September 9, 2025 • 40 mins
Ben Maller talks about the Ben Johnson's Bears debut as Chicago chokes away a lead against the Minnesota Vikings, how Caleb Williams looked in Johnson's new system, how J.J. McCarthy turned things around for Minnesota, and more!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Boom, Shaka laka. It's our number one, our number one,
and a happy Tuesday to you. It is the ninth
day of September and we had a humdinger of a
Monday night game here on the Ben Maler Show. We reacted,
we said up all night to react to the Vikings
Bears game as Minnesota came storming back in the fourth
(00:21):
quarter down double digits and they pulled out the win.
How did you grade though the better story in the
losing locker room? How did you grade Ben Johnson's debut
as head coach in the Windy City? An epic choke
job at the end? What did you make of Cabb
Williams maiden voyage under this new offensive system for the Bears?
And give me your reaction to JJ McCarthy his first
(00:44):
Viking start, which wasn't much of anything for three quarters,
and then quite the juxtaposition in the fourth and final period.
We'll talk about all that and more right now here.
It is our number one.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Now that is the full Chicago Bears experience right there,
big money coach, number one draft pick, and wow that sucked.
Welcome in the beginning. Come another night of the Ben
Mahlor Show. We are in the air everywhere, birds of
(01:24):
a feather.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
As we are rolling and strolling through the overnight hours,
coast to coast, border to border and beyond. On the
vast and downright, powerful microphones of fs are ammundating live
from the eye do it low, the eye of the hurricane,
the world famous Fox Sports radio studios. That Bears found
(01:45):
themselves in a bit of a late hurricane there. And
we know that this portion of the Ben Maler Show
on Fox made possible apart by our friends at ty Iraq.
For over forty years, ty Iraq has been helping customers
like mister Irrigation find the right tires for how, what
and where they drive. That's right alf and for doukship
fast and freeback by free road hazard protection with convenient
(02:08):
installation options like mobile tire installation, tire rack dot com
the way tire buying should be. So our lead this
hour to begin the night. We start out from sweet Home, Chicago,
right there the shores of Lake Michigan, iconic Soldier Field,
so iconic the Bears can't wait to leave there and
go to a new stadium out in the suburbs. But
(02:30):
for now they're still playing at Soldier Field. They'll be
there for a couple more years until they build that
new shiny taj Mahall Stadium and then gouge people to
go to the stadium. That's the way businesses done in
the NFL anyway. So Soldier Field, that was the stage
right there, with the skyline of Chicago on one side,
and then you had the lake on the other Lake
(02:51):
Michigan there and the final act of the opening weekend
the NFL twenty twenty five season, Vikings and Bears and
FC North slobber Knocker, slabber knocker. Now, this was an
island game. You know, we love our island games. We
love island games. So if you were watching, you likely
know what happens. It happened. If not, maybe if you
(03:13):
were watching, you might not have paid attention. This game
is over. Perhaps you missed it, but don't worry. We
watched so you would not have to. In a very
shaky beginning, they're very wobbly, wobbly beginning for JJ McCarthy,
the rookie, even red shirt rookie, red shirt rookie JJ McCarthy,
(03:36):
who then in the fourth quarter went bonkers. He had
not one but two fourth quarter touchdown passes ran for
another score in his long awaited NFL debut, the former
first round draft pick. The Vikings snapped out of the
duldrums dreadful performance and they end up getting and when
(03:57):
you only remember the outcome, you won't remember how bad
the game was from the Minnesota side of things for
three quarters. But they end up winning it on a
big push twenty seven to twenty four over the Bears.
So that's good for the Vikings for our purposes, though,
the better story is in the losing locker room. So
that is where we are going to go, Sweet home
Chicago Bear football right there. Holy crap. So the debut
(04:22):
of Ben Johnson as the Chicago Bears head coach, the
big money coach who's spent time as the Lions offensive
coordinator and that's where he built his legacy, and so
many teams wanted Ben Johnson to be the coach, and
here's his opportunity in Chicago, and he inherited the former
number one overall per in Caleb who call Williams, who
(04:47):
is bounced all over the place in college and now
in the NFL. Looks like he should be bouncing somewhere else.
The way he played in this game. So with the
better story being in the losing locker room, let us
discuss for the esteem panel, how did you grade Ben
Johnson's debut as a coach in the Windy City. So
(05:08):
I've got utility Bill, the coasters, and hearse, and we
will combine all of these things together, and we're going
to make the Baba Ganooche. We're gonna make it early.
We're gonna make the Baba ganooge here early on. So
my first thought here as we connect all these things together,
my first thought is, and I wrote this down, how
(05:30):
do you grade Ben Johnson on the Malor report card?
How do you grade his debut as coach of the Bears?
Ben Johnson the Malor report card? I wrote down. I
didn't write down an A. I wrote down, s O B. Now,
not what you think, not what you I wrote down,
Same old Bears. That's what I wrote. You probably thought
it meant something else, Same old Bears. That's that's right.
(05:52):
They dominated for three quarters. We're really dominated for two
quarters defensively part of a third. The big interception there.
They did control. The tempo was a low scoring game.
Minnesota could not get out of their own way and
Yet when it was time to finish the opponent off
(06:13):
the kill shot and put them six feet under. What
happened not good. Chicago decided to slide into their snuggie.
The Bears there and they went into hibernation mode and
it burned them. It burned them. Proof that there is
no such thing as momentum. The Bears had all the momentum,
should have won the game. Minnesota had no momentum. Why
(06:36):
would the Bears give up momentum? It makes no sense
because it's not real, you dummies. Anyway, So the Chicago
Bears hired Ben Johnson, who is on the pulse of
He's at the forefront of modern offensive NFL football. That
was the selling point of Ben Johnson, right, slick agent,
(06:57):
the whole thing. And so there we go. Instead of
the next gen, which is all the nerd rage, the
next gen and all that, this was the dormant Bears,
and it was a Bear jamboree, a country bear jamboree. Here.
Every time they had a chance, and there were multiple
opportunities to deliver the knockout punch and just end the game,
(07:21):
they tapped out, I can't do it, cannot do it.
Not gonna happen. Instead, they landed, They landed some little
jabs they couldn't land the haymaker could not land the haymaker,
and Ben Johnson's team pulling punches, which you generally don't
want to see. Listen, I have no skin in the game,
and I'm not a Bears fan or anything like that.
But the power went out and they forgot to pay
(07:44):
their utility bill, and then he needed it most. They're
late in the game, just make one or two plays
who win the game, and they had nothing, so they
forgot to pay the utility bill. There at Soldier Field,
the power went out. And this is not just a loss,
mind you, this is two losses for the Chicago Bears,
because not only lose at home, but you lose a
(08:04):
divisional game in what figures to be a pretty close
nip and talk division. So now you've really lost two
games at home and in the division for the Bears.
That's a double gut punch, is what that is. And
this is supposed to be the New Bears, right, the
new Bears, all that crap that we read and heard about,
(08:25):
Oh it's gonna be different now, oh yeah, it's gonna
be different. Okay, So the job was to protect home
field advantage soldier field. Instead, you hand the w to
the Vikings because as much as we're gonna rip the
offense for the Chicago Bears, the defense. Also, what happened
there to the Chicago Bears defense. I guess Dennis Allen's
(08:46):
back to being a moron after we were really just
kissing his ass on the TV. Brock just oh, Dennis
Allen's defense and all that stuff for three quarters and
then in the fourth not so much. Now as for
the inevitable.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
What are you doing?
Speaker 1 (09:02):
It's it's only one game. Why do you have all
these strong opinions after one game? You know that crowd
spoiler alert, spoil Guess what? Guess what. It's a daily
talk show. I am. I asked to give my opinion
as things unfold. They don't ask me to wait to
the end of the year. I've told management, I said, listen,
why don't you just pay me a lot of money.
(09:23):
I'll have no opinions. I'll be boring. There's a lot
of people that do this that are very boring, don't
know a strong opinion, and I'll just do that and
then just give me like a big bag of money.
At the end, I'll never get an opinion wrong. It'll
be wonderful, it'll be glorious, it's great. But this is
all we have to judge the Bears on. All we
have is one game, one game to judge Ben Johnson
(09:44):
on and the other factor. And I noticed this watching
the way the Bears were throwing the football around, Like
the margin for error in that style of offense for
Ben Johnson and the Chicago Bears is razor thin. And
it's a pass half offense. That's what they do. They
incorporate the running game via short passes and all that stuff.
(10:05):
But you're playing outdoors, you're not playing in a dome
like you were with the Detroit Lions. You've got that
win from Lake Michigan. Swirling around when it gets later
in the year becomes a big problems like a blender
goes swirling around. You've got that to deal with. You've
also got the occasional dormant weather, whether it's fog or
snow when you get late in the year, assuming you
(10:26):
even have a mathematical chance of leaning those games and
having them mean something. If you're the Chicago Bears and
you're struggling in September weather, And I mean, just you
think about what's gonna be like down the line in Chicago,
and it's like wow. And so that's why you can't
call it progress. They lost the game. They rode the
(10:48):
vomit comet and they crashed it into the side of
the building there. Man, it was bad. It's a piecemeal
effort to close the game. Did they think they were
gonna play with a running clock or something like that,
I don't know. Well, here's Ben Johnson, the man of
the hour. Here is the coach of the Chicago football team,
(11:08):
pointing out the key to wins and losses. Take a
us disappointing way to start the season there for us.
You think you can have a seventeen to six lead,
that's right. Yeah, did go the way it did there
in the fourth quarter. You know, we said going into
Week one that the team that would make the least
number of mistakes would win the game, and unfortunately we
were on the wrong side of that. We made too
many there late in the game. Myself included Yeah, So
(11:32):
the coaches always have to include themselves in that. You
can never say to the players. You always have to say, well,
I'm part of that when when you most coaches are like, well, no,
I'm not. That's these are the idiots that screwed up.
I didn't screw up. They screwed up. They have to up.
I had a good game plan, they didn't listen. It's
a bad job by so shame on them. The new
shiny offense right, looked look shiny for but ten of
(11:54):
ten to start the game for Caleb Williams. And then
and then things started popping up that weren't to pop
up there. The Bears teased you, they gave some hope.
There were people excited that, oh this is great, Bears
are gonna get off to the one and oh start
and then they pulled the rug right from underneath you
and Caleb Williams is a debut in the new offense.
Not a lot of fireworks, and for the balance of
(12:15):
the game there it was more like a sparkler, not
explosive pyrotechnic. It was more of a sparkler and it
fizzled out before the game ended. Batch out by him
all right. Now. Secondly, speaking of that wide angle ents
wide angle, NZ, what did you make of cavib williams
maiden voyage as the new Chicago Bears offense gets put
(12:40):
into place. So what do you think? So it was
a tune that topped the hot one hundred back in
the day from the Coasters called yackety Yac and the
song goes, yakay ac, don't talk back. In this case
it was yackety act don't fight back. That's the Bears.
They just they had the lead. The Vikings said we
(13:01):
want this. The Vikings took it, and the Bears were
that's what they did. And Caleb Williams, it turns out
he's multitasking. He's actually moonlighting Caleb Williams as an elevator operator.
I know they don't have many of those left. I
know if you go down to the Hotel del Cornado
there in San Diego, they have elevator operators. And so
(13:22):
he was leaving the elevator door open. He hit the
button that says leave doors open, and he left it
wide open. He said, come on in, come on in Minnesota, Vikings.
I'll give you a ride right to the penthouse where
there's serving w's. You can have one. Knock yourself out.
So here is Caleb Williams, a man that always has
(13:42):
the best looking nails on the football field, and here
is him talking about a bunch of gibberish about this,
that and the other. Mentality.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
We'll take all this that mentality, mentality, have something that
we know that we preach.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
And does that work it out?
Speaker 4 (13:57):
And I'm not it's not a play call thing, it's
not a anything like. That's just being able to go
out there and execute the players that are called and
be able to you know, EXECUTEHM at a high level.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
And that's something.
Speaker 4 (14:07):
That we take pride in. And you know, today that
didn't happen, and we're going to get back to it.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
The good news is Caleb went out, he found in
All Night parlor. He got a manny and a petty
after the game, so he's feeling a little pressed, but
he got the manny and the petty, so he's in
good shape. All right. Now, How bad was Caleb to
allow the Vikings to come back, right, because it's not.
You can't just come back and win a game unless
other team sucks. Remember we talked about this in the
Sunday Night game where the Bills cannot mathematically come back
(14:35):
without the thumbo bug on the rug by Derrick Henry. Well.
In this game, it was just consistent suck in the
second and third quarters where the Bears had opportunities. Talked
about that to close the game out, for example, I
went back, I did the Malord math in the second
and third quarter. Caleb Williams attempted seventeen passes. He completed
(14:57):
less than fifty percent of them. He averaged les less
than five yards per attempt. He was horrible. And so
what was missing? Well, after a minute long deliberation on
the difference between the offense the Lions had with Ben
Johnson and the offense we saw from the Chicago Bears,
the thing that was missing, the secret sauce for Ben
(15:18):
Johnson and the Lions was the yards after the catch
of the yak at the yac and they didn't have
that right Detroit would turn and he still he didn't
do it much against Green Bay, but they'll turn that.
Those little swing passes and the big chunky Peter peanut
butter plays and all that good stuff. You'll stick to
your mouth kind of peanut butter. Hard to defend. The Bears. Now,
(15:41):
they did have a couple of big plays, but not
enough and more smooth peanut butter. Smooth peanut butter, creamy,
easy to swallow and no bite. There's really no bite
to it. A few extra yards, but it was mostly
catch and crash is what it was. All right, now,
final though, So we go now to the winning locker
(16:02):
room where it looked pretty bleak. It looked pretty bleak
for a long stretch of time, but in the end,
the Minnesota Vikings came back. And so give me your
reaction to JJ McCarthy in his first start with the Vikings.
Is the glass half full or is the glass half
(16:22):
empty on the first go round of JJ McCarthy. So
what a juxtaposition? Why don't we start with that? What
a juxtaposition? Because the first three quarters of this game,
I was texting some friends and we were going back
and forth and say, wow, this is one of the
worst performances I can remember, Like, this guy looks like
(16:45):
he'd never played football before. Holy crap. You could literally
see him urinating down his leg. It was wild. And
so you go from that where he was having a
nice meal at the Shaky's Pizza parlor and you know,
just the sticky floors, kind of the low quality pizza,
(17:06):
the mojo potatoes, and the pitcher of flat soda had
all that going for him, and he's just sitting there,
not even close to looking like he knows what he's
doing as an NFL quarterbacks, Like wow, it was like
he was living in Pukesville. And how bad was he?
I'm glad you asked. So the first three quarters of
(17:27):
an NFL game, JJ McCarthy was at seven of twelve passing,
which is not good average less than five yards per
pass attempt. Had fifty six total yards passing through three
quarters of the game, one interception that was a pick
six to give the Chicago Bears an extra score, a
(17:50):
passer rating of thirty five point four going to the
fourth quarter. That was the passer ready. So that means
that they, they being the Minnesota Vikings, would have been
better off off calling up a hearse and holding a
mock funeral procession for the duke and burying the duke,
putting the duke, putting the duke down in the ground, right,
(18:14):
and then just ordering some tombstone pizza and that's it.
See you later. Because the fun fact that we will
use this from time to time. If McCarthy had just
spiked the ball every single time he had snapped the ball,
if he'd spiked the ball every single time into the ground,
his passer rating would have been thirty nine point six. Statistically,
(18:34):
he was actually worse by attempting to pass than if
he had not passed. And it wasn't just bad, it
was historical bad for McCarthy for three quarters. Like it
was worse than just don't screw up, just kind of
be a game manager, that's the baseline. Like the Vikings
essentially played three quarters of an NFL game with a
(18:57):
mannequin at quarterback. That's what they had and it didn't match.
The Bears still left the door open. We talked about this,
Caleb Williams leaving the door open, the opportunity of the air,
and they took advantage of it. Now, Kevin O'Connell is
the Viking head coach. I'm sure he's not going to
say anything negative about the first three quarters of JJ McCarthy. Instead,
(19:19):
we'll focus on the end of the game. Is that correct,
coach JJ McCarthy.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
For him to make some of the plays he did,
I told him at halftime, you are going to bring
us back to win this game, and the look in
his eye was fantastic. The best thing is just a
belief I felt from the team unit, and ultimately that
doesn't get done without him. In the second half, two
passing touchdowns and then the critical rushing touchdown.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
You smell that, Yeah, bull crap, that is bull crap.
That is hot bull crap by Kevin O'Connell. Holy crap,
what a dummy I told him? Yeah? Is that why
he went out after halftime and threw a pick six
in the third quarter? Is that why, coach? Because you
had told him, let's make it even worse, let's dig
(20:05):
a bigger hole. Why not? Why not? Oh? Man, Well
he did light it up in the fourth quarter, but
man alive. It was like a cheat code there late.
But the first three quarters. Greek tragedy goes from it.
We talk about a rewrite. It goes from a Greek
tragedy where everyone's dead, the stage is covered in blood
to a Shakespearean comedy. All's well, that ends. Well, just
(20:27):
like that there, and unfortunately there is a problem. You
cannot just live like that in the NFL. Obviously, right,
you can't stink for forty five minutes and then expect
to play Superman in the fourth quarter. That generally doesn't happen.
It's not Disneyland, it's not like that and it's not sustainable,
so good luck. We'll give him credit for the comeback.
(20:51):
Hell of a rally there for the Vikings to come
back and win it. But the narrative, I'm sure will
be praising JJ McCarthy and how great he was and
there was and all that stuff. To me, though, you
cannot ignore the first three quarters of the game that
he was at the salad bar and he was serving
up suck salad and that's what it was. So that's
(21:14):
a bit of a reality check. I would think he's
a rookie. So yeah, there's gonna be some bumps on
the road and all that, but man, the Vikings, if
that's the way it's gonna go, you talk about a
roller coaster situation. Holy Kenody. Anyway, it is the Ben
Mahlor Show. You want to comment on any of that,
you can join us right now at eight seven, seven
ninety nine on Fox eight seven seven nine nine six
(21:38):
sixty three sixty nine. Also on X at Ben Mahlor.
That's at Ben Mahlor if you want to be part
of the program. And so you're drafted at the very
top of the NFL draft, but you end up at
the very bottom what is that all about. We'll get
to it and we will do it next.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
Be sure to catch a line editions of The Ben
Mellor Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 6 (22:08):
Hey, Steve Covino and I'm Rich David and together We're
Covino and Rich on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
You could catch us.
Speaker 6 (22:14):
Weekdays from five to seven pm Eastern two to four
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and of course the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Why should you listen to Covino and Rich.
Speaker 6 (22:22):
We talk about everything life, sports, relationships, what's going on.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
In the world.
Speaker 6 (22:26):
We have a lot of fun talking about the stories
behind the stories in the world of sports and pop culture,
stories that well other shows don't seem to have the
time to discuss. And the fact that we've been friends
for the last twenty years and still work together.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
I mean that says something, right. So check us out.
Speaker 6 (22:40):
We like to get you involved too, take your phone calls,
chop it up. As they say, I'd say, the most
interactive show on Fox Sports Radio, maybe the most interactive
show on planetar. Be sure to check out Covino and
Rich Live on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app
from five to seven pm Eastern two to four Pacific,
And if you miss any of the live show, just
search Covino and Rich wherever you get your podcast, and
of course on social media that's Cavino and Rich.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Bill Miller and you. It is the Ben Malor Show.
As we are hanging out on the overnight sliding into
a Tuesday, the ninth day of September, still late on
a Monday on the West Coast, is the Minnesota Vikings
get her done thanks to the generosity of the Chicago Bears.
(23:25):
Would take your calls at eight seven, seven ninety nine
on Fox. Also on x You can interact with the
show on X at Ben mallor follow Ben to make
sure your comments are seen, and Sailor Lorena FSR Tech
Queen Hi Bell don't talk to me and Sailor to
(23:45):
Cooper Loop over there at a Bronco fan. Remember your
comments can and we'll be used against you in the
court of sports radio. And now back all right, back
to it we go. Firduck says, not only did Chicago
lose the game, they lost their team as well. Why
would the Bears want to leave such a safe clean city.
(24:08):
I can't, for the life of me figure it out. Yeah,
the suburbs, these suburbs are calling. Can we do a
wellness check on Tree in Chicago's tree? Okay? Can we
see if he's all right down on our buddy Tree there.
Speaker 7 (24:20):
I'm a little worried, like to know if he's over.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
I'm little worried about him there. He's a big Bears guy.
He's probably more focused on the Cubs. Not that that's
going great either. Andy in line o' lakes rights and
says a minus on the opening mount of monologue. I
think JJ has only played three quarters of preseason football
the past two seasons. He probably should have played more
this year. And the Bears are who we thought they
(24:43):
were and we didn't let them off the hook. Great
tribute to the late great Dennis Green worked here. Alf
the Alien, Opina writes, Since there's nothing against you, Ben Mallard,
but you've got no skin in the game. What the
militia want to hear from is hardening commentary from the
(25:03):
number one Bears fan, Lucky Tony. That is a great point.
You know what, I good job, Alf, That's why you're
you're a briggady. Your general the mall of Militia. You're
a senior member. And that's a great point. That's where
the story is. And this guy, Lucky Tony, he calls up,
(25:25):
he says, get is the dumb button? Ready? You're ready
to go in there? All right, let's go down. Let's
go now to the number one Chicago Bears fan who
calls the show regularly. We say hello now to Lucky Tony.
Lucky Tony, welcome to the show.
Speaker 8 (25:39):
Hey Ben, what do you call it?
Speaker 9 (25:41):
Granny and erleker Jersey, I don't know a gummy bear Bears.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Okay, thank you for that interesting commentary there from Lucky Tony. Well,
let's get the other side. Let's go now to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Ooh,
and represent how great we are on all over the
great state of Minnesota. And the person that called up,
the person that had you know, I got to represent
(26:08):
the Viking nation. I got to represent the purple people eaters.
A man who eats anything purple, anything blue, anything green,
anything red, and it doesn't matter. Let's go to hollering
James in Minneapolis, Minnesota. James, hollering, James, you're on the air, James.
Speaker 9 (26:29):
Ain't My prayers were answered? Was that defense. I gotta
work for you. I had to work for you.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Do What is the word?
Speaker 9 (26:38):
What is the word?
Speaker 1 (26:39):
What is the word?
Speaker 9 (26:41):
The word is not very bird? The word is what's that?
Vikings defense? Stellar? Stellar?
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Stellar? Is your word? Okay?
Speaker 9 (26:51):
Jam mcguy.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Oh you have the show on in the background. That's nice.
Speaker 9 (26:57):
Yeah, I'm struggling having this. Let me shut that down radio.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
Someone's listening. You do not want to be banned? No,
that was how about this? It was otherworldly? Does that work?
Other world?
Speaker 9 (27:12):
It was? It was Wayne's world in the game.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Yeah, is this the greatest Viking wins since the famous
game against the Saints?
Speaker 9 (27:24):
I want to let you miracle?
Speaker 1 (27:28):
Well that's what I was talking. Yes, I referenced it. Yes,
the I understand. Was this the This has to be
the craziest win since then? Although actually that's not even
that's not even true. Though, didn't the Vikings came back
against the Colts and that was a Saturday afternoon game.
I remember the Colts had a thirty something point lead
in that game. That was Matt Ryan was a couple
(27:52):
of years ago.
Speaker 9 (27:54):
But you gotta believe, didn't it the cardioc Bryan's sight
quarterback of the cardiac kids.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Brian, I'm waiting for Dick and Dayton to call up
with the Brian Sipe take. That's interesting.
Speaker 9 (28:08):
That's a shout out went on. I met at the
meet and greet.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
You did not meet Dick and Dayton. Dick and Dayton
was not at the met Greek. You met Doc Mike.
Doc Mike was at the meet and greet. You didn't
meet Dick and Dayton. Doc Mike was who hasn't called
the show in a while, but Doc he was there, So.
Speaker 9 (28:27):
Mike what he does call the show. I want to
hear all your ben mother malicious to follow.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Okay, I feel you lost your voice. I need to go.
You're good, everything good?
Speaker 9 (28:37):
Yes, your voice betaking to me. I'll lose my voice?
Were you anytime? You know why nights when was what
they lose every single I'm.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Not saying it will okay, So just for the record,
so we'll send that out on social media. So you
believe that that win was so juicy, It was such
a delicious win for the Vikings that if they were
to start losing games rapidly, you'd be okay with that
from the pure bliss that you're feeling right now, the
joy in your heart from beating the Chicago Bears. If
(29:07):
they go out and stumble back to back to the
Falcons and Bengals at home, you'll be okay with that. Yes,
I got relatives in Chicago. Heck yeah, okay, So do
what we have that in common? I have relatives of
them in Chicago too. It's a small world. And the
Rada we met me and I've met you haven't met him.
I met him. I had the honor. Did we hug?
Speaker 5 (29:28):
I don't we hugged?
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Did we hug?
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Don't?
Speaker 1 (29:35):
I'm not paying any attention to it. He's too excited,
he's fired up.
Speaker 7 (29:38):
His vikings are.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Just you know, James, can you do a Viking skull chant?
Can you do that?
Speaker 9 (29:50):
All right?
Speaker 1 (29:51):
We need to We need a clean copy of that, James.
We're gonna do this here. Everyone quiet on the set here, James,
give me a skull chant? Go ahead, No, perfect that.
That's a drop. That's a hollering James, drop right there.
You're gonna be immortalized in a drop. James. Congratulations, you've
(30:13):
already asked this. Other people you're ball guarding the time.
There's other people on the hold. They want to talk
you're ball guarding the time. Don't bull guard the time.
Don't be selfish, don't be a hawser. What's wrong with you? No,
I thought the game was over. No, but I did
pick the I did pick the Vikings to win the
game on the Benny versus the Penny on YouTube. No,
(30:36):
you did not, Jimmy James. You every week you say
the Vikings are going to win every fing week. That's
not a tip. Okay, all right, all right, And the
next step, James, is this right here? See this is
a there we go. That's the next step. I hope
you enjoy that. Let's go now to tiger Man, a hero.
(30:57):
We met tiger Man at the Mall of Meat Greed
from the great date of Missouri where there are tigers,
but his heart is in batar rouge. Hello tiger Man.
Speaker 8 (31:06):
Ben, you know what on a night where you know
all five of my teams, Jaden and Joe in the NFL,
then LSU, d YU and Utah all game the wins,
I'm calling you disappointed. We have the best wide receiver
at all of football who had one catch for four
yards and three quarters.
Speaker 9 (31:26):
Yeah, I mean you gotta get honey.
Speaker 8 (31:28):
Come on, Justin Jefferson is a generational talent. You can't
do that. They need a quarterback, you know, JJ. If
there wasn't for all the spy Gates stuff, he would
be nothing.
Speaker 9 (31:39):
He's a Sonnith brown.
Speaker 8 (31:40):
Pick at best and unbelievable. I'm just very disappointed.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
And that's see, that's a good take. That's why we
like you, tiger Man. That's an original take that McCarthy's
a fraud, that he hardly threw the ball at Michigan
and it was all because of the spy stuff, and
that's why he was good. And you take all that away,
and what do you get? YEA for three quarters? Maybe
the Vike Did they start using binoculars you think in
the fourth quarter or something like that. Maybe they went
(32:06):
the old Michigan tricks.
Speaker 8 (32:08):
Well, I think it's Hossle obviously. You know Cottner Stallions.
He's just working at a heighth school now, so he
probably needs to get some side gig.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
What do you are you working at a fat tiger Man?
Are you working at a factory? What do you I
hear a lot about I'm me a noise in the background.
Where are you at, tiger Man?
Speaker 8 (32:23):
Oh, I'm on a run, right, now Ben, sorry, he's
on the run.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Look at this guy's running from the cops. He's on
the run. Tiger man, Dan go tigers all right this leek, yes,
thank you, all right, go get back to what you're
doing there, Thank you, tiger man. Big the LSU guy
and Jefferson ended up with he had four catches for
seventy seven yards or forty four yards, not seventy seven
forty four yards as it's hard to have more than that,
(32:49):
the Vikings passing offense man, which makes it all the
more ridiculous that they came back and won the game
the way they did. Who as el stinko as they.
Speaker 7 (33:01):
Were through it.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
You slept through the game. You go to bed right
before kickoff or something.
Speaker 7 (33:06):
No, I slept from nine to four and then again
from five thirty till eight.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
That would be the majority of the game. Yeah, big
sleep day for you.
Speaker 7 (33:16):
Good though, big sleep day, lots of.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Lots of sleep, tough weekend everything, all right, No, No,
it was good.
Speaker 7 (33:22):
I think I slept okay. I don't know why I
was so.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
A lot of sleep though it's a big it's a lot.
I feel like so you woke up to like get
somebody to eat and go back to sleep. Is that
why you woke up?
Speaker 7 (33:31):
Or eight?
Speaker 1 (33:32):
You did not eat?
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (33:33):
I didn't either. I took the day off.
Speaker 7 (33:34):
I did have poutine fries tonight, though.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
Really good, right, yes, wonderful?
Speaker 7 (33:39):
WHOA I had them two hours after I ordered them, Coop,
I don't want to, yeah, but I do, I say,
I don't see any cheese curds in here. It's a
big mound of melted cheese.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
You have to it, You don't.
Speaker 7 (33:50):
Melted cheese is not poutine. Cheese curds are melted on
top of fry. No, yes they are.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Well, there's a gravy sauce that the smothered. There is
a day short ribbon. Well, cheese curds sounds like poutine
to me. It's not cheese curds. It's just cheese.
Speaker 7 (34:05):
No, it's cheese curds. They were curdy when they came out,
and then they curdy.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
And they melted. Yeah, and they melted on. You can't
eat poutine. Poutine is one of those foods you gotta
eat right away.
Speaker 7 (34:14):
You can't know. It was just a really large portionon
but you know.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Me, yeah, you cannot. You can't recreate the magic of
the boutine because you can't put in the microwave because
then the cheese will become rubbery. Yeah you can, so
you can't do that, and you can maybe put in
an air fryer maybe, but even that, like the quality
will be very good and not very good. Anyway. It
is the Ben Malor Show. If you would like to
(34:38):
opine on any of this, you can join us right
now on X at Ben Malor that's at Ben Mahlor
and also on the phones at eight seven seven ninety
nine on Fox eight seven seven nine nine six sixty
three six nine. So we've heard from the Bears fans,
we've heard from the Viking fans, and the LSU fans.
(35:01):
They've all checked in time now though for the who
Am I? Game? This is where I pretend to be
somebody else and you have to try to figure out
who I am. So Vikings quarterback JJ McCarthy the first
starting quarterback with a ten plus point fourth quarter comeback
in his NFL debut since me who? It's been a minute?
(35:23):
The Vikings JJ McCarthy, the first starting QB with a
ten plus point fourth quarter comeback in his NFL debut
since me? Who Am I? That is the question the answer,
We'll get to it and we will do it. Next.
Speaker 5 (35:42):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Bill Miller and you. It is the Ben Malor Show
and we are fired up for the YouTube channels relatively
new for the radio show on the Ben Maler Show.
Just go to YouTube dot com at Benmahlor Show. Now,
if you're already within the YouTube universe, just search Ben
Malors Show. It's most likely going to have to put
(36:09):
the at Ben Mahler Show. Be sure to hit that
subscribe button. You'll have instant access to Mallard monologues the
very best. You know, I love that word videos. That's
why it's in the copy videos for the show. Also
other amazing content, so check that out. Also, there's another channel,
Benny Versus Penny Bennie versus the Penny. New episodes drop
(36:31):
every week as you get all my NFL picks why
I am picking who I'm picking? All that good stuff.
So we'll have that as well. But Ben Malor Show
YouTube channel at Ben Malor Show and at Benny Vspenny.
Help us out follow those channels you're on YouTube anyway,
You're futzing around pretending to work. I know you are,
so do that.
Speaker 9 (36:50):
Thank God for the Internet.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
All right, back to it we go. Time to pay
off the who Am I? Game? This is where I
pretend to be somebody else? As we call it, the
who Am I? Game? JJ McCarthy. That's a quarterback who
sold for three quarters and then lit the world on
fire in the fourth and final quarter. Minnesota Viking quarterback
JJ McCarthy the first starting quarterback with a ten plus
(37:11):
point fourth quarter comeback in his NFL debut. Since me,
who am I? That is the question? What is the answer?
Bobby in Florida is going with Corey Feldman as his answer. Well,
he's changed a lot over the years. Who else? Do
we have a page down? Osho texto just to confess
(37:33):
that he watches way too much, way too much sports
and listens to too much sports radio. Bad job by
u OH show texto Milkman. Mike in Colorado says the
Texas Dolly Doc Mike is the answer answer. William's going
with Sonny six Killer as the answer. Benito, the long
(37:53):
suffering cowboy fan, says the answer is nothing beats a
Jet two Holiday? Now, can someone explain that to me?
I'm not that bright?
Speaker 7 (38:01):
What is You're so funny?
Speaker 1 (38:02):
What is that? I don't understand what that is. I
see that people send me videos and that's like in
the background. I don't understand what is that?
Speaker 7 (38:09):
This was like it's kind of mocking it, right, like, oh,
good holiday, but it's something horrible.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
Yeah? Is that just the that's the default thing. Now,
you just go with that, Okay, all right? A late
night drug tester says, the answer is j R. Smith,
who was forty today. You might remember j R. Smith
the only player in NBA history to dribble out the
clock in a tie game in the NBA Finals. That
was so good? What a dubby?
Speaker 9 (38:35):
God?
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Was that good? Alfie remember doing the show after that?
He just dripple the ball out in a tie game
for Cleveland. Yeah. Todd Marinovich or is he used to
be known? Marijuanovich from alf the Alien O Pinter, John
Wayne Gacy from King Rory. That's his answer. Who else
do we have? Page and Andy and lion O Lakes
(38:58):
also listens to too much sports radio, so he got
it right. Eloy from Compton does not. He says, it's
Coop's man crush Tim Tebow that that is the answer.
Joe Burrow from Just Josh Lynn Dickey, guess by I
forty Ian cam fig Newton from Femi the top Uber.
Each driver there in Minnesota, Areek says the Viking quarterback
(39:19):
you met at the Mermaid touchdown, Tommy Kramer. Good dude,
Tommy Kramer. I was going to some real, real health
problems there. But he was a very cordial, very polite,
very kind there when we were able to hang out
together at the Mermaid. Malaprop guy says, it's sk Skoll
hollering James, Lorena, do you have an answer?
Speaker 7 (39:40):
Lorena, I'm gonna go with Teddy Bridgewater.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Bridgewater, over bridge, over troubled Waters. No, that is incorrect.
The correct answer is none other than the Hall of
Famer from the forty nine ers, Steve Young in nineteen
eighty five, way back, I wasn't even a lie man
had a lot time ago. My god, it
Boom, Shaka laka. It's our number one, our number one,
and a happy Tuesday to you. It is the ninth
day of September and we had a humdinger of a
Monday night game here on the Ben Maler Show. We reacted,
we said up all night to react to the Vikings
Bears game as Minnesota came storming back in the fourth
(00:21):
quarter down double digits and they pulled out the win.
How did you grade though the better story in the
losing locker room? How did you grade Ben Johnson's debut
as head coach in the Windy City? An epic choke
job at the end? What did you make of Cabb
Williams maiden voyage under this new offensive system for the Bears?
And give me your reaction to JJ McCarthy his first
(00:44):
Viking start, which wasn't much of anything for three quarters,
and then quite the juxtaposition in the fourth and final period.
We'll talk about all that and more right now here.
It is our number one.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Now that is the full Chicago Bears experience right there,
big money coach, number one draft pick, and wow that sucked.
Welcome in the beginning. Come another night of the Ben
Mahlor Show. We are in the air everywhere, birds of
(01:24):
a feather.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
As we are rolling and strolling through the overnight hours,
coast to coast, border to border and beyond. On the
vast and downright, powerful microphones of fs are ammundating live
from the eye do it low, the eye of the hurricane,
the world famous Fox Sports radio studios. That Bears found
(01:45):
themselves in a bit of a late hurricane there. And
we know that this portion of the Ben Maler Show
on Fox made possible apart by our friends at ty Iraq.
For over forty years, ty Iraq has been helping customers
like mister Irrigation find the right tires for how, what
and where they drive. That's right alf and for doukship
fast and freeback by free road hazard protection with convenient
(02:08):
installation options like mobile tire installation, tire rack dot com
the way tire buying should be. So our lead this
hour to begin the night. We start out from sweet Home, Chicago,
right there the shores of Lake Michigan, iconic Soldier Field,
so iconic the Bears can't wait to leave there and
go to a new stadium out in the suburbs. But
(02:30):
for now they're still playing at Soldier Field. They'll be
there for a couple more years until they build that
new shiny taj Mahall Stadium and then gouge people to
go to the stadium. That's the way businesses done in
the NFL anyway. So Soldier Field, that was the stage
right there, with the skyline of Chicago on one side,
and then you had the lake on the other Lake
(02:51):
Michigan there and the final act of the opening weekend
the NFL twenty twenty five season, Vikings and Bears and
FC North slobber Knocker, slabber knocker. Now, this was an
island game. You know, we love our island games. We
love island games. So if you were watching, you likely
know what happens. It happened. If not, maybe if you
(03:13):
were watching, you might not have paid attention. This game
is over. Perhaps you missed it, but don't worry. We
watched so you would not have to. In a very
shaky beginning, they're very wobbly, wobbly beginning for JJ McCarthy,
the rookie, even red shirt rookie, red shirt rookie JJ McCarthy,
(03:36):
who then in the fourth quarter went bonkers. He had
not one but two fourth quarter touchdown passes ran for
another score in his long awaited NFL debut, the former
first round draft pick. The Vikings snapped out of the
duldrums dreadful performance and they end up getting and when
(03:57):
you only remember the outcome, you won't remember how bad
the game was from the Minnesota side of things for
three quarters. But they end up winning it on a
big push twenty seven to twenty four over the Bears.
So that's good for the Vikings for our purposes, though,
the better story is in the losing locker room. So
that is where we are going to go, Sweet home
Chicago Bear football right there. Holy crap. So the debut
(04:22):
of Ben Johnson as the Chicago Bears head coach, the
big money coach who's spent time as the Lions offensive
coordinator and that's where he built his legacy, and so
many teams wanted Ben Johnson to be the coach, and
here's his opportunity in Chicago, and he inherited the former
number one overall per in Caleb who call Williams, who
(04:47):
is bounced all over the place in college and now
in the NFL. Looks like he should be bouncing somewhere else.
The way he played in this game. So with the
better story being in the losing locker room, let us
discuss for the esteem panel, how did you grade Ben
Johnson's debut as a coach in the Windy City. So
(05:08):
I've got utility Bill, the coasters, and hearse, and we
will combine all of these things together, and we're going
to make the Baba Ganooche. We're gonna make it early.
We're gonna make the Baba ganooge here early on. So
my first thought here as we connect all these things together,
my first thought is, and I wrote this down, how
(05:30):
do you grade Ben Johnson on the Malor report card?
How do you grade his debut as coach of the Bears?
Ben Johnson the Malor report card? I wrote down. I
didn't write down an A. I wrote down, s O B. Now,
not what you think, not what you I wrote down,
Same old Bears. That's what I wrote. You probably thought
it meant something else, Same old Bears. That's that's right.
(05:52):
They dominated for three quarters. We're really dominated for two
quarters defensively part of a third. The big interception there.
They did control. The tempo was a low scoring game.
Minnesota could not get out of their own way and
Yet when it was time to finish the opponent off
(06:13):
the kill shot and put them six feet under. What
happened not good. Chicago decided to slide into their snuggie.
The Bears there and they went into hibernation mode and
it burned them. It burned them. Proof that there is
no such thing as momentum. The Bears had all the momentum,
should have won the game. Minnesota had no momentum. Why
(06:36):
would the Bears give up momentum? It makes no sense
because it's not real, you dummies. Anyway, So the Chicago
Bears hired Ben Johnson, who is on the pulse of
He's at the forefront of modern offensive NFL football. That
was the selling point of Ben Johnson, right, slick agent,
(06:57):
the whole thing. And so there we go. Instead of
the next gen, which is all the nerd rage, the
next gen and all that, this was the dormant Bears,
and it was a Bear jamboree, a country bear jamboree. Here.
Every time they had a chance, and there were multiple
opportunities to deliver the knockout punch and just end the game,
(07:21):
they tapped out, I can't do it, cannot do it.
Not gonna happen. Instead, they landed, They landed some little
jabs they couldn't land the haymaker could not land the haymaker,
and Ben Johnson's team pulling punches, which you generally don't
want to see. Listen, I have no skin in the game,
and I'm not a Bears fan or anything like that.
But the power went out and they forgot to pay
(07:44):
their utility bill, and then he needed it most. They're
late in the game, just make one or two plays
who win the game, and they had nothing, so they
forgot to pay the utility bill. There at Soldier Field,
the power went out. And this is not just a loss,
mind you, this is two losses for the Chicago Bears,
because not only lose at home, but you lose a
(08:04):
divisional game in what figures to be a pretty close
nip and talk division. So now you've really lost two
games at home and in the division for the Bears.
That's a double gut punch, is what that is. And
this is supposed to be the New Bears, right, the
new Bears, all that crap that we read and heard about,
(08:25):
Oh it's gonna be different now, oh yeah, it's gonna
be different. Okay, So the job was to protect home
field advantage soldier field. Instead, you hand the w to
the Vikings because as much as we're gonna rip the
offense for the Chicago Bears, the defense. Also, what happened
there to the Chicago Bears defense. I guess Dennis Allen's
(08:46):
back to being a moron after we were really just
kissing his ass on the TV. Brock just oh, Dennis
Allen's defense and all that stuff for three quarters and
then in the fourth not so much. Now as for
the inevitable.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
What are you doing?
Speaker 1 (09:02):
It's it's only one game. Why do you have all
these strong opinions after one game? You know that crowd
spoiler alert, spoil Guess what? Guess what. It's a daily
talk show. I am. I asked to give my opinion
as things unfold. They don't ask me to wait to
the end of the year. I've told management, I said, listen,
why don't you just pay me a lot of money.
(09:23):
I'll have no opinions. I'll be boring. There's a lot
of people that do this that are very boring, don't
know a strong opinion, and I'll just do that and
then just give me like a big bag of money.
At the end, I'll never get an opinion wrong. It'll
be wonderful, it'll be glorious, it's great. But this is
all we have to judge the Bears on. All we
have is one game, one game to judge Ben Johnson
(09:44):
on and the other factor. And I noticed this watching
the way the Bears were throwing the football around, Like
the margin for error in that style of offense for
Ben Johnson and the Chicago Bears is razor thin. And
it's a pass half offense. That's what they do. They
incorporate the running game via short passes and all that stuff.
(10:05):
But you're playing outdoors, you're not playing in a dome
like you were with the Detroit Lions. You've got that
win from Lake Michigan. Swirling around when it gets later
in the year becomes a big problems like a blender
goes swirling around. You've got that to deal with. You've
also got the occasional dormant weather, whether it's fog or
snow when you get late in the year, assuming you
(10:26):
even have a mathematical chance of leaning those games and
having them mean something. If you're the Chicago Bears and
you're struggling in September weather, And I mean, just you
think about what's gonna be like down the line in Chicago,
and it's like wow. And so that's why you can't
call it progress. They lost the game. They rode the
(10:48):
vomit comet and they crashed it into the side of
the building there. Man, it was bad. It's a piecemeal
effort to close the game. Did they think they were
gonna play with a running clock or something like that,
I don't know. Well, here's Ben Johnson, the man of
the hour. Here is the coach of the Chicago football team,
(11:08):
pointing out the key to wins and losses. Take a
us disappointing way to start the season there for us.
You think you can have a seventeen to six lead,
that's right. Yeah, did go the way it did there
in the fourth quarter. You know, we said going into
Week one that the team that would make the least
number of mistakes would win the game, and unfortunately we
were on the wrong side of that. We made too
many there late in the game. Myself included Yeah, So
(11:32):
the coaches always have to include themselves in that. You
can never say to the players. You always have to say, well,
I'm part of that when when you most coaches are like, well, no,
I'm not. That's these are the idiots that screwed up.
I didn't screw up. They screwed up. They have to up.
I had a good game plan, they didn't listen. It's
a bad job by so shame on them. The new
shiny offense right, looked look shiny for but ten of
(11:54):
ten to start the game for Caleb Williams. And then
and then things started popping up that weren't to pop
up there. The Bears teased you, they gave some hope.
There were people excited that, oh this is great, Bears
are gonna get off to the one and oh start
and then they pulled the rug right from underneath you
and Caleb Williams is a debut in the new offense.
Not a lot of fireworks, and for the balance of
(12:15):
the game there it was more like a sparkler, not
explosive pyrotechnic. It was more of a sparkler and it
fizzled out before the game ended. Batch out by him
all right. Now. Secondly, speaking of that wide angle ents
wide angle, NZ, what did you make of cavib williams
maiden voyage as the new Chicago Bears offense gets put
(12:40):
into place. So what do you think? So it was
a tune that topped the hot one hundred back in
the day from the Coasters called yackety Yac and the
song goes, yakay ac, don't talk back. In this case
it was yackety act don't fight back. That's the Bears.
They just they had the lead. The Vikings said we
(13:01):
want this. The Vikings took it, and the Bears were
that's what they did. And Caleb Williams, it turns out
he's multitasking. He's actually moonlighting Caleb Williams as an elevator operator.
I know they don't have many of those left. I
know if you go down to the Hotel del Cornado
there in San Diego, they have elevator operators. And so
(13:22):
he was leaving the elevator door open. He hit the
button that says leave doors open, and he left it
wide open. He said, come on in, come on in Minnesota, Vikings.
I'll give you a ride right to the penthouse where
there's serving w's. You can have one. Knock yourself out.
So here is Caleb Williams, a man that always has
(13:42):
the best looking nails on the football field, and here
is him talking about a bunch of gibberish about this,
that and the other. Mentality.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
We'll take all this that mentality, mentality, have something that
we know that we preach.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
And does that work it out?
Speaker 4 (13:57):
And I'm not it's not a play call thing, it's
not a anything like. That's just being able to go
out there and execute the players that are called and
be able to you know, EXECUTEHM at a high level.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
And that's something.
Speaker 4 (14:07):
That we take pride in. And you know, today that
didn't happen, and we're going to get back to it.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
The good news is Caleb went out, he found in
All Night parlor. He got a manny and a petty
after the game, so he's feeling a little pressed, but
he got the manny and the petty, so he's in
good shape. All right. Now, How bad was Caleb to
allow the Vikings to come back, right, because it's not.
You can't just come back and win a game unless
other team sucks. Remember we talked about this in the
Sunday Night game where the Bills cannot mathematically come back
(14:35):
without the thumbo bug on the rug by Derrick Henry. Well.
In this game, it was just consistent suck in the
second and third quarters where the Bears had opportunities. Talked
about that to close the game out, for example, I
went back, I did the Malord math in the second
and third quarter. Caleb Williams attempted seventeen passes. He completed
(14:57):
less than fifty percent of them. He averaged les less
than five yards per attempt. He was horrible. And so
what was missing? Well, after a minute long deliberation on
the difference between the offense the Lions had with Ben
Johnson and the offense we saw from the Chicago Bears,
the thing that was missing, the secret sauce for Ben
(15:18):
Johnson and the Lions was the yards after the catch
of the yak at the yac and they didn't have
that right Detroit would turn and he still he didn't
do it much against Green Bay, but they'll turn that.
Those little swing passes and the big chunky Peter peanut
butter plays and all that good stuff. You'll stick to
your mouth kind of peanut butter. Hard to defend. The Bears. Now,
(15:41):
they did have a couple of big plays, but not
enough and more smooth peanut butter. Smooth peanut butter, creamy,
easy to swallow and no bite. There's really no bite
to it. A few extra yards, but it was mostly
catch and crash is what it was. All right, now,
final though, So we go now to the winning locker
(16:02):
room where it looked pretty bleak. It looked pretty bleak
for a long stretch of time, but in the end,
the Minnesota Vikings came back. And so give me your
reaction to JJ McCarthy in his first start with the Vikings.
Is the glass half full or is the glass half
(16:22):
empty on the first go round of JJ McCarthy. So
what a juxtaposition? Why don't we start with that? What
a juxtaposition? Because the first three quarters of this game,
I was texting some friends and we were going back
and forth and say, wow, this is one of the
worst performances I can remember, Like, this guy looks like
(16:45):
he'd never played football before. Holy crap. You could literally
see him urinating down his leg. It was wild. And
so you go from that where he was having a
nice meal at the Shaky's Pizza parlor and you know,
just the sticky floors, kind of the low quality pizza,
(17:06):
the mojo potatoes, and the pitcher of flat soda had
all that going for him, and he's just sitting there,
not even close to looking like he knows what he's
doing as an NFL quarterbacks, Like wow, it was like
he was living in Pukesville. And how bad was he?
I'm glad you asked. So the first three quarters of
(17:27):
an NFL game, JJ McCarthy was at seven of twelve passing,
which is not good average less than five yards per
pass attempt. Had fifty six total yards passing through three
quarters of the game, one interception that was a pick
six to give the Chicago Bears an extra score, a
(17:50):
passer rating of thirty five point four going to the
fourth quarter. That was the passer ready. So that means
that they, they being the Minnesota Vikings, would have been
better off off calling up a hearse and holding a
mock funeral procession for the duke and burying the duke,
putting the duke, putting the duke down in the ground, right,
(18:14):
and then just ordering some tombstone pizza and that's it.
See you later. Because the fun fact that we will
use this from time to time. If McCarthy had just
spiked the ball every single time he had snapped the ball,
if he'd spiked the ball every single time into the ground,
his passer rating would have been thirty nine point six. Statistically,
(18:34):
he was actually worse by attempting to pass than if
he had not passed. And it wasn't just bad, it
was historical bad for McCarthy for three quarters. Like it
was worse than just don't screw up, just kind of
be a game manager, that's the baseline. Like the Vikings
essentially played three quarters of an NFL game with a
(18:57):
mannequin at quarterback. That's what they had and it didn't match.
The Bears still left the door open. We talked about this,
Caleb Williams leaving the door open, the opportunity of the air,
and they took advantage of it. Now, Kevin O'Connell is
the Viking head coach. I'm sure he's not going to
say anything negative about the first three quarters of JJ McCarthy. Instead,
(19:19):
we'll focus on the end of the game. Is that correct,
coach JJ McCarthy.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
For him to make some of the plays he did,
I told him at halftime, you are going to bring
us back to win this game, and the look in
his eye was fantastic. The best thing is just a
belief I felt from the team unit, and ultimately that
doesn't get done without him. In the second half, two
passing touchdowns and then the critical rushing touchdown.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
You smell that, Yeah, bull crap, that is bull crap.
That is hot bull crap by Kevin O'Connell. Holy crap,
what a dummy I told him? Yeah? Is that why
he went out after halftime and threw a pick six
in the third quarter? Is that why, coach? Because you
had told him, let's make it even worse, let's dig
(20:05):
a bigger hole. Why not? Why not? Oh? Man, Well
he did light it up in the fourth quarter, but
man alive. It was like a cheat code there late.
But the first three quarters. Greek tragedy goes from it.
We talk about a rewrite. It goes from a Greek
tragedy where everyone's dead, the stage is covered in blood
to a Shakespearean comedy. All's well, that ends. Well, just
(20:27):
like that there, and unfortunately there is a problem. You
cannot just live like that in the NFL. Obviously, right,
you can't stink for forty five minutes and then expect
to play Superman in the fourth quarter. That generally doesn't happen.
It's not Disneyland, it's not like that and it's not sustainable,
so good luck. We'll give him credit for the comeback.
(20:51):
Hell of a rally there for the Vikings to come
back and win it. But the narrative, I'm sure will
be praising JJ McCarthy and how great he was and
there was and all that stuff. To me, though, you
cannot ignore the first three quarters of the game that
he was at the salad bar and he was serving
up suck salad and that's what it was. So that's
(21:14):
a bit of a reality check. I would think he's
a rookie. So yeah, there's gonna be some bumps on
the road and all that, but man, the Vikings, if
that's the way it's gonna go, you talk about a
roller coaster situation. Holy Kenody. Anyway, it is the Ben
Mahlor Show. You want to comment on any of that,
you can join us right now at eight seven, seven
ninety nine on Fox eight seven seven nine nine six
(21:38):
sixty three sixty nine. Also on X at Ben Mahlor.
That's at Ben Mahlor if you want to be part
of the program. And so you're drafted at the very
top of the NFL draft, but you end up at
the very bottom what is that all about. We'll get
to it and we will do it next.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
Be sure to catch a line editions of The Ben
Mellor Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 6 (22:08):
Hey, Steve Covino and I'm Rich David and together We're
Covino and Rich on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
You could catch us.
Speaker 6 (22:14):
Weekdays from five to seven pm Eastern two to four
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and of course the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Why should you listen to Covino and Rich.
Speaker 6 (22:22):
We talk about everything life, sports, relationships, what's going on.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
In the world.
Speaker 6 (22:26):
We have a lot of fun talking about the stories
behind the stories in the world of sports and pop culture,
stories that well other shows don't seem to have the
time to discuss. And the fact that we've been friends
for the last twenty years and still work together.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
I mean that says something, right. So check us out.
Speaker 6 (22:40):
We like to get you involved too, take your phone calls,
chop it up. As they say, I'd say, the most
interactive show on Fox Sports Radio, maybe the most interactive
show on planetar. Be sure to check out Covino and
Rich Live on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app
from five to seven pm Eastern two to four Pacific,
And if you miss any of the live show, just
search Covino and Rich wherever you get your podcast, and
of course on social media that's Cavino and Rich.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Bill Miller and you. It is the Ben Malor Show.
As we are hanging out on the overnight sliding into
a Tuesday, the ninth day of September, still late on
a Monday on the West Coast, is the Minnesota Vikings
get her done thanks to the generosity of the Chicago Bears.
(23:25):
Would take your calls at eight seven, seven ninety nine
on Fox. Also on x You can interact with the
show on X at Ben mallor follow Ben to make
sure your comments are seen, and Sailor Lorena FSR Tech
Queen Hi Bell don't talk to me and Sailor to
(23:45):
Cooper Loop over there at a Bronco fan. Remember your
comments can and we'll be used against you in the
court of sports radio. And now back all right, back
to it we go. Firduck says, not only did Chicago
lose the game, they lost their team as well. Why
would the Bears want to leave such a safe clean city.
(24:08):
I can't, for the life of me figure it out. Yeah,
the suburbs, these suburbs are calling. Can we do a
wellness check on Tree in Chicago's tree? Okay? Can we
see if he's all right down on our buddy Tree there.
Speaker 7 (24:20):
I'm a little worried, like to know if he's over.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
I'm little worried about him there. He's a big Bears guy.
He's probably more focused on the Cubs. Not that that's
going great either. Andy in line o' lakes rights and
says a minus on the opening mount of monologue. I
think JJ has only played three quarters of preseason football
the past two seasons. He probably should have played more
this year. And the Bears are who we thought they
(24:43):
were and we didn't let them off the hook. Great
tribute to the late great Dennis Green worked here. Alf
the Alien, Opina writes, Since there's nothing against you, Ben Mallard,
but you've got no skin in the game. What the
militia want to hear from is hardening commentary from the
(25:03):
number one Bears fan, Lucky Tony. That is a great point.
You know what, I good job, Alf, That's why you're
you're a briggady. Your general the mall of Militia. You're
a senior member. And that's a great point. That's where
the story is. And this guy, Lucky Tony, he calls up,
(25:25):
he says, get is the dumb button? Ready? You're ready
to go in there? All right, let's go down. Let's
go now to the number one Chicago Bears fan who
calls the show regularly. We say hello now to Lucky Tony.
Lucky Tony, welcome to the show.
Speaker 8 (25:39):
Hey Ben, what do you call it?
Speaker 9 (25:41):
Granny and erleker Jersey, I don't know a gummy bear Bears.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Okay, thank you for that interesting commentary there from Lucky Tony. Well,
let's get the other side. Let's go now to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Ooh,
and represent how great we are on all over the
great state of Minnesota. And the person that called up,
the person that had you know, I got to represent
(26:08):
the Viking nation. I got to represent the purple people eaters.
A man who eats anything purple, anything blue, anything green,
anything red, and it doesn't matter. Let's go to hollering
James in Minneapolis, Minnesota. James, hollering, James, you're on the air, James.
Speaker 9 (26:29):
Ain't My prayers were answered? Was that defense. I gotta
work for you. I had to work for you.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Do What is the word?
Speaker 9 (26:38):
What is the word?
Speaker 1 (26:39):
What is the word?
Speaker 9 (26:41):
The word is not very bird? The word is what's that?
Vikings defense? Stellar? Stellar?
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Stellar? Is your word? Okay?
Speaker 9 (26:51):
Jam mcguy.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
Oh you have the show on in the background. That's nice.
Speaker 9 (26:57):
Yeah, I'm struggling having this. Let me shut that down radio.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
Someone's listening. You do not want to be banned? No,
that was how about this? It was otherworldly? Does that work?
Other world?
Speaker 9 (27:12):
It was? It was Wayne's world in the game.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Yeah, is this the greatest Viking wins since the famous
game against the Saints?
Speaker 9 (27:24):
I want to let you miracle?
Speaker 1 (27:28):
Well that's what I was talking. Yes, I referenced it. Yes,
the I understand. Was this the This has to be
the craziest win since then? Although actually that's not even
that's not even true. Though, didn't the Vikings came back
against the Colts and that was a Saturday afternoon game.
I remember the Colts had a thirty something point lead
in that game. That was Matt Ryan was a couple
(27:52):
of years ago.
Speaker 9 (27:54):
But you gotta believe, didn't it the cardioc Bryan's sight
quarterback of the cardiac kids.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Brian, I'm waiting for Dick and Dayton to call up
with the Brian Sipe take. That's interesting.
Speaker 9 (28:08):
That's a shout out went on. I met at the
meet and greet.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
You did not meet Dick and Dayton. Dick and Dayton
was not at the met Greek. You met Doc Mike.
Doc Mike was at the meet and greet. You didn't
meet Dick and Dayton. Doc Mike was who hasn't called
the show in a while, but Doc he was there, So.
Speaker 9 (28:27):
Mike what he does call the show. I want to
hear all your ben mother malicious to follow.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Okay, I feel you lost your voice. I need to go.
You're good, everything good?
Speaker 9 (28:37):
Yes, your voice betaking to me. I'll lose my voice?
Were you anytime? You know why nights when was what
they lose every single I'm.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Not saying it will okay, So just for the record,
so we'll send that out on social media. So you
believe that that win was so juicy, It was such
a delicious win for the Vikings that if they were
to start losing games rapidly, you'd be okay with that
from the pure bliss that you're feeling right now, the
joy in your heart from beating the Chicago Bears. If
(29:07):
they go out and stumble back to back to the
Falcons and Bengals at home, you'll be okay with that. Yes,
I got relatives in Chicago. Heck yeah, okay, So do
what we have that in common? I have relatives of
them in Chicago too. It's a small world. And the
Rada we met me and I've met you haven't met him.
I met him. I had the honor. Did we hug?
Speaker 5 (29:28):
I don't we hugged?
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Did we hug?
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Don't?
Speaker 1 (29:35):
I'm not paying any attention to it. He's too excited,
he's fired up.
Speaker 7 (29:38):
His vikings are.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Just you know, James, can you do a Viking skull chant?
Can you do that?
Speaker 9 (29:50):
All right?
Speaker 1 (29:51):
We need to We need a clean copy of that, James.
We're gonna do this here. Everyone quiet on the set here, James,
give me a skull chant? Go ahead, No, perfect that.
That's a drop. That's a hollering James, drop right there.
You're gonna be immortalized in a drop. James. Congratulations, you've
(30:13):
already asked this. Other people you're ball guarding the time.
There's other people on the hold. They want to talk
you're ball guarding the time. Don't bull guard the time.
Don't be selfish, don't be a hawser. What's wrong with you? No,
I thought the game was over. No, but I did
pick the I did pick the Vikings to win the
game on the Benny versus the Penny on YouTube. No,
(30:36):
you did not, Jimmy James. You every week you say
the Vikings are going to win every fing week. That's
not a tip. Okay, all right, all right, And the
next step, James, is this right here? See this is
a there we go. That's the next step. I hope
you enjoy that. Let's go now to tiger Man, a hero.
(30:57):
We met tiger Man at the Mall of Meat Greed
from the great date of Missouri where there are tigers,
but his heart is in batar rouge. Hello tiger Man.
Speaker 8 (31:06):
Ben, you know what on a night where you know
all five of my teams, Jaden and Joe in the NFL,
then LSU, d YU and Utah all game the wins,
I'm calling you disappointed. We have the best wide receiver
at all of football who had one catch for four
yards and three quarters.
Speaker 9 (31:26):
Yeah, I mean you gotta get honey.
Speaker 8 (31:28):
Come on, Justin Jefferson is a generational talent. You can't
do that. They need a quarterback, you know, JJ. If
there wasn't for all the spy Gates stuff, he would
be nothing.
Speaker 9 (31:39):
He's a Sonnith brown.
Speaker 8 (31:40):
Pick at best and unbelievable. I'm just very disappointed.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
And that's see, that's a good take. That's why we
like you, tiger Man. That's an original take that McCarthy's
a fraud, that he hardly threw the ball at Michigan
and it was all because of the spy stuff, and
that's why he was good. And you take all that away,
and what do you get? YEA for three quarters? Maybe
the Vike Did they start using binoculars you think in
the fourth quarter or something like that. Maybe they went
(32:06):
the old Michigan tricks.
Speaker 8 (32:08):
Well, I think it's Hossle obviously. You know Cottner Stallions.
He's just working at a heighth school now, so he
probably needs to get some side gig.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
What do you are you working at a fat tiger Man?
Are you working at a factory? What do you I
hear a lot about I'm me a noise in the background.
Where are you at, tiger Man?
Speaker 8 (32:23):
Oh, I'm on a run, right, now Ben, sorry, he's
on the run.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Look at this guy's running from the cops. He's on
the run. Tiger man, Dan go tigers all right this leek, yes,
thank you, all right, go get back to what you're
doing there, Thank you, tiger man. Big the LSU guy
and Jefferson ended up with he had four catches for
seventy seven yards or forty four yards, not seventy seven
forty four yards as it's hard to have more than that,
(32:49):
the Vikings passing offense man, which makes it all the
more ridiculous that they came back and won the game
the way they did. Who as el stinko as they.
Speaker 7 (33:01):
Were through it.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
You slept through the game. You go to bed right
before kickoff or something.
Speaker 7 (33:06):
No, I slept from nine to four and then again
from five thirty till eight.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
That would be the majority of the game. Yeah, big
sleep day for you.
Speaker 7 (33:16):
Good though, big sleep day, lots of.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Lots of sleep, tough weekend everything, all right, No, No,
it was good.
Speaker 7 (33:22):
I think I slept okay. I don't know why I
was so.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
A lot of sleep though it's a big it's a lot.
I feel like so you woke up to like get
somebody to eat and go back to sleep. Is that
why you woke up?
Speaker 7 (33:31):
Or eight?
Speaker 1 (33:32):
You did not eat?
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (33:33):
I didn't either. I took the day off.
Speaker 7 (33:34):
I did have poutine fries tonight, though.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
Really good, right, yes, wonderful?
Speaker 7 (33:39):
WHOA I had them two hours after I ordered them, Coop,
I don't want to, yeah, but I do, I say,
I don't see any cheese curds in here. It's a
big mound of melted cheese.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
You have to it, You don't.
Speaker 7 (33:50):
Melted cheese is not poutine. Cheese curds are melted on
top of fry. No, yes they are.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Well, there's a gravy sauce that the smothered. There is
a day short ribbon. Well, cheese curds sounds like poutine
to me. It's not cheese curds. It's just cheese.
Speaker 7 (34:05):
No, it's cheese curds. They were curdy when they came out,
and then they curdy.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
And they melted. Yeah, and they melted on. You can't
eat poutine. Poutine is one of those foods you gotta
eat right away.
Speaker 7 (34:14):
You can't know. It was just a really large portionon
but you know.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Me, yeah, you cannot. You can't recreate the magic of
the boutine because you can't put in the microwave because
then the cheese will become rubbery. Yeah you can, so
you can't do that, and you can maybe put in
an air fryer maybe, but even that, like the quality
will be very good and not very good. Anyway. It
is the Ben Malor Show. If you would like to
(34:38):
opine on any of this, you can join us right
now on X at Ben Malor that's at Ben Mahlor
and also on the phones at eight seven seven ninety
nine on Fox eight seven seven nine nine six sixty
three six nine. So we've heard from the Bears fans,
we've heard from the Viking fans, and the LSU fans.
(35:01):
They've all checked in time now though for the who
Am I? Game? This is where I pretend to be
somebody else and you have to try to figure out
who I am. So Vikings quarterback JJ McCarthy the first
starting quarterback with a ten plus point fourth quarter comeback
in his NFL debut since me who? It's been a minute?
(35:23):
The Vikings JJ McCarthy, the first starting QB with a
ten plus point fourth quarter comeback in his NFL debut
since me? Who Am I? That is the question the answer,
We'll get to it and we will do it. Next.
Speaker 5 (35:42):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Bill Miller and you. It is the Ben Malor Show
and we are fired up for the YouTube channels relatively
new for the radio show on the Ben Maler Show.
Just go to YouTube dot com at Benmahlor Show. Now,
if you're already within the YouTube universe, just search Ben
Malors Show. It's most likely going to have to put
(36:09):
the at Ben Mahler Show. Be sure to hit that
subscribe button. You'll have instant access to Mallard monologues the
very best. You know, I love that word videos. That's
why it's in the copy videos for the show. Also
other amazing content, so check that out. Also, there's another channel,
Benny Versus Penny Bennie versus the Penny. New episodes drop
(36:31):
every week as you get all my NFL picks why
I am picking who I'm picking? All that good stuff.
So we'll have that as well. But Ben Malor Show
YouTube channel at Ben Malor Show and at Benny Vspenny.
Help us out follow those channels you're on YouTube anyway,
You're futzing around pretending to work. I know you are,
so do that.
Speaker 9 (36:50):
Thank God for the Internet.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
All right, back to it we go. Time to pay
off the who Am I? Game? This is where I
pretend to be somebody else? As we call it, the
who Am I? Game? JJ McCarthy. That's a quarterback who
sold for three quarters and then lit the world on
fire in the fourth and final quarter. Minnesota Viking quarterback
JJ McCarthy the first starting quarterback with a ten plus
(37:11):
point fourth quarter comeback in his NFL debut. Since me,
who am I? That is the question? What is the answer?
Bobby in Florida is going with Corey Feldman as his answer. Well,
he's changed a lot over the years. Who else? Do
we have a page down? Osho texto just to confess
(37:33):
that he watches way too much, way too much sports
and listens to too much sports radio. Bad job by
u OH show texto Milkman. Mike in Colorado says the
Texas Dolly Doc Mike is the answer answer. William's going
with Sonny six Killer as the answer. Benito, the long
(37:53):
suffering cowboy fan, says the answer is nothing beats a
Jet two Holiday? Now, can someone explain that to me?
I'm not that bright?
Speaker 7 (38:01):
What is You're so funny?
Speaker 1 (38:02):
What is that? I don't understand what that is. I
see that people send me videos and that's like in
the background. I don't understand what is that?
Speaker 7 (38:09):
This was like it's kind of mocking it, right, like, oh,
good holiday, but it's something horrible.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
Yeah? Is that just the that's the default thing. Now,
you just go with that, Okay, all right? A late
night drug tester says, the answer is j R. Smith,
who was forty today. You might remember j R. Smith
the only player in NBA history to dribble out the
clock in a tie game in the NBA Finals. That
was so good? What a dubby?
Speaker 9 (38:35):
God?
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Was that good? Alfie remember doing the show after that?
He just dripple the ball out in a tie game
for Cleveland. Yeah. Todd Marinovich or is he used to
be known? Marijuanovich from alf the Alien O Pinter, John
Wayne Gacy from King Rory. That's his answer. Who else
do we have? Page and Andy and lion O Lakes
(38:58):
also listens to too much sports radio, so he got
it right. Eloy from Compton does not. He says, it's
Coop's man crush Tim Tebow that that is the answer.
Joe Burrow from Just Josh Lynn Dickey, guess by I
forty Ian cam fig Newton from Femi the top Uber.
Each driver there in Minnesota, Areek says the Viking quarterback
(39:19):
you met at the Mermaid touchdown, Tommy Kramer. Good dude,
Tommy Kramer. I was going to some real, real health
problems there. But he was a very cordial, very polite,
very kind there when we were able to hang out
together at the Mermaid. Malaprop guy says, it's sk Skoll
hollering James, Lorena, do you have an answer?
Speaker 7 (39:40):
Lorena, I'm gonna go with Teddy Bridgewater.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Bridgewater, over bridge, over troubled Waters. No, that is incorrect.
The correct answer is none other than the Hall of
Famer from the forty nine ers, Steve Young in nineteen
eighty five, way back, I wasn't even a lie man
had a lot time ago. My god, it
Host
Ben Maller
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.