PTI - What Does Last Night Say About Joe Flacco and the Bengals?

Episode Date: October 17, 2025

Tony Kornheiser and Frank Isola discuss Bengals/Steelers, Blue Jays/Mariners, and Dodgers/Brewers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows, and originals across every ESPN network and service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN Unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional calls. Visit activate.esPN.com to learn how to access your account or sign up, then start streaming in the ESPN app. It's all of ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. Part of the interruption, but I'm Frank Isola. It's National Forgiven X-Day, Tony. Any X's you'd like to forgive?

I'm Tony Cornyn. I'm Tony Corny. Yes. I forgive you, Cher. I always like shit. I always liked shit. How I wish that that were true, because I've always liked shit. I thought that was you at the Academy Awards when she won for Moonstruck.

You didn't walk the red carpet with her? That wasn't you. I wish I had, no. And she was, yeah, she was a terrific. That's a terrific movie. movie, Moonstruck. Excellent. That's a terrific movie.

Really is. All right, welcome to PTI Boys and Girls. Wolbon is off today. I am joined by our great friend from the starting lineup on Sirius XM, Mr. Frank I Solo. New York. I'm in New York today. And we begin today with the Cincinnati Bengals beating Pittsburgh last night on a last second, 36-yard field goal 33 to 31.

Joe Flacco threw for three touchdowns and Jamar Chase caught a franchise record 16 passes. 16 passes. Aaron Rogers threw for four touchdown, so he had two interceptions. The Battle of the Geyser quarterbacks was great fun. Frank, what does this result say about Flacco, Rogers, and each team? Yeah, you know, yesterday I think you touched on it. You thought we could, this game would be fun. I'm not so sure we thought they would both score that many points. Flacco is terrific, in a lot of ways, may have saved their season. They lose. They have five losses. Pittsburgh has five wins. Everyone in that division would have five losses right now. was great. He was smart. He's got Higgins, especially he's got Chase, and he found them all game long.

Chase could have had 25 catches in that game. And Rogers was good, too. You know, he scores on the first drive of the game, then he gives them the lead with under three minutes to go. It would be nice if maybe Pittsburgh defense can get a stop. And that was the problem. Cincinnati scores on seven of their last eight drives, Flacco throws for almost 350 yards, and the worst rushing attack in the NFL had 142 yards. So you said it yesterday. You didn't know how good Pittsburgh was. You wondered about their defense, I think they answered some questions for you last night. Yeah, I mean, I actually found this game kind of sort of amazing because I was stunned by it. Cincinnati walked into this game with a minus 80 point differential, the worst in the league.

Now, Joe Flackle was not responsible for that, and Flackle can obviously still throw it. The exact numbers are 31 or 47 for 342 yards and three touchdowns. Those are not Jake Browning numbers. Joe Burrow numbers. And Flacco found Joe Burroughs' favorite receiver more than Joe Burrow has found him because it's a franchise record. Aaron Rogers wasn't quite as good, but he was almost as good. And he went down the field every once in a while. It wasn't just those three and four yard screen passes. Frank, on the Hail Mary, he threw it almost 70 yards in the air. Who knew that he could do that? And so it was a very entertaining game. Did you think he could do that? I wasn't sure. No, not at 41 years old. I didn't think he could do that. You know, very entertaining game.

Do you know they scored 27 points in the fourth quarter, but to get back to the central theme of yesterday, we find out that Pittsburgh isn't that good. You know, that the wins they have don't mean all that much. Because to be fair, they let a 40-year-old guy who'd been in Cincinnati nine days riddle them. Nine days. So I see why Mike Tomlin hated that trade.

I mean, because a division rival, the Browns, helps a division rival, the Bengals, to the detriment of Mike Tomlin. Tomlin. And now, as you say, Flacco, if he's this good, if he's this good, maybe the Bengals are pretty good because they got receivers. And if Joe Burrow gets back in December, maybe they're very good. I will tell you, you talked about the division. If I'm in Baltimore, I have a little bit of hope now because Pittsburgh's not going to run away with it. Right? They're not. Yeah. Yeah. You know, Mike Tomlin, he didn't like the trade. He also doesn't like Thursday

night. He never wins on Thursday night. Doesn't win. Think about this for Pittsburgh, Tony. They've given up 30 or more points in three games already this season. They did it twice last season. Mean Joe Green, you know, Mel Blunt, Jack Lambert. They're not walking through that door. What happened to Pittsburgh's defense? No, they're not. Just not good enough.

Yeah. Not good enough. All right, let's move from two mature gentlemen under center last night to one on the mound in the ALCS. Your guy, 41-year-old Max Scher, argued to stay in game four, and he delivered. That was awesome. Scherzer struck out five over five and two-thirds, allowing just two runs, while the Toronto offense devoured Seattle pitchers for the second straight game. The Blue Jays have now even the series of two games apiece.

So, Tony, what do you make of what Toronto's done, how they've done it, and to whom are you giving the edge to from here on? I think Toronto has a clear-cut advantage right now because they are back to being the team that they were at the beginning of the playoffs, a team that mashes the ball. They have 17 home runs in eight playoff games, right? Once again, last night, they start out from behind. Seattle hits a home run early.

It doesn't matter to Toronto. They have two more home runs in the game. They got a bunch of runs early. I think they got three in a third and two in the fourth. In game three, they batted 409. Last night, they batted 306. I mean, this is what they did when they beat the Yankees. Now, Seattle doesn't have the pitching staff that the Dodgers have.

They were really good in the first two games. They held Toronto to just four runs, but it's now 21 in the last two games. And somebody woke up Vlad Guerrero, because Vlad Guerrero walked into the game three of this series, 0 for seven. He's got six hits in the previous two games in game three and game four. And in eight games in the playoffs, he's batting 455 with five home runs and 11 RBI. So that's what $500 million buys you. Yeah. And I know that you like Max Scherzer a lot.

And I thought you were hoping that he would pitch well. I mean, the scene on the mound in the fifth inning is classic Max Scherzer. You know, where they talk about, you know, pitchers having Gile and Moxie. He was a bulldog in that moment. Remember what he pitched for the Mets and you had the diplomat from Japan is about to throw out the first pitch? And Max Scherzer said, no, no, your time is done. I'm taking the mound. And the poor guy standing there because he knew the mound belongs to Max Scherzer.

That was his 500th career start. That's regular season and postseason. won a postseason game since the three games that he won when Washington won the World Series. For the national... For the national. National. Yeah. Now, getting out of the first inning was huge on the double play. But Seattle makes mistakes here, too. What is Josh Naler doing? You have Scherzer out of the game. You have a run scoring single by Suarez. It should be first and second, two out, and you have the tie and run coming to the plate. Nailer tries to stretch it to third to make it first and third, you never get the third out at third base. What was he doing? So when you're playing

these games, those little mistakes cost you. It cost Seattle last night, Tony. So I would just say that I've been calling Scher the warrior god for about 10 years, and I love him. And the moment last night, when he tells the manager, just get out of here. Just leave me alone. And the manager quote afterwards, was I looked into his eyes both colors, and I thought he was going to kill me. And I just thought that You know what I hope for? He made it a geyser trifecta last night. He joined Flacco and Rogers. He did well. I hope if they go to the World Series, Frank, I hope he gets one start. I do. Let's move to the other baseball game last night. The Dodgers got two runs in the sixth inning to break a one-one tie and got a stellar performance from their usually bad bullpen to take a three-nothing lead in their series against the Brewers. That's a lead that now looks safe to me. Frank, what is the Dodgers success telling you? Well, their pitching has been outstanding. But what is going on with the Milwaukee Brewers who led the National League in batting average? Look what they've done.

Now, I get it. They're going to talk about the fact that, you know, the shadow in L.A., I get it. That impacts, you know, both teams. But in the series, Milwaukee has nine hits and three runs. Vlad Guerrero, who you mentioned before, has seven hits in the last two games. So Milwaukee's offense, I get it. The pitching has been terrific. But you have to be better than constantly just swinging and missing.

Do you know the top of their order? One for 15, seven strikeouts. How are you going to win games? Again, we talk about the margins. How good of a play to Max Muncie make in the second inning? Going home. That prevented the go-ahead run from scoring. And then Uribe, he comes in, and he tries to a pickoff throw in first base.

That scores the insurance run. So it's those little things that Milwaukee's not hitting, and they're not doing the little things that help you win a game. So I'll take it from the Dodgers point of view. What their success says to me is that even though they have all the money in the world, they spend it smartly. They go out, they get Otani, they get Sasaki, they get Yamamoto, they trade for mooki bets, they sign Freddie Freeman, they sign Blake Snell, they sign Tyler Glasno. They sign both Hernandez, as Kiki Hernandez and Tiyoska Hernandez, and they trade for Tommy Edmund. Andrew Friedman is ahead of everybody else.

There's no other way to look at it. And if you come back to me and you say, well, other teams have money too, I'll go, yeah, sure. The Mets have money, the Yankees have money, the Phillies have money, and they're not playing right now. And the Dodgers are still playing. I said on this show about three weeks ago when Mike was here that if the Dodgers pitching came around, they're starting pitching, they were going to repeat as world champions. 22 and two-thirds innings from their starters in three games, 22 and two-thirds. seven hits, two runs, 25 strikeouts. You can't do better than that.

You really can't. That's the most you could ever expect. And the bullpen last night, which usually stinks, three in the third innings, one hit, no runs, no walks. So, I mean, you look at the Dodgers and you think to yourself, this is the way you do it. This is how you compete in the – you build for this moment in the postseason. And Tony, they never lose. they're 13 and 2 in their last 15 postseason games. It's hard to go 13 and 2 during the playoffs,

much less against the best teams. But their pitching has been great. But Milwaukee, some of this has to fall on them. I get it. You know, you could tip your hat to the opponent. But at some point, make contact, draw a walk, try to create something on the base pass. Not good enough in this series.

Let me mention one other thing. Mookie Batson, his first year as a full-time shortstop, makes a great play in the top of the ninth inning. spins around in mid-air, basically from the grass and left field and throws a one bouncer to Freddie Freeman. That may have saved the game. You don't know. It's a great play.

Let's take a break. Still to come. Daniel Jones and Baker Mayfield are two of the hottest quarterbacks in the NFL. Who is more likely to keep it going in week seven? And Jackson Dart leads the Giants against Bo Nix's Broncos on Sunday. Which quarterback would you rather have? Toss up. It's next.

Who makes a play like that from short? in a big moment. Derek Jeter and Moody Betts. Right? Yeah. Yeah, Derek Jeter makes it. He makes that play. Sure.

Time for toss-up. Two men enter. One man leaves, and that man isn't Frank because he will have just lost to me. What's first? Toss up, more likely to keep it going this week. Daniel Jones or Baker Mayfield?

Okay, so Daniel Jones plays the Chargers in L.A. I think I'm right about this. The Chargers have the sixth best pass defense in the entire league. Baker Mayfield plays the Lions in Detroit, right? In Detroit for that game. And if Mike Evans doesn't play, and he did not practice today, if he doesn't play, Baker McEfield is down his top four wide receivers and playing against the team that when

they lost their first game, and that was to Green Bay, they came back the next weekend, scored 52. And they just lost on Sunday to Kansas City. Frank, I love Baker Mayfield. I would vote him MVP of the league. if the contest ended right now, but I don't love him in this game. I think Daniel Jones has a team that is beatable. I know the charges are four and two,

but I thought they should have lost to Miami last week. Amazingly, and it is amazing and surprising, he's got, Daniel Jones has the best QBR in the entire league, 79.9, and Baker Mayfield's is 71.3. So in this incident, or this instance, I will take Indiana Jones. Yeah, yeah. Jones is doing what Sam Donald did last year. You know, it's all these, like, you know, kind of ex-New York quarterbacks who do well.

I'm happy that he's healthy and he's playing well. But you mentioned Baker Mayfield as the MVP. Let me give you the numbers. Fourth-most passing yards in the NFL, 12 touchdown passes, one interception. Detroit's coming off the 30 to 17 loss to Kansas City. Remember, you talk about all the receivers they don't have. Brian Branch, who right now is a leading candidate for the most selfish and reckless play of the season when he slapped Smith in the head, which was ridiculous.

this one game suspension, so he will not be available. So you mentioned MVP. I think the toughness of Baker, these are the kind of games that help you, A, win the MVP, but more importantly, because we don't have MVP really debates in the NFL. It's more about this team, Tampa. Maybe they are legit to be able to go into Detroit

with that terrific defense that they have and get a win. Remember, like I said, Branch not available. Yeah, I'll just say that the last time they lost, again, they came back with 52 points. That's that sort of scary thing. What's next? Toss up, who would you rather have on Sunday? Jackson Dart or Bo Nix?

All right. So everybody is rooting for Jackson Dart. He's the best story out there. He's a rookie. He doesn't even know what he's doing. He's two-in-one with the Giants. A Giants are a terrible team. But they're a New York team.

And if you become a heroic figure in New York, it lasts a long time. And you could refer to Joe Namath and confer to Derek Jeter, even Jeremy Lynn. Jeremy Lynn's moments in New York were tremendous. And so right now, Jackson Dart and the other rookie, Cam Scataboo, Mr. Backflip, everybody is loving them. But me personally, I think that Bo Nix right now is a better quarterback than Jackson

Dart. I think the Denver Broncos are a better team. They lead the entire NFL in Sacks with 30, which is 10 more than the next best. team. We have seen Jackson Dart run. He can run. I am suggesting he's going to have to run a lot more against Denver because they're going to be chasing him. So, well, all right. So you're right about the sacks, but you also didn't mention the fact that they played the Jets last week in London. And all Justin Fields did was hang on to the ball, hang on to the ball and get sacked. That's one thing. Jackson Dart and Camp Scadaboo, you haven't been, you know, you haven't lived here for a long time, but you kind of know the New York market. The fans have absolutely fallen in

love with the two of them. And you're right about Jackson Dart. I think it's over 150 yards in the three games that he started. What I worry about, though, and I think he's going to do great because, you know, he has something going. The way that he played against the Eagles tells me something. I worry about Cam Scadaverdough and Jackson Dart for this reason. Too many collisions. And then when they greet each other after a touchdown they had butt, you saw Jackson Dart in the tent. And Brian Davel is then screaming at the team doctor. Brian, worry about coaching. Let the doctor worry about concussion protocol. You're struggling. You're struggling. You're struggling. enough doing that. That was out of line. But I like Jackson Dart. I think you're right.

It's a great story. I think it's going to get better because Denver, a little misleading, especially those sack numbers that you mentioned. Well, you say they got nine on fields alone, but that still would put him ahead of the second place team by one. That's it. I win. Let's take one last break. But when we return, why did Dave Dumbrowski just poke his star, Bryce Harper? And on Harper's birthday, no less. And number 20, USC visits number 13 Notre Dame on Saturday. Which one is going down? That's a good game. I mean, that's, you know, for a couple of years, you didn't really care about that game.

This year, USC's doing a little bit better than we thought, and that becomes a game worth watching. Happy time, people. Happy 41st birthday tomorrow, Lindsay Vaughn. The downhill racer has won three Olympic medals, one gold in the downhill at Vancouver in 2010, a bronze and a super G at the same Olympics, and a bronze in a downhill at Piongiong. Chang in 2018. Vonn has won 82 World Cup races over the length of her career. Last year, Vaughn announced she was making a comeback after retiring in 2019. She earned a second place finish in the Super G at the Women's World Cup in Sun Valley this

past March, becoming the oldest woman to ever make the podium. Vaughn will try to make the U.S. Olympic team for the upcoming games at Milan Cortina. And of course, we all remember when she and Tiger Woods were dating. I don't think you were going to mention that. You want to talk about toughness. She had nine surgeries, and she's still doing it, and the downhill is awesome. And because I'm always trying to impress you, my first memory of the Winter Olympics, Franz Klammer, downhill in Innsbruck. How awesome was that?

Oh, yeah, when he flew off the mountain and didn't break any bones, which is impossible. Happy anniversary, Robin Yount. On this day, 43 years ago, the career-long Milwaukee Brewer and future first ballot hall of famer became the first player in World Series history with two four-hit games in the same series, an achievement no other player has yet to match. At that time, the Brewers were in the American League and dropped a seven-game World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals.

That was the last time the Brewers were in the World Series. That year, Yount was the American League MVP, leading the league in hits, doubles, total bases, and slugging percentage. Yount is the Brewer's all-time leader in hits, at bats, runs, doubles, triples, RBI, and walks. Yeah, so he had two four-hit games in a series. The current brewers have nine and three games.

The year that he won MVP, 29 home runs for him. And remember, Tony, he played about 1,500 games at short before he finally moved to Senate Field. Pretty good player. Shortstop. Happy trails to Dave Dumbrowski's full belief in Bryce Harper? The Phillies president offered some candid thoughts on his star player yesterday.

Harper had an OPS at age 44 this season, his worst since 2016. So Dumbowski said, quote, he's still an all-star caliber player. He didn't have an elite season like he's had in the past. I guess we only find out if he becomes elite where he continues to be good. Can he rise to the next level again?

I really don't know that answer. When I think of Bryce Harper, you think elite. You think one of the top 10 players in baseball, and I don't think it fit into that category, unquote. Oh, Debrowski said all this on Harper's 33rd birthday. What do you think, Frank? Okay, so Dave Dombrovsky's been around for a long time. He's not sitting down at a press conference.

That's just off the cuff. Obviously, he thought about that beforehand, clearly trying to send some type of message to Bryce Harper. How he receives that message, that remains to be seen. But we talked about it yesterday. Bryce Harper really struggled against the Dodgers in the last series. So, Dombrowski, something's going on there. That's just as Dave Dombrowski riffing at a press conference. Come on.

Let's go quick to the big finish. Receivers, Pooka Naku, Garrett Wilson, Terry McClureen, all out this week. Biggest loss. I think it's the biggest one is McLaren, because if you, you're just one, because if you, You look at the way the commanders have played. Right now, a little bit iffy. They should win in Dallas. So Bob Myers, he's leaving ESPN to run Josh Harris' team ownership group.

What do you thoughts? Really liked him on TV. He was a great guest on the show. Going to miss him. A.C. Milan says Christian Polisick has a low-grade hamstring tear. Is that significant? Yes, it is. It is going to be out of month.

You know that he was the top player in the Italian League for the month of September. Player of the Month, not bad. 20th ranked USC at number 13. Notre Dame tomorrow. Who do you favor? Probably Notre Dame. They've had a good rebound since losing to Miami and Texas A&M, which are top five teams. Last one, Alcaraz and Sinner. Meet for the Six King's title in Saudi Arabia tomorrow. Who you got? I got Alcarus. How about the fact it's for six million dollars? This is a good rivalry. Not exactly Federer Nadal, but pretty close. Yeah. Wow. They're good to watch. They are. We're out of time. We're trying to do better the

next time. I'm Tony Kornheiser. And I'm Frank Issaul. Thanks for watching.