In a new episode of The Bernie Fratto Show, Bernie opens the show reacting to the new coaching hires taking place around the NFL, including Ben Johnson, Pete Caroll & Brian Schottenheimer. NFL and CFB writer Jason Hirschhorn joins the show to give his input on the new coaching hires & more! Bernie recaps the NFL Divisional Round, some things to look for as we head into the Conference Championship & his opinion on what could be changed when it comes to the College Football Playoff. Plus YOUR thoughts during the Midnight Hour!
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Well, that's right, you heard the man. It's that time of week. My name is Bernie Frattle. We are coming you alive from the tyrat dot com studios here in Las Vegas, Fox Sports Radio tyrac dot com. We'll help you get there. An unmatched selection, fast free shipping, free ROADAZID protection, and over ten thousand recommended installers. Tyrat dot com the way tire buying should be. And then there was one in what has transpired to be one of the more unusual NFL coaching carousels over the last eighteen days that I can remember. My opinion, it's about to come to a close. Who will the Saints hire? What happened to the allegedly highly attractive and sought after Mike McCarthy. Will the Saints grab him? Well, apparently there are seven potential candidates. The Saints are talking to Darren Rizzy Meh, Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver, Bill's offensive coordinator Joe Brady, the New York Giants offensive coordinator Mike Kafka. I guess he interviewed with him. On the ninth, Kellen Moore is in the mix. And then there's Mike McCarthy, potentially Cliff Kingsbury. Watch you just throw a darted aboard. What the hell? But in what has been a week of what I consider to be pretty salacious headlines in the world of sports, you have to sort to sort through which are the most topical and to jump out at me and both jumped in front of us Friday, and before I get to it, you know, what do you look for in an NFL coach? Well, what do you look for in any coach? Nick Sabe and I think defined it best, and I think he might know a thing or two about this. He explained that there are four criteria he looks for when you hire a coach. One what kind of character do you have? Two? What kind of knowledge do you have? Three? Do you have the ability to apply that knowledge and teach the players? That's critical? And for what kind of relationships can you develop with players? And in today's world and in today's world of college and professional sports, that's ever so important, which is why I actually think the Raiders hit a grand slam with Pete Carroll. Hiring Pete Carroll means Las Vegas went from elevating one of the league's least experienced coaches. And I had nothing against Antonio Pierce given the hand he was dealt. I thought he did the best he could. But now they're bringing the exact opposite. I know critics will say Pierce had never been more than a linebackers coach at the NFL level, and it was only a college assistant for four seasons at Arizona State before it being elevated from interim to full time coach. Well, they gave it a shot. They were four and thirteen and Pierce was sent packing. But who would have won with those quarterbacks and that roster. You want to have Andy Reid, you want to bring back Vince Lombardi. All right, let's not waste our time with rubinations. The world is a vexing enough place without hypotheticals. But Pete Carroll, on the other hand, brings his solid eighteen years of NFL coaching experience. He filled in the gaps between Sunday and nine years guiding USC has eleven playoff wins, seven pack ten titles, five NFC West titles, one Super Bowl win, two Super Bowl appearances in NCAA championship. That's called producing results, and there is logic to hiring Pete Carroll just not just because of his accomplishments, but what he'll bring. Look, you have to give Pete Carroll a hell of a lot of credit. And what he did, Yeah, he built them into a powerhouse bit of a throwback. His defenses were you know, crazy good, swarming, active bad intentions. His offenses did lead lean heavily on power runs. Although I know you know pundits will say, why did you pass? Why do you ponder passing in the Super Bowl when you could have handed it to Marshawn Lynch. You'll never live that down. But if you give him a mobile quarterback, a power run, and a good defense and the type of guy that takes what the defense gives him on offense, Pete Carroll has proven he can win. Now, if that sounds for Mayor, there's a team in the tournament right now doing that called the Philadelphia Eagles. Their offenses built around Saquon Barkley, Jalen Hurts, picks his spots, and oh, by the way, they have a pretty good defense. Carrol's approach can work. Making it work in Vegas, however, we have no idea. But in terms of the higher itself, he knows what he's doing. He's been there, done that. He knows what winning looks like, he knows what it feels like. I believe he could communicate that part of it will be through osmosis. One of Pete Carroll's gifts as a coach is the ability to assess and ascertain talent. So I expect him to put together a crack staff, you know. And so the question is going to be, what are you gonna do for quarterback? Aidan O'Connell and Gardner Minshew they're under contract, and then you got the legend Desmond Ritter Helly probably be better off with John ridd that's for you. Mike and Jason, by the way, they could both be one or both could hang around as a useful backup when I'm curious to see what might happen. Might they take a flyer on a Kirk Cousins. I think he might end up being available. Might they take a flyer in a Russell Wilson? And I'm serious about that. Okay, no quarterback was gonna win in Pittsburgh. Justin Field is a dear lost in the headlights. When came into the league, everybody thought he would do and be doing what Jayden Daniels is doing. Well, he did, and he's not. Russell Wilson is not that bad. He's got some left. You need Brits a bridge in there till they get their next guy. So look, they've got a hell of a lot of work to do, but they do have ninety five million dollars in estimated salary cap space. That's not bad. So and by the way, they might even get the Sam Darnold, who knows a couple of good players on defense, Max Crossby, Malcolm Koons. So you have some pieces, but you have a coach. You have a legitimate coach. Now let's move on. I don't know what the hell happened in Dallas. I don't think anybody knows what the hell happened in Dallas. We talked about last week how much we wished Dion Sanders would be the coach, knowing damn full well, it's just simply wasn't going to happen, and it would have been. It would have been a spectacular disaster because Dean never would have had control. But man, it would have been fun. But hello, Brian Schottenheimer. After years of much speculator Brian Schottenheimer is no longer Susan Lucci. He gets his chance to be a head coach. He's been the offensive coordinator well all the way back since twenty twenty three, but now he gets an opportunity to run the show. I don't know what happened to call them Moore, well he's working, but hiring Schottenheimer to be the head coach of the Cowboys, it's just I'm sorry. It's a head scratcher. I think it's a significant letdown for anybody who thought Dallas would be able to attract somebody who would excite the you know, the Cowboy nation as it were. Truthfully, it's really an indicator of how much in disarray the Cowboys truly are from top to bottom. Now, bon Schottenheimer can win, and he'll make liars out of all of us, and we'll give him his flowers. He finds his way into the playoffs next year, wins a couple of playoff games, Well, we'll revisit that. But Brian Schottenheimer's career is about a scatter shot as he gets. He's been an offensive coordinator for fourteen teams. He's never had an offense above a top sixteen he's been below twentieth seven times, and if you want to put him in the same category as Ben Johnson or a Liam Cohen, who, by the way, if you've done your homework, we knew this heading into week two when Tampa Bay went in and took a part Detroit. Liam Cohen is an offensive genius. He is with his rough trees and what he did with Baker Mayfield, and he did it before at Kentucky. He's been with other good staffs. But here's what Brian Schottenheimer gets. An overpaid quarterback who can't win. Des Brian who's already pissed off. He thinks Deon Sanders got screwed. Michaeh Parsons, who gives weird speeches. I don't care what Dallas did the last five weeks, and I don't care what Mike McCarthy did. What a dumpster fire this is. Plus they're in a deep salary cap hole. Anybody taking that job woul need to accept the fact that if you can't somehow get Dak Prescott and Ceedee Lamb to actually produce real results on the offense, it's going to be a long year. But the truth of the matter is promoting from within feels like a defensive position and may have been their only option. The problem is, here's what you got to ask yourself. If you could turn back the clock and say, should we just stick with Mike McCarthy. He's the devil you know, versus the devil you don't know, I don't know, I don't care what you do. But you have to ask yourself is it an upgrade? And you can't answer with a definitive yes. Those two jump all right, and let's talk about Ben Johnson for just a minute. It's been a long time since the Bears hired someone who's actually very coveted for multiple NFL jobs and not your side because someone needed to fill the role. Okay, Chicago has made a splashy move here. We'll see if it works on paper. It's a home run. Higher His scheming ability, his creative offensive game, his ability to plan offenses took the Lions to higher heights, certainly upgraded Jared Goffin and one of the best quarterbacks in the league. Plus, Johnson also managed to show his uncanny ability to showcase talent and devising a run game with this one to two punch of Jamier Gims and David Montgomery and have the run game compliment the passing game. And the truth of the matter is the Bears need someone supremely creative. All right now, Look this is going to be a challenge, and save this on tape right now. Ben Johnson's offense fits a quarterback who understands the importance of pre snap reads in pre snap plays. Ben Johnson's offense is not improvisational. It's not someone who thrives when his players go off strip or start creating for themselves. Now, if Caleb Williams can buy into that, I think it's going to be awkward. It may me start to looking a little more robotic because Williams loves to is a pension for improvising after the snap, and it's not always good. And Dj Moore is not exactly the greatest rot runner. This is not playground football, don't get it twisted. I think it's a good hire and Johnson wouldn't take the job without the confidence knowing he could make it work. But you better pause for just a second throughout the week and I'll get to some of the other coaching new higher thoughts. Certainly with the more obvious ones. The Mike Variables, the Aaron Glimms of Liam Cohens, who I think are really solid hires. But I got to tell you this, Dallason should leave you scratching your head coming up. There's so much to chop up in the news this week. Nobody, nobody better to bring in than our guy, Jason Hrshorn. He's been on my show many times, and I want to talk a little bit about this coaching care of sail. There's an odd backstory as to what happened in Tampa Bay Jacksonville. We'll get into the McCarthy thing, We'll get into the Dallas thing, dive into the Bears a bit, and everything else happening in the NFL. As we headed are three games left in the season. We'll do our best to enjoy it. But right now, for me, the headlines are being made off the field in the coaching carousel. I'm Bernie Fraddlewick Kemedy Line from the Las Vegas Fox Sports Radio tyrect dot Com Studios. Keep it locked right here. You're listening to the Bernie Frattle Show on Fox Sports Radio.
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All right back on the Bernie Frattles Show, Fox Sports Radio. Coming your line from the Tarrat dot com studios here in Las Vegas. We'll take you up to two am Pacific, five m Eastern this time. It's welcome and a gentleman, one of my favorites. He's been on the show many times. You've heard him. You follow him on Twitter at buy Underscore g Jason Hershorn, Award winning NFL college football writer, co founder of The Leak the Leap, a Green Bay Packers newsletter. Jason, it's been a minute, but I'm so glad to get you back tonight. How you've been.
Been a little busy with some of these coaching hires, but you know that's what we get paid the big bucks to do this.
You're earning your money because when we went to bed last night, the Raiders job was vacant, and so were the Cowboys. Set that aside for just a second, because I really want to get your backstory on these I think it's fairly fascinating. But there's an interesting development in Jacksonville. Now. I've been a Liam Cohen fan for a while. I'm quite aware of what he's done and his capabilities. Is one of the most intriguing offensive minds. But apparently I don't know whether it's Trent Bulky or his son apparently has an otto immune illness. There seems to be multiple variations of a story that gets a little crazier every time you hear it. Can you take behind the curtain and the ultimate hiring of Liam Collen with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
I think to understand the Jacksonville Jaguars off season, you really do need to focus on Trent Balke. This is someone who has been a GM in multiple spots. This is not his first time in that role. It wasn't his first time in the role. He had spent a sizable period of time running the front office for the Champranisco forty nine ers about a decade plus ago now, and he's someone who earned a very particular reputation around the league, and that's not a very positive reputation, to put the mildly. There were a handful of candidates over multiple cycles who were not interested in any job if it was associated with Trent Falken. All of this information was known to the Jacksonville Jaguars going into this off season. This is why it was such a big surprise to a lot of people around the league that even though they fired Doug Peterson, they kept Balky in place. Initially, it was expected that they would do a full cleaning of the house instead. When that didn't happen, it changed the total landscape of this coaching hiring cycle a lot of people believed. I was told directly that if the Jacks had done what most people expect them to do at the beginning and byre the head coach and the general manager, that was going to be the most likely landing spot for Ben Jonson, at least the spot that he was going to seriously consider. Now, with Falkey basically taking it off the map, or Ben Johnson ultimately lands up instead in Chicago, that changes things for variety of teams. The Jags kept Balkey for I think it was seventeen days after the end of the regular season finally pivoted after Liam Cohen turned him down initially pulled his name out of consideration, and that's when Jacksonville's ownership said, we cannot proceed any further in this direction and that's when you get all the confusion of you know, Colnan went out and then he was in, and it was a clam DestinE conversation for a variety of reasons, including the Wooney rule and the contract that he agreed to with the Buccaneers and all those things. But it ultimately comes back to the decision initially to keep Bulky in place in Jacksonville for the seventy days. It really was a landscape shifting decision, even if he's no longer the general manager in Jacksonville anymore.
So here's what's interesting, because I'm abundantly aware of Trent Paulkey. I had a friend who was with the Niners back in twenty twelve, and Bulky and Jed York and Jim Harbor were having their issues. So as far as the timeline, if you could please just sort this out, Cohen agreed to even after talking to Jacksonville, agreed to stay with Tampa Bay as a highly paid offensive coordinator. Found out the next day that Jacksonville was parting ways with Trent Pulkey. All of a sudden, Liam Cohen lobs a call to his bosses at Tampa Bay, even though he'd already agreed to the Tampa Bay job and said, I want to reopen my ability to talk to Jacksonville. Flies to Jacksonville. Shot Con said, we're not letting this guy out of the building. He goes from making four and a half a million year about thirteen or fourteen million year and as simple as that. But it feels just funny to me. Is that timeline that I just described to you accurate.
I have not been able to hammer down that degree of specificity, but in the broad tropes, he thought that Jacksonville was no longer happening because he's not so comfortable working in that situation with Trent Bulky, which again which were for a variety of candidates, not just Liam Cohen, and said, Okay, my best option at this point is to say in Tampa Bay. The Jackuars were the only team that committed a formal request to interview Liam Cohen at the beginning of this cycle, so give it his options. Saying in Tampa Bay and getting go ready to do so was the best course of action. Then the Jags finally removed Trent Balk from that position, and that changed everything again. So from that point forward, Jacksonville becomes an option again for Liam Cohen, and Liam Cohen becomes the number one, the clear top target for the Jags. So at that point it's basically not like a restarting negotiations. They never had previously gotten to that point, but it sort of restarts that part of it. And from Cohen's perspective, independent of what he had agreed to with Tampa Bay, that is not just life offering money.
That's the opportunity to be a head coach in.
The NFL, and you do not know if that opportunity is going to be there for you a year from now. Remember a year ago today Bobby Slow was for multiple head coaching positions. Today he does not have a job anywhere in the NFL. That's how quickly those things can shift. So Liam Cohen did what seems to be a rational thing in that situation. The fact of the ground had changed. The Jaguars no longer had Bulky in the general manager seat, and they were willing to offer the head coaching job. So while I understand why people in Tampa Bay might be upset about how this played out, is just the reality of the NFL. When there's an opportunity like that, there for one of your assistant coaches, they are most likely going to take advantage of it. So independent of the exact timeline, it is fair to say that Cohen did what a rational actor would do in that spot.
Tiger with Jason Hershorn, NFL writer frequent guest on my show, fair enough and so in summation, I think Trevor Lawrence will be a big beneficiary of this. He's going to have the freedom to operate in a modern NFL passing offense. I think it's an excellent hire. Are Let's move on to the Raiders. Two weeks ago, three weeks ago, I was talking to my good buddy Kellen Kevin Bollinger, who covers the Raiders here and for our Fox five affiliate channel. He's a lead sports anchor, and he asked me who I thought the Raiders should hire, and I did predicted. I said I'd hire Pete Carroll Lo and behold, they've done it. I'm a fan of this hire. I think he'll restore the Raiders back to a point of equilibrium. I'd love to hear your thoughts on that hire. But also, what are they going to do at quarterback? Do you think they could take a flyer on a Kirk Cousins, a Russell Wilson, perhaps even an Aaron Rodgers, perhaps Sam Darnold. I can't imagine them going into twenty twenty five with the same quarterback room. Your thoughts, So let's.
Start with the Pete Carroll part of this.
Carol is someone.
Who on a certain level, is a very understandable choice for the head coach position. I don't mean Jess with the Raiders, with multiple teams that could have conceivably hired him. He has a strong resume. He has been able to find success with both the Seahawks, with USC He had probably more success with the Jets when he was the head coach there than people remember. So this is a guy who has really proven is bonified time and time again. At the same time, he is going to be seventy four during the twenty twenty five season. That is the oldest head coach who will have ever seen in NFL history. So it is a bit trade from that regard, because you don't look at the Raiders and say that's the turnkey operation. All they need is a few more pieces and they're ready to go. You know, is Pete Carroll going to be the head coach of that team three years from now, four years from now, if it's very hard to see anyone at that age doing it, even if Pee Carroll has more energy, as people like to say, than your typical seventy year old or seventy something year old in terms of the quarterback. Though I hear all the names that you're saying, I know that Russell Wilson's name came up in the reporting today. I'm gonna wrote another name, Matthew, that I think, if made available, would be very interesting to the Raiders and py Terrell Geno Smith, the quarterback of the Seattle Seahawks. To someone that familiar.
With what's your contract situation, Well, the contract.
Is pretty affordable for the Seahawks and would be therefore affordable for the Raiders. I think it's somewhere in the order of forty million dollars a year as it stands, might be a little less than that post trade because of the mechanics of signing books things like that. We don't need to get into those details. But if you listen to what Mike McDonald's the current high coaching Seaws have said or has said about Geno Smith was when he first got Seattle last off season and what he said after the inclusion of this season. You know, he's saying nice things about Geno Smith, but they're not really over the top, and it's sort of damning with Sainte Prairi's you know, he'll say things like Geno Smith is a really good correct for this team right now, which is not usually what you hear from the head coaching football team when they're really satisfied with their quarterback. If Gino Smith was made available, if the Seahawks decided if they wanted to move in a different direction, you know, maybe not someone in the draft, but you know, someone younger. Gino Smith would have a trademark, and the Raiders, I would think, especially with Pete Carroll, might be at the very top of that list. He's a veteran, he is someone who has worked with, you know, a variety of different receivers over the years. And even though the Oakland Raiders don't necessarily have a qualified pass catcher in that way others than Rock Powers, that's still a really good starting point. If here are the Raiders going from the series of uninteresting quarterbacks that had over the past few years to someone like Geno Smith, it would probably seem like a significant upgrade.
And again, the.
Connection with Pete Carroll is very important here. Carol very much likes to work with his guys. The coaching staff that he is trying to put together is going to include a lot of coaches he's worked with in the past. I think that could apply to the quarterback position as well.
Move on to the Cowboys. Obviously, the Dion Sanders thing was a pipe dream. Kellen Morra was hanging around in the ether, but he's still working. So you Jerry goes with what appears to be a conservative, safe hire. But I have nothing against Brian Schottenheimer, but in his ten jobs in the last twenty years, they've been pretty nondescript. And if you hear what Dez Bryan's comments where you wonder if that speaks for the masses in Dallas in terms of how they feel about this hire. Give me your thoughts on Brian Schottenheimer. How did it end up here and is it going to work in your in your belief Well.
A lot of people are confused by this hire from a football perspective. I understand why they feel that way. Sure, when you look at when you look at what the Dallas Cowboys have prioritized over the past half decade plus. It actually makes a lot of sense. And I'm not defending the tire by saying this, but the Dallas Cowboys have basically been the Cincinnati Bengals with better pr in terms of the money they spend. They are not spending a lot in terms of their football operations relative to what people think. This is a team that has spent extremely little on free agency, not just in the past few years, but for a while. This is a team that frankly does not want to pay a lot of money through its coaching staff. You know, you go back to the twenty twenty four season. It's not just that Micha McCarthy was going into the final year of his contract, a thing that basically doesn't happen anywhere in the NFL with head coach other than Dallas, but every coach on that staff was in a contract year. Very peculiar in the NFL. That's because Jerry Jones does not like to pay money to coaches who are not currently working for him. So that brings us to Brian Schohanheimer. This is someone who not only did not have any other head coach interviews with other teams to cycle he's got interviewed for an NFL head coaching position. I believe over the past decades. This is a guy who at one point years and years ago was considered enough in commer We're talking about in his late thirties, early forties. This is again over a decade ago, especially when he was with the Jets. There was interest there, but that really dissipated. This is not someone who has been in those conversations for a long time, which means he does not have a lot of leverage when it comes to that contract negotiation. That's something that was going to be very appealing to Jerry Jones. Now Jerry does, like Brian Schottheimer, don't think this is purely a cost saving measure, but it's important to keep in mind again this is not a coaching candidate that has had interest from other NFL teams at that level anytime anytime recently. And it is also worth pointing out that they essentially let Mike McCarthy go for among other reasons, they weren't satisfied with the way that the offense looked when Dak Prescott was unavailable. Well, Brian Schottenheimer was the offensive course seator for those teams, and somehow that did not apply to him in Jerry's mind. So I am curious to see how the staff comes together. We've already seen reporting that Matty's proposed to the former Bears head coach, is going to be the defensive coordinator, but com curious. I am curious to see what those other offensive assistant hires look like, because if this is just you know, the Mike McCarthy staff with a different defensive coordinator and Shotenheimer moving from the OC position to the head coaching position, I don't know that Cowboys fans are gonna have a lot of reason to be excited. Again, we never know how hires are going to work out. Sometimes the most anonymous guy ends up being a great hire, and you know, the guy who is champion as being the best hires of not being close to that. But this may be a situation where everybody looks us and says, why are you proceeding this way? And they end up being proven.
Right well, and of course to your point, which is spot on, a year ago now, no one was dancing in the aisles about dan Quinn and look where he's at. So on the other hand. If Brian Schottenheimer is in the NFC Championship game next year, I get your affairs norder, I think would be the end of the world. I don't see it. But last thing, Jason great Stuff is always We've mentioned Mike McCarthy's name three times. Three teams have passed on him that were allegedly rumored to be interested, which leaves the Saints. So simply put, do the Saints hire Mike McCarthy, Well.
I think it is still possible. If they do, I get the feeling they're going to go younger. And Joe Brady, the offensive coordinator for the Bills, is someone with ties to the Saints organization. Remember, before he was with the Bills, before he was with the Panthers, before he was the hot shot play caller at LSU, he was an assistant on Sean Payton's staff in New Orleans, and that is a big part of the reason that he appeals to them now. It's also the work he's done with the Bills. That offense has been one of the better units in the league, justs by not having elite pass catchers, although he does have obviously and early quarterback in Josh Allen Joe Brady deserves some credit for that, but I think again, it comes down to familiarity. This is a Saints organization. It prizes itself on being able to stick with its guys. They've had Mickey Loomis at the top of that organization for seemingly longer than either one of us have been alive. They like to stick with the people that they know. Joe Brady is someone they know now. Granted, they also know Mike McCarthy. He was the offhensive coordinator for that team back in the late nineties early two thousands, but Brady has been there more recently. He has had high level success in his current role, and he's someone who I think it's going to be easier to sell. He's a younger coach. He is someone who comes from that offensive play caller background. You can find those things. You look at the way that the Saints have functioned over the past twenty years. I think that is the way they ultimately go, even though I'm not totally ruling out Mike McCarthy for some of those reasons. But we'll have to see. It's the last job. There's not a rush anymore. They don't have to make a decision tomorrow because there is no longer competition. Anyone who's still out there is basically in a bi level biledal monopoly with the Saints. So maybe we find out the higher on Saturday, maybe we don't find it out until next week. But either way, I feel like it's Brady and McCarthy are the clear options, with Brady having a bit of an edge there.
It's excellent stuff. And by the way, Brady can't complete his second interview until the AFC Championships games had played Sunday. But he's Jason Hrshorn, NFL writer, many years of experience, always does a great job. Jason, thanks so much, Really appreciate you, buddy.
All right, take care of Bernie.
Jason Hirshorn again. Follow him on Twitter at Let's see it is at It's at b Y underscore JBH coming up, old man, we got a great mortgage board of midnight hour topics. We're twenty two minutes away from the midnight hour from where I sit here in Las Vegas midnight hour literally from where you sit literally or figuratively. We'll take your calls e at seven to seven, nine to nine on Fox. I've set those topics up in just a second. By the way, football fans, be sure to tune into Fox Sports Radio every Saturday morning beginning at ninety them Eastern six am Pacific for Compdown to Kickoff, presented by bet MGM, Brian no, Rich Ornberger, and betting analyst Jared Smith. We'll have you covered three hours before college kickoffs. Every Saturday morning. Listen to Countdown to ca Off, presented by bet MGM. Right here on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app. I'm Bernie Fraddle will come to your line from the Las Vegas Fox Sports Radio tirerac dot Com studios. Keep it locked. You're listening to the Bernie Fradtle Show on Fox Sports Radio. All right back at the Bernie Fraddle Show, Fox Sports Radio come to you live from the tire Act dot Com studios here in Las Vegas, just fifteen minutes away. You know you can't live without it. The Midnight Hour eight seven, seven nine, nine, six six three sixty nine callers have just been fantastic, just completed our first full year doing the Midnight Hour, and it's the callers who make it. We've got a bit of a smortgage sport tonight of issues I look forward to people hearing on and I'm going to list about four of them. And what I'd like you to do is just pick the top two that you're strongest about, or if you can squeeze it in a third or whatever. I want to make sure I get all the callers in, but I really want to hear what you got to say, because the first one is really started to take on the life of its own. The Chiefs are obviously trying to repeat not everybody's happy about that. This is what I love. The opposite of love is not hated, its indifference. Plenty of Chiefs hate going around now they're getting a little tired of it, right, Not me. I think it's good. But here's the angle the refs the Chiefs. Is there some preferential treatment? Is that happening? See now, Patrick Mahomes isn't buying the idea that the Kansas City Chiefs receive special treatment from the NFL referees in the postseason. But there's some data that you can't ignore. Now. You could call the Chiefs win over the Texans last week, which was twenty three to fourteen controversial if you were rooting against the Chiefs. They were. You know, the Chiefs were the beneficiary of a questionable roughing the passer penalty in a very suspect laidhead penalty. But Patrick Mahomes, and by the way, you should know this by now, stars get calls in all sports. He's a three times Super Bowl champion. But he believes Patrick Mahomes says, I'm just I'm treated different. I'm treated fairly, just like every other player and every other team in the league. So Mahomes isn't buying it. But again I mentioned that there were some interesting stats since the twenty twenty one postseason. The Chiefs, well, you could argue they have been getting preferential treatment by officiating crews. The thing is they're good enough to take advantage of it. You give that same preferential treatment of the Raiders and they're not still winning the Super Bowl. But here's the deity you need to hear. Since the twenty twenty one postseason, the Chiefs have accumulated only thirty six team penalties total in every postseason game in the last four years. Their opponents almost double that amount sixty six. The Chiefs I've only had three hundred and nineteen penalty yards or their opponents have had just under six hundred. The Chiefs have had more penalties than their opponents only one time. In the last ten postseason games, they've had more penalty yards. Don't know? Check that the Chiefs have had more penalties than their opponents zero times in the last ten postseason games since twenty twenty one. The Chiefs have had more penalty yards only one time in their last ten games. So is there a merit to this? Think about it. Are the Chiefs avoiding penalties and also drawing them on their opponents because they're simply a sound, well coached team or something else to play here? Now, during the regular season, this happens too. Out of sixty eight regular season games since twenty twenty one, it's closer to fifty to fifty. Okay, the Chiefs had penalty yards, but something changes the playoffs. They had less penalty yards ninety one percent of the time and less penalties you know, zero zero. So the truth of the matter is, and in those playoff games the Chiefs have gone ten and one. That's thirty more penalties and nearly two hundred and fifty more penalty yards as compared to what they've been flagged for And I could go into some minutia and some detail, but you get the picture. You see where I'm going with this. Okay, So the first topic tonight are the Chiefs in fact getting preferential treatment from the referees. Secondly, I could not resist this one, you know, I said, tongue in cheek or maybe not so much. Last November when Lebron and Bronnie had the most you know, heartwarming event in the history of the NBA as the first father son player to appear in court, well, guess what the Theroni Bronnie Lebron James tandem was. He ended a pretty special invitation the All Star Games coming up here in February, and it was confirmed that Lebron and his son Brownie on Thursday would be invited to become the first father son duel to participate and want to aspect of All Star Weekend, but they declined. Now, Chris Haynes reported the league asked Lebron and his son to participate in the skills Challenge. Now, remember when I saw a tongue in cheeks, said last November, why don't we do this? Since you're all trying to tell me Lebron's an NBA player or Lebroni's an NBA player, and by the way, let's not separate the human being from the player. He's a solid dude, man, respectful, checks every box. Just not an NBA player, but he gets to play in the NBA. Okay, fine, how about if he had a skills competition versus Caitlin Clark that would sell a few tickets on the All Star weekend. Obviously they were going to do that, but Bronni and Lebron were invited by the league to become the first father son to participate in the Skills Challenge? All right, and Brownie was even invited to be part of the G League Rising Stars team and All Star Weekend, but decline that as well. Now I have my reasons why I think Bronnie and Lebron declined the Skills Challenge at the All Star Game weekend. But you don't want to hear it because I'll come off like a cynical guy. I'm not a cynical guy. So topical one, chiefs refs are they getting preferential treatment? Topic number two? Why would Lebron and Brownie turned on an invite to be of course, have an opportunity to participate in the Skills Challenge at the NBA All Star Game. I cannot ignore this because I talked about it for too long. Lamar's playoff struggles I called hi miss d October. I got no beef with Lamar, but they lost again in eight postseason games. He's three and five eleven turnovers to deadly turnover last Sunday that turned into seven points and that was the margin of the game. I don't deny that he puts up numbers. I had been defending Lamar Jackson since he was at Louisville. I think he's a good pocket passer. I think he's an excellent NFL quarterback. He does everything but win in January when it matters. I told you I was on a panel and down de Markles with crack Man and Jim Feif four weeks ago. I called him mister October, and I'm sticking to it. Lamar again. You tell me why am I being too harsh on him? Finally, the Pete Carrolls were the Raiders. What grade do you give that coaching hire? You think it'll work, So you're probably not going to have time to get to all four of these, Nor do you have time or probably the strong opinion and all four, but I bet you got him at least two of them chiefs refs. You know I'm going with this. I just gave him some data. Are the Chiefs getting preferential treatment from the refs in the playoffs? The data might bear that out, since twenty twenty one and ten playoff games where at no time do the Chiefs have more penalties called, and only one of those games do the Chiefs have more penalty yards or ten and one of those games. By the way, Lebron and Bronni they turned on an invitation to go to the NBA All Star Game as part of the skills Challenge. Why do you think they turned that down? Would you've liked to see that? Lamar Jackson yep? Not again? Deja vu all over again. In eight postseason games three and five, record eleven turnovers. He's still a three time MVP. He's a very good passer, but you know, by the way his passing numbers in the postseason are definitely down over the regular season. That's topic number three, and then topic number four. Pete Carroll to the Raiders, will it work? Will it work? You know what to do? Eight seven, seven nine nine six six three six nine. Line them up. You've been fantastic callers. I'm looking forward what you got to say. None of these are earth shattering topics, but they do raise an eyebrow for a lot of folks, and I really want to hear your opinions. Chiefs, Refs, Lebron Brownie, Lamar Jackson, Pete Carroll, you know what to do. Eight seven seven nine nine six six three six nine. Yes, it's time for the midnight hour. Keep it locked. You're listening to the Bernie Frattle Show on Fox Sports Radio.
Don't listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.
That's right, you heard the man. The Bernie Frattle Show keeps rolling right along. My name is Bernie Frattle. We're couty live from the tyrack dot com studios here in Las Vegas, Fox Sports Radio. Tyrack dot com. We'll help you get there and unmatch selection, fast free shipping, free rodaser protection, and over ten thousand recommend to installers. Tyreck dot com the way tire buying should be. We got chiefs in the refs your treatment, Lebron Brownie, why would they turn down the invite? Lamar again told you, Oh yeah, Pete Carroll, is it going to work? Do you like it? It's time. It's a midnight hour. We're gonna get to all of you tonight eight seven, seven, nine nine, six six three sixty nine. Please be patient. They're lining up looking forward to hearing what you folks got to say. We start with Jim in Massachusetts. Jim, you know what to do.
Hey, let me tell you, Bernie. First of all, Larissa taking care of Kansas City because that's what the league wants. And the last game I watched, it's not so much you telling that all they were the most penalized and everything like that. It's when the chief the call that change the tempo in the complex city of the game. The Chiefs got the big call. So I think the league and the rest of looking out for Kansas City. Lamar's Lamar, you know, taking for what it's worth.
You know, I like the guy.
He may not rank with the highest quot back unless he wins the big ones, but uh, you know I'd want him on my team. Bronni and Lebron you've got to be kidding me. Just just go away, you know, don't go away, man, Just go away.
First of all, both your excellent points one and two. I agree with what everything he said. Uh, but let's talk about Lebron BRONI for just a half a second here. Why do you think they turned down the invitation to participate in the skills challenge because.
Of embarrassed himself. Damn gonna show that he never should have been on the floor with the big boys in the first place. That's why they turned it down. I mean, after all the scuttle but from before when he was out there, he just he's just he just doesn't have it, you know, and and they can't get over that. So they that's why they turned it down. They didn't want to embarrass themselves. And GARYL I think that's the that's the first smart.
Move that the ownership of the Raiders have made.
Is bringing him in because they'll give him instant stability and you know, like like old L Davies, just say, just win, baby, that's all it matters. Just win.
Yeah, he'll establish a culture. Jim, mean, you just said a great tone for tonight's show. Appreciate you as always that my folks. I know the rest of the cars would be great too, but that is like leading off for the a Ricky Henderson Grand slam eighty one times.
He did.
Just curt let off for the home run. Stephen Kansas City always looked forward to what you got to say. You got the floor.
Good morning from cams City. Listen all this stuff about Patrick Mahomes, give me a break. You know he's he's sitting there. Tom Brady was on Colin Cowherd accusing of him de accelerating that it's bad for the game. That's it's not fair. All these guys know that Mahomes will do something that Tom Brady, a documented cheater, could never do. That's win three in a row. He basically becomes the greatest of all time. And now they're all trying to nitpick Troy Aikman, same thing, another failure that couldn't do the three peet. I have no problems with with criticizing the referees, but Patrick Mahomes is in bounds.
If you don't like the rules, change the rules.
I'm sorry. Tom Brady is just a sore loser.
At this.
I mean, he's ruining his legacy by criticizing the future greatest of all time Patrick Mahomes. And and and it's and that's.
The way it is.
I mean, I I hate to see all these old guys just becoming that guy. Don't get off my yard. You just get used to it. That Patrick Mahomes is your new daddy, and you know and and.
Everything will be much better for you.
Guys said there from your perspective, that's incorrect. Frankly, look at this. Look look and I know you're rooting for the Chiefs and that's fine. And that What I like is is that we're gonna have disagreements here tonight. Other callers will disagree. And that's what makes this segment good because the most boring topics when everybody agrees. I would say this, whether or not Holmes is getting preferential treatment, and stars do in every sport in the NBA, Pitchers in baseball, bulk or whatever the case may be, hitters, strike zones different. If you're a star, you're gonna get preferential treatment. I got no problem. What pisses people off, not me, because I love excellence, is the Chiefs are good enough to take advantage of it. Okay, that's the thing. They're not about the three P because of the referees. But this is what people do in our society. So anyway, any thoughts on the other topics.
Steve, Yeah, you're exactly correct that I don't remember Michael Jordan getting treated like this. Patrick Mahomes is a nice guy. He's not He's not looking to take on anyone. You guys, just this is to the NFL. NFL stabs, the fans just relaxed. Let these games play out. I love Little Brownie and and and Big Brownie. They finally realized that that what they did was wrong and and they're they're back off. I like Pete Carroll. He'll he'll be he'll be a good addition to the Raiders. They'll lose a bunch of games. But this even makes the Chiefs greater because you have the three greatest coaches in one division and we're still winning championships. I mean, Harbaugh and uh and Pete Carroll and the coach for the oh magnificent all magnificent coaches. And it just adds Andy Reid may be the greatest of all time. I mean, we may be seeing another that's that's kind of an underrated take that I'll go go with a wild card take and say Andy Reid is making a series he has running one of the greatest coaches of all time.
And you Homer.
I'm not trying to be a homer there either.
It's all good man. You're allowed to be a Thanks you for checking in, Poppy, San Diego. It's been a minute, Poppy.
How are you hey?
Good Bernie, he has been a minute. And I always hear your show.
And as you remember, Bernie last time when I called and I gave you guys a winner, and.
I told you with Jalen Daniels the Washington Commander's rookie against the Falcons and we made that blinklink.
But talking about this, Bernie, about this game, I.
Really love this game out the Buffalo Bill and the Chiefs and are saying, hey, are they gonna get calls?
Yes, conspiracy theory.
You just said it, Bernie. They always get the calls and favor and stuff like that.
But I know we had the one Chief fan calling.
But I also who's gonna be your daddy?
I'm sorry to give you guys a thank Josh Alan.
For me is the MVP of the year.
He's beat the Kansas City Chiefs one and I really loved the lineup plus two and a half. The weather's going to be around thirty degrees on kickoff, it's going to be winning maybe three miles per hour and it's going to increase. But this Bill Tomkia team will take advantage of the Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes that he's magic and that Patrick Mahomes is a party animal when he's with Travis Kelsey and you know Taylor Swift.
Get that right.
So you you're on record, Poppies, you're taking the Buffalo Bills. Yes, plus two and a half. You'll be able to call back next Friday night and we'll see if you're you're right.
And Bernie and I really love him.
They're the number one team and to be on to be the top, Bernie, you have to knock down the best of the consider Chiefs and going on the on the basketball, Lebron James and Bronnie, I love it.
I can't wait with Medina Magic, says tomorrow, Medina Magic on this. But I'll tell you what I think the thing is. Lebron James told us on Hey, Bronnie, you can't be there. You're going to ruin my repetition everything.
I got you a job.
We can't have this, just like.
I gotta get Poppy. Enjoy your weekend, man, I gotta get to these other callers, but you sometimes the two thirds.
Man.
Look, kid, I got you on the floor in the NBA. We did this manufactured historical moment that no one gives a flying horses but dued about. But it's about to get real. Man, not on a wait. We we can't have this. We just can't have this, tutor. All right, ladies and gentlemen, please stay seated for the entire performance. Wake the kids, Alert the neighbors, Grandpa, put on pants. Yes, it is time for the comedic stylings of Manuel in gardena.
You Manuel, you don't know much about a science book, don't know much about the French too, But I just want to Seelebray.
Because a little mash up there that's.
At midnight hour.
And what topics you've given us, Bernie, like the true professional U area, I'm gonna hit them all too. Actually, I agree with Poppy on one.
Thing, the brownie thing. He nailed it all right, so I don't.
Need gloss over that too much. I'm glad that I got my money. I'm the Chiefs. I'm with you, Excellence, reign supreme. You know they can call it a rep show. They can call it what they want, but at the end of the day, Riot draws up the place to profession and freaking Mahomes and Kelsey and Opkins and all those guys always execute. And as a Raider fan, I hate that. But you know what, I love excellence. Like I said, man, I'll watch a dynasty, you know what I mean. I want to see the best of the best in any sport I'm watching. And as far as one, Peter Carroll hydro gum hide anything that can be chewed, because this guy is like a human garbage disposal when it comes to his mouth. But he's a football genius. And I've always liked Pete Carroll, man. You know, he handles his business to Bernie. He was a godsend to USC when he came, and I think he's gonna do the same with the Silver and Black. Because somebody was saying earlier it made a good point, man, one of these NFL guys was saying that when you bring up Pete Carroll, he's going to change everything. But the good thing is he leaves teams that can also resonate without him, you know what I mean. He was the man who brought in David Tanalis twenty years ago into the coaching game. That's right, this guy's got an eye for talent.
Yes, yep, yep.
So, hey man, I love it. Keep up the good work, Bernie. And hey man, I'll be listening tomorrow. And I listened religiously.
You know that.
All right? Thanks, appreciate it. Appreciate you man. Well, Gary in California, you're up next.
Welcome in, Bernie, great smarts board.
I love, I love a great buffet.
So but following Manuel and Poppy, that's a little difficult.
But anyway, here goes.
I'm a forty nine er fan. And we'll just dial back to the Super Bowl previous to the last one, and for the last super Bowl. And you could say that, you know, Mahomes.
Gets the calls. He's good, like you say.
Good enough to take advantage of it. But if you watch that game, mister Vinovich called only two holding penalties the whole game, and both are on the Niners, and Nick Bosa was being held. You can watch the game back and look at it and you can see that he was held the entire game. Not one call. One holding call could have flipped that game, among nine or ten other things. So, but props to Mahomes and company. They're good enough to, like you said, to take advantage of it, and they have owned the Niners, and that's just unfortunate as a Niner fan. Then Lebron and Brownie turning down an invitation, we'll talk about that. Yeah, that's what can I say. I think Popping nailed it.
Man.
You know you don't want to, you don't want to show him up so anyway, but lamar man, you know about turnovers, Bernie Killer, Yeah, it's just the league is so even Bernie, that turnovers make the difference.
And you can go up.
And down every game, playoffs and everything else, turnovers will make the difference. And as a longtime Raider fan love Pete Carroll, I got one suggesting for him though, with that offense, you better bring in Ethan Hunt or.
Be the OC.
Thanks Bernie, all.
Right, appreciate you checking in. We're off to a rousing star Trevor and Oregon, Curtin California, Colin, Vegas. Don't go anywhere. We're gonna get to all of you. Eight seven, seven, nine, nine, six six three sixty nine Chiefs and the refs. They're get in preferential treatment. Lebron and Brownie. Why would you turn on an invitation to the All Star Game to participate in skills challenge? Lamar Jackson not again, Mister October, I love you, but you're killing me, killing me Smalls and Pete Carroll. Yeah, he's going to establish the culture. That's what I think. What do you think the Midnight Hour will continue? I'm Bernie Friderworck coming to your line from the Las Vegas Fox Sports Radio tyrerac dot com studios. Don't go away, You're listening to the Bernie Frattle Show. I'm Fox Sports Radio.
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.
All Right, the Midnight Hour is rolling along. Everybody's done a great job so far. We've had a lot of callers. We're gonna get to a lot more. You know the topics, yep? Are the chiefs getting preferential treatment from the refs? Some people think they are. How about that Lebron Broni turning down the invite to participate in the All Star Game skills contest? Lamar Jackson not again? And Pete Carroll thoughts on the higher Let's go to Oregon. You see him on Twitter as spox Weed. He also goes by Trevor. Hey, welcome in, buddy. How are you.
I'm just doing really well. Bernie, how are you doing? Long time no talk to for a bit.
That's right, man, you took a little time off from the midnight hour, but you're back. What do you got for us tonight?
Well, I have been listening, but I wanted to make sure I had something to say. But you know, not just waste your audience's time. And you know, I have a number of original takes which you could just follow what everybody else says. But I have a different take on a few things. And by the way, I'm drinking a delicious updrift IPA in case anybody cares. Okay, fair enough, however, so let's start with Let's start with Kansas City. Now everybody is getting on their case, but let me ask you. What color does Kansas City the wear?
Red?
Okay? What color does buffalo bills wear?
Well, we're blue and red and white.
Okay, So it's it's the Trump effect. We're gonna get calls for the chiefs because we're all going in on the new wave of you know, this has been.
Going on since twenty twenty one.
Well, I know everybody knows he's making a comeback. So you know, we're just the NFL is just getting ready and uh, you know, we're we're just making that happen. And so if the Chiefs get the calls, you know, it's it's it's Trump's fault.
Okay, all right, I want to hear what you got to say about Brownie and why do you think they turned down such a plumb invitation?
Okay, Well, the reason is is that Lebron is old and he cannot stand Brownie upstaging him in the skills competition.
That's what problem for the old man.
And Lebron says he can play five to seven more years and Brownie can't throw a pee in the ocean. How would Brownie up stage him?
Yeah, it's well, it's it's it's just one of those secrets that.
Lebron has and he doesn't want to be out shown, you know, by by his kid. And that's part of why, like Bonnie has been kind of playing average and stuff. These are all original takes by that.
You're not kidding here, you go.
God big helps with my tongue firmly in my cheek.
By the way, of course, he's sandbagging sometimes. Uh, sometimes irony and sarcasm doesn't always come through. But you're you're doing pretty good, all right, keep going. I gotta want to get to the other calls, but I want to finish it up. What you what else you got?
You bet?
Sir?
On a serious note, Pete Carroll. I love Pete Carroll. He's the Mathusela of coaching. And I didn't know that he'd be ever ever be biblical, but but there we are. He will change the culture.
Yes, he will stable.
He will stabilize the Raiders. I don't think he's going to have enough time. How do we define success for Pete Carroll. He's got to get a quarterback. He's he's got to deal with the owner. He's he's got himself a mess, and he's he's got to he's got to figure out how he's going to get the pieces in place. And if we have a definition of success, that is, hey, he's turned things around, but he hasn't gotten him up to there. I can I can see that. I know that people you'll love playing for him. I know that his people at USC and people over the league has you know, loved playing for Pete and I think he can make a real positive difference there. But I'm not sure how much time he's going to have to do it.
Well, I think I think Tom Brady's going to give him the full three years they have to And uh, thanks a lot, Spock, good good stuff, buddy. Look, he's going to assemble his staff. They have ninety five million dollars in cap space. Let's see how they draft. They got the sixth draft and they got a backfilling a roster. But he's going to bring to Bill and establish a culture. Kurt in California, welcome back.
In How are you, hey Bert. It's always a pleasure to talk to you.
Thanks, Carol.
Yeah, I think it's a great hire, and for no other reason that he's probably one of the great halftime adjusting coaches.
Well, he's seventy games over five hundred in his career. I mean he's won a lot of games. Yeah you did. That's a good point.
And I really do think that they may go after Sam Donald.
I'm wondering, Yes, Sam Donald, kirk Cousins, Russell Wilson, I won't even dismiss Aaron Rodgers. You got to have a bridge quarterback this year in my opinion.
Fair did you know that?
Yes?
Did you know that? Sam Donald is only the twelfth quarterback in NFL history to win fourteen games in one season, and.
Six of those quarterbacks.
Are Hall of famers, so he can't play. And as for Holmes Spurn personally, I would really like to see Kansas City play Philadelphia. And here's why. That Philadelphia game when they lost by a field goal in that Super Bowl that they played Kansas City, that last pass interference Plexico Burris even said it that that ball was unketchable and they ended up getting a first down kicking the field goal and they won the game and the line was two and a half. The other thing I just wanted to make mention of real quick this week. Here's the wager that I would like to get on if I did that, if Kansas City goes down to one and a half, I would tease them up to four and a half, and I'd combine it with Philadelphia teasing them down to a half a point. What do you think about that, Well.
Teasers are six or seven points, so to me, the most logical teaser. There's no teaser you can really pair with Ladelphia. You got you want to cross through three and seven? I think, what I what a lot of sharp guys I know here in Vegas, and I'm with it. Thanks a lot for the call, Kurd, Appreciate you, buddy. Is a money line parlay between Philly to win, which I believe they will. They're not going to turn the ball over five times like Detroit did last week. I love everything Washington's done, but it ends here. The thirtieth ranked run defense is going to catch up to them. I'm sorry, it just is and I for now I gotta stick with Kansas City. Buffalo's beating them three out of four in the regular season, Kansas City's won all three in the postseason. There's magic and narrowhead and and why get in front of that? Those are my thoughts, Kurt Kyle from right here in Vegas. Welcome in, buddy.
What's up? You need to be on the air like every day of the week, man, because I've been burning literally no pun intended for this very moment, this very moment. But let's start off with with the biggest elephant in the room. You know, call me and say, hey, Johnson, congratulations, you can have this time out back. All right, So we're happy, we're excited for Ben Johnson, Bear Johnson, however you want to call them, bear down Chicago. We adn't get it too over the edge. But we're nice and comfortable this season coming up, all right. That's the first thing. Second thing is, hey, listen, when you got venmo payments coming in and the rest is looking the other way, that's one thing. But hear me out though, Patrick Mahlmes I've seen this and and and a video breakdown the other day. Patrick Mahomes deliberately steps in front of the ref and the back judge to block their viewpoint so they cannot see what the defender is actually doing. I've seen this on a number of plays where he knows exactly where the ref and the back judge are at to step into a line of sight. So when he goes to get hit in a certain way, he can either flop it like Jane, you know, he can sell the play just a little bit longer to make it seem more manipulated on the defensive end. Okay, that's the first thing. And as far as the la Who family, we don't care. Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna use the words of Stephen N.
Smith.
We don't care. That's just it. Nobody cares. Dude, get your time to shine your glory, to say everything's done and over with. We're done with you, dude. Just just oh man, take a seat somewhere. You almost as you're as old as I am, just a little bit older, but you know it. Take a seat somewhere, bro, have a seat. Pete Carroll, congratulations, you got a job. Hopefully we keep this one this time around and nothing crazy comes about. Keep it, keep every man in check, keep every man inlive, and you'll be doing just fine.
Here in Vegas.
We have no problem with welcome you to the city. We love you here. We'll accept you here your family. But I'm not.
Rooting for you.
I'm rooting against you.
Brother.
I hope that the Raiders lose every season. I don't care. Hey, And and just to go back full circle, my dude, h Lamar Jackson is not Hayden Manning whatsoever. I wish people would stop saying that he's.
More like Joe el embiid.
You can win an MVPs, but what have you done in the playoffs. Actually, that's that's it.
Hang right there, Carle. You covered a lot of really good ground. And I like the way zigzag. I want to go back to the Mahomes thing because I look at it this way. It doesn't matter whether you get preferential treatment or even the data can easter if you're not good enough to take advantage of it. And you don't you don't have the savvy, the experience, the physical ability, the mental fortitude to take advantage of it. What does it matter? So I I walk on to what the chief here? You got the last.
Word, So so I'll give you that. I'll give you that. And it is the exact point of what I was saying. He takes full advantage of it if you consent.
Look look at.
Look at James Harden when he did one year in the NBA. He literally settled settle many calls that they him up with a rule banning him from settling calls. So he can't get that treatment no more. If you want that type of treatment, you have to exploit the rules. He's exploiting the rules, he's exploiting the vision of the rest, He's exploiting every little detail that in the great area is there, But I do think some rule changes are coming that if you are a running quarterback and you give yourself up, you should be able to take a hit just like every other man on that field. That's just plain and simple. If Lamar Jackson's able to take it, Josh Allen's able to take it, you should be able to take it to him.
Man.
No hip drop backling, But I mean a good play on to the stomach of every now and then.
Rob on top of you, you know, thank you brother, all right, buddy, good stuff, coleing Jury your weekend. Man, hold it down. Bill, Jacksonville is up next. Welcome in, Bill, How are you.
How you're doing Bernie?
Thank you? Good good.
The main thing I want to see in these playoffs is Kansas City scoring one big play after another. Touchdown at Kelsey, touchdown at Kelsey, just five or six times the huge plays. For one reason, I want to see Caitton Clark and Taylor Swift hugging each other again. That was the most sensual thing I've seen in years. That saves me about one hundred dollars on my viagua. Unbelievable, those two hugging each other. It's fantastic. And that's what we're trying to figure.
Out the connection there. How to hell did Caitlin Clark work are wing into the Kansas City chief And by the way, somebody out there in the ether reported one of the reasons that people are getting so sick of the Chiefs is because Travis Kelsey's overexposed. And now when you see Jason Kelcey on every other commercial and I he's got his own show on Friday Night, you don't think of the Eagles. You think of Kelsey and the Chiefs. So you're kind of underscoring a reason there, Bill, why I think people are hating on the Chiefs. But I want to kind of stick to topic here, big fellow, do you think they're getting preferential even with the risk?
Want to see him hugging each other? Hugging?
All right, man, appreciate you, Bill, rest easy down. Aaron Jacksonville uh Brock in Alberta, Canada. I believe you've called us before.
Welcome back in, Hey, Bernie.
How's it goal, my brother?
Well, thank you, hey man.
About the Kansas City Chiefs, you know, you know, I think when we see winning happening, and the Chiefs have now won three Super Bowls correct, and Patrick Mahomes right.
Yes they have. They've won three of the last five.
Yes, they've won three of the last five Super Bowls. And so I think when we see winners like them, we get tired of it. And I think, uh, you know, as great as Mahomes is, you know now that he's denied the flopping thing, I mean, how many times have we seen Lebron James do this in the NBA playoffs?
And people are not one hundred and sixty exactly.
Yeah.
So, and another topic I was going to bring up was, you know you made you made the four midnight hour topics correct?
And I you can add one. We call it the rant. You got something you want to ran on?
Yeah?
What the one thing I was gonna say. So, I was watching ESPN First Take the other day with mad Dog Christopher, mad Dog Russo.
Stephen A.
Smith, and Shannon Sharp, and they're debating a topic between the run between Lebron James's run of eight straight NBA Finals from twenty eleven to twenty eighteen and Patrick mahomes Is seven straight AFC Championship games from twenty eighteen to twenty twenty four, and only weigh in which run do you Which eight year run do you believe with more impresss between those two Lebron.
I go with Mahomes. And it's a simple reason. The playoffs tournament is single elimination, whereas those are seven game series that you know, and that is a phenomenal accomplishment by Lebron taking Meathey away. But if I'm forced to pick between the two, Brock, I'm going with Mahomes because it's single elimination. Man, you could lose. It could come down to a kick, you could miss it wide right, and it's over folly.
That's simple, fair enough.
The one thing I would say that I give Lebron the edge, and I heard and Shannon Sharp did too, And this is my reasoning would be because Lebron did it in two different locations. He goes to Miami, he goes to fourth straight finals during the final four straight years, he comes back to Cleveland. You know, he went back to back championships. He comes back to Cleveland, they're in the finals, and now four years he gets another championship. And me and you both know, had Kevin Durant not joined the Golden State Warriors in twenty seventeen, I think Lebron's sitting on three more titles, won't you agree?
I don't know. I don't know. In mind, Lebron left Cleveland to go to an All Star team in Miami. I know Magic didn't do that, Bird didn't do that, Jordan didn't do that. Lebron did that. This is a good discussion.
But everywhere Lebron is gone, he's won fair.
I grant you that. I will absolutely grant you that. Yeah, all right, but then why did him and le BRONI turn down the invite to the skills competition?
Oh?
Man, I I the reason why.
I think they turned it down. Honestly, I never I didn't hear that until tonight. So I had really no idea about this until just now. But I would say, you know, probably just because they go all the way at the beginning of the season and now they're probably like, it's not so bright anymore.
This guy never turns down the spotlight. He's never gonna retire. He I mean, he's got the Bobby Knight syndrome. I'm talking about Lebron. Now. He knows damn well that if he quits someday, I'm telling you, he's gonna miss the spotlight. I hell of a lot more in the spotlight. It's gonna miss him. I'll give him his accolades, and he's won championships and he's broken every scoring record he's been in the league thirty seven years. I've had it with the guy. But here's a chance. You wanted the spotlight with your son in this manufactured event back in November, and now you're gonna have it again. But you're turning it down. And I know why, but you know I don't want to. You got the last word. Go ahead, Brock what okay? What?
Why?
Reason why they probably turned it down?
You know what I think it really is is because you.
Know what happened in the twenty twelve All Far Game. Lebron kicked out the ball into the corner of Carmelo Anthony because Kobe was guarding him, he had the pressure on him, and I think that's why he doesn't want him in the fun to get embarrassed at the All Star Game.
That's what I there, you go, it's exactly the reason. What do you think about I think you're one thousand percent correct. Sometimes it's an inconvenient truth, isn't it. Lebron? Deep down nose. Damn well it. Sam's not an NBA player, But listen, there's an unwritten rule when you play in the league thirty seven years and you made the rate the Lakers a bazillion dollars and got them a championship even though it was in the bubble. You have some political capital, and I got no problem with him exercising his power. People with power in this country typically exercise it. It's their right. Lebron earned that right to call in a chip, and I think the Lakers are happy to do it. But let's make no mistake. It was manufactured. This was not King and Ken Griffy Sr. Fernando here in Las Vegas. You are up next. What's happened in Fernando?
Hey, what's going on? Bernie? I think the Lions just gave another touchdown right now?
Well, they had to. You know what I gotta tell you. I'm gonna get hang on the line. Its lips and facts is facts, right, facts as facts. But I will tell you this that the Lions lost one hundred and fifty eight man games this year in the NFL to their injuries, and the only other teams that lost almost that many were the Raiders, the Saints, the Panthers, teams that didn't even come close. So you're not wrong. Go ahead, buddy, we're going off top of let's sear what you got to say about the other stuff.
Okay, yeah, Casey Chiefs. Yeah, they do get some calls.
During the games.
I agree with that. And then with with Lebonn and Bonnie, I think they want to.
Avoid the media questions. They'll be bombard the questions left and the right. And now the AFC West is now the Senior Citizens of Coaches Division. You got Pete Carroll seventy three and you Reid seventy. Harbor's with Harbor sixty seven and Sean pagne Any.
Reid's actually sixty six. But to your points taken. But Pete Carroll won a Super Bowl, been to two of Mandy Reid won three Super Bowls. Harbaugh ironically the only coach in the division never won a Super Bowl. Sean Payton won one. So there's a lot of good accolades there, my friend.
Yeah, there is, and you know, you know, we have the experience of everything. But with Carol, it's not going to work. They'll win five games, they'll win six games the second year, the third game. The third season, they'll win seven. They won't make the playoffs. They won't even sniff the playoffs at all.
Anyway, Well, that's entirely possible, Fernando, because right now is the roster is constructed, it ain't great, is it? And they need a quarterback, don't they. You haven't answered whether or not you thought the Chiefs are getting referential treatment.
Oh, yes they do. And the Faders will never win the Super Bowl?
All right? Good stuff. Man. By the way, the Lions just came up a field goal what we were talking to, so there, so there's that. All right, good stuff, Fernando eight seven seven in nine nine six six three sixty nine. We're not done with him in at alert. We still want to hear from more of you. The color has been fantastic, but we want to hear from more of you. Okay. Are the Chiefs getting preferential treatment with the refs? Holmes doesn't think so. But there's some date out there that might suggest that. Why did Bronni and Lebron turn down an opportunity to participate in the skills competition at the NBA All Star Game? Will Pete Carroll work and look, I think the world of Lamar Jackson. He just doesn't win. In the January he did it again, and I have my theories. Well maybe I'll get to that in just a minute. And by the way, not for nothing, I want to clean something up ever so quickly. Our earlier guest, Jason Herscharm, we talked about the coaching tree, and you know, Mike McCarthy's down to one team. Everybody thought he was so sought after, not so much. You know, the Bears passed, they went ahead and grabbed Ben Johnson, obviously, the Jets passed, They grabbed Darren Glenn Jacksonville passed, they got Liam Cohen. That leaves the Saints. Now if the Bills win, it complicates things because Joe Brady cannot complete a second interview. He's the offensive coordinator for the Bills until the conclusion of the AFC Championship Game, which wud be played Sunday night. Okay, but if I got to tell you, the more you think about it, if if the Saints were to hire Joe Brady and he had a virtual interview on that January seventeenth, he has a lot of times in the state of Louisiana. He started his NFL career. There is an insistent back in twenty seventeen. Then he went to LSU as our passing game coordinator during that national championship season. He's thirty five years old and the Bills had the number two scoring offense this year, averaging twenty nine and a half points per game. And you told us they wouldn't be as good without Stefan Diggs. Not so much. Coming up, we continue with the Midnight Hour eight seven seven nine ninety six six three six nine. I'm Bernie fradderwer Comany line from Las Vegas, Fox Sports Radio Tireck dot com studios. Keep it locked. You're listening to the Bernie Fradle Show on Fox Sports Radio. I'll wrap it up by the midnight hour. Last chance to get in eight seven seven nine nine six six three six ' nine. And I want to remind the folks Rapid Radios are the official communication device of Fox Sports Radio. In an emergency. You want Rapid Radio's instant push to talk walkie talkies for claire national LTE coverage and one touch communication peace of mind for connecting with family in an emergency. Go to Rapid radios dot com now for up to sixty percent off and free shipping. All right, I know this might tick off a few Chiefs fans, but I want to maintain my objectivity here. For the record, I respect the hell out of what the Chiefs are doing. People complain about the refs. It's the old poker joke, right, Losers tell jokes, or you know, winners tell jokes. Losers say shut up and deal. Well, look, the bottom line is this. The Chiefs win. That rankles some people. They continue to win. We've got a bonus whoever comes out of the AFC this year. The Bills might get their first ever Super Bowl, which would be fabulous. The Chiefs might three peak, which is also fabulous. Either way. To see it, we're getting history. But I want to delve back in ever so quickly to some additional data here that implies the Chiefs may be getting some preferential treatment. I already talked about the postseason and then the ten to eleven postseason games. How the Chiefs. You know, in those postseason games, zero games they had more penalties. Of those eleven games, only one game they had more penalty yardage. That's it. So here's here. This is sort of an angle you cannot deny the Chiefs are well coached, they're out, they're an outstanding group. And credit Warren Sharp for some of this research here. But if this was not preferential treatment, then why doesn't happen during the regular season. See? Because during their regular season and since twenty twenty one, which is the period we're talking about, there have been sixty six games, and in thirty seven percent of those games, thirty nine percent of those games, the Chiefs had less penalty yardage. But in the playoffs ninety one percent of the time they have less penalty yardage. In the regular season, out of sixty one games, the Chiefs had fewer penalties only fifty three percent of the time. They had fewer penalties in the playoffs ninety one percent of the time. I oh, by the way, the Chiefs ten and one of those playoff games, including the two Super Bowl wins, and they're on their way to potential three p In total, the Chiefs thirty six penalties, and those eleven games, their opponents have sixty six. That's thirty more penalties, two hundred and twenty five more penalty yards. You can't deny that. And by the way, most of these penalties are judgment calls, not like things like delay a game or out of bounds or off sides that are obvious. We're talking about defensive pass interference penalties, roughing the passer penalties, unnecessary roughness penalties. Only one of those called in eleven games on the chief four of their opponents. Only one roughing the pastor called on the Chiefs seven on their opponents. Only three defensive pass interference plays called on the Chiefs, eleven defensive passing interference plays called on their opponents. So when you look at a penalty advantage, yes, I realized it's eleven games, but it's a distinct difference between the postseason and the regular season. Again, am I making excuses? No, I'm not give the Chiefs top credit. Coming up, we analyze what happened last week and looking ahead to this Sunday. It's the Bernie Fraddle Show Fox Sports Radio. You don't listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio, Well, that's right, you heard the man. Bernie Frattle Show keeps rolling right along. My name is Bernie Frattle. We are coming to you live from the tirat dot com studios here in Las Vegas. Fox Sports Radio. Tyrack dot Com will help you get there non match selection, fast free shipping, free road hazard protection, and over ten thousand recommended installers. Tyreret dot com the way tire buying should be. By the way, I want to remind the folks that shortly after the show tonight, our podcast will be going up. If you missed any of tonight's show, be sure to check out the podcast. Just search Fox Sports Radio wherever you get your podcasts The Bernie Frattle Show. Be sure to follow rate review the podcast again, just search Fox Sports Radio The Bernie Frattle Show wherever you get your podcast is he tonight show posted right after we get off the air. We know Saturday football for the first time since August, but we have a hell of a doozy doubleheader Sunday. And as we get into the Saturday version of The Bernie Frauder Show, I'll dive more into those specific matchups. Spoiler alert. Okay, I believe both the eg I believe both home teams will prevail. Hold that fot. But one of the things I like to do, if you've heard my shows over the course of the football season, is before we look ahead to these matchups, I like to look back ever so quickly to sort of Highlight and Nanitate, the key takeaways and the analysis from the divisional round, which is very impactful. So I want to start with the Chiefs who beat the Texans twenty three to fourteen, and hum, nothing new to see here. The Chiefs are still inevitable. They just simply are. They're home. It's January. You really better bring your a game if you want to have a chance. Now, I give the Texans credit. They're gritty, they're gutty. They made a game of it. They tried their best to make it look like they could potentially be an upset until late in the fourth quarter. Se Yes' never enough. In Kansas City, you got to play all fourth quarters, all four quarters because that's where the Chiefs live. Man, That's what their DNA is. That's what the Chiefs do now. The great Nolan Ryan, the legend Nolan Ryan, once said the mark of a great pitcher was that you can beat teams even if you don't have your best stuff that day. The Chiefs didn't have their best stuff that day. You cannot say they were particularly great on either side of the ball. There's still the two downed defending champs, but last weekend they were not great on either side of the ball, but, as is often the case with the Kansas City Chiefs, didn't matter. Houston became the first team in playoff history to lose despite out gaining their appon by more than one hundred yards and they didn't commit a turnover. Did you hear that? The Houston Texans, without their top two receivers and a broken down offensive line outgained the Chiefs by one hundred yards last Saturday and didn't commit a turnover. And for some reason, their offensive coordinator Bobby Slowick, who was considered hot property, wasn't quite Ben Johnson last year or two years ago, but he was mentioned in that ILK All of a sudden, he's out of a job now. I don't know why Dimiko Ryans fired him. I'm looking to look. I'm curious. I'm gonna say it one more time. And Bobby Slowank's final game without their top two receivers, they outgamed the Chiefs by more than a hundred yards, didn't commit a turnover. Oh yeah, and Kansas City won. Kansas City will need a much better effort against Buffalo Sunday three thirty Pacific, six thirty Eastern if they want to advance to the Super Bowl based on what you can observe. As Yogi bearer would see, you can observe a lot by watching and trust mis tell me a lot. If this were a market line, the Chiefs would probably be an underdog, all right, But you can't give the Chiefs points at home for crying out loud in the FC Championship game. And they've been this this is where they live. Okay. Oh, by the way I make him, it sound like the Chiefs got some major problem. I wouldn't say that. Guess what. Guess who's back? Forget calling him Travis Kelcey, call him playoff Kelsey. They've been waiting for this. I kind of since this was coming. He was by this time playing with his food. He didn't have a bad year, but he didn't have a huge year. But they know, listen, when you play that many games the last couple of years and the pressure of the Chiefs have had, they got people rooting against him. Even Dimiko ryans. He implied, come on, let's be that the refs were against him. The old world's against the play. Everybody translation that we had to go against the refs. Well, there may there may be some data there. That suggests that you got a couple of calls you didn't like, But that's not why he lost the game. Didn't help, I get it. How about Travis kelce One of the biggest factors in the Chiefs consistency over the last several years is that when he gets to the playoffs, he takes his game to another level. Second straight year in which Travis kelcey, oh, by the way, he'll be a Hall of Famer. You know you can market a spot right now. I'm talking about the second straight regular season in which pundits came out right and left saying he's finally slowing down. Age is finally catching up with him. Yet Kelsey finished the regular season, yes, with a career low eight hundred and twenty three yards and only three touchdowns, even though he was targeted more than anybody on the team one hundred and thirty three targets. However, this is what you call veteran savvy. Yes, you can say he coasted a little through the regular season by his time, saved his energy so we'd have a full ten when the games matter most. And guess what he did a crucial forty nine yard catch and run. He broke multiple tackles, happened to be the longest play of the season and the longest reception of his playoff career. Now, not for nothing, Kelsey also had his ninth one hundred yard postseason game, which breaks a tie with the guy who may have heard of, Jerry Rice, for the most in the NFL history. And he's not far off his records for yards and touchdowns either. Let's also give you some credit to the Houston Texas. They're getting close. They've done a hell of a job the last two years. Where are all the people that were saying, Demiico Ryans was sent there to be a sack official lamb and it was a crappy job. They're only thirty two jobs. They're all goods. What you make of it. Demiko Ryans phenomenal job. C J. Stroud phenomenal job. And much like the Chiefs, the Texans did fall well short of their expectations in the regular season, and then they blew out the Chargers in the wildcard round and they truly hung tough against the Chiefs on the road, made it a fistfight in a phone booth. And it should be a reminder Houston fans the future is very bright. I believe it is. In the offseason, you got to focus on a couple of shortcomings, like your interior offensive line and receiver that will go a long way in helping C. J. Stroud back on the superstar path he had shown as a rookie, had had, you know, a bit of a regression as a sophomore. But that you're splitting here is that you're picking out the ward on Lincoln's nose when you talk about that. Okay, but they'll bounce back. And it's a group that complemented the defense and finished top five unit in EPA. And the truth of the matter is Houston with a few additions, they're going to compete with the best of the best. The AFC is absolutely loaded. You know that the Bengals didn't make the playoffs. You know they're going to be back, and all the other teams that I'm not going to do a roll call, So give the Texans credit. They're getting close again. The Bobby Slowk firing is a head scatcher to me. But I'm not inside the four walls. I don't know what's going on there. I don't know what's going on. Final score Chiefs twenty three Texans fourteen. The Chiefs advance, the Texans go home. The other game that'll be talked about, honestly for years, it just simply will be because we don't know where this is gonna end up. And Saturday, I'm going to share with you statistically the incredible long shots for the Commanders just to get this far. This is the biggest long shot since the ninety nine Rams. Now they won the Super Bowl, they were two hundred and fifty to one. The Commandos are one hundred and fifty to one. But you get a rookie quarterback. The last rookie quarterback to go on the road and win a championship game, or check that, to win a playoff game was Mark Sanchez with the Jets, but that was a defensive oriented team. Sanchez did his part, but he's not dealing with Daniel Jene Daniels is doing this. In terms of being a franchise at before and thirteen last year, no one was ra about the dan Quinn higher although always thought he was a solid football man. Somehow he orchestrated a twenty eight to three lead over Tom Brady in the Super Bowl. You know what happened next? They seem to lay more of that on Kyle Shanning and the dan Quinn. Dan Quinn also spent some time in Dallas. You think Dallas is kicking themselves. Maybe they should have gone to dan Quinn this year and said, you don't bringing Mike McCarthy back story for a different day. Commander's forty five Lions thirty one. You didn't see it coming? Need did I an all time turnaround? Second straight road playoff victory? Hope springs it. Turning to all you other sad sack organizations across the NFL that are crying in your beard. Just you remember, only a year ago the Commanders were four and thirteen and they got the number two pick in the draft. Whould they get Jayden Daniels. He's undoubtedly, undoubtedly been the catalyst, the complete driving force behind this incredibly historic one year turnaround. But he's not the only factor. Okay, By the way they stun the Labs, kick their butt, they earn the spot in the NFC title game. It's the culmination of a culture change. We heard that earlier with Pete Carroll right new ownership and hiring dan Quinn. Let's see other candidates with past head coaching experience, they tend to get overlooked in favor of hot shot coordinators and the flavor of the month. Dan Quinn is turning out to be an excellent example of how veteran presence can completely rebuild a culture and stabilize a team from the top down because you are leveraging your experience, You're not just bringing your knowledge. Remember those four characteristics that Nick Daban talked about, what kind of character do you have? What kind of knowledge do you have? Do you have the ability to apply that knowledge and teach the players? What kind of relationships can you form with the players? Well, the results are going to answer that question, and dan Quinn is an excellent example of how experience and a veteran presence and knowledge can translate into far more success than they ever could have hadmanaged. You know, people like to make fun of Cliff Kingsbury. Cliff Kingsbury has now earned his way into another shot as a head coach. He passed on this hiring cycle. But if the Commandos, no matter what happens in Philadelphia on Sunday, and I don't think they're beating Philadelphia. Remember the Lions turned the ball over five times. I don't think the Commandos would be the beneficiary of five turnovers. I just don't. Okay, we've got a situation where the Commanders are also thirty against the run and they're going up against Saquon Barkley. They're not going to be able to give up those seventy nine yard runs. But here's the only way, and I said this setting in the Lions game, They'll have to win a shootout. It's not impossible. Although Phillis defense much better situation than the Lions. Cliff Kingsbury next year, I believe will be at the top of interview lists because only two of six teams with vacancies even wanted to talk to him this year. But the Commander's offense completely outclassed Alliance and the most shocking result of the entire season again forty five thirty one. I know people. Some people will give Cliff Kingsbury his due is a bright offensive mind. Some don't because his failure to adjust during his time in Arizona is caused this sort of albatross to be around his neck, whereas his offenses tend to fall off at the end of the season. What didn't happen this year? Did it? It didn't happen this year. He's only getting better against top competition in the playoffs, and maybe you can put those concerns the rest. So one of the takeaways next year, the Commanders aren't fluke. I think they're gonna be good again next year, no matter where they end up this year. And I think you're going to see Kingsbury get a few more head coaching queries. Finally, the takeaway from that game. Dan Campbell was emotional, justifiably at the podium after last year when they lost to the forty nine ers, revealing to the players, hey, this may be your only shot, which is not untrue. You insert your own Dan Marino joke here. The Lions, the way they dominated during the regular season, I don't want to see was hyperbole because it wasn't. Next year, Detroit is going to be a contender again. I know they lost both their coordinators, but they're bringing back a cadre of studs and they'll draft again.
Well.
Brad Holmes has proven he can do it. They had eleven players this year on ir that at one point started on the defense. They lost one hundred and fifty eight man games. The only other teams to do that in the NFL were teams like the Saints and the Raiders and the Panthers and Lions were you know, fifteen to two hit all the pieces they needed, but the injuries were their downfall. That's just a fact. They'll keep their roster together at least one more year. That will get a little bit more difficult year after year. And we get it. They're starting the offseason needing to replace the league's two best coordinators. And you could argue that could be a factor. However, you know, because it was with the Eagles last year when they lost Jonathan Gannon and Shane Steiking. But they're back where they belong and and so you know, this is the National Football League, all right. Coming up, I'm gonna give you my takeaways from the Eagles Rams and the Bill's Ravens and how that might factor as we look ahead to what's going to be one hell of a doubleheader on Sunday in the NFC and AFC Championship games. I'm Bernie fraddlew coming toy line from the Las Vegas Fox Sports Radio TIREC dot Com studios. Keep it locked. You're listening to the Bernie Fratter.
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All right back at the Bernie Frattle Show, Fox Sports Radio. Coming to live from the Tarak dot Com studios here in Las Vegas. We continue with key takeaways at analysis from the divisional games last weekend, perhaps some tidbits that we can ascertain as we look ahead to Sunday's doubleheader Eagles and Commandos noon Pacific, three o'clock Eastern on Sunday. Eagles coming off their twenty eight twenty two victory over the Rams, and now Jalen Hurts they say will be wearing a brace, but according to people who seen him at practice, he moved basically relatively unabated and seemed comfortable, So it's doubtful that he's hobbled by the knee injury that he sustained and messed Sunday's win. He did miss any snaps, so those availabilities obviously there. We don't know if there will be any limitations to keep them in the pocket. We don't know that we have to watch, but according to people who have observed him. It should be okay, and we'll just have to see when the game starts. Right, the Commando's defense is thirtieth against the run, all right. That's and I don't know, maybe you just give the ball to Saquon Barkley to call it a day. All right. He had two hundred and five yards against the Rams. What's he gonna do against the Commandos. I don't know. We're gonna have to watch and see. There's something about this Eagles team though. They're like a throwback into a parlay that has always worked since the beginning of time in football. If you have an elite run game complimented by announcedaying any defense, you're gonna be in every game as long as you don't turn it over five times, they have a real chance to win the whole thing. Had a real chance to win the whole thing. And what's interesting is even if they don't. People talk about super Bowl windows, are they closing? Is it over? People? You know, everybody wants to be Gene Dixon and predict the future. The Eagles super Bowl window is far from closed. Far. You know, they just got a couple of first round picks out of Georgia. The year before last, Jalen Carter, Nolan Smith, instant impact. They wreaked havoc against the Rams, and you know they're they're at one point people joked about them being a Georgia defense. Well maybe they are, and that's when Georgia was really Georgia. Look what those two did against the Rams. Two forced from both three sacks, you know, and when you add in Quinny and Mitchell and Cooper to Gene, these are young pups incredibly, you know, high level play at cornerback as rookies, and so all of a sudden, the Eagles you look around and they're flushed with blue chip talent and it's young talent at the most important positions. Once again, Hollie Roseman does it. The guy has produced magic. The future is very bright for the Eagles, hopefully Jalen Hurts is one hundred percent for Sunday, just quickly. On the Rams. I'm not so sure about their future. You have to give Sean mcvagh and Less Snead top credit for what they've done. They've built the roster, they make the most out of their draft capital. They've augmented their defense very impressively. They missed Aaron Donald this year, but they've laid the foundation to be a team that's always going to be hanging around. He even started one and four, got to the playoffs again, right, But they're gonna have some questions Cooper cup Why were they rubored to be trading him mid season? Why? I know their season looked like I could go off a cliff. But he's thirty one years old and that's why his diminished volume is showing you that he's maybe playing the back nine. And then there's Matt Stafford. Stafford's gonna come back. Yeah, you can think about it all you want. You're being paid a zillion dollars, You're thirty seven years old. And you know what. You've heard me pick on Stafford a lot over the years because he was owing seven in playoff games or playoff implication games in Detroit and when it mattered most, he did not do well. And I'm sorry, I'm sticking to that, but you will never hear me question his toughness. Stafford's toughness parks lots back injuries, knee injuries, neck. He is a tough guy who has answered the bell and I know he'll make the occasional throw and nobody go look at that. He'll make the occasional dumb play too. Could he retire? He could. I don't think there's any chance he'll retire, but the Rams might want to think ahead and be in the market for a young quarterback to plan for the future. Just saying do they have a succession plan? That Snead McVeigh tandem is as sharp as it gets. But let's face it, they're nowhere near where they want to be or need to be if they want to be in the short list of a team that can truly win the Super Bowl. Finally, in what turned out to be a really entertaining game last Sunday where the Bills and Ravens, the Bills prevailed twenty seven to twenty five, and much like the Chiefs do at Arrowhead at home in January, the Bills simply found a way. Some teams know how to win. The Bills are becoming that team, and very similarly to what I said about the Chiefs. It wasn't the prettiest effort against Baltimore. The stat sheet is anything but outstanding. And look, maybe the Bills got a little conservative in the second half that allowed their Ravens to hang around longer than they should have. None of that matters in the playoffs. The Bills are going back to the FC title game. They frustrated one of the best teams in football to no win. Most notably, the Bill's run game found a way to move the ball with consistency against the Ravens defense that it only allowed about three and a half yards per carry, best in the NFL. So the defense did its part with three crucial turnovers. Josh Allen once again kept the ball out of harm's way. Buffalo's ability to do so consistently make timely plays in the game when it matters. Now that this Bill's team resembles the Chiefs more than any Bills team in the past, We'll see what happens on Sunday. Once again. You heard me say it earlier. Deja vu all over again, Yogi for the Ravens. The Ravens cannot get over the hump. You shove them down our throat in October. They're the scariest team. There was still a five lost team, and I get it, they were damn good. But when it matters most, and he gets hot and it's hard to breathe, what are they doing in January. They're watching him TV. The sheer difficulty of making a playoff run is difficult for any NFL franchise. But when you got probably a four time MVP in Lamar, and you had Derrick Henry and a scary defense at least on paper, you can't find a way to win. Well, not when you cough up three tone over was on Sunday night in Buffalo after having only eleven all season. That's the ultimate letdown. So Robert griff had wanted everybody to beat up justin Herbert what he's saying about Lamar Jackson. And by the way, for the record, I like Lamar Jackson. I've defended him. I don't know why he doesn't win it. He just it's not in his DNA to win in January. He checks every box, every box. He's a leader. He's a better pocket passer that people give it give him credit for. And I know you're gonna say, all right, yes, he had a hell of a fourth quarter of the late surge put Baltimore in position to force overtime only for a wide open You know Mark Andrews And there's a famous NFL films I sent this to Jeremy shabb the old Washington Redskins back in the day Jackie Smith's sliding along the end zone. If you remember this tweet at Us dropped a pass wide open and the announcer said, he's got to be the sickest man in America. Poor Mark Andrews. I don't think he dropped the pass all year. He dropped the pass for the game time two point conversion. And I get it. The Raves will be right back next year, and you know, we get you know it'd be another productive offseason. They're positive, they're well run. They check every box except whenning. And you're gonna try to convince us how good they are, but they're gonna have to win in January to convince me. And I ain't seen it. And by the way, you can give him all the credit you want for that fourth quarter comeback, but it was the self inflicted wounds and the turnovers by Lamar Jackson. They put them in the hole in the first place. One last thing, and I will not hear me bash Mark Andrews. He's a un being and very classy move by the way of Bill's Bafia. I don't know if you know this. Mark Andrews was diagnosed with type one diabetes when he was nine years old, and he's part of a charity, part of an organization that raises money for that malady, and I believe the Bill's mafia in sympathy and support for that organization. It's very classy move. Has raised like thirty eight thousand dollars for that charity. That could give Andrews a little lyft. I understand he's gotten hate male death threats. This is just ridiculous, Okay, But Andrews drop on that game tying two point conversion in the final minute was just simply another mistake and basically a disastrous outing. By the way, he had a bad drop on the third drive of the game that proceeded to Lamar Jackson fumble that put the Bills in position to take their first lead of the night. Andrews also had a fumble of his own early in the fourth quarter, getting the ball punched out after a big catch in Buffalo territory that would have been perhaps to go ahead drive. That pair of drops equals as toll from the entire season, and it was untimely. It was a shame one of the most reliable players in the team. Struggling in a big moment. That just seems to be what the Baltimore ravens lament will be for yet another season coming up. The college football season is in the books. I loves the playoff. It was long, it was a full month. The ratings were slightly down on the championship game. And do I think there'll be changes to next year's format? No, I don't. People want changes. People saying changes are coming, you don't know what you're talking about. There's eleven people on this committee and unless they vote unanimously the first two years, there will be no changes. But let me tell you if I had a wish list these there are not complaints, they're just wish lists on the changes I would like to see. Next year, when you have a situation by another twelve team playoff, I'll tell you the changes i'd like to see. Whether they happen, I'm doubtful, at least for next year, maybe twenty twenty seven, but not for next year. I'm Bernie Fradder. Were coming to you line from Las Vegas, Foxforts Radio, Tirect dot Com Studios. Keep it locked. You're listening to the Bernie Fraddle Show on Fox Sports Radio. We're back on the Bernie Fraddle Show Fox Sports Radio. Come you laugh at the tarreck dot com student. I want to give my two cents on why I think the college football playoff could use a tweak. These are just my thoughts. First of all, let's start with the seedings, the seating corrections. I realize automatic bids are fine if you win your conference. I got no problem with an automatic bid, but you have the top four seeds locked in as conference championship winners. That has been proven now to be a complete fagazy. All right, with all due respect, no statistic would suggest that the Mountain West champion Boise State Broncos, as much as I respect them, as solid a program as they are, had a fantastic season under Spencer Danielson, they were more deserving of the number three seed in his playoff than say Notre Dame or Ohio State. Okay, the Broncos didn't play a similar schedule, they didn't have the quality wins the Fighting Irish had or the Buckeyes had. And the selection committee, if you're going to send twelve teams to the playoff after auto bids, give them an auto bid, but don't give them an auto buy. Secondly, I think you do have to start to reward the toughest schedules, all right. First reported by Yahoo Sports, there is a potential idea of an out of a fourteen team playoff floating out there that includes four automatic qualifiers from both the Big Ten and the SEC, the college football's two leagues which dominated drink the schedule period. The a SEC and the Big twelve would be guaranteed two but total bids, along with one group of five champion and a single at large, assuming it would be notre dame if the fighting I was finished inside the top fourteen. So with strengthening the playoff by adding more SEC and Big Ten teams, improve the product and less than the number of lopsided results. I don't know, you have lopside of results in the NFL. Don't worry about lopsid of results. The idea is not to create perfections, to create a path to get teams to the playoff that haven't been there before. All right. The other thing I'd like to see is more home games. I think it was really cool to see these on campus matchups and these on campus home crowds and fewer bull sites. All right, You want to give Boise State an automatic bid for winning the Mountain West, Fine, give him a home game two, but don't give him a bye. I don't like that unless you know, let's they beat a couple, let's say have a different schedule. You get my point. I know this is only a four game sample size, but when you added the four first round games in the playoff structure, it was a home run. It was a home run for the fans, it was a home run for TV. It was a home run for people who showed up in attendance. And for each school, each matchup provided a big game. There was certainly championship, a championship like atmosphere for the higher seeds. And it's a reward for a stellar season. And by the way, all home teams one convincingly. By the way, each game is now crystallized when you tell the story of that program and their history forever, that's part of their history. So I think it's great more home games, less neutral sites. Now as you get deeper into the tournament semi finals, et cetera, quarterfinals, fine, but let's have more home games. You could easily have the group of New Year's six Bowl games that host the playoff quarterfinals and semi finals in rotation, and they're under contract through you know, for just the next year, but not after. So for those folks who want to always complain about bull season holding very little meaning for those outside the playoff, a win win would be bringing a few of these back to non playoff games in a return provide more home games for the higher seeds. All right, there's a problem with adding another home game for the first round. I get it. More on that down the road, because there's convolution. I don't know what you'd do with the conference championship dilemma. Okay, Lane Kiffin's been very outspoken. He doesn't see the point of conference championship games when your team is competing for a playoff. Perth and James Franklin City wants uniformity across this board, saying everybody should play a conference championship game or nobody should play a conference championship game. The question is what do you do with that revenue they would wave goodbye to. Don't expect that anytime soon. All right, Look, we get it. The teams in the twelve team tournament are not always going to be who you want or your opinion is the best teams in the sport. In fact, the five auto qualifiers who won their league titles lost their first playoff game. Then Ohio State, who would have even qualified under the last year's four team made for TV Invitational tournament and was a number six seed, got hot in the postseason after cranking out Tennessee and Notre Dame, who remains an independent, got the number seven. Then they beat Indiana, Georgia and Penn State. So this playoff is an idea whose time has come. Let's face it coming up. We're going to wrap up the show and I want to revisit the Bill's Mafia had a very classy move for Mark Andrews. This really deserves mentioning a second time. Football fans be sure to tune into Fox Sports Radio every Saturday morning, beginning at nine am Eastern six am Pacific for Countdown to Kickoff, presented by Bet MGM, Brian no rich Oron Berger betting analyst Jared Smith. There have you covered three hours before college kickoff? Every Saturday morning, listen to Countown to Kickoff, presented by BETTMGM right here on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app on Bernie Fraddlewick coming to line from Las Vegas, Fox Sports Radio, TIREC dot Com Studios. Keep it locked. You're listening to the Bernie Frattle Show on Fox Sports Radio. And on that note, we are going to keep the show rolling. Let me dive back into this Bill's mind and what they did for the Ravens Mark Andrews. All right, everybody saw the drop pass. The guy says he's gutted. He's had a sensational year. It's been a very rough, very rough, you know what, five days now for Mark Andrews. The last few days, it's been one of those situations where it's just something that I don't think the poor guy'll ever live down. People won't let him live it down. And it's one of those situations where you know, they may say he even though that game, even though that drop pass only would have tied the game, And I truly believe that some of the earlier peccadillo's that happened in the game were as a result of Baltimore's own self inflicted wounds. Well, the bottom line is this, people are gonna remember most what they saw last. They're gonna remember most what they saw last. So give it up to the Bill's Mafia. They're doing what they can to make Mark Andrews what's gonna be. I think a very bleak offseason feel a little bit brighter. So look, some people are calling his drop pass at the end of the game Sunday as his entry into the Hall of Infamy. All right, that would have potentially tied the game. We would have tied the game the two point conversion. We don't know what would have happened from that point. And listen, if you didn't see what happened after that point, this poor son of a gun got terrible meme treatment on Twitter and everywhere. They were just creaming the guy. They showed, you know, Aaron Judge dropping his fly ball in the World Series. They showed some memes. They showed some footage from the the show The Office, right. Last year it was Dave Flowers fumble. This year it's Mark Andrews fumble. The Ravens always beat themselves. I'm sick, you know, and theyven took the time to bash him for some earlier miscues in the night. And this is a guy that had a great year. He for the game, he had five catches sixty one yards. But that's what they're going to remember, all right, But the Bill's Mafia has chosen to do something very classy. They said, we're not going to Pylon. As a matter of fact, the Bill's Mafia banded together to donate through a charity that Mark Andrews is involved in. Mark Andrews was diagnosed with type one diabetes when he was nine years old, and he's an avid supporter of this charity. It's called the Breakthrough T one D Charity, which aims to combat type one diabetes. Now, quote, here's a quote. As many of you know, Ravens tight End wasn't able to catch a game tying two point conversion and then upset Ravens fans. That was from a Bill Mafia's fan quote on the go funbe post it read it said, quote on top of the that the tight End has been receiving death threats and nasty comments after his blank performance last night. We want Bill's Mafia to donate to Mark's charity for juvenile to beat diabetes. Let's reach a goal of at least five thousand dollars, of which that caught the attention of the Baltimore Ravens, who tweeted out shout out to Bill's Mafia for showing support to our guy, Mark Andrews and donating to the at Breakthrough t one TD on Twitter organization which works towards carrying and improving the lives of those dealing with type one diabetes, supports Mark's charity. As of the writing, this was just two days ago, the Bill's fundraiser had donated thirty eight thousand dollars, which far exceeded far exceeded of their goal of five thousand. Now, this is not the first time to Bill's Mafia stepped up big for an opplosing player's favorite charity. Remember a few years back, the fan base did something similar for the aforementioned Mark Lamar Jackson. This is back in twenty twenty one when the Bill's Mafia decided they would also raise money for Lamar Jackson's favorite charity. The Bills beat the Ravens seventeen to third, three of them that year, and they launched a campaign on social media. The charity was called Blessings in a Backpack and it provides free food for children to eat on the weekends and then three days. Somehow, the Bill's Mafia helped manage raise four hundred and fifty thousand dollars on Lamar Jackson's behalf. Jackson then issued a statement through the Blessings in a Backpack on Twitter site, thanking Bill's Mafia. Said quote, Now, this is back on January twentieth of twenty twenty one. We're excited to share this quote from Lamar Jackson to Bill's Mafia. Since Saturday's game between the Buffalo Bills and Ravens, four hundred and forty eight thousand, five hundred donating the Blessings in a Backpack by this is staggering. Sixteen four hundred and fifty fans chose to jump in that they say will create one hundred and twelve thousand hunger free weekends. All right. Lamar Jackson went on to say, your acts of kindness and generosity have not gone unnoticed. It is greatly appreciated. Give it up to Bill's Mafia two times now in five years, first Lamar Jackson and now Mark Andrews. Now. The Bill's Mafia is very well known for their Tailgate antics, their wild tail Gate annex. And again that wasn't even the first time they went into a fundraising effort. They did the same earlier that same year. In twenty twenty one to honor Josh Allen's late grandmother, and Josh Allen was at a loss for words. Remember they also help donate to Andy Dalton's charity after Dalton helped Buffalo get into the postseason a few years ago. So look, Bill's mafia is more than about jumping through flaming tables, and people are very grateful for that. And by the way, if you get a chance, watch the Four Falls of Buffalo. It's the best esp in thirty that they ever have produced. And it's hard to root against this team. If Buffalo wins Sunday, I think it'll be phenomenal to get to that Super Bowl. But gosh, if they lose that fifth one, here comes Joe Public again. By the way, one last thing, you know, Andy Dalton help the Buffalo Bills get to the postseason, if you recall back in twenty eighteen by beating the Baltimore Ravens. And on Monday, Dalton took to Twitter to think all the Bill fans the Monday after the game who donated to his charitable foundation. So look, the Bills, their fans have a reputation for doing some moutlandish things, but you gotta respect them, man, and they're gesture in the humanity. They got a body of work. Now. Now let's see if the Bills what they can do, what they can do on this weekend. It's gonna be a hell of a doubleheader. There's just no two ways about it. I do think the Chiefs prevail until someone goes in there and beats them in January to get the Super Bowl like Cincinnati did a few years ago. Gonna be a tough nut. And I think Philadelphia will beat Washington, no disrespect to Washington. I think they're gonna meet their maker. I just simply believe that's what's going to happen. That thirtieth ranked run defense is gonna show up. And I don't think Philly's gonna turn the ball over five times, simple as that it's gonna do. For the Bernie Frattle Show back on these airwaves Saturday night at eleven PM. Keep it locked up. Next The Fellas, Fox Sports Radio,