Best of The Ben Maller Show

In a 100-year first for the NFL, the Los Angeles Chargers opened their season by losing back-to-back home games by double digits to the Arizona Cardinals and the Las Vegas Raiders—two teams that combined for a 6-28 record the previous season. Host Ben Maller uses this historic futility as a launching point to argue that the Chargers are not just experiencing a September speed bump but are actively sinking, and that Jim Harbaugh’s program may already be moving in reverse.

The Colts’ Consolation Prize

Maller opens the episode by dissecting the Indianapolis Colts’ overtime loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. While NBC’s Mike Tirico framed the near-upset as a moral victory, Maller dismisses this as “consolation prize bull crap.” He points out that the Colts faced two measuring-stick games to start the season—against Lamar Jackson’s Ravens and Patrick Mahomes’ Chiefs—and failed both. Their defense is allowing an average of 514.5 yards and 37 points per game, a unit he compares to a wrestler from a bygone era. On offense, quarterback Daniel Jones is described as “Captain Mid,” a “steam veggies” quarterback who is fine but nobody orders seconds of. Maller’s central claim: the Colts paid premium dollars for a middling quarterback, and the defense is so broken that a trip to Dallas next week likely means an 0-3 start.

The Chiefs: Championship Cologne Found