Best of The Ben Maller Show

Talk, talk. Welcome in to another night of the Ben Maller Show. We’re coast to coast on the big FSR microphones, back in the magic radio box and spinning a bunch of plates. Tonight we start in the Pacific Northwest, where Stafford and the Rams crashed the Seahawks’ party on Amazon’s Thursday game.

So what actually happened in Seattle — did the Seahawks win it, or did the officials hand it to them? Seattle escaped in overtime after rallying from down sixteen in the fourth and hitting three two-point tries, but the headline is a two-point ‘conversion’ that wasn’t. The pass hit the turf, the whistle blew, players stopped, and then New York turned it into two points anyway. That’s how we get a 38 to 37 final instead of a Rams win in regulation. I’ve watched football my whole life and I’ve never seen that. That’s a screw job.

I’ve never been part of anything like that two-point sequence. We were lined up to kick off, then it became a fumble with a clear recovery and they tacked on points to make it thirty to thirty. We didn’t get a clean, timely explanation. We want clarity so we can understand how to minimize that when a two-point try is rejected.

Do I think there was more to it? Connect the dots. Puka Nakua roasted officiating on a livestream earlier in the week, then he goes nuclear in the game, and a day later the league sends a message with phantom points. That’s a horse-head-in-the-bed warning from the NFL. Believe your eyes — this was not kosher.

How worried should the Rams be after the league’s ruling gave them a loss? Panic meter is low. They dropped five hundred eighty-one yards and thirty-seven points on a defense people were pumping up, and they did it shorthanded. The defense still wore the scarlet letter for blowing a big lead and playing hot potato late, but big picture they’re fine — you can’t game-plan for the league inventing two points.

Did Sam Darnold save himself with that comeback? Absolutely not. Seattle needed help to get there and Darnold was a haunted house most of the night with sacks and mistakes. Enjoy the moment, but the jukebox is warming up ‘Heartbreak Hotel.’

Does this nuke Stafford’s MVP mojo? No chance. He cooked a top defense for four hundred fifty-seven yards and three scores with no turnovers, then threw a laser in overtime. The defense didn’t get a stop, and that’s on the coordinator, not the quarterback.

Switching gears — Amazon bleeped Marshawn Lynch all night. Should they have? Hard no. They’re a streamer, not the FCC. If you book Beast Mode, you get Beast Mode. The live bleeps felt like league pressure. His Ireland story about a dragon skull and messing with ‘Thrones’ was ridiculous and hilarious — that’s the charm you paid for.

Joe Buck says Caleb Williams skipped multiple ABC production calls. What do I make of that? That’s diva behavior, not a scheduling hiccup. The NFL sells access, quarterbacks are the front window, and you can literally hop on Zoom from the porcelain throne. Show up.

Cincy has a billboard yelling ‘fire the coach and the GM — save Burrow.’ Do those work? They create noise and clicks, maybe embarrass ownership for a minute, but power structures don’t move because of a sign on the freeway. It’s a symbolic bonfire.

An exec floated the Chiefs drafting a developmental quarterback with Mahomes’ status in question for next season. Could you see it?

If Mahomes can handle it, sure. Smart teams stash and develop, then flip for picks. It’s good business if the star isn’t threatened by it.

The Panthers lead the league in underdog wins and are home dogs to Tampa Bay with the same record. Another upset coming?

They’re a yo-yo. Not good, but unpredictable. Tampa’s a mess and Mayfield’s been rough lately, so yeah, they can spring one.

Zac Taylor’s deal runs through twenty twenty-seven. He says it doesn’t matter. Is that last day coming after this season?

No. The Bengals are frugal and won’t eat that. Should he be fired? I’d say yes. Will he be? No.

Lame Jokes rolled through with Weedman Hippie holiday bits and Section Eight zingers. We laughed, we groaned, and we moved on.

Coop Scoop on Entertainment. Big theatrical drops include Avatar: Fire and Ash, the new SpongeBob search adventure, and a glossy thriller headlined by Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried. On TV, Adult Swim’s The Elephant is a one-off experiment where four animators stitch together a story without seeing each other’s parts, and it streams on Max. Then Monday, December twenty-two, Netflix drops an Elway documentary. Get your popcorn ready — that’s the Scoop.