Local Hour: The Monster Miami Sports Night

41m
"Happy Chanookah."

Dan refuses to let the crew celebrate their Jai Alai Battle Court title without being a troublemaker. Zaslow claims the Chiefs' dynasty is over, and the Bills will NOT win the Super Bowl, but Greg Cote does impressions. He's built different.

Today's cast: Dan, Greg, Zaslow, Chris, Jeremy, Mike, Roy, and Tony.
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Runtime: 41m

Transcript

All right, kicking things off with Smirnoff, the official vodka sponsor of the NFL and the number one vodka in the world. Chris Cody, you're here.
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Sweepstake starts 1215, 2025 at 12 a.m. Eastern and ends 123, 2026 at 1159, 59 p.m.
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Craig Zaslow is maintaining that tonight is a monster Miami sports night.

Are you in agreement with a monster Miami sports night tonight? No, I don't think you're a monster if you're playing a regular season game and you're both around 500. You know, I don't know.

Well, he's not saying it's just football. He's saying it's the Heat, the Panthers, and the Dolphins all playing at the same time on a week night.
That's not normal. Right.
Yeah, it's sort of annoying.

Like, what if you want to watch all three games? You know? You still can in the modern age with all the technologies that people have.

They're on three different channels. Yeah, but you're flipping back and forth.
I mean, you got a couple screens, you know. I think sports fans know how to watch three games at the same time.

Yeah, but they don't want to. You want to concentrate on a game.
Well, they're staggered. Like, one of them's at 7, the other one's at 7.30, and the other one's at 8:15.
Yeah.

It's fitting that the only one that really qualifies as a big game is the last one of the three. Okay, well, that's great.

So that's the main event. Yeah.
Okay. I don't think any of them are that big.
Like,

why would the last of the three qualify as a major event? I mean, the dolphins are fighting for their playoff life.

I almost sounded like Zazzler there for a minute. It was fake enthusiasm.

And you started laughing right afterward. You're laughing at yourself.
I heard that squeak come out of you that sounds like a Christmas toy. Correct.
Yes.

So the dolphins are fighting for their playoff life. You can't even muster faux enthusiasm for that.
Playoff life.

They are. That's like a mix of me and Eric Reed, I think you did there.

Kaboom.

That's my Eric Reid impression.

Is that right?

Usually, with impressions, you can just let them stand on their own. You don't have to explain right afterward what they are.
Tonight is not a monster night in South Florida sports.

It's the seventh biggest night in South Florida sports history this year.

That's your Eric Reid.

This is the Don Labatar Show with the Stoogats Podcast.

Hey, Marco, how you doing?

Surprise, surprise. This is Smokey Robinson.
I know you didn't expect to hear from me, but I was contacted by your sons, Jeff and Jerry.

And they wanted me... They told me that you used to live in Detroit across the street from me.
And gosh, that's beautiful.

How are you doing again?

Nice talking to you again, I I guess. But anyway, you're living in Vancouver now, and they wanted me to wish you happy Chinooka.

I have no idea what Chinooka is, but happy Chinooka because they said so.

Anyway, God bless you, babe, and enjoy Chinooka. Have a wonderful time.

On this Miami, Monster Miami Sports Night, we begin with Hi-Lai. Champions again.
Hi-Lai is back, Jack. Mike Ryan went all over South Florida celebrating with the trophy this weekend.

I felt like co-owner Chris Cody was pushed out of the way so that Mike Ryan could party with the trophy and Chris Cody couldn't get anywhere near the trophy. Let's play the winning point.

Hundreds of people stirring again.

Hundreds of people at High Lai to celebrate this historic championship as the Lebatard show with Stugatz continues to try to keep High Lai alive as we have for 20 years.

Here's the winning point for your champion Cyclones.

Nicholas with the catch at 13, low and hard. Manu's there again.
Backhand from the 10.

On the wall.

Clean misses both ways. Here's Inyaki.
Winding up. Hello.
What a scoop by Echaberry. Placement is caught by...
Intake.

Inyaki, that lands in and scores for the win and the championship. Going to that.
Inaki and Manu of the Cyclones and the Cyclone Squad. Ought to be a better call than that, no?

For a championship point. Relax.
We didn't make it very dramatic.

That was a hugely memorable last point, dramatic with a lot of flourishing. And then at the end, Mike and Chris give traditional owners interviews.
That's right. All right, Chris.

This team, and it started back in the draft, back a few months ago. How confident leaving that draft were you in this version of the team? The fives are really strong leaving that draft.

I'm just so glad we stuck with Manu this whole time.

The start, the end, I'm so happy. Manu's the man.
This is the Manu's championship right here. And Mike will ask you, too, how's it feel, second championship in Cyclones team history?

Man, it felt like a really long time

to be able to go full circle, close things out here in Magic City. It's a special feeling, special team.
Like Chris said,

to be able to stick with our captain. Manu is such a special player, best back quarter in the world.
Bueno coming back from injury, being super setty when the whole world doubted him.

Hairo, I'm so happy for him. He's a veteran.
He'd never been to a final before. For him to win it, he was a crucial, crucial draft pick.
Are you looking at the GM of the year?

You might be looking at the GM of the year and the special weapon, Unda, the Unda Tega. Let's go, Club.
All right, we'll let them celebrate, enjoy their moment, folks. What a season.
Yeah.

I can't tell you how much I love that mascot

for all the wrong reasons. Like, I wanted him to come in here this weekend stained from a weekend of debauchery with a sick smoking a cigarette.

I saw that during that interview, Mike said you might be looking at the GM of the year.

Whereupon Chris Cody pops up in your screen and then runs off of the screen as soon as Mike says we're looking at the GM of the year.

And I don't know whether he was talking about is Mike the GM of the year or is Chris the GM of the year. Oh, just stop it.

It's like trying to drive a wedge.

You can't do it. It's not

in your DNA to just be happy for people when you open

four seconds into the GM spell Dan without the D, the N, and the A come on dog I mean to Dan's point who is the gym of the year

cyclones we'll share it yeah well what a you guys are getting bogged down

who said

looking at the DM of the year who is it we are season eight battle corps champions

period that's a headline here where was the Greg Cody column yeah

where was it

Where was it?

Are you serious? Yeah. Yeah, you wrote an article about Chris becoming owner.
You'd think that we'd get a full circle. Yeah.

Well, there seems to be a conflict of interest on the reporting that Greg Cody does on this show versus real journalism. Yes.

You wrote an article about your son being the owner of the cyclones. I barely remember.

How emotional was it? You were there. You were there.

When you say you barely remember, we remember before this moment, the most memorable moment in High Lie at that fronton was you coughing so much during the pandemic that you fell down on the floor.

You passed out and you fell down on the floor.

I i fainted is what happened uh i did not faint the other night because i was i was uh the adrenaline was coursing through my veins it was an exciting night hundreds of fans were there um and and the action was great i mean it was just it's a really interesting sport highlight has died has died all over the country but we're keeping it all over the world in south florida i watched the i watched the whole thing dan i watched the whole it was on eSPN plus I watched the whole

match was long I'm gonna be honest all right it was the entire, my entire shipped on ESPN. I'm on the radio, and I had on my iPad.
I watched the entire match, and then you could see Chris.

At one point, they showed Chris in like the backstage area. They did.
At one point, the camera came up to me, and they're like, We're gonna show you.

So, I just had to do the thing of like he was like watching, like, really nervous mid-match.

And then he gave like, and then he did like one of these. I think you were doing like a clones kind of deal.
Yeah, yeah, it's this motion. Yeah, it's the double C.

That's not what that looks like.

Hey,

it's not what that looks like. That doesn't look like throw up your double C's.
What are the C's?

What is this C? Oh, I see what I know. I see.
Throw up your double C's. Let's go.
Craig, let's see it. C stands for Craig.

Yeah, very good. I watched the whole thing.
I know, I'll be honest, I didn't know what was going on, but

I watched the whole thing. Well, what was going on is that they're champions again.
The Cyclones are champions again, and we continue to

keep High Lai alive in South Florida and beyond.

And I believe that we are celebrating this more this weekend than Inner Miami's Championship because Messi went to India, didn't want to parade for the 37th best of his 43 titles.

And so there was no Inner Miami parade, but there is a celebration of another South Florida championship. Mike, where did you end up with the trophy all weekend? The trophy was at Space.

The trophy was at the University of Miami women's basketball game. It was at the men's MOOCs game.
How'd you get to bring it in? I know, folks. Mike Ryan.

Golden Kane. Yeah, yeah, clear it.

Look at that. I can't wait for my day with the trophy.
Yeah, I took a photo with Sebastian. You get a day with the trophy.
There were smatters everywhere.

Clones, go clones. Thinking elbow room, Flanagans.

Highlight, high-light, champion, right there. That's a cup.
You would hear whispers. Kyle Seeloff touched it.

Everyone showed up over there. With Jason Tashay.
Dwark was there. Jordan McPherson was there.

All the big names.

I think Mike Ryan bullied Jordan McPherson, by the way, into going that night. Because he came out and opened the thing and said, hey, Jordan McPherson, what the F about the AP vote.

And then he's like, what do you want me to do, Mike? And he's like, come to the highlight game. And he's like, okay, I'll be there.
And then all of a sudden he showed up.

Craig, what were the highlights for you? The highlights. Were you there the whole time? Were you the whole matchup? Of course.
The Miller Lights were the highlight for him. Of course I was.

And by the way, to your point, it's a long game.

You know, you got to tighten it a little bit. Like, what is it about?

I have never heard, after winning a championship, someone who actually cares about their team complaining that it was a long game that they had to watch. It's because you two don't care.

Like, you're not, no, you're noticing the length of the championship win because you're looking at your wristwatch wanting to get out of there. You don't actually care.
Look at this. You wanna

stop faking that you care by complaining about how long the match is. Look at this guy.
That's a man caring right there. Hoisting the trophy.
Damn right.

Earlier this year, he gave you crap for banging a drum at a Panthers game. We can see why there was no high-light article after this.

Put it on the poll, please.

At Lebetard Show, did you foresee a circumstance where the Dolphins season would last longer than the Chiefs season?

At Lebetard Show.

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Mike Ryan's in there and he's the one with a baby. He's the one who's got to like worry about what the future is.

And Mike Ryan bet on DraftKings because Mike Ryan bet on us.

This is the bet you're afraid of doubling down on? Putting up a billboard in Edmonton. Stugats.
I care more about Matthew Kachuck than I do my daughter. This is the Don Lebatar Show with the Stugats.

The Dolphins play against the Steelers tonight.

And what we saw from the Chiefs yesterday is the seismic story in the sport because not only is the Chiefs thing done, that game finishes with Mahomes on the turf making you wonder, oh, wait a minute.

How much longer is Andy Reid going to want to do this? How much longer are their coaches going to want to do this? If it's Mahomes to the middle of next season and he's already getting hit more,

he got hit more the last two years than he had in the previous six combined because of what his offensive line is.

Only Herbert has been hit more this year than Mahomes and at the very end for a worthless cause. And that Chiefs team is better than its record.
That

rare is the non-playoff qualifier that has this kind of point differential. In fact, comparatively, Denver is such a fraud.

Like comparatively, on an 11-game winning streak where all your games are an average of seven-point victories,

the Chiefs have a great point differential,

lost a bunch of close games, and are going to miss the playoffs, even though they're not actually worse than the Dolphins. Wait a minute.

Listen, the Chiefs were known before this season for winning all those close games. That's been the big difference this year.
It's not an ability, Greg. The winning of close games is not an ability.

Of course, it is. No, it's not.
It is when you're playing bad teams. We looked at it.
Their one-score victories that made everybody concerned, hey, how sustainable is this? Came against bad teams.

And this year, their one-score defeats came against good teams. They dipped.
They weren't as good. Kelsey obviously looks a little different.

Mahomes, I have always wondered, how is that body type going to age? He's torn his ACL in year nine. Should be noted.
So did Tom Brady. Both missed the playoffs.
And then Tom Brady went on a several

decades run. Enough with the comparison.
Like, as if Mahomes is going to replicate Tom Brady's career. You know, Brady had practically three Hall of Fame careers.

The first run, then he got hurt, then the second run, and then the Tampa run. But he's walking in his footsteps, as he's got the three Super Bowls.
He's walking exactly injuries.

He's going to miss the year. They're going to be bad.
They're going to get Jeremy. Brady has seven Super Bowls.
We act like it's so easy. Okay, but now this is the next act of Patrick Mahomes' career.

Now it's actual

another three Super Bowls. Does Mahomes win another Super Bowl? Your best guess.
Yes. No.
No. I don't think so either.
They're done. The Chiefs dynasty died yesterday.
The whole dynasty did.

Andy Reid is on fumes. He's looking for an exit strategy.
Kelsey's

retiring. Kelsey's done.
Mahomes' best days are done. The offensive line's still.
Well, this is what I didn't have, though, right? This is the part I did not have.

After nine straight division titles, seven straight AFC championship games, and three straight Super Bowls, I did not have anything happening yesterday that would make me question next season this quickly.

And the thing that happened is the thing that makes you wonder, oh, wait, did it all just come apart because they're trying to beat the Chargers and they can't do anything offensively and they lose at home 16 to 13 to the Chargers and at the end of the game he's getting hurt.

None of you guys had that either, right?

That we, even if they were eliminated, we would have thought of that as anti-climax, but we wouldn't have thought, oh, wait a minute, what does this mean until the middle of next year?

Oh, wait, their defensive coordinator and their coach are super old. Do they even want a part of whatever is the problem with how many people they're paying guaranteed money?

when they can't get out from under what this season was.

What I'm telling you, though, is that team was not as bad as its record and you seem to object to what I'm saying that winning one score games isn't an ability.

Minnesota had it last year and then they went into the playoffs and they didn't have it anymore.

But my point is, and it's quantifiable, Kansas City has before this year has been noted

for winning a lot of one score games. Last year they were great at one score games, but this year wasn't.
What happened to the ability? If it's an ability, what happened to it?

Okay, so you're saying last year was not an ability. They got lucky last year.
They did. Okay.
They did. They've got a great quarterback.

Look, what tilts the odds in your favor on one-score games is: do you have a great quarterback? So, yeah, if you've got a great quarterback, you're more likely to win one-scored games.

But this year, Mahomes is a great quarterback and wasn't able to win them because it's not an ability. Okay, I think winning teams often get denigrated for reasons like this.

Okay, we're saying that New England's 10-game winning streak was because they had a soft schedule. We're saying Denver

is winning a lot of close games. Denver just beat Green Bay, which was a real game.
Denver's average margin of victory during this winning streak, during the 11 wins, is seven points.

It's the smallest one ever for this kind of winning. Okay.
Ever.

They're not dominating people. They're just beating them.
And you tell me whether you'd be surprised if Bo Nix loses a playoff game to Herbert by one score.

I wouldn't be surprised by much this season. This has been a crazy NFL season all the way around.

To that point, though, yeah, they've been beating teams just barely, but then you look at a team like Green Bay who you look and say, okay, they might be the the best team in the league and then they dominate that team and you're like okay wait like this team might be for real with the defense and bonics could just do enough he has another four touchdown performance and they can go on a run they can make it to the super bowl easily A lot of teams in the AFC could make it to the Super Bowl easily because you've got all of the usual participants in the AFC out.

Look at how many quarterbacks have appeared in the AFC championship game over the last 22 years. It's like five or six in terms of like,

it's always the same guys in the game, and now they're all eliminated so of course of course you're looking at what josh allen the story of the day yesterday there was a ton of football news yesterday right a ton

the football story of the day yesterday was what buffalo did to new england as new england's trying to wrestle the top of the division from them and all i'm listening to during the game drake may drake mays blocking down the field everything's about he's the mvp he's the mvp he's the mvp no he's not no he's not the mvp played in the other huddle the mvp is the guy who scores four touchdown games, 10 times more than anyone else since 2020.

And it's the guy who came back from 21 down or what was it? Yeah, it was 21 down. The Patriots had the longest streak in league history of if they're up 17 at home.
It was 120 games.

They never lose the game and they lost it yesterday. As someone that just reps the shield, though, I came away bummed overall because of what happened to Mahomes.
Do you rep the shield?

I rep the shield.

I wanted to see Josh see if he could go through that quarterback. And now Josh Allen doesn't look like he has to go through the quarterbacks that Dan highlighted.

Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, passed through the ball. That's what he gets in the Super Bowl.
You don't think Josh Allen? No. Like, you've been firing off the definitive tips.

You've been saying the Chiefs are done and Josh Allen's not making the Super Bowl.

I think Josh Allen's.

The odds reflect this if you check DraftKings' sports book. Odds improved with what happened over the football game.
Buffalo's going to go in Road win three games in the playoffs?

Well, they may not have to. They're still alive in that division.
Yeah, I mean,

the series is tied 1-1, so it'll come down division record. Right now, Buffalo's a game back in the division and a game back overall.
I understand. New England's still pretty much in the fall.

I understand your point in theory. Like, is Josh Allen going to go through three road games? Potentially, and as Dan highlighted, Bo Nicks doesn't scare anybody.

He just showed you what he can do climbing back from a 21-hole at Foxborough.

If there's a quarterback equipped that you feel confident in going through these other quarterbacks in the AFC, it's certainly Josh Allen.

If he doesn't win this year, Josh Allen, he's never going to to win.

I don't want to do always and never. I do want to highlight a couple of things that are aberrations.

One of them, the Bills, six times this season, six, that defense has allowed a rusher to have 185 plus yards.

The other team has had

185 or more rushing yards six times. Josh Allen's 4-2 in those games.
What's happening with Josh Allen is something that of the remaining quarterbacks, this can only be said, I believe, of one,

not two, not three of the remaining quarterbacks. If you're on defense, you fear him on third and 11, and you fear him on fourth and four.

You desperately want the Bills to punt on fourth and anything because he's going to scramble around back there and make plays when he's down 14-3 last week in the game, and they look beat against the Bengals on fourth and four.

It doesn't matter against him.

You are terrified on defense because he's different than any player in the league in terms of how much he can just patchwork his team to be four and two when they stink at stopping the run.

And outside of James Cook, like who's he throwing the ball to, right? It's a couple of tight ends. It's Khalil Shakir.
Like, they don't really have anybody that's super dominant.

It's just Josh Allen willing every single second of the game.

He's a different quarterback than anybody else. And when the score yesterday, I think at one point was 24 to 3 or 24 to 7.
And they showed Mike Vrabel on the sideline just with a huge grin.

And you could tell his vibe was, we have this game. He looked like he thought we're the best team.
We have this game. And I said to my wife, has he watched Josh Allen play?

Has he watched Josh Allen go to work? He looked really overconfident. He did.
And that was not a deficit that was safe with Josh Allen. You see, he got his wife pregnant, Josh Allen.

Big news over the weekend, too. Congrats to them.
Yeah, how about that? I'm watching the announcers in that game, and the Patriots go up 7-0, and they start having the MVP conversation.

Someone in the MVP. Well, the color man, though, says when they ask him who's the MVP, the color man says, right now, at 7-0,

Drake May is the MVP.

And they wanted so badly to make the story that when Henderson, who's Saquon Barkley reincarnated in the open field, when Henderson is going 75 yards with a touchdown and Drake May is blocking for him.

The announcers, I can hear them getting out of their seat to celebrate. Look at the quarterback running down the field, making a block.
It was 70 yards down the field.

He is the MVP. No, he's not.
It's the other guy.

Block is putting it strongly. Dude, he just got in the way.
He ran down the field and just kind of like stride for stride.

A block, though. I mean, putting it strongly.
The MVP's in the other conference.

Stafford's the MVP. Yeah, Yeah, it's number nine.
We didn't hear that at all. The reigning MVP is in the other huddle, and it has not yet

been taken away from him, and neither has the division. Drake May had the chance to do that yesterday.
And here's the other thing: Josh Allen has, and this one's not small, man.

The Patriots are down, and it's fourth and four, and they've got it at their 21-yard line with all their timeouts, and more than two minutes in the game, and the announcers are saying the correct thing.

You cannot give it back to Josh Allen because the MVP's in the the other huddle. You cannot give the football back to Josh Allen because he'll finish you.

It's just not something that exists anywhere else. Vrabel coached that game exceptionally well.
And at the end, the other quarterback is there and you fear him.

And so you go for it on fourth and short at your own 21-yard line and the game's over. I couldn't believe the theater yesterday watching the NFL for week 15.

You have, is this the end for the Chiefs questions? You have Buffalo having a Waterloo moment, needing to come back from 21-0 and telling Drake May, no, the division isn't yours yet.

You're wondering aloud if you're ever going to see Joe Burrow again. Is Trevor Lawrence good? Miles Garrett is chasing a record for Saks out week 15.
I was locked into Phillip Rivers.

I watched like that whole game. I really enjoyed watching Phillip Rivers.

A lot of people did.

I do think that something has changed with Jacksonville, and it's making Jacoby Myers their number one receiver.

It's made them less incompetent at some of the very basic things on offense that they were just super sloppy. BTN's awesome, too.

He is.

Experts.

But I thought that Brian Thomas was a number one receiver and he is not. And as soon as they moved him from number one receiver, all of a sudden their offense got a whole lot more consistent.

Well, remember, during the bye week, Liam Cohen said, all right, we're going to give Travis Hunter the ability to be kind of like our one A guy and BT will be another guy on the other side.

And then Travis Hunter gets hurt. Then all of a sudden sudden they have it flux.
They trade for Jacoby Myers and their offense has been awesome since then. Well, I want to move all.

I want to ask all of you this question because we spend a lot of time talking about football around here. And any Monday, I can come in here and say, hey, who do you guys think?

Which guards played well yesterday? And nobody would have the answer to it. Here's a question.
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Don Lebatard. All right, we got to go back out there.
That was big.

Wake him up. Uh-oh.

He doesn't want to be bothered anymore. Now it's getting tense because he didn't need that as a result.
He needs something that happens.

You can see Mother FAI.

Can we bother? Are we bothering you right now? Turn on your microphone, Greg. My microphone's on.
Stugats. Paint the scene.

Paint the scene is: I gotta go to work. Good night.
This is the Don Lebatar Show with the Stugats.

I want to submit to you guys based on what you've seen of the Bills defense and statistics, do you think that for the Bills, yes or no question,

Joey Bosa has had a good season. Yes or no?

No, not a great season. I think he's done well.
Let me do it another way. Five sacks is what he's got this season.
Has he had a good season? Yes or no? Five sacks, Joey Posa.

At his age, that's a good season. I mean, he made a game-saving play.
Well, this is what I was going to say. He is causing more fumbles than anyone in the league.

And to me, if I can have that as an ability, if I could get that from somebody, caused five fumbles.

That person has had a good season. No, Almost no matter what else they've done, if you can lead the league in caused fumbles, you have had a good season just with that.

I just don't know that we measure that position very well. We usually do it with sacks.
And so just about anybody listening to this, if I say five sacks for Joey Bosa, they'd be like,

that's one every three games.

That's not great. Right.
But he was a good ad to a defense that needed it. Yeah, but they haven't stopped anybody this year.

They haven't been good at defense and they haven't been great at pass rush, which I thought they were going to be. They probably lose that game if he doesn't make that pass deflection.

Wide open receiver there.

The last line of defense was Joey Bosa's arms. And he got him up and now we're talking about how the Bills wouldn't let the Patriots take the division.

Which is exactly what happened in Foxborough yesterday.

Those fans, spoiled and titled, earned arrogance, those fans thought halfway through that game, this is us eliminating the bills as the top of this division and then the entire stadium is rolling backward afraid of josh allen at the end because you know what's in the other huddle what are you smiling about whatever it's two two teams that neither one of them can win the super bowl who do you have winning the super bowl like you're you're just so definitive yeah in in like burying teams that are right now like odds on favorite so who do you have if i ask you right now bills and patriots to win the super bowl or the field what are you going with i'll take the bills

really i'll I'll take the Bills. Field.
I'll take the Bills. You just lost money, and I won money.
I think this is how the story goes. The Chargers have a chance.
They have a chance. Their odds.

I think the Chargers are cool. I locked in a Chargers AFC because

I couldn't believe their odds. They were like north of plus 1,000.
I understand the alt injury.

Their O-line is like, yeah, they're killing Justin Herbert, but their defense is good enough that they got a shot in these. I like that as a flyer, but oh,

I think the stars are aligning for the Buffalo Bills. The Buffalo Bills are going to be much better on defense when they get Ed Oliver back.

That's a big, huge reason why everybody running the ball against them. When Ed Oliver is healthy again, which should be soon, I think the Bills are appreciably better on defense.

I'm going to say it again off of that injury yesterday. This is from Bill Barnwell, including sacks and quarterback knockdowns.

Mahomes has been hit 153 times this season, a figure topped by only Justin Herbert.

It brings me to the way that Joe Burrow has been talking recently, that a lot of people have heard sort of the sadness in his voice because he's getting hit a lot. It hurts to get up in the morning.

It hurts to rehab through injury.

And I will tell you something else that hurts that I think is being undercovered when it comes to Joe Burrow speaking of sadness because Joe Burrow may love football, but I think what he loves more is winning.

It's winning football that he loves. Losing football is a different thing.

And I will tell you that the Cincinnati Bengals, before before Joe Burrow got there were a cheap laughingstock organization for decades. A sad place to work.
Cold, antiseptic.

You don't like being at the facility, not just because you're losing, but because the program is cheap. Your owners don't actually care about winning.

Joe Burrow going to the facility, losing or winning in a city that's different than that one?

Cold and your premises are cheap. Everything around you feels small.
Joe Burrow lifts it, but the Bengals have been something you've laughed at for 40 years because they're cheap.

And so Joe Burrow walks in and whatever, the stuff he's looking at everywhere is bleak, dark, and sad. Winning covers a lot, but losing doesn't help you getting up in the morning.

If your body hurts and it's physically cold and you're walking to a program that you know is like, oh, this place is stinky. It's they're cheap people here.
I've lifted them.

And then you get yesterday.

Do you have the sound of him in the post-game press conference yesterday where Joe Burrow, the last couple of weeks, sounds sad, and it makes me wonder whether he loves football or just winning at football?

We have a better good football team. You know,

bad football teams

do losing things. And number one, your quarterback has to play better than I did today.

Do you feel like there's too much weight on you where it feels like if you're not perfect, the team is good enough enough around you to pick you up.

You know, I feel confident in all those guys in the locker room. There's not a team in the NFL that would have won the game today if I was a corvette.
Joe Flacco loves football.

Phillip Rivers loves football. I don't know whether Joe Burrow loves football or just winning at football.
You see, talk about being cheap.

The Bengals yesterday, they didn't clear the snow off the seats. The NFL requires you to clear the snow off the seats before the fans arrive.

The Bengals didn't do that, so they're likely going to get fined by the NFL. Can you imagine you show up to the game? It's however little degrees it is.

You have to clear the snow off your seats to watch your team score zero points.

The Bengals in my lifetime are the only football team I have ever covered that I have thought to myself they have no interest in actually winning.

They're here for to make money off of the business of it. They are not interested in spending except as much as the the league and the rules insist that they must.

If I were Joe Burrow and I gave him a lot of credit because I would love the truth, the absolute unvarnished truth from a quarterback in a situation like this, not that he would ever say it.

Joe Burrow should have said, we have the worst defense in the NFL. It's quantifiable.
Our defense has given up more points than any other team in football. Tough to play like that.

Tough for an offense to go into a game knowing that they might have to score 34 points to win. Yeah, but they needed to, yesterday, the Ravens needed to score one point to win.
Right. That's true.

That's true. How would you get the one point? That's hard.
That's hard as one.

Can we just kick an extra point, guys? It was going to be hard to stop them from scoring the one point that they would have needed to win yesterday. No, that's fair in that case.

But the larger point is that the defense sucks. But that has nothing to do with yesterday.
Yesterday, I know that

they've had more games this year.

Jeremy, look this up for me. They've had a number of games this year where they've scored 30-plus points and lost.
Joe Burrow has had a number of games. So that would be fair on another day.

Not yesterday, though. A quarterback could have won them that game yesterday.
They needed a quarterback to not throw a pick six that Van Noy is handing to Gilman.

That was awesome. It looked like a baton race where it's like, here, take it, take it.

The fact that Van Noy knew that that's, I need to give this to somebody

faster than me. I'm not going to make it those 90 yards.

Or a quarterback that could hit a streaking wide open Jamar Chase.

I didn't.

I think it's really interesting that after those comments a few days ago, Joe Burrow threw up like his worst game.

We all should have known, like, watching that press conference last week, it should have been so obvious to everyone, oh, they're going to be really terrible.

Zero points against a defense that has struggled this year, and Joe Burrow doesn't look like himself at all.

At all. How did it happen? Damn, like, how did it happen where he returned three weeks ago and

he was asked on the sideline by the reporter before the game started why he hurried back. And she's like, I love football.
We get paid a lot of money to play a game.

Football is fun. And then just three weeks later, I don't know if he's going to play football anymore.

These two teams played. The Bengals moved the ball.
They kicked the shit out of them. Yeah, they look good.

And then he says he doesn't know if he's having fun and he's worried about the head injuries. And he sounds like he's got this really dark energy.
And they throw up zero points.

I think you could really really look into those comments.

Three such games this year where the Bengals have scored 30-plus points and lost the game.

Two of them were with Joe Flacco, one game in which they scored 42 points against Chicago, and one game where they scored 38 points against the Jets, and both of those losses were at home.

Dan, the handicapped seats were covered in snow when the fans got there. Come on.
Is that a big deal? The handicapped seats, even the handicapped seats, you get a neighbor. You say ADA now.

You get a neighbor

to

brush off your seat for you.

The seats are this big.

The seats are this big. You go like this with your hand.
Get rid of the seats.

Such a Florida guy right there. Let me give you a better stat here, okay? Over the last two years, okay, the rest of the NFL, when scoring 33 points, is 136, 10, and 2.

So there have been 148 games played, and 10 of of them have been losses. Cincinnati, when scoring at least 33 points the last two years, four and seven.
So

seven of those 10 losses are Cincinnati. It's just their defense is terrible.
That's my point. And he's feeling kind of hopeless.
Yes. Can't believe how Golden didn't fix this.
I am stunned.

It was right. So Monster Miami Sports Night, according to Zazzlow, the Dolphins are playing.
Are you going to hate watch that? How does this work? Why would I hate watching that? My team.

I'm going to watch it. Because you hate watching.
Because you hate watching Tua. Well, I hate watching Tua, that's for sure.
But A-chan's fun to watch. Yeah, he is.
Give the ball to A-chan.

Is he healthy?

Yeah, he's expected to play. He's expected to play.

Give the ball to A-chan.

I like watching Minka. He's fun to watch.

I'm into this team, man. They got a game that matters.
Hey, there are some teams out there like the Kansas City Chiefs. They're done.
Dolphins aren't done. I'm watching this game tonight.
I'm into it.

Hopefully, by the time the Dolphin game starts, matter of fact, because the game starts at 8-15, Panthers are at 7. Hopefully, the Panthers, maybe we're up like 2-0 at the stupid Lightning by then.

So I'm in a great mood. The Heat game will still be, you know, like maybe early second quarter.
Maybe the Heat got a lead. I don't know.
I can't predict the future.

But hopefully, I mean, can we go 3-0 tonight?

Roy, the Lightning, have they fixed everything or just in the regular season? They fixed it in the regular season, which is what... The cats are rolling right now, Roy.

Yes, the Panthers are currently hot with that 4-0 win in Dallas. That was it.
That was classic winning hot. You know about that shutout?

How can they be hot if they just lost to Colorado 6-2 in Colorado? That's the second night of a back-to-back in Denver. That's a possible game.

Colorado has lost how many times this year? Two? Two times in regulation. Panthers are going to go there second night of a back-to-back? Please.
Panthers won four to five.

They just skunked the Dallas Stars. We're cooking with gas right now.
How about the Mamoths? Are they good?

I mean, Panthers didn't care if they're good or not. I don't think it's moral.
It's just

the Utah mammoth. Oh, man.

It's a singular ass. It's still learning.
Stirning. It's a singular ass that was taken.

Not

a bunch of mammoth ass.

Only one mammoth ass.

A singular mammoth ass. One of them.
Kachuck is coming back soon. And tonight he'd play Toronto at

per Jeff Passon.

First baseman Josh Bell has agreed to terms with the Minnesota Twins. The 33-year-old is a switch hitter who will help them both offensively and defensively.

Wow, still doing Vecna, huh?

He found a bit that works, and in the style of this show, we run it right into the ground.

Several episodes past its expiration date, we continue. Between Josh Bell updates.

Wow.

The original ones weren't any better than that. I miss Josh Bell.
Josh Bell is worthy of an update locally.

That's a good local update, as opposed to the former Marlin who made a postseason with the franchise.

God, three notes tonight would be so good. Panthers, Heat Dolphins.
Oh, I'll be on fire tomorrow. See you on the broadcast.