawking defense a total emasculation situation. Kirk Cousins, We played
the play there. The big play was actually before the
touchdown that set up the touchdown, Cousins finding Adam Feeling
on a forty three yard pass play down to the
(05:05):
Saints two yard line. And it wasn't like that was
a catching run by Theelan. Forty of those yards came
in the air. He only tacked on three yards after
the catch, yaka yak. Most of that was through the
air by Cousins. So who are you're gonna blame for
that particular player. We know, we know you're blaming the
referees New Orleans for the final play. But it's the
(05:29):
play later, obviously everyone's been focusing in on. But what
about the theland play now? So it was a third
down and four at the New Orleans four yard line
when Cousins found Kyle Rudolph on the left side of
the end zone and until something else replaces that play.
This was the John Hancock moment for Kirk Cousins. That
(05:52):
is is now his signature moment wild Card Weekend and
he gets it done in overtime and beats Hall of
Famer Drew Brees, who keeps messing up. He keeps messing up.
Nobody wants to talk about that, right, it's our little secret.
We'll all talked in hush tones. But he keeps screwing
up in playoff games. It's happened more often than not
(06:14):
in recent years. But this was the John Hancock. This
was the signature moment. By the way, if you're a
millennial or younger than that and you don't know who
John Hancock is, he was the first signer of the
Declaration of Independence. You should have learned that in school
right way back in the day in Philadelphia Independence Hall
who in Philly. This does not a race. I want
(06:36):
to point something out. A lot of broadcasters told your
Cousins was the real Neil shot up? Stupid? Let me
explain somebody. One performance on wild Card Weekend does not
a race. All of those week games now, yes, this
is a defining moment for Kirk Cousins and congratulations. He
(06:59):
actually made a four for Vegas because everyone expected the
Saints to at least the very least win the game.
They might not cover the spread, but a lot of
people toss the Saints in on the money line to
win by at least a point. The Vikings now head
to Santa Clara for a date with the forty nine ers.
As we talked about, that'll be the early game on Saturday,
(07:20):
so that kicks off the next weekend of NFL playoff
activity from Northern California, and the Titans will play the
Ravens in the primetime game that's also on Saturday. Wouldn't
it be amazing if Ryan Tannehill ends up in the
AFC Championship game. Wouldn't that just be mind boggler. We
(07:43):
saw what happened to Lamar Jackson last year in the playoffs.
N He's been much better this year, but man, And
then on Sunday you got the Texans who were given
a gift more on that later from Buffalo, and you'll
be Texans at Chiefs in the early game, and then
Seahawks will play the Packers in the late game at Lambo.
But let's get back to the elephant in the room.
(08:03):
Here the play at the very end that won the
game for the Vikings. And did you see part B
of this? Did you see former NFL referee Terry mcaulay
who works as a rules boss at he's the boss
over at NBC. Right, And he stoked the flames of
(08:23):
outrage on social media. He claimed, this is a former
NFL referee that Kyle Rudolph was guilty of offensive pass interference. Now,
he said that because Rudolph extended his arms to create
clear separation from the defender, by the rule book, that's
(08:44):
a violation. Now keep in mind that this is the
old by the letter of the law versus the spirit
of the law debate. And I because I like to
go over the speed limit when I drive at night,
I am a spirit of the law person. I don't
believe in the letter of the law. I believe or
liberties the police have as far as when enforcing. You know,
because if everyone's going eighty five miles an hour and
(09:06):
the speed limit seventy five miles an hour, seventy miles
an hour, everyone's going with the flow of traffic. So
I don't believe that you can't give a ticket to everyone, right,
So you're cherry pickings fishing a barrel when you give
tickets to people and they drive around. I like all that,
but the letter of the law versus the spirit of
the law de bait. It's and also Terry McCauley in general,
(09:27):
it's kind of the equivalent of asking a former NFL
referee whether this is a penalty or not. Who's you know,
working doing television? Most of the time, it's like calling
an ambulance chasing lawyer. Every city, and I travel a
little bit over the last couple weeks. Every city I've
gone to every billboard around town, they have these ambulance
chasing lawyers asking, you know, give us a call. If
(09:50):
you think you have a case. You call one of
those numbers. Ninety nine point nine percent of the time
they will say, yes, you have a case, come on down.
The price is right, we gotta deal right. So yeah,
by the letter of the law, you could have called
offensive past interference. But I am a spirit of the
law guy, and it is a slippery slope. In my
(10:13):
expert opinion, having watched the Bruder film style coverage over
and over, this was not a penalty on Kyle Rudolf.
I'll tell you why because under review, you would have
had to have gone back to the beginning of that
play and you would have had to call defensive past
interference because if you pull out the microscope and the
(10:34):
Saints apologist don't want to hear this. On the final
play New Orleans, the defensive back P. J. Williams. I
think he's a guy's name. He grabbed the arms of
Kyle Rudolph before the exchange that took place there. Even
blind Scott was able to see that the Saints defensive
player grabbed the arms of Kyle Ruff. It was hand fighting,
(10:56):
which no I know football has changed a lot, but
it was a good no call. Let him play. Let
him What don't we always say? Ever since I've been
doing this nonsense, I've always heard at the end of
the game, the officials are not supposed to aside the
outcome of a game. Can someone tell the Saints that's
how it works? You dummies? What's wrong with you? This
(11:19):
was not a miscarriage of justice against the Saints franchise
that the cry babies in the buyou there, calm the
f down right, go out? Boy. I wish I sold
pacifiers in New Orleans. I'd make a fortune right right,
go out, get a passify, get your favorite stuffy, your
favorite stuff to animal, right your therapy dog, and knock
(11:42):
yourself out. Now, Al Riveron, the overlord of officials, was
level headed on all of this uproar. He said, there
is contact by both players, but none of that contact
rises to the level of a foul. So now he
says a lot of this nonsense every week. Riverons will
(12:03):
take it with a grain of salt. So he said,
they let the call on the field stand. Now, the
officials on the field did the right thing. They let
them play food to ball, right, They let him play football.
The wassification of the NFL, which is very much in
vogue now, everything's a penalty. Everything's egregious. Everything's like a
war crime. They want to have a police state, frame
(12:25):
by frame penalty enforcement in the NFL. It's absurd, It's
patently absurd. The Saints came back. Should have put the
Vikings to bed late in the game, right now. The
Vikings more than held their own, but New Orleans had
plenty of chances late in that game. Drew Brees sucked
at a time he should not have sucked. He choked,
(12:45):
He had a key fumble. He was just mediocre throughout
the game, and he's able to dodge the criticism. Right,
he's the new teflon Don Drew Brees. You can't criticize
Drew Brees, the visionary tactics. Everyone's talking about the Kyle
Rudolph play at the end of the game, and they're
not talking about all the other stuff that's here from
(13:06):
Sean Payton. Speaking of dodging, here is Sean Payton do
a tap dance as he tries to avoid going right
in on the referees and what happened at the end?
Explanation on the last play? Did I listen? Um? That wasn't.
(13:27):
I didn't. I didn't really, I didn't see any officials.
I saw Mike. We chatted for a little bit and
saw some of the other players as we coached in
the Pro Bowl and congratulated them and they did a
good job. They played well. Can you mumble some more? Please?
Can you stumble and bumble and mumble a little bit more?
All right? Last word on this stout when now we
don't do list radio. Other shows do list radio. We
(13:48):
don't do this radio. However, I am going to say
that this is the second most painful loss in the
modern era of the New Orleans Saints. Now I still
have New Orleans blowing the game to the Rams. That
would have sent them to the super Bow. It wasn't
the referees to the Saints blew the game. They had
the ball first in overtime. You see, you see, let
me be a grown up here. You see what you
do at the end of a playoff game in overtime,
(14:09):
you take the ball and matriculate the ball down the
field to score a damn touchdown. Go home. That's what
the Vikings did. The Saints last year won the coin toss.
They got the ball first against the Rams. What did
they do? Drew Brees through an interception. You lose the game,
you deserve to lose. You're a bunch of losers all
right now. But that was more painful last year. I
believe though that for my money, the Kyle Rudolph touchdown,
(14:33):
I put that number two on the list, ahead of
the Minneapolis miracle, right And the reason why, Now, the
Minneapolis miracle was in obviously Minnesota, but it was on
the road for New Orleans. It was a with tackle
by Marcus Williams who turned into a human bowling ball,
if you remember that that play, and then took out
the other only other Saints defensive players that could have
(14:56):
made the play. He took them out like a bowling ball,
knocking pins down. But that was a fluke, right, that's
a fluke play. This was not a fluke play. In
the Minnesota Vikings dominated the game. They were held the Viking,
the Vikings defense holding the Saints in check. And then
Kirk Cousins, Kirk Cousins, Bloody Cousins, nine plays, seventy five yards.
(15:22):
He punched you in the face, New Orleans. He punched
you with a Kirk Cousins. Everyone laughs into me. He's
a punchline and he beat you. Eat it anyway, that's
say Victor Brick reference. Anyway, listen, here's the deal, Sean Payton.
(15:42):
We played a little Sean pay and he needs to
wear the Dunce cap yet again. I hope he enjoys
wearing the Dunce cap. He will continue to be, you know,
the smug sank to many, you know, to manius nonsense.
Here the Mama Luke. There you go. That's the word
Mama Luke of the NFL. Now practice. How many more
times does the NFL have to adjust the rule book
(16:03):
before the Saints can win another Super Bowl? How many
more rules are going to have to be twisted around?
And also Sean Payton talk about clock management. Shout out
Andy Reid, who was very impressed when Sean Payton said,
I'd rather hold on to the time out than I
don't want to. I don't worry about ten seconds. How'd
that workout? Be sure to catch live editions of The
Ben Meller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm
(16:25):
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app. But
it was the final game on Wildcard weekend, the late
game and the Sunday television window. As they say, they're
at Seattle Seahawks and the Philadelphia Eagles bouncing around the
field there in South Philly. So Seattle was favored on
(16:47):
the road. It's not like this is an upset. The
Seahawks were expected to win the game, and they did
pull out a Wildcard victory in Philadelphia in a game
that was not enthralling. It was not. Seventeen to nine
was the final score. Neither team scored in the fourth
quarter of the game. Russell Wilson did go over three
(17:08):
hundred yards passing, he had a touchdown, played better as
the game went on. Marshawn Lynch another miserable performance, but
he got a touchdown. Whoo whoopity damn new he got
a touchdown. But Marshawn since he's come back, has looked
like someone who was serving up drinks at a tailgate
party at a Raider game. Not so good. Six carries
(17:29):
for seven yards for Marshawn Lynch in the game, but
he did have a touchdown, and so Seattle moves on
and they will play in the frozen tundra of a
lambo field next weekend. I wonder if Pete Carroll wants
to stay at my brother's house over in Appleton, which
is right, you can stay there, hang out. You know,
(17:50):
my brother knows all the great restaurants in Appleton, Wisconsin,
so he can show him around. He's a good pizza place.
There a lot of cheese, a lot of cheese products
in Wisconsin. So more on the Seahawks side, we'll get
to that later and during the week, of course, But
the better story here is the losing locker room. We
know that victory has a thousand fathers, right, but defeat.
(18:11):
The famous quote is an orphan. So let's discuss now
the key headline here for Philadelphia is all about Carson Wentz.
Carson Wentz was knocked out of this game in the
first quarter. Bam, he got hit Javan Clowney and he
was down for the council. The question, as we discussed
this game, and that's really the story within the story,
(18:33):
the subplot, what do you make of Carson Wentz being
bounced out of this game with a concussion like situation?
Now my observations, you've got dirt room service and demons,
and we will combine all these things together. We'll lock
them together now. Number one, this is a sign of
(18:54):
the times, all right. I was texting a friend of
mine who might or might not have allegiances to the
Philadelphi Eagles, and I was pointing out that if this
had been the nineteen eighties or the nineteen nineties or
the early two thousands, Carson Wentz who would have been
cleared to come back to the game. They wouldn't even
been a concussion protocol. He would have played the game,
(19:15):
maybe misses one series for the Eagles, and then he's
back out there slinging the football round. But in these
modern times, that we live in. The NFL has shifted
because of a bunch of lawsuits. Blame the lawyers. An
abundance of caution with these concussions. Now I'm not saying
(19:35):
that's wrong. I'm just saying it's different than when I
grew up watching football and guys would get knocked around,
their eyeballs will be spinning in their head, and five
minutes later they'd run back out on the field. Right
in days of yore, what would have happened is somebody
from the Ego medical staff would have told Carson Wentz,
rub some dirt on it and get back out on
the field. Now, obviously that didn't happen here, and we
(19:58):
look at this an exam it is and we don't
have all the details on how severe the concussion is.
The Eagles after the game made it seem like he'll
be fine, He'll be okay. Many cheese steak eating, tasty
cake loving Philadelphia fans wanted to have Jadevan Clowney arrested
on felony assault charges for that hit against Carson Wentz.
(20:20):
They believed that it was an egregious act of violence
that was targeted the head of Carson Wentz. I did
not see it that way. We talked about it earlier
in the show. But for those that are just turning
on the show, we like to point out that the
radio program begins when you turn on the Magic Radio Box.
So the way I looked at that play the hit.
Now everyone in Phillies saying, you know, it was a
dirty hit? How dare those scumbags from Seattle, those dirt bags?
(20:45):
But Clowney he didn't. I we'll hear some of the
sound here in a minute. But Carson Wentz he rolled
under Clowney's legs and that movement by Wentz caused his
own contact to be much worse. There to the head
of Carson Wentz. That's the way I saw it, watching
it seven thousand times on social media. But Carson Wentz
(21:07):
played about nine minutes. He played about nine minutes. He
attempted four passes, completed one of them for three yards
in his playoff debut, Yeah to three yards and a
cloud of dust. He also was sacked before he exited stage.
(21:30):
Right now, the second thing here from the Seahawks perspective,
we get back to the years. But from the Seahawks perspective,
this was a gift from the heavens right. While they
blew home field avengage, they had a chance to be
the number one seed in the NFC, number one, it
could have been number one. I'm tire NFC, and they blew.
They lost to Alligator Arms Murray at home. The Umpa
(21:53):
Loompa beat them, and then the game I was not
at thanks to the incompetent seattlecr department should all be fired,
every one of them that was responsible for me not
being there. Lee agrees, Yes, all right, Lee agrees thumbs
up on that from Lee to Lap who was involved
in that. But anyway, the point of the matter is this, right,
Seattle losing to the forty nine ers at home, losing
(22:16):
the cars. Otherwise they would have had home field advantage
in this wild NFC playoff thing, and they were pretty
much guaranteed a win before the first quarter end. You
think about Seattle, how fortunate the Seahawks are here. Any
path to victory for Philadelphia would have been Carson Wentz
(22:37):
having an out of body type performance, because there's nobody else.
The coboads are bare in Philadelphia. It was gonna be
Carson Wentz who would have had to have a massive
performance running and throwing, being a dual threat quarterback and
all that didn't happen right. So by the time the
first quarter came doing end, when Carson Wentz went to
(22:57):
the injury tent, the fat lay, he started warming up.
And there's a lot to choose from in Philly, but
they started warming up there and having a wonderful time
and doing a little vocal exercise there as they were
preparing turn out the lots the parties over that was
the song which is not normally a female lead on that,
(23:17):
but they sung it. And this game was handed to
the Seattle Seahawks on a room service card the moment
that Carson Wentz went down with the injury, even though
al michaels I noticed to tone in al Michael's voice,
he was hoping, he was hoping for Josh McCown to
have that story book finished. First playoff game after all
(23:38):
these years in the NFL for McCown, and he leads
the Eagles to victory, and another Disney movie pops up,
not exactly Nick Foles two point zero though in this game.
Now McCown, who has been coaching high school football back
in Charlotte, North Carolina. In fact, even as the Eagle quarterback.
(24:00):
Piladelphia allowed him. One of the conditions for McCown to
come out of retirement. They called him up. They said, hey,
you want to be the quarterback for Philadelphia, the backup quarterback.
We got an injury here. He said, I don't know
about it. I got it. I got this job. I
got this job coaching high school football. Yeah. Yeah, he
was coaching high school football and he continues to coach
as foo fotball. The condition was he had to be
(24:21):
allowed to fly back to Charlotte, but only for the games.
So at Myers Park High School in Charlotte, their coach
play didn't start the game, but play the playoff game
wild card week. McCown had flown back to Charlotte after
the playoffs every Friday after practice. He then coached the
team and then promptly flew back to the Philadelphia area
(24:44):
and that was it. Who needs practice anyway? I think
most high school coaches don't even pay attention in practice.
But no they do. Actually apparently they do, but not
Josh McCown. How great is it you have your coach
who only shows up for the games, so somebody else
is coaching the team during the way. How did that
work out? I don't know. So how did Josh McCown
do against Seattle? Statistically? He was not bad, he was not.
(25:07):
He completed seventy five percent of his passes at one
hundred and seventy four yards. He averaged over seven yards
per attempt, which is average, did not throw an interception. However,
what is the object of offensive football in the NFL?
Get the damn ball in the end zone? How did
that turn out? Yeah? Now, against a hobbled, beaten, up,
(25:30):
bruised Seahawks defense, McCown failed to accomplish that basic fundamental
task of offensive football. He was also sacked, not one,
not two, not three, not four, how about six times?
He fumbled twice. Now, somehow I was able to recover
both those fumbles. He made the Seattle defense that looked
(25:51):
like they were beaten and at the end of the rope,
look for moments of this game like the Legion of
Boom at times, like the old Legion of Boom was
back for the Seahawks and the Eagles. Listen, they got
the B squads, not all on McCown and all that,
but a lot of rejects, a lot of outcasts who
were playing key roles masquerading as receivers and running backs
(26:14):
in Philly, and all they could muster was a three
pack of field goals. That's it. And there were opportunities.
The Eagles had opportunities in Seattle territory in the fourth quarter,
and they went forward on fourth down a couple of times.
It did not go well. The uphill battle without Carson Waynes,
it became a herculean task. It was just an uphill battle.
(26:35):
I was like, oh, you gotta go work a little
bit to go up the hill. But then it was
a herculean task. The Philadelphia secondary also filled with a
bunch of backups, guys that were packing groceries, and they
did not exactly rise up to the challenge. Here. Russell
Wilson played better. We talked about he played better as
the game went on. How about dk metcal This is
the dk metcalf that the Seahawks thought they were gonna
(26:56):
get every week. He has not played like this every week.
He had seven catch is for one hundred and sixty
yards in a touchdown and looked like a monster compared
to all the Eagle defensive backs. Right, he was like
he was like twice the size of everyone in the
Philadelphia secondary and then the Eagles were trying to match
up with that with Dallas Goddard and Boston Scott and
(27:17):
Miles Sanders and players like that. Yeah, did not work out.
So Philadelphia goes to the guilla team. They exit stage right.
The final point back to the quarterback conundrum in the
Delaware Valley. So this was supposed to be the opportunity
for Carson Wentz to not be a ghostbuster, but be
a demon killer. He was gonna kill the demons that
(27:39):
have been following him around, show that he is not
a fraud, that he was gonna This guy's gonna break
the trend of being injury prone. Remember Philadelphia when they
won the Super Bowl a couple of years back, it
was no help of Carson Wentz. In the postseason, right,
it was you know, a hundred dog and all that
they were the number one seed. A lot of that
was because Carson Wentz. But in the postseason, the aforementioned
(28:00):
Nick Foles had an out of body type performance. We
all remember that. Then he stole a bunch of money
from Jacksonville. Should be arrested for what he did in
Jacksonville last year. What a criminal proforl That's that was
That's a different conversation. The Philly Special had nothing to
do with Carson Wentz. Nothing in his first opportunity here.
It was first chance in the playoffs and in essentially
(28:22):
a blink of an eye, about nine minutes, it's over
see you later. I'm done. You can't play anymore. Carson
Wentz was unable to perform because of the concussion. Now
there's all kinds of speculation. Was it that bad? Could
he have come back? You know, should he have pretended
like he wasn't concussion? We don't know all that. I'm
(28:44):
sure that will come out in the next couple of
days about what actually did happen. What was the situation.
Could he have returned to the game, Did he want
to come back to the game? Was it out of
his hands? Did they take his helmet from him? All
that stuff will come out. But he certainly did one
thing he accomplish. He was unable to shake the injury tag.
In fact, he doubled down going back to Carson Wentz
(29:07):
as a college player in North Dakota. In college, he
broke his wrist in twenty fifteen. In the NFL, he
had a hairline rib fracture in twenty sixteen, he tore
his ACL in twenty seventeen, injured his back in twenty eighteen,
and this year in twenty nineteen, not to mention several
other injuries that also slowed him down. And now you
(29:30):
can add the concussion on top of that. And so
this has done nothing to kill the legend of Carson
Wentz being made out of paper machee. That demand is
made out of paper machee. And Wentz also is not
very popular in the locker room right that one of
the arguments in some of the media in Philadelphia has
and he's not a leader, he's a weird ol, he's
a fake guy, and they don't he's got favorites that
(29:53):
he picks, and you're not supposed to do that when
you're the quarterback and all this stuff. But you do
the math, you do the arithmetic. And it's not just Mallermath.
The Eagles franchise is being held captive until Carson Wentz
either snaps out of this or goes to another team
and they bring somebody else in because this ain't gonna
get it done. So it's not his fault, okay, But
if you're always hurt, it is becomes your fault because
(30:15):
that's who you are. You're always hurt. That's life. Life's
not fair. But if you're always hurt, you are injury prone.
The definition of injury prone is always being out. That's
how it happens. Be sure to catch live editions of
The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven
pm Pacific. I don't know if you saw this or now,
maybe you missed it, but New England, as we talked about,
(30:36):
eliminated Derrick Henry running it down the throat of the
Patriots defense. There for the Titans in the wild card game. Well,
Chris Collinsworth attempted to avoid the specific question from Al
Michaels about tom Brady's future. He hemmed in hard killing
some more time before the Golden Globes, and finally he
answered the question right now. He couched it with saying
(31:01):
it was a wild guess that of course, gives himself
plausible deniability, which you need. God forbid you make a
wrong prediction about a quarterback wearing different laundry. Anyway, Chris
Collinsworth said he believes that Tom Brady is done with
the Patriots. Oh my God, Collinsworth said he's done, and
when asked where Tom Brady could end up, Collinsworth named
(31:25):
one franchise. Which one, No, not that one, he said,
the Los Angeles Chargers, formerly of Carson, California, soon to
be of Englewood in the hood in Inglewood was the
way that he answered the question. Now, he's not alone.
A number of woke NFL media have said similar things
(31:46):
that the Chargers are going to make a run at
Tom Brady. Now, in theory, tom Brady would be used
for his marketing prowess. Sells some tickets, sell some merchandise.
Trophy quarterback you' have you hear about in Hollywood they have,
you know, trophy wives and all that. Well, maybe would
be a trophy quarterback and the Chargers could show him
(32:06):
off right at fan events and all that stuff, and
he would be the franchise marketing savior, not savior on
the field, Brady, he would be the marketing savior. Anyway,
Let's go back over the weekend, tom Brady addressed whether
or not he would be back with the Patriots. What's
going on with his future? There? He was asked about
all that, and he gave an answer. He answered the question.
(32:28):
I just don't know what's going to happen, and you know,
I'm not going to predict it, and no one needs
to make choices at this point. You know, I love
playing football, I love playing for this team. I love
playing for this team for two decades and and winning
a lot of games. Again, I just I don't know
what it looks like moving forward, So we'll just take
it day by day. Yeah, that does not sound like
someone who wants to do radio, not do radio, not
(32:51):
do football and give it up and go live in
the South of France or wherever, and you know, and
have a wonderful life, and not ready to do that.
How about Bill Belichick? Notice Belichick, we reference this earlier
in the show, but you were probably not listening. Here
is Bill Belichick who was asked about Brady's future, and
of course, like all answers, Bill Belichick gives. He said
(33:13):
nothing obviously, given Tom Brady's age and there's been a
lot of talk about his future, do you have a
timeline in your mindful and you'd like to sit down
and do you have would you like to get clarity
on his situation By the time of new leak, heere
starts look I mean, I know it's out there, just
like there's a lot of other things out there. I mean,
we could bring up fifty questions just like that one,
(33:33):
and I told her what my state is on that,
and so you can ask all fifty of them and
it's going to be the same answer fifty times. Ben,
we've been working on Tennessee, it's twelve hours after the game.
I'm not going to talk a lot of things about
the future because it's not I'm not prepared to talk about.
But technically you are in the future. Thanks for addressing
me as Ben. I appreciate that you answered the question
(33:55):
as Ben, taking it one day at a time. Yeah,
that's very important. It's already been addressed. Now, I understand.
I understand completely, all right. So I know there are
odds out there that are floating around from the offshore
books and where tom Brady's gonna end up, and I
know bet online has some odds out I make my
own lines. I don't need the bookmaker. I make my
(34:15):
own line. So what are my odds that Tom Brady
goes from the Patriots to the charges. I'm gonna set
the odds at plus four hundred. Now, if you're not
a degenerate gambler like myself. That implies a twenty percent chance.
All right, Now, I've got the twilight zone, the band,
and the marching and chowder, and we will line all
(34:36):
these things up and will knock him down like dominoes.
Now to lead off with Tom Brady. Even if you
hate Tom Brady and think he's the spawn of the devil,
he is NFL royalty. The guy's a living legend. He's
the greatest quarterback in pro football history. And for those
of us that like sports, that means something. He zoomed
past Joe Montanas several years ago. So Brady, not that
(34:57):
we'd like to kiss anyone's ass, is in rarefi air.
He's also on borrowed time, all right, as far as
the age game and all that stuff, and even legends
get long in the tooth, and so Brady's in this
weird paradox where he's a legend and an all time
great and he's on a pedestal because of that. But
(35:19):
let's be honest, here's adults. That stench was like a
broken sewer while watching Brady play. Now, more on that
in a little bit. But as far as the Chargers,
I understand why it would make sense from the Charger's perspective,
but from Brady's perspective, it doesn't make sense. If you
(35:42):
drop Tom Brady on the page on the Chargers in
twenty twenty, and we don't know what other moves they're
gonna make. But just for the purposes of this monologuelet's
just see that assume they don't make any real major moves.
That is not a Super Bowl contender. That's not a
team that is going to threaten to go any where.
It's going to continue to spin their wheels. There the Chargers,
(36:05):
and I know they lost a bunch of close games.
Remember the Golden rule. Bad teams lose close games, good
teams win close games. That's how it works. I would
put the Chargers in the middle of the Bell curve
and truth be told that the Bolts franchise is residing
in the Twilight zone, right if you had other options,
if you're Tom Brady, why would you choose to live
(36:28):
in the twilight zone. It doesn't make sense that. Now
I understand the Chargers, Hey, it's a great underdog story,
blah blah blah blah blah, But that would be elder
abuse to have tom Brady played for the Chargers. I mean,
what are we doing here? And that makes anyway LA?
You know, it's not really LA. It's not you know,
(36:48):
like the Rams have got a little traction, a little
bit of traction. The Chargers have no tracks. And I
know the argument is desperate times call for desperate measures.
And the argument against the LA sports scene is it's
all about stars and the people are a bunch of
lemmings and you just throw a big name out there
and the people will show up. And I hate to
(37:10):
say it, but that actually was true. I believe if
Brady went to the Chargers, they would sell a bunch
of tickets and it would be a huge marketing success,
all the pomp and circumstances. They show a bunch of
highlights of Tom Brady with the Patriots back in his
salad days and all that stuff, because you can't find
a bigger name than Tom Brady. But again that's from
the Chargers business side. They ain't gonna be a better
(37:31):
football team with Tom Brady at this point, the way
Brady performed this year in New England. So that's not
a reality, and they're not gonna win. They're not gonna
be a threat to win a Super Bowl. That's not
a plausible scenario. Now. Furthermore, following the loss to the Titan,
now we played the sound by from Tom Brady. He
(37:53):
sounds like someone who's not ready to retire. He sounds
like someone that wants to continue to play pro football.
And if that's the case, he's gonna have options. And
we talked about this a couple months ago, actually about
a month ago, that tom Brady's you know the NFL
quarterback roulette, you know, spin the roulette wheel, the whole thing.
There's gonna be like fifteen of the thirty two teams
(38:16):
that change quarterbacks or will consider changing quarterbacks. Now, I
do not believe, like many who have already decided it's
a fad to complete, that Tom Brady is done with
New England. I don't believe that, like I understand now,
certainly all the indicators are there's a lot of circumstantial
evidence that Tom Brady is dune Skis with the Patriots. Right,
(38:39):
sold his house, his personal guru sold their house. There's
no way the Patriots can franchise tag tom Brady. He
is free to roam around the NFL, and the Patriots
can do nothing to stop him. I understand it, but
I am not closing the door to a reconciling with
(39:01):
the New England Patriots. All it takes is for Tom
Brady to call mister Kraft up to hold a private
meeting at some swanky resort or some day spa in
Palm Beach and you know, hang out there in Miami
and all that, have a wonderful time. Get the band
back together, right, say hey, you go out get some
(39:21):
better playmakers, spend some money. And the Patriots they have
no air to Tom Brady's throne in New England. There's
no one there. Bill Belichick is going to have to
throw spaghetti against the wall to find a replacement at quarterback. Now,
Belichick likely wants to do that because it's tough, and
He's people have said for years that he wants to
(39:43):
win a Super Bowl without Brady, and Brady would like
to win without Belichick. The feeling is mutual, if you
believe the scuttle but around New England and all that.
But I think there's a plus five fifty chance, about
fifteen percent chance that Brady is back with the Patriots,
that commerheads will prevail and that they will work it
(40:04):
out because playing for the charges being the witness protection program.
Now I mentioned that about fifty percent of NFL teams,
forty seven percent are going to change quarterbacks or will
consider it. And you've got the Dolphins, Bengals, Colts, Jags, Titans, Broncos, Chargers, Raiders, Bears, Lions, Steelers, Panthers, Bucks.
(40:26):
How about the Saints. Drew Brees looked old. Drew Brees
looked old. He's over forty. And of course the Patriots.
So of those teams, now the team I have at
the top of my list, you know it is for
Tom Brady. I believe there is a better chance that
Tom Brady goes to Tampa Bay the Buccaneers. Now, Bruce
(40:50):
Arians sounded like a guy who's fed up with Jameis Winson.
Let me give you my argument. I'm giving you my
elevator pitch. Why the Buccaneers make sense for Tom Brady?
All right? On both sides. Like Bruce Arians was supposed
to fix Jameis Winston. He led the NFL in interceptions,
was a hot mess, through a lot of touchdowns, through
(41:10):
a lot of interceptions. And Bruce Arians knows you can't
win with Winston the way he's playing, and so take
Tom Brady for a season. And the argument against Brady
or the pro Brady crowd was that he doesn't have
a lot of playmakers and all that stuff. Well, in
Tampa Bay, problem solved last thing. So Tom Brady looked
(41:32):
to be cooked well done with the Patriots this year. Typically,
when you get past forty and you have a bad season,
it means that you are washed up. Very rarely do
you have a bounceback performance past that age because you
don't get another opportunity. When you get past that age,
(41:53):
that's it. You're done. And he had a mangled Julian
Edelman and really nobody else this year. Antonio Brown played
one game. Philip Dorsett should be out of the NFL.
Nakill Harry did not electrify anybody. The rookie wide receiver
out of Arizona State not exactly the second coming of
Randy Moss or Troy Brown. As a rookie. Mohammedson knew
(42:17):
how do you do? He was a bust coming over
from Atlanta. And you can only throw so many screen
passes to James White and little dump off fastest to
Benjamin Watson before the jig is up who as they say,
so the Brady Marching and Chowder Society claimed, well, he
didn't have playmakers in New England. While going to Tampa Bay,
(42:39):
Chris Godwin and Mike Evans are there. Cameron brad not
a bomb at tight end. You've got several offensive cornerstone
type players playmakers if Brady can get in. The NFC
South is a manageable division. Carolina new coach, who knows
(43:00):
who they're gonna hire, Atlanta Trading trading Water, They're not
going anywhere. They kept their coaching staff together for the
most part, head coach anyway. And the Saints have Drew
Brees who looked old. Raby looked old too. So the
point is that division is not an outrageous path of
an obstacle course to get through. Whereas you figure the
(43:25):
Raiders are going to spend some money, they'll be a
better team in Vegas, and they get all those draft
picks still, so they'll put a better team on the
field in Vegas. And also you've got Kansas City and
Patrick Mahomes in the AFC West. You talk about going
to the Chargers. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports
talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows
(43:45):
at Foxsports Radio dot com and within the iHeart Radio
app search f SR to listen live.
Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Mallers
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
from two to six Eastern eleven pm to three am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and to find your local
station for The Ben Mallers Show at Fox Sports Radio
dot com. You can find it there or stream us
live every night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
(00:23):
This is the best of the Ben Maller Show on
Fox Sports Radio. Kirk Cousins finding Kyle Rudolph the red
nose tight end in the back of the end zone
on the opening drive of overtime, and the Minnesota Vikings
(00:44):
gobsmacked the New Orleans Saints the big Ben bullies right.
People said the Saints the most talented team. Blah blah
blah blah blah blah. That dead, That Saint said dead.
Here's how it's sounded. Third and cold, following the four
yard line, Cousins in the gun three by on his right,
Saints joy pressure. They bring pressure Lobbitt to the back
(01:04):
of the end zone. Touchdown Kyle Rudolph. That's a full
extension with the right arm by Kyle Rudolph. And of
course this would come down to a review, the officials
are jogging off the field. It appears no officials are
jogging off the field. I mean, there's nothing song I
can do as far as the time out is concerned,
and the officials jog off the field. In the Superdome, P. J.
(01:25):
Williams takes a hand right to the middle of the
numbers in the back of the end zone on the
game winning catch and stuff falling out of the rafters
towards the officials. Completely unbiased on the WWL Saints radio network. Absolutely,
I don't if you saw this or not if you
miss it. It has become like clockwork in recent years,
(01:46):
and I'd like to thank the New Orleans Saints franchise
for making my life easy. Right they the New Orleans Saints.
They put up video game like numbers during the regular season.
They look like this amazing ug or not of a team,
and they turn out to be total frauds year after
year in the postseason. Right, the doomsday prophecies kicked in
(02:09):
again for the Saints. That those guys from the Bayou.
There you heard all the noise last year, right, all
the noise after that Ram Saints NFC Championship game. Right now,
I am dancing on your grave, New Orleans. I shot
in Freud. I'm overdosing on schotten Freud is what I'm
(02:29):
doing here. Oops, it happened again. It's an old song,
but it did happen again, and that smug Sean Payton
and all those cry baby Saints fans. So congratulations to
the Vikings who have aspirations, and now I might. I
had legitimate aspirations to make the Super Bowl, and somewhere
(02:50):
Jim in Providence took my advice. I said before the
NFL season, ben on the Vikings. Go with the Vikings.
They've got the Zimmer defense that can run if if
anything eventually happens with Cousins where he figures it out,
the Vikings are set up. If you beat the Saints
in New Orleans, you can certainly beat the forty nine
Ers in Santa Clair. Of course, the opposite alternative universe
(03:14):
as well for the Vikings. Now that Cousins has won
a game, he will morph back into a stooge, and
he will go out and throw two interceptions and look miserable,
look like a lost puppy dog against the forty nine
Ers defense next week. So let us discuss then, we
know the better stories and losing locker room, and we're
not gonna pretend like it's not died. The Saints get robbed,
(03:36):
were they hornswaggled by the referees yet A get of
course not. It's ridiculous. Now my thoughts. You've got John
Hancock microscope and Dunce cap and we will combine all
these things together, will make some boba ganosh. I've made
boba ganush in a couple of weeks. I hope I
still know how to make boba ganush. I was gonna
(03:57):
make chicken alfredo, but I'll make that next hour because
I found some good Alfreda Feduccini. Alfreda's the way to go.
So hey, Kirk Cousins, listen. We can say what we
want about the Saints. That we will get to that.
But Kirk Cousins stepped up the Saints defense, which had
been highly rated and celebrated by many of the NFL
mainstream media. We're not mainstream around overnight. The mainstream media
(04:20):
had celebrated the New Orleans defense, but they were unape
unwilling to slow down the Minnesota offense in particular and overtime.
But it wasn't just the overtime, the much maligned quarterback
of Minnesota goes on a nine play march down the
field seventy five yards in New Orleans, and all that
(04:42):
braggadocia of the Saints defense and this ferocious attacking ball
hawking defense a total emasculation situation. Kirk Cousins, We played
the play there. The big play was actually before the
touchdown that set up the touchdown, Cousins finding Adam Feeling
on a forty three yard pass play down to the
(05:05):
Saints two yard line. And it wasn't like that was
a catching run by Theelan. Forty of those yards came
in the air. He only tacked on three yards after
the catch, yaka yak. Most of that was through the
air by Cousins. So who are you're gonna blame for
that particular player. We know, we know you're blaming the
referees New Orleans for the final play. But it's the
(05:29):
play later, obviously everyone's been focusing in on. But what
about the theland play now? So it was a third
down and four at the New Orleans four yard line
when Cousins found Kyle Rudolph on the left side of
the end zone and until something else replaces that play.
This was the John Hancock moment for Kirk Cousins. That
(05:52):
is is now his signature moment wild Card Weekend and
he gets it done in overtime and beats Hall of
Famer Drew Brees, who keeps messing up. He keeps messing up.
Nobody wants to talk about that, right, it's our little secret.
We'll all talked in hush tones. But he keeps screwing
up in playoff games. It's happened more often than not
(06:14):
in recent years. But this was the John Hancock. This
was the signature moment. By the way, if you're a
millennial or younger than that and you don't know who
John Hancock is, he was the first signer of the
Declaration of Independence. You should have learned that in school
right way back in the day in Philadelphia Independence Hall
who in Philly. This does not a race. I want
(06:36):
to point something out. A lot of broadcasters told your
Cousins was the real Neil shot up? Stupid? Let me
explain somebody. One performance on wild Card Weekend does not
a race. All of those week games now, yes, this
is a defining moment for Kirk Cousins and congratulations. He
(06:59):
actually made a four for Vegas because everyone expected the
Saints to at least the very least win the game.
They might not cover the spread, but a lot of
people toss the Saints in on the money line to
win by at least a point. The Vikings now head
to Santa Clara for a date with the forty nine ers.
As we talked about, that'll be the early game on Saturday,
(07:20):
so that kicks off the next weekend of NFL playoff
activity from Northern California, and the Titans will play the
Ravens in the primetime game that's also on Saturday. Wouldn't
it be amazing if Ryan Tannehill ends up in the
AFC Championship game. Wouldn't that just be mind boggler. We
(07:43):
saw what happened to Lamar Jackson last year in the playoffs.
N He's been much better this year, but man, And
then on Sunday you got the Texans who were given
a gift more on that later from Buffalo, and you'll
be Texans at Chiefs in the early game, and then
Seahawks will play the Packers in the late game at Lambo.
But let's get back to the elephant in the room.
(08:03):
Here the play at the very end that won the
game for the Vikings. And did you see part B
of this? Did you see former NFL referee Terry mcaulay
who works as a rules boss at he's the boss
over at NBC. Right, And he stoked the flames of
(08:23):
outrage on social media. He claimed, this is a former
NFL referee that Kyle Rudolph was guilty of offensive pass interference. Now,
he said that because Rudolph extended his arms to create
clear separation from the defender, by the rule book, that's
(08:44):
a violation. Now keep in mind that this is the
old by the letter of the law versus the spirit
of the law debate. And I because I like to
go over the speed limit when I drive at night,
I am a spirit of the law person. I don't
believe in the letter of the law. I believe or
liberties the police have as far as when enforcing. You know,
because if everyone's going eighty five miles an hour and
(09:06):
the speed limit seventy five miles an hour, seventy miles
an hour, everyone's going with the flow of traffic. So
I don't believe that you can't give a ticket to everyone, right,
So you're cherry pickings fishing a barrel when you give
tickets to people and they drive around. I like all that,
but the letter of the law versus the spirit of
the law de bait. It's and also Terry McCauley in general,
(09:27):
it's kind of the equivalent of asking a former NFL
referee whether this is a penalty or not. Who's you know,
working doing television? Most of the time, it's like calling
an ambulance chasing lawyer. Every city, and I travel a
little bit over the last couple weeks. Every city I've
gone to every billboard around town, they have these ambulance
chasing lawyers asking, you know, give us a call. If
(09:50):
you think you have a case. You call one of
those numbers. Ninety nine point nine percent of the time
they will say, yes, you have a case, come on down.
The price is right, we gotta deal right. So yeah,
by the letter of the law, you could have called
offensive past interference. But I am a spirit of the
law guy, and it is a slippery slope. In my
(10:13):
expert opinion, having watched the Bruder film style coverage over
and over, this was not a penalty on Kyle Rudolf.
I'll tell you why because under review, you would have
had to have gone back to the beginning of that
play and you would have had to call defensive past
interference because if you pull out the microscope and the
(10:34):
Saints apologist don't want to hear this. On the final
play New Orleans, the defensive back P. J. Williams. I
think he's a guy's name. He grabbed the arms of
Kyle Rudolph before the exchange that took place there. Even
blind Scott was able to see that the Saints defensive
player grabbed the arms of Kyle Ruff. It was hand fighting,
(10:56):
which no I know football has changed a lot, but
it was a good no call. Let him play. Let
him What don't we always say? Ever since I've been
doing this nonsense, I've always heard at the end of
the game, the officials are not supposed to aside the
outcome of a game. Can someone tell the Saints that's
how it works? You dummies? What's wrong with you? This
(11:19):
was not a miscarriage of justice against the Saints franchise
that the cry babies in the buyou there, calm the
f down right, go out? Boy. I wish I sold
pacifiers in New Orleans. I'd make a fortune right right,
go out, get a passify, get your favorite stuffy, your
favorite stuff to animal, right your therapy dog, and knock
(11:42):
yourself out. Now, Al Riveron, the overlord of officials, was
level headed on all of this uproar. He said, there
is contact by both players, but none of that contact
rises to the level of a foul. So now he
says a lot of this nonsense every week. Riverons will
(12:03):
take it with a grain of salt. So he said,
they let the call on the field stand. Now, the
officials on the field did the right thing. They let
them play food to ball, right, They let him play football.
The wassification of the NFL, which is very much in
vogue now, everything's a penalty. Everything's egregious. Everything's like a
war crime. They want to have a police state, frame
(12:25):
by frame penalty enforcement in the NFL. It's absurd, It's
patently absurd. The Saints came back. Should have put the
Vikings to bed late in the game, right now. The
Vikings more than held their own, but New Orleans had
plenty of chances late in that game. Drew Brees sucked
at a time he should not have sucked. He choked,
(12:45):
He had a key fumble. He was just mediocre throughout
the game, and he's able to dodge the criticism. Right,
he's the new teflon Don Drew Brees. You can't criticize
Drew Brees, the visionary tactics. Everyone's talking about the Kyle
Rudolph play at the end of the game, and they're
not talking about all the other stuff that's here from
(13:06):
Sean Payton. Speaking of dodging, here is Sean Payton do
a tap dance as he tries to avoid going right
in on the referees and what happened at the end?
Explanation on the last play? Did I listen? Um? That wasn't.
(13:27):
I didn't. I didn't really, I didn't see any officials.
I saw Mike. We chatted for a little bit and
saw some of the other players as we coached in
the Pro Bowl and congratulated them and they did a
good job. They played well. Can you mumble some more? Please?
Can you stumble and bumble and mumble a little bit more?
All right? Last word on this stout when now we
don't do list radio. Other shows do list radio. We
(13:48):
don't do this radio. However, I am going to say
that this is the second most painful loss in the
modern era of the New Orleans Saints. Now I still
have New Orleans blowing the game to the Rams. That
would have sent them to the super Bow. It wasn't
the referees to the Saints blew the game. They had
the ball first in overtime. You see, you see, let
me be a grown up here. You see what you
do at the end of a playoff game in overtime,
(14:09):
you take the ball and matriculate the ball down the
field to score a damn touchdown. Go home. That's what
the Vikings did. The Saints last year won the coin toss.
They got the ball first against the Rams. What did
they do? Drew Brees through an interception. You lose the game,
you deserve to lose. You're a bunch of losers all
right now. But that was more painful last year. I
believe though that for my money, the Kyle Rudolph touchdown,
(14:33):
I put that number two on the list, ahead of
the Minneapolis miracle, right And the reason why, Now, the
Minneapolis miracle was in obviously Minnesota, but it was on
the road for New Orleans. It was a with tackle
by Marcus Williams who turned into a human bowling ball,
if you remember that that play, and then took out
the other only other Saints defensive players that could have
(14:56):
made the play. He took them out like a bowling ball,
knocking pins down. But that was a fluke, right, that's
a fluke play. This was not a fluke play. In
the Minnesota Vikings dominated the game. They were held the Viking,
the Vikings defense holding the Saints in check. And then
Kirk Cousins, Kirk Cousins, Bloody Cousins, nine plays, seventy five yards.
(15:22):
He punched you in the face, New Orleans. He punched
you with a Kirk Cousins. Everyone laughs into me. He's
a punchline and he beat you. Eat it anyway, that's
say Victor Brick reference. Anyway, listen, here's the deal, Sean Payton.
(15:42):
We played a little Sean pay and he needs to
wear the Dunce cap yet again. I hope he enjoys
wearing the Dunce cap. He will continue to be, you know,
the smug sank to many, you know, to manius nonsense.
Here the Mama Luke. There you go. That's the word
Mama Luke of the NFL. Now practice. How many more
times does the NFL have to adjust the rule book
(16:03):
before the Saints can win another Super Bowl? How many
more rules are going to have to be twisted around?
And also Sean Payton talk about clock management. Shout out
Andy Reid, who was very impressed when Sean Payton said,
I'd rather hold on to the time out than I
don't want to. I don't worry about ten seconds. How'd
that workout? Be sure to catch live editions of The
Ben Meller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm
(16:25):
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app. But
it was the final game on Wildcard weekend, the late
game and the Sunday television window. As they say, they're
at Seattle Seahawks and the Philadelphia Eagles bouncing around the
field there in South Philly. So Seattle was favored on
(16:47):
the road. It's not like this is an upset. The
Seahawks were expected to win the game, and they did
pull out a Wildcard victory in Philadelphia in a game
that was not enthralling. It was not. Seventeen to nine
was the final score. Neither team scored in the fourth
quarter of the game. Russell Wilson did go over three
(17:08):
hundred yards passing, he had a touchdown, played better as
the game went on. Marshawn Lynch another miserable performance, but
he got a touchdown. Whoo whoopity damn new he got
a touchdown. But Marshawn since he's come back, has looked
like someone who was serving up drinks at a tailgate
party at a Raider game. Not so good. Six carries
(17:29):
for seven yards for Marshawn Lynch in the game, but
he did have a touchdown, and so Seattle moves on
and they will play in the frozen tundra of a
lambo field next weekend. I wonder if Pete Carroll wants
to stay at my brother's house over in Appleton, which
is right, you can stay there, hang out. You know,
(17:50):
my brother knows all the great restaurants in Appleton, Wisconsin,
so he can show him around. He's a good pizza place.
There a lot of cheese, a lot of cheese products
in Wisconsin. So more on the Seahawks side, we'll get
to that later and during the week, of course, But
the better story here is the losing locker room. We
know that victory has a thousand fathers, right, but defeat.
(18:11):
The famous quote is an orphan. So let's discuss now
the key headline here for Philadelphia is all about Carson Wentz.
Carson Wentz was knocked out of this game in the
first quarter. Bam, he got hit Javan Clowney and he
was down for the council. The question, as we discussed
this game, and that's really the story within the story,
(18:33):
the subplot, what do you make of Carson Wentz being
bounced out of this game with a concussion like situation?
Now my observations, you've got dirt room service and demons,
and we will combine all these things together. We'll lock
them together now. Number one, this is a sign of
(18:54):
the times, all right. I was texting a friend of
mine who might or might not have allegiances to the
Philadelphi Eagles, and I was pointing out that if this
had been the nineteen eighties or the nineteen nineties or
the early two thousands, Carson Wentz who would have been
cleared to come back to the game. They wouldn't even
been a concussion protocol. He would have played the game,
(19:15):
maybe misses one series for the Eagles, and then he's
back out there slinging the football round. But in these
modern times, that we live in. The NFL has shifted
because of a bunch of lawsuits. Blame the lawyers. An
abundance of caution with these concussions. Now I'm not saying
(19:35):
that's wrong. I'm just saying it's different than when I
grew up watching football and guys would get knocked around,
their eyeballs will be spinning in their head, and five
minutes later they'd run back out on the field. Right
in days of yore, what would have happened is somebody
from the Ego medical staff would have told Carson Wentz,
rub some dirt on it and get back out on
the field. Now, obviously that didn't happen here, and we
(19:58):
look at this an exam it is and we don't
have all the details on how severe the concussion is.
The Eagles after the game made it seem like he'll
be fine, He'll be okay. Many cheese steak eating, tasty
cake loving Philadelphia fans wanted to have Jadevan Clowney arrested
on felony assault charges for that hit against Carson Wentz.
(20:20):
They believed that it was an egregious act of violence
that was targeted the head of Carson Wentz. I did
not see it that way. We talked about it earlier
in the show. But for those that are just turning
on the show, we like to point out that the
radio program begins when you turn on the Magic Radio Box.
So the way I looked at that play the hit.
Now everyone in Phillies saying, you know, it was a
dirty hit? How dare those scumbags from Seattle, those dirt bags?
(20:45):
But Clowney he didn't. I we'll hear some of the
sound here in a minute. But Carson Wentz he rolled
under Clowney's legs and that movement by Wentz caused his
own contact to be much worse. There to the head
of Carson Wentz. That's the way I saw it, watching
it seven thousand times on social media. But Carson Wentz
(21:07):
played about nine minutes. He played about nine minutes. He
attempted four passes, completed one of them for three yards
in his playoff debut, Yeah to three yards and a
cloud of dust. He also was sacked before he exited stage.
(21:30):
Right now, the second thing here from the Seahawks perspective,
we get back to the years. But from the Seahawks perspective,
this was a gift from the heavens right. While they
blew home field avengage, they had a chance to be
the number one seed in the NFC, number one, it
could have been number one. I'm tire NFC, and they blew.
They lost to Alligator Arms Murray at home. The Umpa
(21:53):
Loompa beat them, and then the game I was not
at thanks to the incompetent seattlecr department should all be fired,
every one of them that was responsible for me not
being there. Lee agrees, Yes, all right, Lee agrees thumbs
up on that from Lee to Lap who was involved
in that. But anyway, the point of the matter is this, right,
Seattle losing to the forty nine ers at home, losing
(22:16):
the cars. Otherwise they would have had home field advantage
in this wild NFC playoff thing, and they were pretty
much guaranteed a win before the first quarter end. You
think about Seattle, how fortunate the Seahawks are here. Any
path to victory for Philadelphia would have been Carson Wentz
(22:37):
having an out of body type performance, because there's nobody else.
The coboads are bare in Philadelphia. It was gonna be
Carson Wentz who would have had to have a massive
performance running and throwing, being a dual threat quarterback and
all that didn't happen right. So by the time the
first quarter came doing end, when Carson Wentz went to
(22:57):
the injury tent, the fat lay, he started warming up.
And there's a lot to choose from in Philly, but
they started warming up there and having a wonderful time
and doing a little vocal exercise there as they were
preparing turn out the lots the parties over that was
the song which is not normally a female lead on that,
(23:17):
but they sung it. And this game was handed to
the Seattle Seahawks on a room service card the moment
that Carson Wentz went down with the injury, even though
al michaels I noticed to tone in al Michael's voice,
he was hoping, he was hoping for Josh McCown to
have that story book finished. First playoff game after all
(23:38):
these years in the NFL for McCown, and he leads
the Eagles to victory, and another Disney movie pops up,
not exactly Nick Foles two point zero though in this game.
Now McCown, who has been coaching high school football back
in Charlotte, North Carolina. In fact, even as the Eagle quarterback.
(24:00):
Piladelphia allowed him. One of the conditions for McCown to
come out of retirement. They called him up. They said, hey,
you want to be the quarterback for Philadelphia, the backup quarterback.
We got an injury here. He said, I don't know
about it. I got it. I got this job. I
got this job coaching high school football. Yeah. Yeah, he
was coaching high school football and he continues to coach
as foo fotball. The condition was he had to be
(24:21):
allowed to fly back to Charlotte, but only for the games.
So at Myers Park High School in Charlotte, their coach
play didn't start the game, but play the playoff game
wild card week. McCown had flown back to Charlotte after
the playoffs every Friday after practice. He then coached the
team and then promptly flew back to the Philadelphia area
(24:44):
and that was it. Who needs practice anyway? I think
most high school coaches don't even pay attention in practice.
But no they do. Actually apparently they do, but not
Josh McCown. How great is it you have your coach
who only shows up for the games, so somebody else
is coaching the team during the way. How did that
work out? I don't know. So how did Josh McCown
do against Seattle? Statistically? He was not bad, he was not.
(25:07):
He completed seventy five percent of his passes at one
hundred and seventy four yards. He averaged over seven yards
per attempt, which is average, did not throw an interception. However,
what is the object of offensive football in the NFL?
Get the damn ball in the end zone? How did
that turn out? Yeah? Now, against a hobbled, beaten, up,
(25:30):
bruised Seahawks defense, McCown failed to accomplish that basic fundamental
task of offensive football. He was also sacked, not one,
not two, not three, not four, how about six times?
He fumbled twice. Now, somehow I was able to recover
both those fumbles. He made the Seattle defense that looked
(25:51):
like they were beaten and at the end of the rope,
look for moments of this game like the Legion of
Boom at times, like the old Legion of Boom was
back for the Seahawks and the Eagles. Listen, they got
the B squads, not all on McCown and all that,
but a lot of rejects, a lot of outcasts who
were playing key roles masquerading as receivers and running backs
(26:14):
in Philly, and all they could muster was a three
pack of field goals. That's it. And there were opportunities.
The Eagles had opportunities in Seattle territory in the fourth quarter,
and they went forward on fourth down a couple of times.
It did not go well. The uphill battle without Carson Waynes,
it became a herculean task. It was just an uphill battle.
(26:35):
I was like, oh, you gotta go work a little
bit to go up the hill. But then it was
a herculean task. The Philadelphia secondary also filled with a
bunch of backups, guys that were packing groceries, and they
did not exactly rise up to the challenge. Here. Russell
Wilson played better. We talked about he played better as
the game went on. How about dk metcal This is
the dk metcalf that the Seahawks thought they were gonna
(26:56):
get every week. He has not played like this every week.
He had seven catch is for one hundred and sixty
yards in a touchdown and looked like a monster compared
to all the Eagle defensive backs. Right, he was like
he was like twice the size of everyone in the
Philadelphia secondary and then the Eagles were trying to match
up with that with Dallas Goddard and Boston Scott and
(27:17):
Miles Sanders and players like that. Yeah, did not work out.
So Philadelphia goes to the guilla team. They exit stage right.
The final point back to the quarterback conundrum in the
Delaware Valley. So this was supposed to be the opportunity
for Carson Wentz to not be a ghostbuster, but be
a demon killer. He was gonna kill the demons that
(27:39):
have been following him around, show that he is not
a fraud, that he was gonna This guy's gonna break
the trend of being injury prone. Remember Philadelphia when they
won the Super Bowl a couple of years back, it
was no help of Carson Wentz. In the postseason, right,
it was you know, a hundred dog and all that
they were the number one seed. A lot of that
was because Carson Wentz. But in the postseason, the aforementioned
(28:00):
Nick Foles had an out of body type performance. We
all remember that. Then he stole a bunch of money
from Jacksonville. Should be arrested for what he did in
Jacksonville last year. What a criminal proforl That's that was
That's a different conversation. The Philly Special had nothing to
do with Carson Wentz. Nothing in his first opportunity here.
It was first chance in the playoffs and in essentially
(28:22):
a blink of an eye, about nine minutes, it's over
see you later. I'm done. You can't play anymore. Carson
Wentz was unable to perform because of the concussion. Now
there's all kinds of speculation. Was it that bad? Could
he have come back? You know, should he have pretended
like he wasn't concussion? We don't know all that. I'm
(28:44):
sure that will come out in the next couple of
days about what actually did happen. What was the situation.
Could he have returned to the game, Did he want
to come back to the game? Was it out of
his hands? Did they take his helmet from him? All
that stuff will come out. But he certainly did one
thing he accomplish. He was unable to shake the injury tag.
In fact, he doubled down going back to Carson Wentz
(29:07):
as a college player in North Dakota. In college, he
broke his wrist in twenty fifteen. In the NFL, he
had a hairline rib fracture in twenty sixteen, he tore
his ACL in twenty seventeen, injured his back in twenty eighteen,
and this year in twenty nineteen, not to mention several
other injuries that also slowed him down. And now you
(29:30):
can add the concussion on top of that. And so
this has done nothing to kill the legend of Carson
Wentz being made out of paper machee. That demand is
made out of paper machee. And Wentz also is not
very popular in the locker room right that one of
the arguments in some of the media in Philadelphia has
and he's not a leader, he's a weird ol, he's
a fake guy, and they don't he's got favorites that
(29:53):
he picks, and you're not supposed to do that when
you're the quarterback and all this stuff. But you do
the math, you do the arithmetic. And it's not just Mallermath.
The Eagles franchise is being held captive until Carson Wentz
either snaps out of this or goes to another team
and they bring somebody else in because this ain't gonna
get it done. So it's not his fault, okay, But
if you're always hurt, it is becomes your fault because
(30:15):
that's who you are. You're always hurt. That's life. Life's
not fair. But if you're always hurt, you are injury prone.
The definition of injury prone is always being out. That's
how it happens. Be sure to catch live editions of
The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven
pm Pacific. I don't know if you saw this or now,
maybe you missed it, but New England, as we talked about,
(30:36):
eliminated Derrick Henry running it down the throat of the
Patriots defense. There for the Titans in the wild card game. Well,
Chris Collinsworth attempted to avoid the specific question from Al
Michaels about tom Brady's future. He hemmed in hard killing
some more time before the Golden Globes, and finally he
answered the question right now. He couched it with saying
(31:01):
it was a wild guess that of course, gives himself
plausible deniability, which you need. God forbid you make a
wrong prediction about a quarterback wearing different laundry. Anyway, Chris
Collinsworth said he believes that Tom Brady is done with
the Patriots. Oh my God, Collinsworth said he's done, and
when asked where Tom Brady could end up, Collinsworth named
(31:25):
one franchise. Which one, No, not that one, he said,
the Los Angeles Chargers, formerly of Carson, California, soon to
be of Englewood in the hood in Inglewood was the
way that he answered the question. Now, he's not alone.
A number of woke NFL media have said similar things
(31:46):
that the Chargers are going to make a run at
Tom Brady. Now, in theory, tom Brady would be used
for his marketing prowess. Sells some tickets, sell some merchandise.
Trophy quarterback you' have you hear about in Hollywood they have,
you know, trophy wives and all that. Well, maybe would
be a trophy quarterback and the Chargers could show him
(32:06):
off right at fan events and all that stuff, and
he would be the franchise marketing savior, not savior on
the field, Brady, he would be the marketing savior. Anyway,
Let's go back over the weekend, tom Brady addressed whether
or not he would be back with the Patriots. What's
going on with his future? There? He was asked about
all that, and he gave an answer. He answered the question.
(32:28):
I just don't know what's going to happen, and you know,
I'm not going to predict it, and no one needs
to make choices at this point. You know, I love
playing football, I love playing for this team. I love
playing for this team for two decades and and winning
a lot of games. Again, I just I don't know
what it looks like moving forward, So we'll just take
it day by day. Yeah, that does not sound like
someone who wants to do radio, not do radio, not
(32:51):
do football and give it up and go live in
the South of France or wherever, and you know, and
have a wonderful life, and not ready to do that.
How about Bill Belichick? Notice Belichick, we reference this earlier
in the show, but you were probably not listening. Here
is Bill Belichick who was asked about Brady's future, and
of course, like all answers, Bill Belichick gives. He said
(33:13):
nothing obviously, given Tom Brady's age and there's been a
lot of talk about his future, do you have a
timeline in your mindful and you'd like to sit down
and do you have would you like to get clarity
on his situation By the time of new leak, heere
starts look I mean, I know it's out there, just
like there's a lot of other things out there. I mean,
we could bring up fifty questions just like that one,
(33:33):
and I told her what my state is on that,
and so you can ask all fifty of them and
it's going to be the same answer fifty times. Ben,
we've been working on Tennessee, it's twelve hours after the game.
I'm not going to talk a lot of things about
the future because it's not I'm not prepared to talk about.
But technically you are in the future. Thanks for addressing
me as Ben. I appreciate that you answered the question
(33:55):
as Ben, taking it one day at a time. Yeah,
that's very important. It's already been addressed. Now, I understand.
I understand completely, all right. So I know there are
odds out there that are floating around from the offshore
books and where tom Brady's gonna end up, and I
know bet online has some odds out I make my
own lines. I don't need the bookmaker. I make my
(34:15):
own line. So what are my odds that Tom Brady
goes from the Patriots to the charges. I'm gonna set
the odds at plus four hundred. Now, if you're not
a degenerate gambler like myself. That implies a twenty percent chance.
All right, Now, I've got the twilight zone, the band,
and the marching and chowder, and we will line all
(34:36):
these things up and will knock him down like dominoes.
Now to lead off with Tom Brady. Even if you
hate Tom Brady and think he's the spawn of the devil,
he is NFL royalty. The guy's a living legend. He's
the greatest quarterback in pro football history. And for those
of us that like sports, that means something. He zoomed
past Joe Montanas several years ago. So Brady, not that
(34:57):
we'd like to kiss anyone's ass, is in rarefi air.
He's also on borrowed time, all right, as far as
the age game and all that stuff, and even legends
get long in the tooth, and so Brady's in this
weird paradox where he's a legend and an all time
great and he's on a pedestal because of that. But
(35:19):
let's be honest, here's adults. That stench was like a
broken sewer while watching Brady play. Now, more on that
in a little bit. But as far as the Chargers,
I understand why it would make sense from the Charger's perspective,
but from Brady's perspective, it doesn't make sense. If you
(35:42):
drop Tom Brady on the page on the Chargers in
twenty twenty, and we don't know what other moves they're
gonna make. But just for the purposes of this monologuelet's
just see that assume they don't make any real major moves.
That is not a Super Bowl contender. That's not a
team that is going to threaten to go any where.
It's going to continue to spin their wheels. There the Chargers,
(36:05):
and I know they lost a bunch of close games.
Remember the Golden rule. Bad teams lose close games, good
teams win close games. That's how it works. I would
put the Chargers in the middle of the Bell curve
and truth be told that the Bolts franchise is residing
in the Twilight zone, right if you had other options,
if you're Tom Brady, why would you choose to live
(36:28):
in the twilight zone. It doesn't make sense that. Now
I understand the Chargers, Hey, it's a great underdog story,
blah blah blah blah blah, But that would be elder
abuse to have tom Brady played for the Chargers. I mean,
what are we doing here? And that makes anyway LA?
You know, it's not really LA. It's not you know,
(36:48):
like the Rams have got a little traction, a little
bit of traction. The Chargers have no tracks. And I
know the argument is desperate times call for desperate measures.
And the argument against the LA sports scene is it's
all about stars and the people are a bunch of
lemmings and you just throw a big name out there
and the people will show up. And I hate to
(37:10):
say it, but that actually was true. I believe if
Brady went to the Chargers, they would sell a bunch
of tickets and it would be a huge marketing success,
all the pomp and circumstances. They show a bunch of
highlights of Tom Brady with the Patriots back in his
salad days and all that stuff, because you can't find
a bigger name than Tom Brady. But again that's from
the Chargers business side. They ain't gonna be a better
(37:31):
football team with Tom Brady at this point, the way
Brady performed this year in New England. So that's not
a reality, and they're not gonna win. They're not gonna
be a threat to win a Super Bowl. That's not
a plausible scenario. Now. Furthermore, following the loss to the Titan,
now we played the sound by from Tom Brady. He
(37:53):
sounds like someone who's not ready to retire. He sounds
like someone that wants to continue to play pro football.
And if that's the case, he's gonna have options. And
we talked about this a couple months ago, actually about
a month ago, that tom Brady's you know the NFL
quarterback roulette, you know, spin the roulette wheel, the whole thing.
There's gonna be like fifteen of the thirty two teams
(38:16):
that change quarterbacks or will consider changing quarterbacks. Now, I
do not believe, like many who have already decided it's
a fad to complete, that Tom Brady is done with
New England. I don't believe that, like I understand now,
certainly all the indicators are there's a lot of circumstantial
evidence that Tom Brady is dune Skis with the Patriots. Right,
(38:39):
sold his house, his personal guru sold their house. There's
no way the Patriots can franchise tag tom Brady. He
is free to roam around the NFL, and the Patriots
can do nothing to stop him. I understand it, but
I am not closing the door to a reconciling with
(39:01):
the New England Patriots. All it takes is for Tom
Brady to call mister Kraft up to hold a private
meeting at some swanky resort or some day spa in
Palm Beach and you know, hang out there in Miami
and all that, have a wonderful time. Get the band
back together, right, say hey, you go out get some
(39:21):
better playmakers, spend some money. And the Patriots they have
no air to Tom Brady's throne in New England. There's
no one there. Bill Belichick is going to have to
throw spaghetti against the wall to find a replacement at quarterback. Now,
Belichick likely wants to do that because it's tough, and
He's people have said for years that he wants to
(39:43):
win a Super Bowl without Brady, and Brady would like
to win without Belichick. The feeling is mutual, if you
believe the scuttle but around New England and all that.
But I think there's a plus five fifty chance, about
fifteen percent chance that Brady is back with the Patriots,
that commerheads will prevail and that they will work it
(40:04):
out because playing for the charges being the witness protection program.
Now I mentioned that about fifty percent of NFL teams,
forty seven percent are going to change quarterbacks or will
consider it. And you've got the Dolphins, Bengals, Colts, Jags, Titans, Broncos, Chargers, Raiders, Bears, Lions, Steelers, Panthers, Bucks.
(40:26):
How about the Saints. Drew Brees looked old. Drew Brees
looked old. He's over forty. And of course the Patriots.
So of those teams, now the team I have at
the top of my list, you know it is for
Tom Brady. I believe there is a better chance that
Tom Brady goes to Tampa Bay the Buccaneers. Now, Bruce
(40:50):
Arians sounded like a guy who's fed up with Jameis Winson.
Let me give you my argument. I'm giving you my
elevator pitch. Why the Buccaneers make sense for Tom Brady?
All right? On both sides. Like Bruce Arians was supposed
to fix Jameis Winston. He led the NFL in interceptions,
was a hot mess, through a lot of touchdowns, through
(41:10):
a lot of interceptions. And Bruce Arians knows you can't
win with Winston the way he's playing, and so take
Tom Brady for a season. And the argument against Brady
or the pro Brady crowd was that he doesn't have
a lot of playmakers and all that stuff. Well, in
Tampa Bay, problem solved last thing. So Tom Brady looked
(41:32):
to be cooked well done with the Patriots this year. Typically,
when you get past forty and you have a bad season,
it means that you are washed up. Very rarely do
you have a bounceback performance past that age because you
don't get another opportunity. When you get past that age,
(41:53):
that's it. You're done. And he had a mangled Julian
Edelman and really nobody else this year. Antonio Brown played
one game. Philip Dorsett should be out of the NFL.
Nakill Harry did not electrify anybody. The rookie wide receiver
out of Arizona State not exactly the second coming of
Randy Moss or Troy Brown. As a rookie. Mohammedson knew
(42:17):
how do you do? He was a bust coming over
from Atlanta. And you can only throw so many screen
passes to James White and little dump off fastest to
Benjamin Watson before the jig is up who as they say,
so the Brady Marching and Chowder Society claimed, well, he
didn't have playmakers in New England. While going to Tampa Bay,
(42:39):
Chris Godwin and Mike Evans are there. Cameron brad not
a bomb at tight end. You've got several offensive cornerstone
type players playmakers if Brady can get in. The NFC
South is a manageable division. Carolina new coach, who knows
(43:00):
who they're gonna hire, Atlanta Trading trading Water, They're not
going anywhere. They kept their coaching staff together for the
most part, head coach anyway. And the Saints have Drew
Brees who looked old. Raby looked old too. So the
point is that division is not an outrageous path of
an obstacle course to get through. Whereas you figure the
(43:25):
Raiders are going to spend some money, they'll be a
better team in Vegas, and they get all those draft
picks still, so they'll put a better team on the
field in Vegas. And also you've got Kansas City and
Patrick Mahomes in the AFC West. You talk about going
to the Chargers. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports
talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows
(43:45):
at Foxsports Radio dot com and within the iHeart Radio
app search f SR to listen live.
Host
Ben Maller
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