PTI - Patrick Mahomes' MNF performance was inspiring!

Episode Date: September 15, 2026

Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser discuss Monday Night Football, the MLB Playoffs, and Lane Kiffin's return to Ole Miss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Early morning on a Manhattan sidewalk, a shooting caught on surveillance video. It was an assassination-style killing, and everybody saw it. A new podcast series from ABC Audio in 2020 goes inside this captivating case. I'm ABC News legal analyst Brian Buckmeyer. Listen to Burden of Proof, Luigi Mangione, wherever you get your podcasts. The interruption, but I'm Mike Wilbon. It's national. Thank you, Day, Tony.

Anybody you'd like to thank? I'm Tony Kornheiser. I'd like to thank all the people behind the scenes who make this show happen. I don't remember their names at the moment, but they're fine people, and I know I can convey my thanks to them this way, don't you think?

Yeah, I think this is a step forward because you used to call them the Littles. Remember that? Littles. Yeah, I remember that. But I also, every time we had an intern, I called him or her Cliffy, because I didn't want to have to remember their names, so everybody became a clipping.

Welcome to PTI, boys and girls. In today's episode, Aaron, Judge Homer's. Lane Kippen faces a trip back to Ole Miss, and Jeff Saturday joins us for five good minutes. But we begin today with the Kansas City Chiefs demolishing the visiting Denver Broncos last night, 31 to 10. It was the return of Patrick Mahomes after tearing his left ACL.

Mahomes scored one touchdown running, two touchdowns passing. It was the Kansas City debut of running back Kenneth Walker, who actually gained more yards by himself than the entire Broncos team, 191 to 176. Wilbon, what did this result say to you about each team? Well, Tony, let me go to Denver first because I don't know what it says.

Sean Payton's a hell of a coach. They had a new play caller, all of his new, Bo Knicks coming off his own injury situation. I'm just not going to, I'm going to leave Denver alone for now because I don't know what that meant. It's a game.

They'd lost. They weren't going undefeated. Now, let me go to Kansas City. Patrick Mahomes, to me, it was inspiring to watch him. I don't think he was great vintage Patrick Mahomes. He couldn't be. He's only nine months removed from a ripped up knee.

He'll get there, I think, incrementally. Patrick Mahomes will give back to being Patrick Mahomes. But it was inspiring watching him, Tony. The touchdown run, there was no downfield passing whatsoever. None, no passing game down the field. Okay, they got time they'll get there. But Kenneth Walker, wow, that kid was great. They made the right pick in getting him.

Andy Reid doesn't trust the running game for too long because he wants to throw it 40 times, but they trusted him last night. And so Kansas City, A-plus and all the things you have to do to win a game like that against a division rival. We are on the same wavelength here. If I were still writing a sports column, I would have written about Patrick Mahomes.

I would have written about what it means to have a healthy Patrick Mahomes. I would have pointed out the three Super Bowls that he has already won by being healthy. And then I would have emphasized that running play in the first quarter. When he went 15 yards, dove into the end zone between two Denver defenders, and came up not limping, not in pain. And I would have talked about the symbolism of that because that was very important. And then I would have said what you've heard me say a million times, that while per se he might not be the best passer,

best passing quarterback in the league. He's the best football player on the planet. Denver is a good team. That's not a weak team. That's not a weak coach. He may take over to play calling again, but that team was 14 and 3 last year. They got to the AFC championship game,

and Bo Nix was deservedly praised. And then they got wiped out, just wiped out. Mahomes in his first game comes in there. They were 6 and 11 last year, mostly with Mahomes, and they annihilated this team. I mean, that,

team gained 176 yards. Do you know how many games? Sean Payton is coach, 313. That's the third lowest amount of yards. I want to say one other thing, because the Chiefs look great. You know who else looked great? Tom Cruise looked great, sitting next to Taylor Swift. Tom Cruise is 64 years old.

He looks 34. He's Benjamin Button. That's who he is. Wow. Taylor Swift and Tom Cruise in the A block of this show. Let's move, Tony, to baseball's home stretch. You and I love good pennant races. Aaron Judge Homer for the first time says coming off the injured list is the Yankees clinched the playoff spot as usual.

The Dodgers also cleansed the spot as usual, 14th straight for them. Targ Scoobo had his first great outing with Los Angeles. The Padres beat the Rockies for their eighth straight win. And White Sox rookie Tristan Peters drew an 18-pitch walk that seemed to spark a win over the Guardians. As those teams tussle for first place in the AL Central, what, Tony, was the biggest deal in baseball to you last night? I'm going to lay off the white socks. I know you have a lot on the white socks,

and a lot of years invested in the white socks. So, oh, well, you'll say something about them. If you asked me in the near term, what was the biggest moment last night, the biggest deal, it was Aaron Judge hitting a ball 414 feet. Because Aaron Judge, since he had gotten back last week, was three for 20 with 11 strikeouts. This whole run did not change the game.

they were ahead of Minnesota to begin with, but there is great symbolism in that shot because if Aaron Judge is hitting home runs, the Yankees can, in fact, beat anybody. I am moved, though, that the biggest deal overall because of what it means historically, at least to me, the Dodgers, you know, you get to the playoffs 14 years. It's easier now.

There's six teams in each league, but 14 is 14. They spend a lot of money. They spend it wisely. The guy they're renting right now, you referred to, Tark Scoobel. How's this for a loan? nine seven innings three hits no runs seven strikeouts 90 pitches that's how you draw it up mike and that's just tremendously impressive no doubt tone no doubt but and no i'm not going to the white

socks i'm going i'm going i'm going to give you a lineup and you tell me where they play you go the podres tatis machado france merrill bogart's cronanworth okay now i'm going to tell you to one team that the los angeles dodgers and all their 14 trips and all their billions spent don't want to see. They don't want to see them dudes. I don't want to see them either in case the Cubs had to play them. Maybe Cubs, Phillies, maybe that'll take place. And we don't see the Dodgers right away, Tony.

It's the Padres. And they haven't clinched anything. I mean, Arizona is still on their bumper tight. Butone. Yeah. They got closer. They got a lineup. They're within a game and a half of you.

They're moving in the right direction. And they also have easy teams coming up. They have Colorado, I believe, and they have Miami. And they closed in a hard series with Arizona. That's at the end. But they may be too far ahead by then. They may be. Let's move to college football.

Very scared. And the most anticipated game of the season so far. Number 7, LSU would now coach Lane Kiffin, going back to number eight, Ole Miss for the first time since he deserted them right before the playoffs last season. In anticipation of some sparks, the governor of Louisiana, put on his wish list that the game be, quote, played in complete Southern hospitality, unquote. Wilma, what do you expect?

You know, Tony, I don't expect disruption. I really don't. I expect Ole Miss to win this game. I expect it to be a hard, yeah, I do. I expect it to be a hard, fought game. I expect there to be lots of chanting and singing almost European soccer style directed at the head coach of. Louisiana State University. I think that LSU has been overly

praised because they beat an awful Clemson squad last week, and it don't mean Jack. And I expect Ole Miss, and by the way, everybody's asking for calm. You know, the Golden and Ole Miss is asking for calm. Louisiana

governor, as you said, asking for calm. Oh, that's great. Oh, that's great. I don't think there's going to be people acting up in that way. The game at LSU, I might not proclaim such a thing. But I expect Old Miss to get after it and really take LSU out. I think it's going to be a holy war.

I think for a lot of people on the Old Miss team, in terms of psychology and what this means, this could end up being the most important, most significant game they ever played. They like to say in Oxford at tailgates, they like to say hottie-toddy. This is hottie-toddy-toddy times 10. You got people at LSU right now that Lane Kiffin took with him when he went from Old Miss to LSU. And you got people at Old Miss right now that Lane Kiffin tried to take with him and they decided to stay. So you don't have to stir this pot.

This pot has been stirred for months now. I don't necessarily see the team that you see winning this guy. I'm not sure about that. I know that Golding is called for calm. Kiffin went out and said there's no pressure on his players. He said all the pressure is on me, all the red flags on me. And then this is a direct quote. This is a direct quote from Lane Kiffin.

We won seven games last year. They won 13. What? We, they? No, no, no. You won 13. You coached Ole Miss. You won 13.

They in your life is LSU. They won seven games. This is identity theft. What is he talking about? Ole Miss. Ole Miss is the aggrieved party. They're the aggrieved party. Holy World.

I hope. And Tony, maybe I just said what I'm wishing. I'm wishing for Old Miss to beat LSU's brains out. Sorry, Booger McFarlane and my LSU friends. Sorry. I sort of think LSU is going to win, but we'll see. But that's a game I want to watch. Everybody wants to watch that one. Let's take a break. Coming up with Miles Garrett injured, what should Aaron Donald expect from offensive lines in his return for retirement? We're going to ask Jeff Saturday. We'll also ask him about my bears. pulling over the Panthers on that right side for 291 yards rushing.

Do you think that Archie and Eli will go to that game in Mississippi? Do you think Mississippi will call everybody back? They'll have every seat for themselves? They should. Time to dig into the NFL trenches with our great friend ESPN NFL analyst. Jeff Saturday, let's start with this. The Chief started an undrafted rookie, Khalil Benson, at left tackle last night. Jeff, a position he had not played since high school, and they succeeded in what I guess is a gamble.

Can you give us a sense of how challenging this was? Oh, let me just put this in perspective. You're a left tackle starting for the first time at that position in the NFL. Patrick Mahomes, you know, potentially going to be compared to Tom Brady in a few years. is coming off an ACL tear nine months ago, and you're going against a team that had 68 sacks the prior year. You know, yeah, you think that may. He was knotted up, very nervous, guaranteed,

but the Chiefs did a fantastic job of, you know, being playing physical football with K9, you know, Kenny Walker, and they did a great job helping them putting tight ends over there, slide protecting, did a nice job of making sure he was, wasn't left on an island all day to fend for himself. A ton of respect, though, tip of the cap to Benson to be able to go do that. On the biggest of stage, Monday night football, the last game of week one, if you think my boy what, nodded up and nervous, you're lying to yourself.

To go play through it, again, much respect. Jeff, we got our own left tackle situation in Chicago, not even knowing who's going to be there in an injury question, but, but. the right side of that line looks like bowling for dollars. What do you see with them specifically and how that right side helped open up all those holes Sunday? All right. Let me just say this.

It's got to be a bear fan that we're going to score 59 points, and you're going to pick on the left tackle of this thing and be like, it's not good enough. I mean, can we have nice things in Chicago? I read the greatest. tweet that I've seen from any bear, Olin Kruetz wrote, give me a second. I got to get accustomed to this kind of offense, right?

I got to get accustomed to scoring points and laying this thing out, right? That's how you need to feel. Don't worry about it. Gloss over the ugly, bro, because it was so pretty other than that. And you're right, right? I mean, when you think about Wright, you think about Jackson, their ability to push people around, to bounce dudes' backs off the field. to play physical, to set up these plays.

But Ben Johnson has done a masterful job at getting guys and giving the right angles, making sure they can do this thing right, whether it's tuning, you name it, right? However you got to lay. And now, you know, Bradbury, and all the different pieces and parts, put them all together, allow this offense to come together. You got running backs who can make explosive plays, receivers that can make explosive plays, tight ends that can make explosive plays. Oh, and one of the great young.

quarterback's up-and-coming and Kayla Williams. You got a lot of nice stuff, Wilvon. Stop complaining about the one thing that might not be for you, Jeff. I'll be better this week, Jeff. I'll be better this week. Jeff, a guy that I feel for is Eagles Guard, Landon Dickerson, who said in training camp, he probably shouldn't play until he feels healthy. He played injured and said he was a complete liability.

He was so hard on himself. Teams now put him on IR. Jeff, all of you guys are tough up front. how is this kid supposed to know when he should tap out, when he should try it? What are the guidelines here? Yeah, I think he gave all he could, right? And even last year, you think about this Eagles up front, man, they were banged up last year, right? Like dudes taking turns, missing games, playing injured, like you said, you could see it in their motion and movement.

But it really stuck out with Dickerson this past week. And he's true to form, like in what he's saying, he was a liability. A lot of pass rushes getting to his edge quick, you know, quick pressure on Jalen Hurts. all of those things. And you understand, like, there's a certain point as a lineman when you're like, man, I can't get in front of this guy, I can't stay in front, I can't sit my hips, I can't get any push or movement. He's there. Take a month off, man, get your body rehab, do all the things you can do and then come back. And he's such a mountain of a man. You know, I tell people like a guy like me, right, I'm weighing 290-ish when I'm playing or somewhere in that range. My margin for error is small.

This is a massive human playing guard inside, right? So his margin for error, he can hold up and it may not look as bad, but for him and his standard of play, it showed up in a way he didn't want to be that liability, especially for an Eagles team who I believe can make noise again. He doesn't want to be that, and it's much more important for him in the latter part of the season than these next four weeks, in my opinion. Jeff, we'll get you out of here on this question. I just want to say, first of all, thank you very much for saying to Wilbon.

Your team scored 59 points. Shut up. Don't give us misery. Don't give us misery. Okay, here we go. We'll go to Miles Garrett. How does Miles Garrett's injury change how offensive lines can now account for Aaron Donald? Oh, that's a great question. Your slide protection are helping and looking for it. The problem, and I know Donald hadn't played in a couple years, is teams did it, and he still beat them, right? Double teams, triple teams, like you name it. So I think it will take time for him to get back his rhythm of a live game, right, playing consecutive snaps in a long drive.

If I'm the Rams and I'm thinking about Aaron Donald, it's probably 10 or 15 snaps, right, past rush situations, because it is fatiguing to go turn and chase and go run the runs down to go opposite field of you or doing that kind of thing. And I think teams will be smart to try to give him a bunch of different looks, but try to fatigue him. And so that he's, you know, gets back, builds himself back into football shape. But I think from an offensive perspective, you figure how do I help? Where can I slide? Can a bat get up in there and chip maybe at the line of scrimmage?

Different ways. But again, all those things have been tried, and he's defensive player of the year still. So it ain't like it's going to be new for him with the expectations. It's just a matter of how quickly can he get back to form that we saw him at when he left. Thank you, Jeff, as always. Thank you, Jeff. Appreciate it. Appreciate you, fellas. Glad to be back. Let's take one last break still to come with the Broncos' right to try to lure Drew Grease, of retirement.

And the Ms. heads back to the mound in Pittsburgh tonight. Seriously, you scored 59 points. I'm thrilled. I'm thrilled.

I just want to know what Jeff thinks about our left tackle situation. He knows more about this stuff than anybody. Happy time, people.

Happy 55th birthday Michael Malone. Malone won the NBA championship in 2023 coaching the Denver Nuggets who beat Miami in the finals. By the spring of

In 2020, Malone had been fired. He went on TV for a while, and now he will coach the University of North Carolina, filling the empty chair that was vacated when Ubert Davis was fired. He says Carolina's second pass at bringing in a championship pro coach for one of its big revenue college teams. In football, they did it with Bill Belichick, which hasn't worked out yet. Malone reportedly has spent $20 million on his first team. Malone said his biggest challenge was studying film on a group of players he did not know

and learning about them. At least nobody is calling Tar Hill basketball the 31st NBA team. I don't want to wish ill to Michael Malone as he takes over North Carolina basketball. I'm just glad he doesn't have the most recently great Tar Heel basketball player, Caleb Wilson. I'm glad we'll be able to stay in Chicago

and from North Carolina, Caleb Wilson. Yeah. What a Chicago-centric show this is. A not so happy anniversary for Brian Wagner on this day 35 years ago, the Patriots punter was pinned in the back of his own end zone and ended up punting the ball directly into his blocking back's end zone, as it were. Ernie Mills scooped up the ball for a Steelers touchdown. As rare as that play might seem, we can show you almost the same scenario.

Miami punter Thomas Morsted launched his punt directly into the backside of blocking back Trent Scherfield in 2022. The Dolphins were more fortunate than the Patriots. It only cost them a safety. By the way, the Patriots cut Wagner the next day, but he played four more seasons in the NFL, and guess what? Wagner's final season was back in New England.

Much worse punt than that, Tom. Worst pun I ever saw, our dear friend Joe Thysman, in Chicago, in the wind, against the bear, speaking of Chicago-centric, the records show a one-yard punt. I don't believe that I was there. It was negative one. It went up and back over his head in the wind

in Soldier Field. He was punting because the kicker, Hayes from North Carolina was hurt. But Joe, he shouldn't have been in there doing that, but he took one for the team. Happy trails to Drew Breeze following Philip Rivers' footsteps. Breeze reportedly turned down a chance to come out of retirement to play for Sean Baiton and the Broncos in last year's playoffs after starting quarterback Bo Nix suffered a fractured ankle. ESPN reports that the 47-year-old Breeze initially considered it,

but wanted to see how his body would respond to a workout. Not well, it turns out, as Breeze felt. discomfort in his throwing wrist. So he passed on the opportunity. The precedent for this move was set in December of last year when 44-year-old Philip Rivers came out of retirement to quarterback the Colts after Daniel Jones tore in Achilles. This is never a good idea.

I'm glad Drew Breeze thought better of it at that age and stage. Drew Breeze, the great Drew Breeze. You just walk into rooms and wave. You don't go back. All right, let's go to the big finish. Paul George, whoever you love. Says Jason Tatum is a Celtic superstar, and he's just there to help. Do you agree with that?

There's no disagree with that, and you can hate him if you want. You don't disagree either. Ben Shelton thinks there should be a clock on second serves. Do you? This is about Zverev, because Varev bounces the ball 10 times, 12 times, 20 times. It's the Zverav clock. You don't need it with anybody else. The Blackhawks named 21-year-old Connor Vodd, captain.

Second youngest in your franchise's history. Does that make sense? So Jonathan Taze, yeah, but what makes more sense is getting more talent on that team. That's what I care about. Your Nats face Christopher Sanchez tonight. How you feeling? Well, I'm not particularly confident.

I'm hopeful, but I mean, Sanchez is 17 and 5 with a 279 ERA. Damn good. Last one, your boy, the Mizz is on the mound against the Pirates tonight. What do you expect from him? You think Sanchez is great. The Mizz is allowing almost a full.

run less. I expect one run max. That's what I expect. He's good. Now, he's having a great year. I still would have taken schemes ahead of him. We're out of time. Trying to better the next time. I'm Tony Kornheimer. I'm Mike Wilbonne. Same time tomorrow, knuckleheads.