January 5, 2026 • 47 mins
Big Ben talks about the Ravens choking away the SNF game against the Steelers and getting eliminated from playoffs contention, the Atlanta Falcons firing coach Raheem Morris after two years, Maller to the Third Degree, Insta-Advice Line, and more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Mahler
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
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Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is the best of the Ben Maler Show on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Well, if you had the Ravens making the postseason, which
just about everybody, Dad, you are a loser. Well come
in the beginning of another night and another year for
me of the Ben Mahlor Show. We are in the air,
EveryWare together as we are the square peg of radio,
(01:01):
whatever that means, coast to coast, border, the border and beyond.
On the vast and mighty powerful microphones of fsre emmundating
live do it live from the saddles. We are back
in the saddle again the world famous Fox Sports Radio Studios,
as approved by Doc Dan, who knows that this show
(01:25):
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That's well, he's not a real dog, he's just Doc Dan.
I don't believe the man's a real doctor. I've not
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buying should be. And we are back at it again here.
I saw some cockroaches walked into well maybe as away
(02:08):
for a little bit, so maybe they fixed the infestation,
but no, they have not. They have not, So you're
just kind of like seeing an old friend. When you
see a little cockroach scirming around on the floor, You're like, oh,
that's where I belong here. Those are my insects right there.
It's kind of cool. So our lead this hour is
from Western Pennsilvan. It's excited to be back here. We're
(02:28):
looking forward to a lot of fun and we'll have
some Mallard meet and greets during the course of the
year in random places to be determined at a later date.
Hopefully we'll make it the plan is to make it
to an Ohio Meet and greet at some point this year,
but that is all stuff we will talk about as
we work our way through the overnight. We'll start out
in Western Pa. It was the AFC North Championship game.
(02:51):
There was the final game of the twenty twenty five
regular season. The NFL has jammed two hundred and seventy
to regular season games into one hundred and twenty two days.
This all started back on September fourth of last year.
Way back in twenty twenty five. You might remember the
Cowboys and the Eagles they got together. It was a
(03:14):
real spinner, a slobber knocker. Literally. It started with a
giant loogie flying out of the mouth of one of
the Eagle players. And that's how the season began. And
it ended with Lamar Jackson returning to lead the Ravens
into Pittsburgh. Winner gets the playoffs. A wrangle against Aaron Rogers.
So the winner gets the division. The loser goes on
(03:38):
a nice vacation, nice tropical vacation somewhere, So there really
are no losers, and there's either go on a vacation
you go play a playoff game somewhere. So you had
Mike Tarico Chris Collinsworth on NBC. They had the call. Now,
I don't if you watched it or not. Maybe you
were not watching it. I don't know what else you're watching.
It was really nothing else to watch. We watched it,
and this was a roller coaster of a game, A
(04:01):
roller coaster of the game. Aaron Rodgers gets the headline
on it. He threw the go ahead touchdown to Calvin
Austin with fifty five seconds left on the clock. However,
the Steelers they missed the extra point, giving Baltimore an opportunity,
and the Steelers ended up getting the I don't know
(04:23):
how you say it here, they ended up getting the
benefit of the idiot kicker in this game. They squeezed
past the Ravens twenty six twenty four. All the Ravens
need was needed was a field goal, and they did
get into field goal range rather quickly. A complete meltdown
by the Yinzers defense as Lamar Jackson, that was MVP
(04:43):
Lamar in the fourth quarter as he sliced up the
Steelers took Baltimore down the field. They're set up what
in modern NFL is a chip shot field goal forty
four yard field goal attempt by Tyler Loop. Who Tyler Loop,
make the kick. You're in the playoffs. Miss the kick
(05:04):
and that's it. You're done. And as time expired, the
kick went up and yeah, he went to to the
right side of the goalpost, not through the goalpost. Who goofed?
I've got to know. And so with that, these Steelers
have advanced. They will have a home game wild Card weekend,
(05:25):
but not on Saturday, not on Sunday. Instead, on Monday
Night they will take on the Houston Texans. That'll be
the match up there on Monday Night. They had that
a couple of years ago, Monday Night football in the playoffs.
So that'll be the story with thisburd Now. The better
story though, for our purposes, is in the losing locker room.
(05:49):
The Baltimore Ravens are dun Skis and the window for
Lamar Jackson to get her done. Now. He's been a
terrible big game quarterback in his career and played really
well down the stretch in this game. Didn't play this
so well in the middle part of the game, but
down the stretch played very well, but in the end
not enough. And so Baltimore is done. Here is their
(06:12):
head coach John Harbaugh. As we discuss, and he points
out that even though the idiot kicker missed the kick,
he says, apparently there were other people to blame. Thing
as what you saw and this game is pretty much
what you've seen all year from a heart etifort and
fight standpoint. Just didn't play well enough to you know,
(06:33):
close it out. Now. You hear the question in the
answer on this one, and you know here John Harbaugh
asked about the Ravens situation. Now, it's it's pretty, it's
low hanging through. It's kind of obvious what Harball is
going to say. But let's take a listen.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
This just happened. You feel you one another shots with
these guys.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Yeah, I'm I'm I'm I love this guy. I love
this guy. Say no, these guys suck. They're so bad.
I'm so happy I never have to coach that team again.
My god, they're horrible. I think Sports with Coleman, the
podcast guy in Baltimore do a better job playing defense
to some of these stiffs. What else is gonna say?
(07:17):
All right, we'll hear from Lamar in a minute, but
let's start with just the wide angle lens on the
Ravens as they do not qualify for the playoffs. To question,
as we discuss who do you blame, who do you
blame for Lamar Jackson the Ravens not qualifying the bar,
the very minimum bar and make the playoffs. Hey, this
is the great, all time greats Hall of Fame quarterback
(07:40):
Lamar Jackson, and they're not even in the playoffs. All right,
So my thoughts on this. I've got Flatulen's way back
machine and trump card and we will combine all of
these things together and we're gonna present to you a
combo meal deal. So that's the first ever combo meal
deal that we're gonna give you year of sports take.
(08:01):
So a we are going to blame a kindergarten song
is who we're going to blame, all right, Crank up
the old boone box. Damn Bones a classic song, demn Bones. Right,
the headbone is connected to the neck bone, the neck
bones connected to the backbone. Except in Baltimore, the whole
skeleton system, the whole skeleton there was held together by
(08:25):
duck tape and some Elmer's glue and a lot of
wishful thinking. And in the end, Lamar who played thirteen
games this season. Now the Ravens played seventeen. Lamar played thirteen,
and he missed chunks of the games he did play
in for the Ravens. A bunch of those games Lamar
played in he was playing in a dingy, if you
know what I'm saying there. It was kind of like
(08:46):
your phone was at twelve percent when they had Lamar
out there twelve percent and then ends up dying at
twelve percent. Well, of the phone's not supposed to die
twelve percent. He should get down like five percent, seven percent,
but it died at twelve percent unreliable when it actually mattered, unreliable.
(09:06):
Baltimore was six and seven in games started by Lamar
Jackson at a losing record. This year, they were two
and two in games he did not play in. He
also lost to three non playoff teams the Ravens did
this year and got swept by the Pittsburgh Steelers. So
that's a pretty good way to not make the postseason,
(09:29):
and so you lose into non playoff team teams that
did not end up qualifying for the postseason. There's kind
of like trusting some cheap tires in a rainstorms. You
could get away with it sometimes it doesn't really work
all that much. There so seven games with one or
zero touchdown passes for Lamar this year, seven of them
(09:50):
played thirteen. Seven of them he had no touchdown passes
or one touchdown. So this was not for most of
the season. This was not the NVP version of Lamar Jackson.
It was Lamar Light, caffeine free, low calorie, low calorie
for Lamar. And so they played with their food all season,
(10:10):
they being the Baltimore Ravens, and wound up thanks to
the kicker there at the end, going to Detention instead
instead of going to the postseason. So this is kind
of like microwaving your leftovers and calling it gourmet. You
should at least put it in the air frighter, don't
put on the microw I don't know anything that tastes
(10:30):
good other than popcorn in the microwaven, even that you
can make it on the stove and it would taste better.
That's just my hot food take that's my high. I
just I don't like things in the microwave. I don't,
sam I am, I don't. I just don't like them.
So and now the postseason Boogeyman has a right things
(10:50):
that go bumpity bump in the night for the Ravens.
Lamar's name certainly will be floated through talk radio like
ance floating through an elevator, and so we hear a
lot about Lamar. Here's Lamar, here's his thoughts. He was
asked about the future and no, here's what he had
to say this offseason. There's a lot of questions about
(11:11):
your contract, Solard cat number.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Do you do you feel your you'll be back as
the Raves for racing season?
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Brop.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
We just lost a game, you know, a divisional game,
you know, a game to put us in the playoffs.
I'm not even thinking about that right now. To be
honest with Johan, don't still caught up in what just happened.
You know, that's not my focus right now.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Sounds like a guy that does not want to play
for the Ravens anymore. The easy answer, the simple answer,
is I love it here. I don't want to play
aywhere else. Lamar didn't say that. Lamar said, I haven't
thought about that, which means that in my mind, he's
thought about playing somewhere else. He want to He don't
give a straight answer, didn't give a straight answer. It
sounds like a guy that does not want to play
for the Baltimore Ravens anymore. That's the sound of Lamar Jackson.
(11:53):
And there's a real debate. There's a real debate here
about Lamar and he has been a batter ring ram
type of quarterback for the Ravens. And so do you
keep riding the horse, of course, until the horse collapses
and goes to the glue factory, or do you decommission
as a Raven Lamar Jackson a year or two too soon,
(12:16):
and you do that before the wheels fall off. It
sounds like Lamar's not real happy. I mean, the easy
answer is I love it here. I don't want to
play whe else. I haven't thought about it, but I
don't want to play. Why would I want to play
somewhere else. I didn't say that. Instead, he gave the
default answer, Well, you know, we just played a game.
If you know you like it somewhere, don't you say
you like it there? Am I wrong? Am I reading
(12:37):
this wrong? I don't think I am. It's a simple
thing to say. I love it here. Oh my god,
I want to go anywhere else. Listen. I love Fox
Sports Tray, every cockroach that drops from the ceiling. I
love it the smell of trash when I come in
on a Sunday night into a Monday. I love the
rum of the trash here because I love it here.
It's not like, well, I don't know if I like you.
(12:57):
I don't know, you know, I mean, think about it.
I mean, I'm just trying to do a show. I'm
just trying to get through the monologue. I'm just trying
to get through the bloody monologue. That's all I'm trying
to come on now. As for John Harbaugh, the coach,
he seems relatively safe. I don't think they're gonna get
rid of him, he says. This is a this is
a situation similar to Mike Tomlin, tenured professor at Harvard.
(13:17):
You're not gonna get rid of John Harbaugh, not at
this point. Now on the Pittsburgh side, the question for
the esteem paddle are the Aaron Rogers Steelers a good
team or just a fortunate team? All right? So the
answer is yes, no, maybe so with a lot of pepto,
(13:42):
just extra pepto. This feels a lot like every other
Mike Tomlin Steeler team post Ben Roethlisberger. Like it doesn't
feel any and they like the names have changed slightly.
The names are a little different. For the Steelers Pittsburgh,
they stumbled and they humboled. It was like a shopping
cart with a bad wheel. There's a one hundred shopping
(14:05):
carts in front of the store. You pick the one
that has the bad wheel, and then you're like, what
do I do? Do I put it back and give
somebody else the one with the bad wheel? Do I
try to push it? Do I try to find a
different cart while I'm in That's my move. Go to Costco,
I get the one with the bad wheel, and I
take it. And then people just they leave their They
leave their carts around the store, so I'll just grab
(14:27):
someone else's car because they don't use anymore. This is
leaving it on side. That's it. But you look at Pittsburgh,
this did not look like a playoff team. Did not
sound like a playoff team. You look at the way
they played this particular game. They stumbled and bumbled. As
we said there, especially late in the game Lamar Jackson
when we just did a serenade about Lamar in his situation.
When you look at the play in the fourth corner,
(14:48):
Lamar was really good, really good. He pulled out the
butcher knife. Lamar Jackson had seventy two percent almost of
his passing yards for the whole game in the final
fifteen minutes, one hundred and seventy one two thirty eight
and a couple of touchdowns, error free football for Lamar Jackson,
and it was an oil painting. He was a museum piece.
(15:08):
That was la Mar the Ravens had gotten when he
was winning regular season the MVPs and it was still
not enough. Why because Mike Tomlin went to the way
back machine and it was a wonderful life for Mike Tomlin.
Clarence the Angel had a terrible towel and the divine intervention.
There was a full moon, I guess a few days back,
their cosmic event, the whole thing there. Pittsburgh blows an
(15:31):
extra point and then Baltimore says, all right, bal don't lie.
You blew an extra point. So let's have our kicker
do the old loop d loop and miss the kick
face plant chip shot modern NFL field goal, and so
that happens. Now, do the Steelers scare you if you
are like the Texas. We're on in Houston you're in Houston.
Are you afraid of Pittsburgh? No, hell no, nobody's afraid
(15:55):
of Pittsburgh. However, they are lethal at home. They have
been lethal. Well that's what they have done in primetime games.
They get the Monday night slot, the Steelers, and they're
like a giant anaconda that doesn't look that fast until
until it's too late. And so you got a dome team.
(16:16):
You got a dome team from Houston going to frigid
Pittsburgh with temperatures around freezing the long term forecast for
a week from this Monday here, So the weather math
looks good. With the malor math CJ. Stroud's not very good.
Although these teams played in the regular season in Pittsburgh
(16:37):
lost by seven thousand points, but that was the regular
season and the playoff team. So this is a playoff
team obviously, much different situation. You're so good team, eh, now,
fortunate team Pittsburgh, Absolutely fortunate team, and sometimes that's all
you need. Right. Meanwhile, to La we go, La la Land.
The Rams procured the number five seed and the closest
(16:58):
thing you can get to a bye without actually having won,
the losers of Carolina. What a suck team that is
who got into the playoffs backed in. They lost their
game on Saturday, and then because of the Atlanta victory,
the Panthers, a losing franchise, is in the playoffs. So
the Rams get the half by there, that's not the story.
Sean McVay comenty about Matthew Stafford postgame. Now he was
(17:24):
asked about the MVP award. Stafford in the running for
the MVP award. They're finished up completing twenty five of
forty passes two fifty nine, four touchdown passes for Matthew
Stafford to fatten up the stat sheet against that pathetic
Cardinal team, which actually have a lead late in that game.
Rams pulled away though in the final part of the
(17:46):
fourth quarter, but nonetheless so question Rams head coach Sean
McVay saying that Matthew Stafford is the MVP. What say you?
Speaker 2 (17:57):
All right?
Speaker 1 (17:57):
So on this one, this was Sean McVeigh grabbing the
megaphone and working in the room, is what it was.
I was working the room here and I think we
have we have Here's listen to mcgae. Here's a McVeigh
commenting about Matthew Stafford. And this is just a little
sound bite, but little give you a flavor of the coach.
Take a list. Yes, I think Matthew's the MVP of
the league. He played that way. Wouldn't want anybody else
(18:19):
leading the way. Got a lot of respect for a
bunch of people in this league. But there's nobody I'd
rather have being the quarterback of the La Rams than
Matthew Stafford. His uh, his place speech for itself. Keep
in mind the Rams did look elsewhere last offseason, but
they bought them back. He played well. So that was
a stump speech by Sean McVay, not a sermon, not
(18:40):
a sermon. It was a little stump speech. His handshakes, backslaps.
Politicking is the term that you could use there, politicking. Uh.
And you know you got to defend your quarterbacks, you
got to sell your quarterback to win the MVP and
and all that. And you know Saffron's argument it's no
one and is wrapped up. I mean, we're at the
(19:01):
end now, this is it right, It's a regular season
war and there's no clear MVP even as we sit
here hours after the final NFL regular season game was played.
Stafford's argument is he's thirty thirty seven. I believe he's
played quarterback the season. Veteran, He's played like a They
used to say cab driver, I can say uber drivers now.
(19:22):
The guy that knows every back alley, every short cut,
every trapdoor, no look passes, parlor tricks, and only a
couple of duds during the season. He did all that
with some gray whiskers. And the numbers, they're MVP number.
You say, just based on the numbers, he's the MVP.
I don't have as much debate on that. Stafford end
(19:43):
of the season with the top yardage, show led the
NFL in passing yards, he led the NFL in passing touchdowns.
That seems kind of like a big deal. I don't know,
maybe not. And only eight interceptions by Matthew Stafford. That's
a tremendous accomplishment for to only have eight interceptions so
high mileage, low wear, and tear carved up legitimate defense
(20:07):
is not paper tigers like the guy he's going against
for the MVP. And this still I believe will be
a photo finish with Drake May of the Patriots, the
shiny new efficient munster quarterback. There, he's got the legs,
he's the tool threat quarterback Drake May, and he's got
(20:27):
the launch codes for the Patriots offense and all that stuff.
But Stafford his trump card. This is the trump card
for Matthew Stafford. The MVP voters love the storyline. They're
all almost all a bunch of washed up sports writers, right,
so they still hang on a bunch of old people
and they love the storyline. So the storyline is, oh,
(20:48):
Matthew Stafford after all these years, and it looked like
he wasn't gonna play this year, and he played. He
led the league, led the entire league in touchdown passes
and yardage. And that's an MVP's dotting the I like
the Ohio State Marching band. That's just wrapping the whole
career up. You win the MVP and you send him
(21:08):
off to the Hall of Fame, and that's it. So
that's the story. Now the Drake May thing as well, Yeah,
he'll have plenty of time to win an MVP. The
argument against Drake May as well, Yeah, the Patriots, goody
played a bunch of tomato cans. It's hard to argue
against that. The easiest schedule in NFL history. Now, to
Drake May's credit, he took advantage of it, and the
Patriots won a bunch of games beating bad teams, which
(21:31):
they were. That's what you're supposed to do, so that's great.
So the jury is still out developing hot dot dot dot.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Hey, it's Rob Parker and Kelvin Washington from The Odd
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Speaker 3 (21:51):
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Speaker 1 (22:20):
Time to update your coaching Bingo card. Welcome in the
beginning of another hour of The Ben Mather Show. We
are in the air of rewhear side by side as
we use our knoggin coast the coast, border to border
(22:40):
and beyond on the vast and herculean lee powerful microphones
of FSR am monating Live from the Ball the Running
of the bull Crap for twenty twenty six with the
world famous Fox Sports Radio Studios, as approved by Noah
in Austin, who Noahs that this portion of the show
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As the coaching carousel goes round and round and round
and round, the coaching carousel, round and round and round
and round, rounding around. Man, the wins have change blowing.
(24:14):
Oh man, make our own sound effects around here, so
the strong breeze. Thank you. We used to have a
guy wo worked here named Coolbrees, but he didn't work
anymore anyway. The Falcons have whacked their head coach. They've
fired Raheem Morris. Hey going he gone? If you did
not hear, maybe not. Raheem Morris and the GM a
two for one combo as Terry Fontineau got the no no,
(24:39):
as he's gone two straight clunker seasons in the atl
and the exits confirmed. Just hours after Atlanta wrapped up
a losing season with a win, they took down the
New Orleans Saints to help the suck bag Carolina Panthers
make the playoffs. So the Falcons finished the season by
winning four straight games. What de damn do the headline players?
(25:05):
Many of them came out very vocal, full throated endorsements
for their head coach, including Drake London, the wide receiver
and Vijehon Robinson, the mustard man in the backfield, both
endorsing endorsing the head coach, and it did not matter.
Morris is not going to be back for a third
season at the Helm. He's out and Fontineau is right
(25:26):
behind him. Make sure that the door don't hit you
where the Good Lord split you when you leave the building. There.
So the Falcons have not made the playoffs since twenty seventeen,
which is doesn't seem like it's that long ago, but
it's been been a while. That's back when the ass
one thousand and two, one thousand holes were cheating in
the World Series and got away with it because Baseball's
(25:48):
got a spineless, gutless commissioner. But I'm not here to
talk about that anyway. So it's been a minute. Falcons
suck second longest drought for the playoffs in the league.
Atlanta also has not had a winning record in eight seasons,
which seems to be problematic. I didn't play in the NFL.
I don't work in the NFL. It seems like if
you can't even win more games than you lose that
(26:11):
something is not going right there. And Morris and the
Falcons in two years went sixteen and eighteen. That is
a losing record and a good jumping off point. So
let us discuss the question did the Falcons do Raheem
Morris dirty, not giving him a third season and dumping
(26:31):
him after two full years in Georgia. So my observations,
I've got second Scoop Rancero and President's Award, and we'll
combine all of these things together and we're gonna play
Connect three is what we're gonna do now. Number so
(26:53):
on my scorecard, the malor scorecard. Two words. It's absolutely
not in terms of Raheem Morris getting some kind of
raw deal. Did the Falcons do him dirty? No, they
did not. This was not some kind of hit job
by Arthur Blank, the home depot guy that owns the
(27:13):
Atlanta Falcons. This was more of a youth in Asia situation,
if you will. Morris already face planted one of the
worst coaching runs in NFL history the first time around.
When he was in Tampa. You might remember Raheem Morris
was partying with the players and the bucks that they
were reports saying that he was just one of the guys.
He was about the age of the players. He was
out having a great time chasing girls and drinking and
(27:36):
all that stuff, which would have been fine if the
team hadn't sucked in Tampa Bay, which they did, and
so as well, he was a young guy. He's older. Now,
let's give him another opportunity. They like twenty years ago.
Let's give him the guy. All right, We'll give Hi
an opportunity. So Atlanta gave him a mulligan. They said,
you know what, We're gonna take you down to the
ice cream stand. We're gonna get to his second scoop
of ice cream. And here you go, here's your second school.
(27:57):
And he said, oh man, I really like that, Thank
you so much. And so Morris proved that as a
head coach, he's a really nice guy. He's a really
nice guy. And as a head coach, blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. That's
what he is, right, And so somehow the geniuses in
Atlanta hired Raheem Morris, who had already shown that he
(28:19):
wasn't a good head coach, but they gave Hi another
opportunity instead of Bill Belichick, who at one point was
in line for that. Oh Belichick sucks at North Carolina.
He does. He did stalk at North Carolina. And he's
got that little fluozy chase. He's chasing on. I still
would have hired Belichick instead of Raheem Morris. I'd still
hire Belichick because I have a talk show to do
every night, and hire Belichick. Yeah, they'll probably suck anyway,
(28:41):
but they don't know how to win in Atlantas. Who cares?
So it's like turning down a Hall of Fame surgeon
and letting your barber do your heart surgery. I need
heart surgy rather than use the top rated first in
his class at medical school the surgeon. I'm gonna hire
Mike Barber. Why not? What the hell are right? Anyway?
(29:03):
So the Falcons also traded a future number one overall
pick a first round picture to the Rams, and they
beefed up the roster they went for. It also does
not hurt that Michael Pennix, the quarterback, was supposed to
take off in year two and did not work out
(29:24):
so well. And so despite beefing up the roster and
having what everyone says is a great set of playmakers
and all that, Atlanta tripped over their own shoelaces in
the division, which is softer than microwave marshmallows. Could you
be in a more sucky division than the NFC? South
(29:44):
where Carolina who stinks made the playoffs at seven and nine.
All right, so any Jean Robinson and Drake May and
all these guys who everyone says blue chip talent. This
guy's a stud, that guy's a stud, and yet the
results on the field like Luke leftovers, chronic underachievers, same movie,
different Sunday, but you're watching the same movie there. And
(30:06):
rahee Morris, who you gotta think is never going to
be a head coach again? Why would you other than interim,
why would you ever hire Raheem Morris as head coach?
That's it. So he ends his run with thirty seven
wins and fifty six losses, a less than four hundred
winning percentage as a head coach. That's not exactly progress progress. No,
that is the GPS recalculating forever, recalculating stand by, recalculating
(30:30):
recalculating standby. And that's it. And in the legendary words
of a former Atlanta Falcon head coach, Jerry Glanville, who
said it best, the NFL means not for long, certainly
not for long when you have losing records and you
have already failed your first attempt. So they didn't do
him dirty. The Falcons with Raheem Morris, this was overdue housekeeping,
(30:54):
overdue housekeeping. You got the broom. On one hand, you
got the dust pan. This is a reality check, is
what it is. Right Meanwhile, being in reality checks now,
we're still waiting overnight. If anything breaks overnight, we will
have it for you. But as of this hour, no
news out on the future in Jersey. For the Jets,
who completed a seventeen game this is mind boggling. Seventeen
(31:16):
game regular season, seventeen games and a defense that did
not get one interception. You'd think, just by dumb luck,
a quarterback would have thrown a pass that bounced off
somebody's helmet and then landed in the arms of a
safety for the Jets or a linebacker. They the first
(31:37):
team in NFL history to complete a seventeen game season
and not get one interception. Just insane. First team ever
to go that far and never do it with a
defensive interception, So tremendous work there. They hired the Defensive
Coordinated Alliance. Also, the Jets were outscored one hundred in
(32:00):
eighty eight to fifty four. If you watched Benny versus
the Penny on YouTube this week. You know that even
before this last game where they got smashed by the
Buffalo Bills, the Jets it was already the single worst
close to a season in NFL history. They added on
to that by getting just smushed by Buffalo's backups. There
outscored one hundred and eighty eight to fifty four the
(32:21):
final five games, all of course, five losses and not
competitive at all, a team that had obviously just given
up on their head coach. And so the question does
Aaron Glenn? Does Aaron Glenn deserve a second season with
the Jets? All right, so how about not just no well,
(32:43):
not just gonna go No, how about no way, no how,
no chance, no chance. All those things the scales of
sporty justice. And we are big believers in sporty justice.
So the scales of sporty justice are hipping hard towards
the off ramp, the exit ramp for Raheem Morris, get
(33:05):
out of here to see you later. This performance as
a coach, Aaron Glenn belongs in the pen, not the bullpen,
the penitentiary of football. My god, one of the worst
coaching jobs I've ever seen. It's unbelievable and masquerading as
a head coach. Aaron Glenn. He had the clipboard, he
(33:26):
had the scow. My favorite was when he was he
was educating the beat writers for the Jets on how
to do his job and then went out and just
got smooth, just smacked around by everybody, just so good.
Aaron was not really a coach. No, he walked around.
He was like walking around the Jets complex there at
(33:47):
florm Park like mister know it all. He had all
the answers right, and he had all everything. He knew
all the problems that Jets had how to fix. Him
and the Jets player on the field, they played like
they had never been given a game plan, and if
they had been given a blank a game plan, it
was written in Chinese and they didn't know how to
read Chinese. So no adjustments, no teaching, no scheming anyone up.
(34:11):
That's it and so not a coach. Aaron Glenn was
a rancero and the Jets were lambs to the slaughter.
Every time they took the field on Sunday gift rapped
or Thursday or Monday gift rapped and delivered to who
they played. So unless this was intentional, which is of
course a violation of NFL rules that this was a
(34:33):
tank job and management had said we want you to tank.
And even that was the case, the Jets didn't end
up with the number one pick, so they f that up.
So anyway, other than it being a take, if the
Jets were actually if Aaron Glenn was coaching and the
Jets were trying, and this was the result, nobody, not
a single player overperformed, nobody was able to level up.
(34:54):
Didn't happen coaching malpractice from Aaron Glenn. Outside of it
being an intentional act of malfeasance that was orchestrated by
the Johnson and Johnson group that owns the team, it
was some kind of performance art. Yeah, he's gotta go,
he can't coach the guys sucks. Get rid of him.
He blows. So you can't be that unprepared on a
(35:19):
weekly basis and essentially give up the last month of
the season. Normally you say, well, you want to impress
the coach because the guy's gonna be back next year.
You want to put on a good show. No, they
look like they could. They wanted to go away. We
don't want to be here. Why are we here and
the Jets season. It became a meme with Aaron Glenn
(35:39):
It was our expectations were low, but holy fan by
the jetst like, we know you're gonna suck, but that
is the next level of suckage is what that is,
my goodness, and so congratulations. Yeah, they didn't get the
number two pick. They wrapped that bad boy up up
(36:00):
and that will be a bad boy. So that means
the Jets will put the whammi on some hot shot
defensive linemen or linebacker offensive lineman, a blue chip college
player who's been making a bunch of nil money in
the SEC or the big ten will slide into the
green waters of the Bermuda Triangle, which is where the
Jets facility is there, and that's where careers go to
(36:20):
vanish advantage. They just they disappear like socks in the dryer.
So maybe they'll burn some sage and they'll have a
ceremonial situation where man, they are just as being a
bad Congratulations, our final stop, we head to Nevada. Then
the Raiders are officially on the clock. Congratulations. A little
(36:42):
over one hundred days away from the twenty twenty six
NFL Draft, and even before they took the field against
the Chiefs. That was it. That was it, that was all.
See you later, Bye bye. The Giants beat the Cowboys.
Good effort by the Cowboys. There way to close the
year on a winning note unless they didn't. So the
Giants won, and that meant that the Raiders hold the
(37:03):
number one overall pick in the twenty twenty six NFL
College Draft. It is the first time the Jets are
the Raiders rather picked number one since twenty seven. I
was barely alive back in twenty oh seven, So question
should Raider Nation? Should Raider Nation be excited? Woo excited?
(37:26):
All right about procuring the number one overall pick, number one?
So no chance, no chance. If you are a Raider
officionado excited about this, you're a bad fan. You're a
bad fan. You are This is the walk of shame.
This is not something to be excited about. You got
(37:47):
the hoodie up, you got the head down. You're sneaking
out of Caesar's Palace hoping that mouthwash Mike doesn't see
you as you're walking out of Caesar's Palace at sunrise.
You just don't want stop the music. There's no confetti.
You don't get confetti for this. Congratulations, Raider Nation, You've
won the President's Award at the Football Parade of Horribles.
(38:12):
You're the most horrible of the bunch. Congratulations there the
loser Lombardi, the Raiders picked it up. There, your EBT
card is loaded. Congratulations, you royally stink. Way to go.
As cam Ward would say, we ask talking about the Raiders.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
There.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
So the franchise which is made circling the drain a
right of passage this time of the year, and so
same mistakes, different names, different players, different executives. And now
you've got that bit owner Skinny Jeans, Tom Brady the
GM by proxy, Tom Brady pulling the strings like it's
(38:50):
a Vegas puppet show and he's the puppeteer pulling the strings. There,
Brady chose Pete Carroll's coach. It sounds like they're gonna
do the same thing the Seahawks did where they made
Pete claim that he was retiring even though he is
not retiring. Fact, here is Pete Carroll here the question
and the answer. He was asked about that because the
(39:10):
rumor is that the Raiders can say, hey, Pete, we're
going to fire your ass. So just claim you're retiring,
and then we won't say you were fired. And here's
the quote. You'll hear the question would you like to
come back next year? And do you to be a best sure?
Of course? On that note, group question to start with
real quick, Pete, Just on that note, there have been
some reports that you're considering retirement, are walking.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
Away those actor.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
Nobody's talking to me about that. I haven't said a
word to anybody that would indicate the Raiders will fire
Pete Carroll's what that indicates there, But we'll see or
he'll play along, play mister nice guy. He didn't really
want to leave the Seahawks, and they picked the other guy,
and then then the executive. There was a bit of
power play and all that. But remember Tom Brady picked
(39:52):
Pete Carroll. He then signed off on Gino Smith, who
sucks those ingredients which Tom Brady select do not make
a gour meal mea or gourmemial. They don't. I mean
they absolutely, It's like a leftover thing a majig. And
I don't know I could do Hickey's in there. I
don't know what that is. And so and then comes
(40:13):
the fairy tale. I admit I am anti draft. I
can't stand the draft. It's one of the annoyance and
I talk about it, but it's just insane, the amount
of bull crap for the draft. And I guarantee you
that Fernando Mendoza, the new Savior who sliced up Alabama
at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena a couple of days ago,
(40:36):
and he's the new Savior, the new darling there, the
Indiana Hoosiers quarterback who will be most likely the very
top of the draft. And Cinderella incleutes the hype for
this guy, next level Heisman Glitter just put him in Vegas.
Mama's boy visits Vegas. What could go wrong? Now, we've
seen the Raiders with the number one pick. If you're
(40:58):
old enough to remember a guy named JaMarcus r Now,
a lot of top picks get endorsement deals. They'll sell
you insurance, they'll sell you gambling websites. These days, they'll
sell you cars and all kinds of beverages. Well, JaMarcus Russell,
he was an all pro at the Purple Drank. The
stories that are still told all these years later about
(41:19):
the malfeasance of JaMarcus Russell now that was then. Obviously
everyone's different. However, the early scouting report which went viral
about Fernando Mendoza is he has the talent of a
fourth round quarterback. Yeah, and that's who The Raiders are
going to most likely draft a fourth round talent at
the number one overall pick in the draft. Let's they
(41:40):
trade it, which is also possible. We have plenty of
time to break all of that down. We have lived
in the era where fourth round talents are regularly drafted
at the very top in recent years. Baker Mayfield was
the first pick by the Browns. He was projected as
a mid round pick. Kyler Murray, the little fella, fun
sized alligator arms Murray, should have been drafted the fifth round.
(42:02):
Cardinals loved his gaming ability and they drafted him. They said,
we can get a guy that's really good on twitch.
We'll take that guy. Why not? So they drafted him
at the top pick in Arizona. He can't play. You
go down the list. I mean a bunch of these
guys that were drafted who were supposed to be mid
round picks, but they have an agent does a good
marketing campaign and they hyped the guy up. They got
all these college awards in there you go, so good
(42:24):
luck on that. The argument against Fernando Mendoza is that
he is he's a shotgun only guy. And yeah, they
run the shotgun in the NFL, but that's all he
can do. And he uses a clap cadence, which is problematic.
He telegraphs throws and whatnot, and so it didn't look
that bad at Indiana, but you're playing in Indiana. It's
(42:45):
much different in the NFL. So the point is, even
if the rails tape, he's not a just add water quarterback,
He's not. He's not the franchise savior that walks in
to the facility there in Henderson, Nevada and fixes everything.
It's a it's a powerball ticket that's run through the wash.
It's like, well maybe probably not so anyway, listen, you
(43:08):
don't celebrate that you didn't hit the jackpot. Here, you
got some store credit, and that's it.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Mellor
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
Here we go, Oh you knew that one? How about that?
To the third degree smarty fans over there is one
gets grail cool bent.
Speaker 5 (43:30):
Over the weekend, Lions coach Dan Campbell vowed that the
Lions have hit rock bottom and that they're only going
up from here.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
I'm and ross Saint.
Speaker 5 (43:37):
Brown said he is confident with the players they have
and that they will bounce back. Yeah, Ben, do you
think they will bounce Backers are a deeper problem.
Speaker 1 (43:45):
Well, they have to improve the roster. They were teetering
on the brink. It looked bad at times earlier. They
just look, there's a little They've lost some players, the
coaching wasn't as good. The whole thing is bedraggled in Detroit.
So this is a pivot in the row. You're at
the fork in the road. You can go right or left.
This is that kind of off season for the lines.
They will be back to being the Lions of my
(44:06):
childhood if they screw this thing up next.
Speaker 5 (44:10):
So South Carolina coach Shane Beemer has a problem with
Lane Kiffen. Apparently Kiffen hired away one of their defensive
assistants and didn't give them a call to kind of
let them know that it was going to happen.
Speaker 1 (44:21):
Said he'd broke an unspoken rule. Yeah, I'm sure, yes.
Was this a bad form by Lane Kiffin. Well, I've
learned while I was away from my post coup that
Lane Kiffin is the biggest douche nozzle in all of
college football. He's a Schmendrick, He's a dingle Berry. Everyone
hates Lane Kiffin. He's a bad human being. That's what
(44:41):
I learned. I've only dealt with Lane Kifn a few times.
He did seem a little phony to me, but he's
totally played the system. He's played the system.
Speaker 5 (44:48):
So next you kind of talked about it a little
bit with some of the listeners, But a lot of
people say that Sam Darnold has proved the doubters wrong
by flipping the script from last season. Yeah, yeah, in
the last game season.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
Do you think he's proved them wrong? Or is he No? No,
he is a he has been a what He's got
to play well in the playoffs because that's the problem
in big games. And he's been very mediocre the last
eight games of the season for Seattle and they've been
able to win in Spider him. How do we do that?
Is they went I was what I was say, he's
left the ball and he walked out.
Speaker 2 (45:22):
I was sad, was here Fox Sports Radio has the
best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of
our shows at Foxsports Radio dot com and within the
iHeartRadio app search FSR to listen live.
Speaker 1 (45:37):
Hey, you sports figure, guy or girl?
Speaker 3 (45:40):
Who got here?
Speaker 1 (45:41):
Was you talking to? So hear some interesting advice? Hold
that thought. No one's paid attention to me for ten
whole seconds, and if you don't like him.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
And away we go.
Speaker 1 (45:50):
See instid of ice slide Advice to Lamar Jackson and
the Ravens who missed the playoffs because they are idiot
kicker shanked a kick against the Steelers as time ran out.
So advice to Lamar Jackson. You're live on the air.
When you hear my voice at eight seven, seven ninety
nine on box line one, you're on the airline one.
Advice to Lamar Jackson.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
Lots of hookers and cocaine.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
Okay, line too, you're on the airline to advice to
Lamar Jackson. Please make a new.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
Year's resolution to give up after dick to seven.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
Okay, all right, very nice. That sounded like Ferg Dog caller.
You're on their advice to Lamar Jackson caller. Okay, thank
you for that. Your next caller advice to Lamar Jackson. Hello,
good morning time. You know, a rose by any other
name is still too damn expensive? Am I right?
Speaker 2 (46:37):
The right?
Speaker 5 (46:37):
That is?
Speaker 1 (46:37):
Yeah, the very right, verys the great, the Rick and
Maryland making his debut. Line five, you're on their advice
to Lamar Jackson. Line five, kip of.
Speaker 2 (46:47):
My Bears, head to the Chicago.
Speaker 1 (46:48):
Bears, dump Bears. Line six, you're on the air line six. Hello,
hang up on coffy here, all right, hang up by
my one more coop, hurry up pegagg Line two, Line two,
you're on the air line two. O. No line one,
no line one. No. Oh, that was blind Scot. I'm
(47:08):
glad we cut that guy off. There. There we go.
That was a hot mess.
Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Mahler
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 Benmatlers Show at Foxsports Radio dot com.
You can find it there or stream us live every
night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is the best of the Ben Maler Show on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Well, if you had the Ravens making the postseason, which
just about everybody, Dad, you are a loser. Well come
in the beginning of another night and another year for
me of the Ben Mahlor Show. We are in the air,
EveryWare together as we are the square peg of radio,
(01:01):
whatever that means, coast to coast, border, the border and beyond.
On the vast and mighty powerful microphones of fsre emmundating
live do it live from the saddles. We are back
in the saddle again the world famous Fox Sports Radio Studios,
as approved by Doc Dan, who knows that this show
(01:25):
has made possible in part by our friends at tire Rack.
That's well, he's not a real dog, he's just Doc Dan.
I don't believe the man's a real doctor. I've not
yet met Doc Dan. I will have to meet him
at some point. But for over forty years, Tyraq has
been helping customers like Ferg Dog, Alf the Alien Opiner
and Malar Prap Guy find the right tires for how,
(01:46):
what and where they drive, ship fast and free back
by free road hazard protection with convenient installation options like
mobile tire installation tire iraq dot com the way tire
buying should be. And we are back at it again here.
I saw some cockroaches walked into well maybe as away
(02:08):
for a little bit, so maybe they fixed the infestation,
but no, they have not. They have not, So you're
just kind of like seeing an old friend. When you
see a little cockroach scirming around on the floor, You're like, oh,
that's where I belong here. Those are my insects right there.
It's kind of cool. So our lead this hour is
from Western Pennsilvan. It's excited to be back here. We're
(02:28):
looking forward to a lot of fun and we'll have
some Mallard meet and greets during the course of the
year in random places to be determined at a later date.
Hopefully we'll make it the plan is to make it
to an Ohio Meet and greet at some point this year,
but that is all stuff we will talk about as
we work our way through the overnight. We'll start out
in Western Pa. It was the AFC North Championship game.
(02:51):
There was the final game of the twenty twenty five
regular season. The NFL has jammed two hundred and seventy
to regular season games into one hundred and twenty two days.
This all started back on September fourth of last year.
Way back in twenty twenty five. You might remember the
Cowboys and the Eagles they got together. It was a
(03:14):
real spinner, a slobber knocker. Literally. It started with a
giant loogie flying out of the mouth of one of
the Eagle players. And that's how the season began. And
it ended with Lamar Jackson returning to lead the Ravens
into Pittsburgh. Winner gets the playoffs. A wrangle against Aaron Rogers.
So the winner gets the division. The loser goes on
(03:38):
a nice vacation, nice tropical vacation somewhere, So there really
are no losers, and there's either go on a vacation
you go play a playoff game somewhere. So you had
Mike Tarico Chris Collinsworth on NBC. They had the call. Now,
I don't if you watched it or not. Maybe you
were not watching it. I don't know what else you're watching.
It was really nothing else to watch. We watched it,
and this was a roller coaster of a game, A
(04:01):
roller coaster of the game. Aaron Rodgers gets the headline
on it. He threw the go ahead touchdown to Calvin
Austin with fifty five seconds left on the clock. However,
the Steelers they missed the extra point, giving Baltimore an opportunity,
and the Steelers ended up getting the I don't know
(04:23):
how you say it here, they ended up getting the
benefit of the idiot kicker in this game. They squeezed
past the Ravens twenty six twenty four. All the Ravens
need was needed was a field goal, and they did
get into field goal range rather quickly. A complete meltdown
by the Yinzers defense as Lamar Jackson, that was MVP
(04:43):
Lamar in the fourth quarter as he sliced up the
Steelers took Baltimore down the field. They're set up what
in modern NFL is a chip shot field goal forty
four yard field goal attempt by Tyler Loop. Who Tyler Loop,
make the kick. You're in the playoffs. Miss the kick
(05:04):
and that's it. You're done. And as time expired, the
kick went up and yeah, he went to to the
right side of the goalpost, not through the goalpost. Who goofed?
I've got to know. And so with that, these Steelers
have advanced. They will have a home game wild Card weekend,
(05:25):
but not on Saturday, not on Sunday. Instead, on Monday
Night they will take on the Houston Texans. That'll be
the match up there on Monday Night. They had that
a couple of years ago, Monday Night football in the playoffs.
So that'll be the story with thisburd Now. The better
story though, for our purposes, is in the losing locker room.
(05:49):
The Baltimore Ravens are dun Skis and the window for
Lamar Jackson to get her done. Now. He's been a
terrible big game quarterback in his career and played really
well down the stretch in this game. Didn't play this
so well in the middle part of the game, but
down the stretch played very well, but in the end
not enough. And so Baltimore is done. Here is their
(06:12):
head coach John Harbaugh. As we discuss, and he points
out that even though the idiot kicker missed the kick,
he says, apparently there were other people to blame. Thing
as what you saw and this game is pretty much
what you've seen all year from a heart etifort and
fight standpoint. Just didn't play well enough to you know,
(06:33):
close it out. Now. You hear the question in the
answer on this one, and you know here John Harbaugh
asked about the Ravens situation. Now, it's it's pretty, it's
low hanging through. It's kind of obvious what Harball is
going to say. But let's take a listen.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
This just happened. You feel you one another shots with
these guys.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Yeah, I'm I'm I'm I love this guy. I love
this guy. Say no, these guys suck. They're so bad.
I'm so happy I never have to coach that team again.
My god, they're horrible. I think Sports with Coleman, the
podcast guy in Baltimore do a better job playing defense
to some of these stiffs. What else is gonna say?
(07:17):
All right, we'll hear from Lamar in a minute, but
let's start with just the wide angle lens on the
Ravens as they do not qualify for the playoffs. To question,
as we discuss who do you blame, who do you
blame for Lamar Jackson the Ravens not qualifying the bar,
the very minimum bar and make the playoffs. Hey, this
is the great, all time greats Hall of Fame quarterback
(07:40):
Lamar Jackson, and they're not even in the playoffs. All right,
So my thoughts on this. I've got Flatulen's way back
machine and trump card and we will combine all of
these things together and we're gonna present to you a
combo meal deal. So that's the first ever combo meal
deal that we're gonna give you year of sports take.
(08:01):
So a we are going to blame a kindergarten song
is who we're going to blame, all right, Crank up
the old boone box. Damn Bones a classic song, demn Bones. Right,
the headbone is connected to the neck bone, the neck
bones connected to the backbone. Except in Baltimore, the whole
skeleton system, the whole skeleton there was held together by
(08:25):
duck tape and some Elmer's glue and a lot of
wishful thinking. And in the end, Lamar who played thirteen
games this season. Now the Ravens played seventeen. Lamar played thirteen,
and he missed chunks of the games he did play
in for the Ravens. A bunch of those games Lamar
played in he was playing in a dingy, if you
know what I'm saying there. It was kind of like
(08:46):
your phone was at twelve percent when they had Lamar
out there twelve percent and then ends up dying at
twelve percent. Well, of the phone's not supposed to die
twelve percent. He should get down like five percent, seven percent,
but it died at twelve percent unreliable when it actually mattered, unreliable.
(09:06):
Baltimore was six and seven in games started by Lamar
Jackson at a losing record. This year, they were two
and two in games he did not play in. He
also lost to three non playoff teams the Ravens did
this year and got swept by the Pittsburgh Steelers. So
that's a pretty good way to not make the postseason,
(09:29):
and so you lose into non playoff team teams that
did not end up qualifying for the postseason. There's kind
of like trusting some cheap tires in a rainstorms. You
could get away with it sometimes it doesn't really work
all that much. There so seven games with one or
zero touchdown passes for Lamar this year, seven of them
(09:50):
played thirteen. Seven of them he had no touchdown passes
or one touchdown. So this was not for most of
the season. This was not the NVP version of Lamar Jackson.
It was Lamar Light, caffeine free, low calorie, low calorie
for Lamar. And so they played with their food all season,
(10:10):
they being the Baltimore Ravens, and wound up thanks to
the kicker there at the end, going to Detention instead
instead of going to the postseason. So this is kind
of like microwaving your leftovers and calling it gourmet. You
should at least put it in the air frighter, don't
put on the microw I don't know anything that tastes
(10:30):
good other than popcorn in the microwaven, even that you
can make it on the stove and it would taste better.
That's just my hot food take that's my high. I
just I don't like things in the microwave. I don't,
sam I am, I don't. I just don't like them.
So and now the postseason Boogeyman has a right things
(10:50):
that go bumpity bump in the night for the Ravens.
Lamar's name certainly will be floated through talk radio like
ance floating through an elevator, and so we hear a
lot about Lamar. Here's Lamar, here's his thoughts. He was
asked about the future and no, here's what he had
to say this offseason. There's a lot of questions about
(11:11):
your contract, Solard cat number.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Do you do you feel your you'll be back as
the Raves for racing season?
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Brop.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
We just lost a game, you know, a divisional game,
you know, a game to put us in the playoffs.
I'm not even thinking about that right now. To be
honest with Johan, don't still caught up in what just happened.
You know, that's not my focus right now.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Sounds like a guy that does not want to play
for the Ravens anymore. The easy answer, the simple answer,
is I love it here. I don't want to play
aywhere else. Lamar didn't say that. Lamar said, I haven't
thought about that, which means that in my mind, he's
thought about playing somewhere else. He want to He don't
give a straight answer, didn't give a straight answer. It
sounds like a guy that does not want to play
for the Baltimore Ravens anymore. That's the sound of Lamar Jackson.
(11:53):
And there's a real debate. There's a real debate here
about Lamar and he has been a batter ring ram
type of quarterback for the Ravens. And so do you
keep riding the horse, of course, until the horse collapses
and goes to the glue factory, or do you decommission
as a Raven Lamar Jackson a year or two too soon,
(12:16):
and you do that before the wheels fall off. It
sounds like Lamar's not real happy. I mean, the easy
answer is I love it here. I don't want to
play whe else. I haven't thought about it, but I
don't want to play. Why would I want to play
somewhere else. I didn't say that. Instead, he gave the
default answer, Well, you know, we just played a game.
If you know you like it somewhere, don't you say
you like it there? Am I wrong? Am I reading
(12:37):
this wrong? I don't think I am. It's a simple
thing to say. I love it here. Oh my god,
I want to go anywhere else. Listen. I love Fox
Sports Tray, every cockroach that drops from the ceiling. I
love it the smell of trash when I come in
on a Sunday night into a Monday. I love the
rum of the trash here because I love it here.
It's not like, well, I don't know if I like you.
(12:57):
I don't know, you know, I mean, think about it.
I mean, I'm just trying to do a show. I'm
just trying to get through the monologue. I'm just trying
to get through the bloody monologue. That's all I'm trying
to come on now. As for John Harbaugh, the coach,
he seems relatively safe. I don't think they're gonna get
rid of him, he says. This is a this is
a situation similar to Mike Tomlin, tenured professor at Harvard.
(13:17):
You're not gonna get rid of John Harbaugh, not at
this point. Now on the Pittsburgh side, the question for
the esteem paddle are the Aaron Rogers Steelers a good
team or just a fortunate team? All right? So the
answer is yes, no, maybe so with a lot of pepto,
(13:42):
just extra pepto. This feels a lot like every other
Mike Tomlin Steeler team post Ben Roethlisberger. Like it doesn't
feel any and they like the names have changed slightly.
The names are a little different. For the Steelers Pittsburgh,
they stumbled and they humboled. It was like a shopping
cart with a bad wheel. There's a one hundred shopping
(14:05):
carts in front of the store. You pick the one
that has the bad wheel, and then you're like, what
do I do? Do I put it back and give
somebody else the one with the bad wheel? Do I
try to push it? Do I try to find a
different cart while I'm in That's my move. Go to Costco,
I get the one with the bad wheel, and I
take it. And then people just they leave their They
leave their carts around the store, so I'll just grab
(14:27):
someone else's car because they don't use anymore. This is
leaving it on side. That's it. But you look at Pittsburgh,
this did not look like a playoff team. Did not
sound like a playoff team. You look at the way
they played this particular game. They stumbled and bumbled. As
we said there, especially late in the game Lamar Jackson
when we just did a serenade about Lamar in his situation.
When you look at the play in the fourth corner,
(14:48):
Lamar was really good, really good. He pulled out the
butcher knife. Lamar Jackson had seventy two percent almost of
his passing yards for the whole game in the final
fifteen minutes, one hundred and seventy one two thirty eight
and a couple of touchdowns, error free football for Lamar Jackson,
and it was an oil painting. He was a museum piece.
(15:08):
That was la Mar the Ravens had gotten when he
was winning regular season the MVPs and it was still
not enough. Why because Mike Tomlin went to the way
back machine and it was a wonderful life for Mike Tomlin.
Clarence the Angel had a terrible towel and the divine intervention.
There was a full moon, I guess a few days back,
their cosmic event, the whole thing there. Pittsburgh blows an
(15:31):
extra point and then Baltimore says, all right, bal don't lie.
You blew an extra point. So let's have our kicker
do the old loop d loop and miss the kick
face plant chip shot modern NFL field goal, and so
that happens. Now, do the Steelers scare you if you
are like the Texas. We're on in Houston you're in Houston.
Are you afraid of Pittsburgh? No, hell no, nobody's afraid
(15:55):
of Pittsburgh. However, they are lethal at home. They have
been lethal. Well that's what they have done in primetime games.
They get the Monday night slot, the Steelers, and they're
like a giant anaconda that doesn't look that fast until
until it's too late. And so you got a dome team.
(16:16):
You got a dome team from Houston going to frigid
Pittsburgh with temperatures around freezing the long term forecast for
a week from this Monday here, So the weather math
looks good. With the malor math CJ. Stroud's not very good.
Although these teams played in the regular season in Pittsburgh
(16:37):
lost by seven thousand points, but that was the regular
season and the playoff team. So this is a playoff
team obviously, much different situation. You're so good team, eh, now,
fortunate team Pittsburgh, Absolutely fortunate team, and sometimes that's all
you need. Right. Meanwhile, to La we go, La la Land.
The Rams procured the number five seed and the closest
(16:58):
thing you can get to a bye without actually having won,
the losers of Carolina. What a suck team that is
who got into the playoffs backed in. They lost their
game on Saturday, and then because of the Atlanta victory,
the Panthers, a losing franchise, is in the playoffs. So
the Rams get the half by there, that's not the story.
Sean McVay comenty about Matthew Stafford postgame. Now he was
(17:24):
asked about the MVP award. Stafford in the running for
the MVP award. They're finished up completing twenty five of
forty passes two fifty nine, four touchdown passes for Matthew
Stafford to fatten up the stat sheet against that pathetic
Cardinal team, which actually have a lead late in that game.
Rams pulled away though in the final part of the
(17:46):
fourth quarter, but nonetheless so question Rams head coach Sean
McVay saying that Matthew Stafford is the MVP. What say you?
Speaker 2 (17:57):
All right?
Speaker 1 (17:57):
So on this one, this was Sean McVeigh grabbing the
megaphone and working in the room, is what it was.
I was working the room here and I think we
have we have Here's listen to mcgae. Here's a McVeigh
commenting about Matthew Stafford. And this is just a little
sound bite, but little give you a flavor of the coach.
Take a list. Yes, I think Matthew's the MVP of
the league. He played that way. Wouldn't want anybody else
(18:19):
leading the way. Got a lot of respect for a
bunch of people in this league. But there's nobody I'd
rather have being the quarterback of the La Rams than
Matthew Stafford. His uh, his place speech for itself. Keep
in mind the Rams did look elsewhere last offseason, but
they bought them back. He played well. So that was
a stump speech by Sean McVay, not a sermon, not
(18:40):
a sermon. It was a little stump speech. His handshakes, backslaps.
Politicking is the term that you could use there, politicking. Uh.
And you know you got to defend your quarterbacks, you
got to sell your quarterback to win the MVP and
and all that. And you know Saffron's argument it's no
one and is wrapped up. I mean, we're at the
(19:01):
end now, this is it right, It's a regular season
war and there's no clear MVP even as we sit
here hours after the final NFL regular season game was played.
Stafford's argument is he's thirty thirty seven. I believe he's
played quarterback the season. Veteran, He's played like a They
used to say cab driver, I can say uber drivers now.
(19:22):
The guy that knows every back alley, every short cut,
every trapdoor, no look passes, parlor tricks, and only a
couple of duds during the season. He did all that
with some gray whiskers. And the numbers, they're MVP number.
You say, just based on the numbers, he's the MVP.
I don't have as much debate on that. Stafford end
(19:43):
of the season with the top yardage, show led the
NFL in passing yards, he led the NFL in passing touchdowns.
That seems kind of like a big deal. I don't know,
maybe not. And only eight interceptions by Matthew Stafford. That's
a tremendous accomplishment for to only have eight interceptions so
high mileage, low wear, and tear carved up legitimate defense
(20:07):
is not paper tigers like the guy he's going against
for the MVP. And this still I believe will be
a photo finish with Drake May of the Patriots, the
shiny new efficient munster quarterback. There, he's got the legs,
he's the tool threat quarterback Drake May, and he's got
(20:27):
the launch codes for the Patriots offense and all that stuff.
But Stafford his trump card. This is the trump card
for Matthew Stafford. The MVP voters love the storyline. They're
all almost all a bunch of washed up sports writers, right,
so they still hang on a bunch of old people
and they love the storyline. So the storyline is, oh,
(20:48):
Matthew Stafford after all these years, and it looked like
he wasn't gonna play this year, and he played. He
led the league, led the entire league in touchdown passes
and yardage. And that's an MVP's dotting the I like
the Ohio State Marching band. That's just wrapping the whole
career up. You win the MVP and you send him
(21:08):
off to the Hall of Fame, and that's it. So
that's the story. Now the Drake May thing as well, Yeah,
he'll have plenty of time to win an MVP. The
argument against Drake May as well, Yeah, the Patriots, goody
played a bunch of tomato cans. It's hard to argue
against that. The easiest schedule in NFL history. Now, to
Drake May's credit, he took advantage of it, and the
Patriots won a bunch of games beating bad teams, which
(21:31):
they were. That's what you're supposed to do, so that's great.
So the jury is still out developing hot dot dot dot.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Hey, it's Rob Parker and Kelvin Washington from The Odd
Couple on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
And in addition to hearing us live weeknights from seven
to ten pm Eastern on Fox Sports Radio, we are
excited to announce brand new YouTube channel for the show.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
That's right, you can now watch The Odd Couple live
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Speaker 3 (22:07):
All you gotta do search Odd Couple FSR on YouTube.
Again YouTube, Just search Odd Couple FSR. Check us out
on YouTube and subscribe.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Time to update your coaching Bingo card. Welcome in the
beginning of another hour of The Ben Mather Show. We
are in the air of rewhear side by side as
we use our knoggin coast the coast, border to border
(22:40):
and beyond on the vast and herculean lee powerful microphones
of FSR am monating Live from the Ball the Running
of the bull Crap for twenty twenty six with the
world famous Fox Sports Radio Studios, as approved by Noah
in Austin, who Noahs that this portion of the show
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(23:46):
expresspros dot com to find an office and see how
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of the NFL teams will likely be contacting Express Employee Professionals.
As the coaching carousel goes round and round and round
and round, the coaching carousel, round and round and round
and round, rounding around. Man, the wins have change blowing.
(24:14):
Oh man, make our own sound effects around here, so
the strong breeze. Thank you. We used to have a
guy wo worked here named Coolbrees, but he didn't work
anymore anyway. The Falcons have whacked their head coach. They've
fired Raheem Morris. Hey going he gone? If you did
not hear, maybe not. Raheem Morris and the GM a
two for one combo as Terry Fontineau got the no no,
(24:39):
as he's gone two straight clunker seasons in the atl
and the exits confirmed. Just hours after Atlanta wrapped up
a losing season with a win, they took down the
New Orleans Saints to help the suck bag Carolina Panthers
make the playoffs. So the Falcons finished the season by
winning four straight games. What de damn do the headline players?
(25:05):
Many of them came out very vocal, full throated endorsements
for their head coach, including Drake London, the wide receiver
and Vijehon Robinson, the mustard man in the backfield, both
endorsing endorsing the head coach, and it did not matter.
Morris is not going to be back for a third
season at the Helm. He's out and Fontineau is right
(25:26):
behind him. Make sure that the door don't hit you
where the Good Lord split you when you leave the building. There.
So the Falcons have not made the playoffs since twenty seventeen,
which is doesn't seem like it's that long ago, but
it's been been a while. That's back when the ass
one thousand and two, one thousand holes were cheating in
the World Series and got away with it because Baseball's
(25:48):
got a spineless, gutless commissioner. But I'm not here to
talk about that anyway. So it's been a minute. Falcons
suck second longest drought for the playoffs in the league.
Atlanta also has not had a winning record in eight seasons,
which seems to be problematic. I didn't play in the NFL.
I don't work in the NFL. It seems like if
you can't even win more games than you lose that
(26:11):
something is not going right there. And Morris and the
Falcons in two years went sixteen and eighteen. That is
a losing record and a good jumping off point. So
let us discuss the question did the Falcons do Raheem
Morris dirty, not giving him a third season and dumping
(26:31):
him after two full years in Georgia. So my observations,
I've got second Scoop Rancero and President's Award, and we'll
combine all of these things together and we're gonna play
Connect three is what we're gonna do now. Number so
(26:53):
on my scorecard, the malor scorecard. Two words. It's absolutely
not in terms of Raheem Morris getting some kind of
raw deal. Did the Falcons do him dirty? No, they
did not. This was not some kind of hit job
by Arthur Blank, the home depot guy that owns the
(27:13):
Atlanta Falcons. This was more of a youth in Asia situation,
if you will. Morris already face planted one of the
worst coaching runs in NFL history the first time around.
When he was in Tampa. You might remember Raheem Morris
was partying with the players and the bucks that they
were reports saying that he was just one of the guys.
He was about the age of the players. He was
out having a great time chasing girls and drinking and
(27:36):
all that stuff, which would have been fine if the
team hadn't sucked in Tampa Bay, which they did, and
so as well, he was a young guy. He's older. Now,
let's give him another opportunity. They like twenty years ago.
Let's give him the guy. All right, We'll give Hi
an opportunity. So Atlanta gave him a mulligan. They said,
you know what, We're gonna take you down to the
ice cream stand. We're gonna get to his second scoop
of ice cream. And here you go, here's your second school.
(27:57):
And he said, oh man, I really like that, Thank
you so much. And so Morris proved that as a
head coach, he's a really nice guy. He's a really
nice guy. And as a head coach, blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. That's
what he is, right, And so somehow the geniuses in
Atlanta hired Raheem Morris, who had already shown that he
(28:19):
wasn't a good head coach, but they gave Hi another
opportunity instead of Bill Belichick, who at one point was
in line for that. Oh Belichick sucks at North Carolina.
He does. He did stalk at North Carolina. And he's
got that little fluozy chase. He's chasing on. I still
would have hired Belichick instead of Raheem Morris. I'd still
hire Belichick because I have a talk show to do
every night, and hire Belichick. Yeah, they'll probably suck anyway,
(28:41):
but they don't know how to win in Atlantas. Who cares?
So it's like turning down a Hall of Fame surgeon
and letting your barber do your heart surgery. I need
heart surgy rather than use the top rated first in
his class at medical school the surgeon. I'm gonna hire
Mike Barber. Why not? What the hell are right? Anyway?
(29:03):
So the Falcons also traded a future number one overall
pick a first round picture to the Rams, and they
beefed up the roster they went for. It also does
not hurt that Michael Pennix, the quarterback, was supposed to
take off in year two and did not work out
(29:24):
so well. And so despite beefing up the roster and
having what everyone says is a great set of playmakers
and all that, Atlanta tripped over their own shoelaces in
the division, which is softer than microwave marshmallows. Could you
be in a more sucky division than the NFC? South
(29:44):
where Carolina who stinks made the playoffs at seven and nine.
All right, so any Jean Robinson and Drake May and
all these guys who everyone says blue chip talent. This
guy's a stud, that guy's a stud, and yet the
results on the field like Luke leftovers, chronic underachievers, same movie,
different Sunday, but you're watching the same movie there. And
(30:06):
rahee Morris, who you gotta think is never going to
be a head coach again? Why would you other than interim,
why would you ever hire Raheem Morris as head coach?
That's it. So he ends his run with thirty seven
wins and fifty six losses, a less than four hundred
winning percentage as a head coach. That's not exactly progress progress. No,
that is the GPS recalculating forever, recalculating stand by, recalculating
(30:30):
recalculating standby. And that's it. And in the legendary words
of a former Atlanta Falcon head coach, Jerry Glanville, who
said it best, the NFL means not for long, certainly
not for long when you have losing records and you
have already failed your first attempt. So they didn't do
him dirty. The Falcons with Raheem Morris, this was overdue housekeeping,
(30:54):
overdue housekeeping. You got the broom. On one hand, you
got the dust pan. This is a reality check, is
what it is. Right Meanwhile, being in reality checks now,
we're still waiting overnight. If anything breaks overnight, we will
have it for you. But as of this hour, no
news out on the future in Jersey. For the Jets,
who completed a seventeen game this is mind boggling. Seventeen
(31:16):
game regular season, seventeen games and a defense that did
not get one interception. You'd think, just by dumb luck,
a quarterback would have thrown a pass that bounced off
somebody's helmet and then landed in the arms of a
safety for the Jets or a linebacker. They the first
(31:37):
team in NFL history to complete a seventeen game season
and not get one interception. Just insane. First team ever
to go that far and never do it with a
defensive interception, So tremendous work there. They hired the Defensive
Coordinated Alliance. Also, the Jets were outscored one hundred in
(32:00):
eighty eight to fifty four. If you watched Benny versus
the Penny on YouTube this week. You know that even
before this last game where they got smashed by the
Buffalo Bills, the Jets it was already the single worst
close to a season in NFL history. They added on
to that by getting just smushed by Buffalo's backups. There
outscored one hundred and eighty eight to fifty four the
(32:21):
final five games, all of course, five losses and not
competitive at all, a team that had obviously just given
up on their head coach. And so the question does
Aaron Glenn? Does Aaron Glenn deserve a second season with
the Jets? All right, so how about not just no well,
(32:43):
not just gonna go No, how about no way, no how,
no chance, no chance. All those things the scales of
sporty justice. And we are big believers in sporty justice.
So the scales of sporty justice are hipping hard towards
the off ramp, the exit ramp for Raheem Morris, get
(33:05):
out of here to see you later. This performance as
a coach, Aaron Glenn belongs in the pen, not the bullpen,
the penitentiary of football. My god, one of the worst
coaching jobs I've ever seen. It's unbelievable and masquerading as
a head coach. Aaron Glenn. He had the clipboard, he
(33:26):
had the scow. My favorite was when he was he
was educating the beat writers for the Jets on how
to do his job and then went out and just
got smooth, just smacked around by everybody, just so good.
Aaron was not really a coach. No, he walked around.
He was like walking around the Jets complex there at
(33:47):
florm Park like mister know it all. He had all
the answers right, and he had all everything. He knew
all the problems that Jets had how to fix. Him
and the Jets player on the field, they played like
they had never been given a game plan, and if
they had been given a blank a game plan, it
was written in Chinese and they didn't know how to
read Chinese. So no adjustments, no teaching, no scheming anyone up.
(34:11):
That's it and so not a coach. Aaron Glenn was
a rancero and the Jets were lambs to the slaughter.
Every time they took the field on Sunday gift rapped
or Thursday or Monday gift rapped and delivered to who
they played. So unless this was intentional, which is of
course a violation of NFL rules that this was a
(34:33):
tank job and management had said we want you to tank.
And even that was the case, the Jets didn't end
up with the number one pick, so they f that up.
So anyway, other than it being a take, if the
Jets were actually if Aaron Glenn was coaching and the
Jets were trying, and this was the result, nobody, not
a single player overperformed, nobody was able to level up.
(34:54):
Didn't happen coaching malpractice from Aaron Glenn. Outside of it
being an intentional act of malfeasance that was orchestrated by
the Johnson and Johnson group that owns the team, it
was some kind of performance art. Yeah, he's gotta go,
he can't coach the guys sucks. Get rid of him.
He blows. So you can't be that unprepared on a
(35:19):
weekly basis and essentially give up the last month of
the season. Normally you say, well, you want to impress
the coach because the guy's gonna be back next year.
You want to put on a good show. No, they
look like they could. They wanted to go away. We
don't want to be here. Why are we here and
the Jets season. It became a meme with Aaron Glenn
(35:39):
It was our expectations were low, but holy fan by
the jetst like, we know you're gonna suck, but that
is the next level of suckage is what that is,
my goodness, and so congratulations. Yeah, they didn't get the
number two pick. They wrapped that bad boy up up
(36:00):
and that will be a bad boy. So that means
the Jets will put the whammi on some hot shot
defensive linemen or linebacker offensive lineman, a blue chip college
player who's been making a bunch of nil money in
the SEC or the big ten will slide into the
green waters of the Bermuda Triangle, which is where the
Jets facility is there, and that's where careers go to
(36:20):
vanish advantage. They just they disappear like socks in the dryer.
So maybe they'll burn some sage and they'll have a
ceremonial situation where man, they are just as being a
bad Congratulations, our final stop, we head to Nevada. Then
the Raiders are officially on the clock. Congratulations. A little
(36:42):
over one hundred days away from the twenty twenty six
NFL Draft, and even before they took the field against
the Chiefs. That was it. That was it, that was all.
See you later, Bye bye. The Giants beat the Cowboys.
Good effort by the Cowboys. There way to close the
year on a winning note unless they didn't. So the
Giants won, and that meant that the Raiders hold the
(37:03):
number one overall pick in the twenty twenty six NFL
College Draft. It is the first time the Jets are
the Raiders rather picked number one since twenty seven. I
was barely alive back in twenty oh seven, So question
should Raider Nation? Should Raider Nation be excited? Woo excited?
(37:26):
All right about procuring the number one overall pick, number one?
So no chance, no chance. If you are a Raider
officionado excited about this, you're a bad fan. You're a
bad fan. You are This is the walk of shame.
This is not something to be excited about. You got
(37:47):
the hoodie up, you got the head down. You're sneaking
out of Caesar's Palace hoping that mouthwash Mike doesn't see
you as you're walking out of Caesar's Palace at sunrise.
You just don't want stop the music. There's no confetti.
You don't get confetti for this. Congratulations, Raider Nation, You've
won the President's Award at the Football Parade of Horribles.
(38:12):
You're the most horrible of the bunch. Congratulations there the
loser Lombardi, the Raiders picked it up. There, your EBT
card is loaded. Congratulations, you royally stink. Way to go.
As cam Ward would say, we ask talking about the Raiders.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
There.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
So the franchise which is made circling the drain a
right of passage this time of the year, and so
same mistakes, different names, different players, different executives. And now
you've got that bit owner Skinny Jeans, Tom Brady the
GM by proxy, Tom Brady pulling the strings like it's
(38:50):
a Vegas puppet show and he's the puppeteer pulling the strings. There,
Brady chose Pete Carroll's coach. It sounds like they're gonna
do the same thing the Seahawks did where they made
Pete claim that he was retiring even though he is
not retiring. Fact, here is Pete Carroll here the question
and the answer. He was asked about that because the
(39:10):
rumor is that the Raiders can say, hey, Pete, we're
going to fire your ass. So just claim you're retiring,
and then we won't say you were fired. And here's
the quote. You'll hear the question would you like to
come back next year? And do you to be a best sure?
Of course? On that note, group question to start with
real quick, Pete, Just on that note, there have been
some reports that you're considering retirement, are walking.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
Away those actor.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
Nobody's talking to me about that. I haven't said a
word to anybody that would indicate the Raiders will fire
Pete Carroll's what that indicates there, But we'll see or
he'll play along, play mister nice guy. He didn't really
want to leave the Seahawks, and they picked the other guy,
and then then the executive. There was a bit of
power play and all that. But remember Tom Brady picked
(39:52):
Pete Carroll. He then signed off on Gino Smith, who
sucks those ingredients which Tom Brady select do not make
a gour meal mea or gourmemial. They don't. I mean
they absolutely, It's like a leftover thing a majig. And
I don't know I could do Hickey's in there. I
don't know what that is. And so and then comes
(40:13):
the fairy tale. I admit I am anti draft. I
can't stand the draft. It's one of the annoyance and
I talk about it, but it's just insane, the amount
of bull crap for the draft. And I guarantee you
that Fernando Mendoza, the new Savior who sliced up Alabama
at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena a couple of days ago,
(40:36):
and he's the new Savior, the new darling there, the
Indiana Hoosiers quarterback who will be most likely the very
top of the draft. And Cinderella incleutes the hype for
this guy, next level Heisman Glitter just put him in Vegas.
Mama's boy visits Vegas. What could go wrong? Now, we've
seen the Raiders with the number one pick. If you're
(40:58):
old enough to remember a guy named JaMarcus r Now,
a lot of top picks get endorsement deals. They'll sell
you insurance, they'll sell you gambling websites. These days, they'll
sell you cars and all kinds of beverages. Well, JaMarcus Russell,
he was an all pro at the Purple Drank. The
stories that are still told all these years later about
(41:19):
the malfeasance of JaMarcus Russell now that was then. Obviously
everyone's different. However, the early scouting report which went viral
about Fernando Mendoza is he has the talent of a
fourth round quarterback. Yeah, and that's who The Raiders are
going to most likely draft a fourth round talent at
the number one overall pick in the draft. Let's they
(41:40):
trade it, which is also possible. We have plenty of
time to break all of that down. We have lived
in the era where fourth round talents are regularly drafted
at the very top in recent years. Baker Mayfield was
the first pick by the Browns. He was projected as
a mid round pick. Kyler Murray, the little fella, fun
sized alligator arms Murray, should have been drafted the fifth round.
(42:02):
Cardinals loved his gaming ability and they drafted him. They said,
we can get a guy that's really good on twitch.
We'll take that guy. Why not? So they drafted him
at the top pick in Arizona. He can't play. You
go down the list. I mean a bunch of these
guys that were drafted who were supposed to be mid
round picks, but they have an agent does a good
marketing campaign and they hyped the guy up. They got
all these college awards in there you go, so good
(42:24):
luck on that. The argument against Fernando Mendoza is that
he is he's a shotgun only guy. And yeah, they
run the shotgun in the NFL, but that's all he
can do. And he uses a clap cadence, which is problematic.
He telegraphs throws and whatnot, and so it didn't look
that bad at Indiana, but you're playing in Indiana. It's
(42:45):
much different in the NFL. So the point is, even
if the rails tape, he's not a just add water quarterback,
He's not. He's not the franchise savior that walks in
to the facility there in Henderson, Nevada and fixes everything.
It's a it's a powerball ticket that's run through the wash.
It's like, well maybe probably not so anyway, listen, you
(43:08):
don't celebrate that you didn't hit the jackpot. Here, you
got some store credit, and that's it.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Mellor
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
Here we go, Oh you knew that one? How about that?
To the third degree smarty fans over there is one
gets grail cool bent.
Speaker 5 (43:30):
Over the weekend, Lions coach Dan Campbell vowed that the
Lions have hit rock bottom and that they're only going
up from here.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
I'm and ross Saint.
Speaker 5 (43:37):
Brown said he is confident with the players they have
and that they will bounce back. Yeah, Ben, do you
think they will bounce Backers are a deeper problem.
Speaker 1 (43:45):
Well, they have to improve the roster. They were teetering
on the brink. It looked bad at times earlier. They
just look, there's a little They've lost some players, the
coaching wasn't as good. The whole thing is bedraggled in Detroit.
So this is a pivot in the row. You're at
the fork in the road. You can go right or left.
This is that kind of off season for the lines.
They will be back to being the Lions of my
(44:06):
childhood if they screw this thing up next.
Speaker 5 (44:10):
So South Carolina coach Shane Beemer has a problem with
Lane Kiffen. Apparently Kiffen hired away one of their defensive
assistants and didn't give them a call to kind of
let them know that it was going to happen.
Speaker 1 (44:21):
Said he'd broke an unspoken rule. Yeah, I'm sure, yes.
Was this a bad form by Lane Kiffin. Well, I've
learned while I was away from my post coup that
Lane Kiffin is the biggest douche nozzle in all of
college football. He's a Schmendrick, He's a dingle Berry. Everyone
hates Lane Kiffin. He's a bad human being. That's what
(44:41):
I learned. I've only dealt with Lane Kifn a few times.
He did seem a little phony to me, but he's
totally played the system. He's played the system.
Speaker 5 (44:48):
So next you kind of talked about it a little
bit with some of the listeners, But a lot of
people say that Sam Darnold has proved the doubters wrong
by flipping the script from last season. Yeah, yeah, in
the last game season.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
Do you think he's proved them wrong? Or is he No? No,
he is a he has been a what He's got
to play well in the playoffs because that's the problem
in big games. And he's been very mediocre the last
eight games of the season for Seattle and they've been
able to win in Spider him. How do we do that?
Is they went I was what I was say, he's
left the ball and he walked out.
Speaker 2 (45:22):
I was sad, was here Fox Sports Radio has the
best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of
our shows at Foxsports Radio dot com and within the
iHeartRadio app search FSR to listen live.
Speaker 1 (45:37):
Hey, you sports figure, guy or girl?
Speaker 3 (45:40):
Who got here?
Speaker 1 (45:41):
Was you talking to? So hear some interesting advice? Hold
that thought. No one's paid attention to me for ten
whole seconds, and if you don't like him.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
And away we go.
Speaker 1 (45:50):
See instid of ice slide Advice to Lamar Jackson and
the Ravens who missed the playoffs because they are idiot
kicker shanked a kick against the Steelers as time ran out.
So advice to Lamar Jackson. You're live on the air.
When you hear my voice at eight seven, seven ninety
nine on box line one, you're on the airline one.
Advice to Lamar Jackson.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
Lots of hookers and cocaine.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
Okay, line too, you're on the airline to advice to
Lamar Jackson. Please make a new.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
Year's resolution to give up after dick to seven.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
Okay, all right, very nice. That sounded like Ferg Dog caller.
You're on their advice to Lamar Jackson caller. Okay, thank
you for that. Your next caller advice to Lamar Jackson. Hello,
good morning time. You know, a rose by any other
name is still too damn expensive? Am I right?
Speaker 2 (46:37):
The right?
Speaker 5 (46:37):
That is?
Speaker 1 (46:37):
Yeah, the very right, verys the great, the Rick and
Maryland making his debut. Line five, you're on their advice
to Lamar Jackson. Line five, kip of.
Speaker 2 (46:47):
My Bears, head to the Chicago.
Speaker 1 (46:48):
Bears, dump Bears. Line six, you're on the air line six. Hello,
hang up on coffy here, all right, hang up by
my one more coop, hurry up pegagg Line two, Line two,
you're on the air line two. O. No line one,
no line one. No. Oh, that was blind Scot. I'm
(47:08):
glad we cut that guy off. There. There we go.
That was a hot mess.
Host
Ben Maller
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