The past 11 days have emphasized the potential for greatness for this Baltimore Ravens team. Luke Jones and Nestor recap a Christmas clinic in Houston as the Ravens embarrassed the Texans in a 31-2 rout as Derrick Henry ran over the AFC South champions.
The conversation between Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones recaps the Ravens’ impressive 31-2 victory over the Texans on Christmas Day. They highlight the Ravens’ Super Bowl contender status, noting their 65-19 point differential against Pittsburgh and their efficient offensive performance, with Derrick Henry achieving a 74.1% success rate on rushes. Lamar Jackson’s efficiency, with 255 yards and three touchdowns, and the offensive line’s improved run blocking are also discussed. The defense’s shutout and the Texans’ poor performance are also noted. The conversation concludes with reflections on the Ravens’ playoff path and the importance of health and consistency.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Ravens victory, Super Bowl contender, Derrick Henry, Lamar Jackson, offensive efficiency, defensive dominance, playoff path, health maintenance, road challenges, Houston Texans, Christmas game, offensive line, pre-snap motion, running game, postseason preparation
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Luke Jones
8
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 to Baltimore, Baltimore positive. We’re out on the dial. You can set a place on the dial. We’re still paywall free. We’re all of that and proudly sponsored by friends at the Maryland lottery. I am getting the Maryland crab cake tour 2025 edition back out on the road. Will be up in libs grill in Harford County, with family. I grew up with liberatore family from Dundalk, Dundalk, Maryland, via Argentina, and now the kids of the kids are up in Bel Air. Will be there on the seventh looking forward to see Nick up there eating his desserts, maybe having a crab cake. It’ll be fun. That’s Harford County. Also our friends at Jiffy Lube, multi care put us out on the road. Also our friends at Liberty, pure solutions at one 800 clean water. I wish I had the clean water around here. I think I drank it all in the second half of what really turned out to be just sort of this coronation day, on Christmas day. Luke Jones joins us now. Happy holidays. Happy Christmas. Kwanza hanuk, New Year’s clinch. Miss Festivus, whatever you’re celebrating here. I hope it went well. Luca, saw your beautiful pictures with your family and your your worship and having fun. I didn’t even like grab a ham this year. I sort of worshiped at Nacho mamas with Elvis, knowing this is the last year of Nacho mamas, we decided to do margaritas in case of D is to honor my Venezuelan brothers, as well as stunning on Christmas. So we sort of mix things up. But you have to mix things up when Christmas is on a Wednesday, there’s two football games. Lamar goes out, 31 to 231. To two, who would have been on two and who would have been on Derek Henry getting safety. But I’m not here to talk about that. You know, they’re rounding and look like Super Bowl team, dude, and this is what you want them looking like this time of year, certainly health wise, playing wise. But they built a tougher road, and I’ve written about that a columnist this week, and I know you’ll have your writings, but they’re about to get some downtime. They see their path now, and they’re as good as anybody right now, no
Luke Jones 02:11
question about it. I mean, when you go 65 and 19 from a point standpoint against Pittsburgh, your division rival, and the team that had been in first place, and then you go on the road against another division opponent, albeit one that I even said before the game I thought was more pretender than contender. They confirmed that, and they confirmed themselves as a contender. When you win 31 to two. The best tweet I saw was late Wednesday night. And to your point, I had to think, what day of the week is it? I’m totally confused at this point, but someone said, Wouldn’t it be better to lose 31 to nothing than 31 to two? Like 31 to two just like, it stands out a little bit more, right? It seems like a lot of indignity really embarrassing, right? I mean, and let’s be clear, 31 to nothing is embarrassing, but it’s more conventional embarrassing, whereas this stands out. And you say, Hey, that’s a, you know, I guess they people speculate whether it’s a score Agami. I guess when they talk about a score that has never happened before, it’s happened before a couple times, albeit a long time ago, but you just said it. I mean, ravens looked every bit the part of a Super Bowl contender. They’ve looked that way, certainly the last two weeks, and coming out of the by in very convincing fashion. But to go on the road, short week, Christmas, playing a division opponent, not a division opponent, another playoff opponent, who you know, depending on how things shake out, maybe not so, not so likely now, but had been likely as a potential team you’d face off with next month, by the way, that’s what you don’t
Nestor Aparicio 03:49
want to look like. What they look like on Christmas. That’s what you don’t want to look like. By the way, the 40 Niners look like that against the Ravens last year, too, right? Yeah.
Luke Jones 03:58
8And right. And they made the Super Bowl. And I was also going to, I was also going to throw this out there, the Kansas City Chiefs lost to the Raiders on Christmas Day last year at home. So that is also a reminder. And Lamar Jackson was even asked about it earlier this week, you know, very short week, not a whole lot of media access, because you only they practice one real time and a couple walkthroughs, and then they’re on the plane to Houston. But Lamar was asked about it, and he was asked about this notion of getting hot at the right time. And he said, Look that out. That went out the window last year. And he alluded to this, this team was playing great football a year ago at this time, and everyone thought 40 Niners ravens is going to be a Super Bowl preview, and the 40 Niners, for as much as they lost by I think it ended up being two touchdowns, but they were down three touchdowns at one point in that game. They made it. And we know what happened with the Ravens. And I, I don’t say that to be dismissive of where the ravens are right now. It’s just a reminder of what the ultimate goal. Is and how long they still have to go, right? I mean, this is still going to be a treacherous path for them, knowing that while they’ve all but secured the home playoff game in the first round, Now, assuming they take care of business against the Cleveland Browns next Saturday or Sunday, whenever it’s going to be announced, but they’re going to be on the road, you know, and probably on the road for two games, you know, barring something strange happening, so but, but the fact that they went on the road, as they did on Wednesday, on a short week, on a holiday, when guys are tired, it’s week 17. You played three games in 11 days, and to go out and perform the way that they did not just get a win. I mean, we were talking about this a couple days ago. Just get a win no matter what, right. I mean, win 10 to nine if you need to, but to win in the way that they did, where your offense plays exceptional, efficient football. I mean, I saw two, two stats really jumped out at me with this game for the offense, and then I’ll get to the defense in a moment. But Derek Henry, 74.1% success rate on his rushes according to next gen stats and success rate gives us context, right? We we’ve known for a long time, not all two yard runs are created equal in the same way that not all 10 yard passes are created equal, depending on down and distance, they’re not all two yard losses cost two points Correct, correct. And that was two he got greedy there, right? That was his one blemish, you know, where you can’t run backwards when you’re when you’re in the shadow of your goal line. And he knows that, and it’s fine, fine. When all Barry Sanders, yeah, but the 70 a 74% success rate on his runs, which next gen stats said that was the highest by any player in a game when they’d had at least 25 carries in I think next gen stats has been around for eight or nine years, so that shows you what kind of efficiency you had there. And then Lamar Jackson, I went back and looked at this in the fourth quarter, because the game was a blowout, and the play by play wasn’t quite as pertinent at that point, but barring the two games that Lamar left with injury. So going back to that 2021 Cleveland game when he left, think was the first or second play of the second quarter, very early, right? And then the following year, when he got hurt against Denver, very early in the game. So throwing those two games out, Lamar had a career low. When you combine his past attempts and his rush attempts, he had 19 total, yet look what he still accounted for, three touchdowns, and it was 255 yards. It just speaks to how incredibly efficient and explosive this offense was against a Texans defense that statistically it’s been one of the best in the NFL. Yeah, they were banged up, and they’re missing Jimmy Ward, their standout safety, and wasn’t perfect for them on that front, but they embarrassed them. I mean, they embarrassed them. Offensive line, Derek, Henry mark, Andrews, Lamar Jackson, doing what Lamar does as an MVP. So that was so impressive. And then on the flip side, you had a defense that, let’s face it, they tossed a shutout for what they do. They tossed the shutout so and that was even with the but that
Nestor Aparicio 08:08
kid was terrible. Stroud, terrible. I alluded
Luke Jones 08:13
to this, and look, this isn’t anything now, he was especially bad on Wednesday, and the Ravens had a lot to do with that. Let’s, let’s give the Ravens credit as well. But for all the talk about Stroud last year with how well he protected the football the way he made plays as a rookie. I mean, remember Houston going into 2023 had no expectations. I mean, they were picking what second or
Nestor Aparicio 08:37
whatever went off. But Deshaun Watson, I mean, it was awful. But take a minute to evaluate this, because I took my Earl Campbell Jersey out, I saw they did the overhead shot of the Astrodome, you know, right? And still, the roof, still there in the footprint of reliant stadium. And we’re talking, you know, 25 years that stadium’s been there now, right? The new stadium, right? I’ve seen what, two or three Super Bowls just in that stadium alone, right? And, you know, I think about Derek, Henry and Earl Campbell, and like, all of that Christmas Day, and like, where all of this is, if you’re a Houston fan. And I thought about this with Beyonce playing at halftime, because I checked online to see it. The stadium looked half empty when the game started. It’s Christmas Day, and I’m like, All right, they’re kind of a Okay, above 500 team, but Lamar is in town, and maybe that would drive ticket prices up. And I thought tickets got to be 5060, but there were this empty seats everywhere. And I went online and I saw, like, 300 bucks to get in. And I’m like, oh, Beyonce is playing halftime, you know, like in her town, right? And I’m like, so a lot of folks did, like, we’ll get to the it’s Christmas, like, we’ll get there a little late, whatever. Even the overhead shot I saw where the media parking lot was kind of empty, so Chad could have given his parking but, uh. Um, but there was still, like, first quarter of the game, and the stadium was empty, and I thought to myself, I’m an oiler, old oiler head, oiler fan, John McLean is popping up just pooping all over the Texans early in the game, which, you know, he could be constructively critical of all things Houston football, but I think what those poor people have been through there having their team taken away, this new team comes back the Sean Watson, like all of that, and they just even in the 20 years as Texans, they beat Joe Flacco up last year in a playoff game, but they never get out of their own way, and then they show up looking like this on Christmas. I mean, they haven’t won. They’re not going to win. They don’t look super bowl ready at all. JJ Watts doing the earlier game. And I think nice career. Never won anything, you know? I mean, really never won anything. And I’m thinking they’ve never won anything, and then they come in and get slapped around like this on Christmas, and the strap look like it looked pretty defeated. You know what? I mean, it looked it was a really pretty dark Christmas for them. And they’re gonna get a home game, and they might even win that game, right? But, like, they didn’t look like a good football team, dude, I and what happened to the wide receiver last week and all that, just the whole energy, even Beyonce sucked. Don’t tell anybody who said that, but it’s it was terrible, like all of it on Christmas Day. Pu if that happened to us here, first off, it would have been outdoor and cold, but I just the vibe for the whole Houston thing. I felt pretty, you know, like they’re not a part. Well, you said you a couple months ago, you said something about being a bad, good team or a good, bad team. They’re a bad, good team. They’re not, they’re not good, they’re not good enough, right now. Well,
8Luke Jones 11:50
I think you just look at them, I believe now they’ve fallen to, I think that’s one in five against teams that are currently over 500 and look at the rest of that division. I mean, they’re in a horrible division. So look, they can’t, they can’t control that part, but at some point in time you need to go beat a good team. And what they did, they beat buffalo, but that was two, two and a half months ago, whatever it was, so but yeah, they’ve had injuries. But looking at my notes, very first Houston drive van Noy gets the sack on third down. I thought going into the game, you look at the right side of their offensive line, that was going to be a problem for them. They ran the Ravens ran a very simple twist stunt, however you want to call it, and they couldn’t handle it whatsoever, like it was easy, right for the ravens to get that sack. And then looking at my notes, drive number two, Stroud, not accurate. Drive number three for Houston Stroud, inaccurate drive number four, which was the bogus pi call on Marlon Humphrey, where gifted them, gifted them first and goal, and then they can’t get the job done. Our Darius Washington makes a great play on fourth down, Marlon Humphrey on third down, and then I’ll throw demeco Ryan’s in here, because I’m not giving him a pass either. How do you operate? The way that they did on that drive, with going for it on fourth and three, and then going forward on fourth and goal from from inside your five, and then on the next drive, when you’re down a couple scores, right? I mean, it was 17 to two at halftime, they punted on fourth and two from ravens territory. I mean, I know people lose their minds over Dan Campbell and how aggressive he is, or even how aggressive John Harbaugh has been at times, but I will take that every day of the week over coaches who are either way too conservative in a spot, and Mike Tomlin, I’m talking about you because third week in a row, he weighed the white flag with a ridiculous punt in the fourth quarter where it’s like, Dude, you might as well just pull your starters if you’re punting the ball there. Like, what are you doing? But demeco, Ryan’s did that at the end of the first half, and it just really summed up what Houston was and on In contrast, the Ravens played high level football. Justin Tucker made a 50 plus yard field goal. You know, he hasn’t had a huge opportunity set other than extra points the last few weeks, but he’s looked better. Certainly hasn’t. You know, he hasn’t missed any kicks since the bye week, so that’s been encouraging. So just an all around complete butt whooping. I mean, that’s it was thorough. It was convincing. And to your point, I think both games, right? And I’m working on this at Baltimore positive.com this Christmas showcase, whatever you want to call it, because it, it very much felt more spectacle than than game on Wednesday, right? I mean, with the Beyonce concert being a big part of that, of course, but I think in both games, you saw a really serious contender. And not that anyone needed to see that from Kansas City when they’re six or 15 and one, but they looked more convincing doing it against Pittsburgh than the way that the Chiefs typically. In and the Ravens absolutely embarrassed Houston. To me, you saw separation between two serious Super Bowl contenders in the AFC, and I’ll throw buffalo in with the chiefs and the Ravens, obviously. And you saw two other teams who have already punched their ticket and their playoff teams, but I don’t think anyone is remotely buying Pittsburgh or Houston as real contenders in the AFC now a month from now, that can be a different tune. You never know, to the point that we made earlier in our conversation, but I think you saw legitimate and suspect, really differentiate on Wednesday in both of these games. But I mean, 31 to two just thoroughly embarrassed the Houston Texans. And to your point, heaven forbid, if the Ravens had a performance like that at home on Christmas, all you’d be hearing about is calling for John Harbaugh or whatever coach or whatever player, and just they’d be furious. They’d be beside themselves. So I
Nestor Aparicio 16:02
can’t imagine three weeks out on the Eagles, right? You know what I mean? So you’re, you’re the body of work from the Giants through Pittsburgh through now, which has been a blink, right? It’s been 11 days, 12 days, right? Like it just all happened, and the way they’ve played, the way they’ve maintained health, right for the most part. Justice hilmont was standing right and and Wiggins got dinged up a little bit, but went back in right. So they’ve had a couple of little go on here, right? He minor, by NFL, very minor, 17 standards, right by any stretch in any era of how healthy they could be, including going back to the oh one team, which was pretty healthy until Kim Aaron got, you know, I’m thinking of little things that happened along the way. Jeff Mitchell, little things there. And then, you know, back 12 years ago now, Jameel McLean had some. They had a couple of players that weren’t really ready to go for this time of year. But by and large, the body of work, the money players, other than Marcus Williams, which we don’t bring him up anymore, because he’s not really on the team, by the way, they got in a fight before the game with the Texans, and then after the game, Deontay, like I the drama and all of that, all of that aside, here’s where I want to go, beginning of the game. And I didn’t. It was Christmas day my, you know, full disclosure, my wife flew back in with her family, and I was airporting and actually watching Netflix on my own, my own account on my mobile device. My name is Jennifer, but I came home, put the game on, like, right around the same time, like, and we, you know, the Ravens forced us to have a whole different holiday. Chad Steele, taking my press credential forced me to not be in Houston. I would have been in Houston. I mean, I just would have been there, like, I’ve been there for 27 years, by the way, my cousins live in Houston. So I would have had a really nice Christmas Eve, like it did a few years ago out in San Diego, when they played out there, like couple days before Christmas, um, the Carson game. I remember that one that was great, dude. Watch watching Lamar run around with the chargers in the middle of a soccer you know, like I’ve seen it all, almost all, not Brazil yet or Mexico City, but it’s coming, trust me, first set of downs. And this speaks to me being a wise acre about Derrick Henry, and by the way, I’ve got my size dry fit oiler 45 bucks. Should I buy it?
18:37
It’s up to you.
Nestor Aparicio 18:38
8Is he gonna be on the team next year? Do you think? Derek Henry, I would
Luke Jones 18:42
think so. But at the same time, we’re also living in a world where you have a quarterback making 50 plus million dollars, and you do other you do have other high price players and oh, what are you doing at left tackle? Because your left tackle is a free agent.
Nestor Aparicio 18:57
You don’t want to come play with without him next year, though, right? Derek Henry, I mean, you don’t want to play without him, right?
Luke Jones 19:02
I mean, I think all things we think, Well, yeah, you’d love to have him, but you also want to have Marlon Humphrey continue to be on your football. Well,
8Nestor Aparicio 19:08
here’s the difference for me. And I’ll just say this, when the game started, they’re just be slapping the Texans, right? Sure. Read the first drive was it eight yards, 12 yards. Lamar, like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, and it’s all push, push, push. It’s all run. He only threw the ball 15 times. All daily completed that passes. He only ran the ball four times. Michael Vick bought him in one of them, right? So all, like, it’s this really minimal thing to say, Yeah, my quarterback makes 50 million a year. He ran the ball four times. He threw the ball 15 and he completed two thirds of them, and we kicked their ass. And it wasn’t just because of the defense, it’s because of the running game. And I go back to that San Diego superchargers when they were in the Netherlands, and that. Game. So we’re back five years, six years, six years, six years, 18. Yeah, 18 season, right? And I remember that little, it was a little soccer press box, dude. It was a little, it’s a community college soccer stadium, like, literally, is what they played in that night. And I remember, who’s the sports talk guy that the guy from Portland that that has been on Fox for 100 years. What’s his name? Sports Radio guy that does television now. He was in the box, Ella southern. La based dude, not Rome, the other guy, but nonetheless. So all the celebrities are all out to see Lamar run around in this community college and go back again that night and look at the drives. And that was Mark Ingram era, right? So go back and look at the drives of eight yards, 12 yards, 10 yards. But I bet Lamar carried the ball 14 times at night. I don’t know if you look it up. I mean, whatever might have been eight might have been 12, but it wasn’t three or four, because he was that’s not who they were then, and he was the one taking on punishment. And as I always said, and my YouTube audience loves me for this, he ran into linebackers regular on the regular, AND or OR was susceptible to that, or was putting himself in the middle of the field, or was choosing to run in instead of out, like, oh, just different decisions for his body. It was same time of the year. He’s six years younger. Offense isn’t really where it needs to be. He just really taken over for Flacco. So it wasn’t like we’re still trying to figure out what all of it is right, but it’s amazing. And I remember, after all of those games, being at Marshall yonder’s locker because he sort of liked me, even though he never really wanted to admit it, like Tomlin heeded himself for it. But yonda would just have this smile about him, like this energy about him, and this youth about him, and this we’re just running the ball up their ass. And you would admit it wasn’t because Mark Ingram was anything special, or, you know, the place it
Luke Jones 22:14
was Gus Edwards, then Ingram came the following year, but Gus Edwards at 92 yards, doesn’t
Nestor Aparicio 22:21
even matter, but it matters that it’s not Lamar doing it, and it matters that the guy doing it is doing it as well or better than Lamar, or as I’ve said, and I’m gonna continue to say this, and if I do click and I should pull it up on my phone, I should just buy the damn thing. I haven’t bought anything. I haven’t bought a ticket. I haven’t bought a sports ticket deal. I bought opening day, I guess, but like, I should spend 50 bucks, because I’ve never dude, I’ve been doing this 33 years. And I don’t mean in Baltimore, I mean nationally. I mean everything I’ve ever seen I have never compared, and I didn’t do this that Derrick Henry, when I saw him running the ball for Alabama 10 years ago, my wife was battling that year in 15 that he was just nobody wanted to tackle him in the SEC and I thought he has sort of Hall of Fame talent. You think that about all these running backs and all that stuff? I’ve never compared anybody to Jim Brown. Ever, ever I don’t eat. I didn’t know that there was ever such a thing where you’d look and say that guy reminds me of Jim Brown said to my wife, I’m like, I’ve said a lot of things out loud, expounded a lot of words, and that you can find comparables. And this guy’s like Ripken, or this guy’s like Tony Gwynn, or this guy’s like whomever. You could say Lamar is like Michael Vicker, he’s like Lamar. At this point, Lamar has got a new it’s not
23:46
8even a comparison. Lamar Jackson is markedly better than Michael Vick was on his very best day throwing the football. I absolutely agree with I Michael Vick, pure talent is as as talented as just about any football player. Look, I don’t want
Nestor Aparicio 24:03
to take anything away from Lamar But Derek Henry.
Luke Jones 24:09
See, I’m the opposite. I would say I don’t want to take anything away from Derrick Henry, but Derek Henry’s wearing a Lamar Jackson jersey for the year that he’s having, and he’d be the first to tell you that. So I mean, I’m not
Nestor Aparicio 24:20
disagree with this fishing and hitting fish with the decoy. I, you know what it’s saying, like I got you I, I What? It’s incredible. It’s an incredible partnership up here is they’re doing what they were doing against the Chargers six years ago. These sit second and two, second and one. They didn’t get into third down to the end of the quarter, and they were already won the game. They won the game before they had a third down because the they, that team was just not going to stop this right all day long. And they didn’t even turn it on. There’s Lamar. Didn’t even throw the ball like they didn’t really even turn on the Jets at all. There wasn’t third. And we’re in. Trouble. And here’s Mark Andrews. And hey, let’s go up top, and let’s go get a 74 yard. Let’s, let’s say, Get Wild, like they didn’t even do any of that. They just ran the ball. What Marshall yonda loves. They just ran the ball. And they got Jim Brown running the ball, and they got, I would say Michael Vick. I don’t want to be they have Lamar Jackson as the quarter. They have Superman as the quarterback. And this is going to be tough for anybody to figure out right on the cold days and all that. Because if Lamar has to go to Buffalo and only has to throw it 15 times and be 10 of 15, and run it a couple of handful of times when the poop hits the fan, and he’s got his wind about him, and nobody in the Buffalo defense does, and it’s 12 degrees somehow, like, because nobody can catch him. So I don’t know, like, I don’t know if they’re winning the Super Bowl. I know they can at this point. I know they’ve made the road harder, and that’s what I’m going to be writing about. But they have what we talked about the last two years. If they had it there, did somebody else to go run the ball and not some PIP squeak who’s going to get run over, not somebody who’s injured already, somebody’s in the prime of their thing, they got that. Not somebody, not Gus, Edwards, not Mark Ingram, who I liked a lot more than you. You know, we always say that, or even J K Dobbins, who could have been or even if they have Ray Rice right now they had Jamal, it’d be a thing, you know what I mean. But they do. And, you know, I’m blown away by how well this is gone, and if I had a moment with horrible and to cost him, wasn’t talking about, you know, my press credentials and stuff like that, but really talk football with them. The last time John Harbaugh talked to me like we really talked for an hour at a pool and like he acted like I was a human being on a Christian holiday, we talked about how the injuries they had a couple years ago, and they were good enough to be constructed, to be this with Dobbins and Edwards, before Stanley got hurt, like all of that, they were constructed that this is Dreamland scenario for them. And other than the Marcus Williams thing and the fact that they lost a couple of games they shouldn’t have. And they can make that right by going and they have to go win in Buffalo, Kansas City. They are. This is their off season science of staying healthy. This is their draft. This is finding Kyle Hamilton. This is trading for row Quan Smith. I’m writing Purple Rain three for you right now so you can write all this down, and part of that’s going to beat his brother to start the party. Then they’re gonna have to go to Buffalo and figure that out. I’m sure it’ll be balmy on January the 17th, at eight o’clock in prime time, because they’re gonna want to play it at night, right? Uh, Josh Allen and Lamar, you know where Saturday night, eight o’clock pencil that went in, and then then there’s mahomes The next week waiting on them after eating Russell Wilson’s lunch or beating up on that poor kid that couldn’t throw a swing pass to make a first down on Christmas Day. And so I love man. It’s three team race, and the Ravens have the hardest draw because of the way they’ve played, but they’re the best team of all of them, right? I mean, and they were, we thought that in April. We thought that a year ago today, when they beat up San Francisco. So, I mean, they’ve been constructed to be this. Now they have to go out and do it three or four times in a row, and that’s what they have been unable to do, yeah? I mean, sorry, I went nuts, but it’s Christmas there.
8Luke Jones 28:43
Last year, they didn’t have to do it three or four times in a row. They only had to do it twice to get to the Super Bowl, right? And could, we’re at home. So look, I mean, every team has its journey, and some teams come together really quickly and just win and keep winning and keep winning. And that’s been Kansas City, right? I mean, Kansas City was great in 2018 mahomes was MVP his first full year, like Lamar the following year, they were the team to beat, but Tom Brady and the Patriots are still holding on, and they beat him, and they taught him a lesson, and they’ve been the guy. They’ve been the man ever since. Right, they won in 19. They got there and lost in 20. They lost in the AFC Championship in 21 the Bengals their one year that they had a shot at it, and they’ve made it the last two years, and they’ve won it the last two years, and they haven’t even always been the number one seed, because the Ravens were last year. So so
Nestor Aparicio 29:30
sometimes all these teams, they’ve beaten few of them, inject they, you know, they haven’t won enough in January, and they’ve looked this good in December before. So, like, I like, they just have to go out Lamar Jackson and Marlon Humphrey and Ronnie Stanley, all of them. Tucker to now, after, you know she’s going to the hall or wherever, and roquan Smith, you play for the bears. You know what I mean? Like, they got to go out and win. And there’s no. Excuses for this,
Luke Jones 30:01
I mean, and this was all, this was my I don’t want to say pushback, but like, what I wholeheartedly disagree with the last four or five years being because they didn’t have a Derrick Henry at running back. They’ve had great running games. Look Derek, Henry’s great, and he might be end up being the difference in Buffalo or in Kansas City. I’m not disputing,
Nestor Aparicio 30:23
8well, there won’t be thought that he’s my overall three times in Kansas City. That won’t
Luke Jones 30:27
happen this year. I still, I still don’t think that’s the biggest reason why they lost to Kansas City. The biggest reason they lost to Kansas City is the MVP of the league didn’t play very well, and their MVP quarterback, their Super Bowl quarterback outplayed them. Look, it’s that’s very simplistic. Point is, it’s never just one thing. And to the point that you were just making, and I agree with it, it’s a matter of, go do it right? Kansas City has done it three times now in the last previous five years. Uh, Buffalo is in the same boat as the Ravens. The only difference is Buffalo’s lost to Kansas. They’ve had more shots against Kansas City directly in January, they’re still owing three, right? Cincinnati was able to beat Kansas City once in January, but they didn’t win the Super Bowl, and they’ve gone backwards since then, right? So you you never know how many opportunities you’re going to get. And this was kind of the point that I was made. Point that I was making a few minutes ago when Lamar was asked earlier this week, before Wednesday’s game in Houston about this notion of what would you rather be. Would you rather be the number one seed? Would you rather win the division, or would you rather just be the team that gets hot at the right time? This isn’t the number one seed. Buffalo is going to be the number two seed assuming the bills don’t stub their toe against inferior division opponents these final two weeks. So the ravens are going to be the number three seed assuming they take care of business against the woeful Cleveland Browns next weekend. So they know they’re going to be on the road, least a little bit, if not both games following their their first round, you know, barring something weird there. So you’ve made that path for yourself by not being as great over the first three months of the season. But look, we’ve talked about this. The 2000 ravens were road warriors. They got that first round home playoff game. Though, 2012 ravens, same deal. They got that first round home playoff game. We talked about how important that was. That’s why beating the Steelers last weekend was so critical for them. And then we saw what happened on Wednesday, where Pittsburgh once again looked bad and the Ravens looked like a championship caliber team. So they’re in a position now where they’re at least going to have that home playoff game again, assuming they take care of the browns and they need to, right? It’s all about that. Can’t stub your toe against a division opponent, although, if that DTR kid is going to play at quarterback, I just, I don’t think they can win with him, period. Jameis Winston gives you a shot any given Sunday. He’s going to throw the ball to the other team. A lot of those Sundays too.
Nestor Aparicio 33:01
Got two against against the ravens, and he didn’t earn the two. So, like, I don’t know what you know if the defense is going to play like this. And look, we’ll do a whole segment on what’s, yeah, offense, better
Luke Jones 33:14
defense, but, but, yeah, but I just, I go back to this, Lamar,
8Nestor Aparicio 33:17
Lamar. Lamar. They pitch this shut out,
Luke Jones 33:21
but, but, but that’s what’s what’s exciting about it is how complimentary it really was, right? Again, we just talked about it. Lamar Jackson did not have the ball in his hands all that much on Wednesday, yet still at 255 yards and three touchdowns. Right? That efficiency is through the roof. I mentioned the success rate for Derek Henry running. And it wasn’t just Derrick Henry running in the way that we’ve seen him run most of the year. What is, what has been the difference the last two weeks he’s been running between the tackles, and that is way more. And look, Derek Henry has plenty of missed tackles and all those numbers too, so I don’t want to take anything away from him, but their offensive line is winning at the line of scrimmage way more now in the run game than what we were seeing throughout the year now is
Nestor Aparicio 34:05
that’s what you want to see when you have the same five guys doing it all right, right, right?
Luke Jones 34:09
8And that’s part of that is obviously the individual improvement of those guys playing and those guys playing together. And I also think it’s Todd monk and find finding some things from a schematic standpoint, I know a few different people noted this after the Pittsburgh game, and I think it held up the same way against Houston. They’re, they’re using more pre snap motion prior to the to running the ball. And, you know, pre snap motion does so much, you know, in the past game, it can tell, you know, very simplistically, whether a team’s in Manor zone, but it can also, you know, it can get a defense out of its run fits. It can get them, you know, you’re putting them in conflict. And that’s in addition to what Lamar does individually, and then whoever running the ball does, right? And that’s always been the case. That’s why Gus Edwards was so great for the years that he was healthy. That’s why Mark Ingram had a great Renaissance year in 2019 before his career was pretty much done after that. That’s why JK Dobbins, before all the injuries, looked like he was going to be a top five running back in the NFL, because they were all playing with Lamar Jackson again,
Nestor Aparicio 35:18
every single play zay flowers is coming through the middle, yeah. And even if it’s Pat Ricard coming through the middle, and you have to account for him maybe going that way as a blocker, right, right, right. I mean, it doesn’t have to be the fastest guy in the world. It just needs to be one person to move traffic in that direction, and you play it enough. And you got Mark Andrews going down the other side in single coverage. You get a match up you like. You get a match up you want. And then you give Lamar, who’s way better at this than he was when they played at the community college six years ago, right? That you give him the option to carry it, hand it, decoy it, or throw it. You got linebackers, hips, you know, in the all 22 you can just see where eyes are going, where hips are going, and guys are going the wrong direction, far too often, and they really are just guessing right. I mean, they’re, you could study all day long, but if, if my options are, zay flowers might take it in motion, Lamar may take it and just go up the middle if he sees a seam, or I got Jim Brown leaning down on me.
Luke Jones 36:38
There’s so much to account for. And look, we talked about this with the O line. I mean, Tyler. Tyler Linder bomb is a pro bowl all pro caliber center right. Ronnie Stanley, he’s not a pro bowl all pro left tackle anymore, but he’s playing better than he has at any point over the last four he also smart, yeah. Roger Rosengarten has improved leaps and bounds over the course of the season. I mean, go, look at how he’s matched up and how he’s fared. And not every rep’s perfect. Let me, let me be clear about that. But go, look at how he’s played over the second half of the season, or really even since the first month of the season, and he’s steadily improved. You know, the guards look, are Patrick McCary and Daniel faulele going to be their long term starting left guards over the next six years. I still have my doubts about that, right, but they’re getting the job done. And again, in a salary cap world, you’re not going to going to have all pro players at every single position, but the offensive line is playing well enough, and has really blocked well from a run blocking standpoint the last couple weeks, as we noted, and that that what we were just talking about with the pre snap motion, RPOs, read option, all the different things they do, or even just Lamar dropping back in traditional past sets, right? I mean, they’re way better doing that too. I mean, Lamar is going to have 4000 yards. I mean, think about that five years ago. You know, that wasn’t the case even when almost 1000 rushing and and Jim Brown’s 2000 rushing, right? I mean, the numbers are insane. But everything about that that we talked about collectively, when all those pieces fit together, you have one of the very best quarterbacks on the planet who statistically is deserving of another another MVP, even if I’m not consumed with that discussion at this point, you have Derek Henry doing what he’s done second best running back in football this year, behind saquon Barkley. You have zay flowers, 1000 yard receiver. You have Rashad Bateman, who, some weeks doesn’t even catch a pass, but has eight touchdown receptions and has become a really rock solid number two wide receiver, even if he hasn’t been the bona fide, consistent number one receiver that they would have envision a few years ago. You have Mark Andrews, who doesn’t get the ball as frequently as he used to, but is still absolute money inside the red zone, still good for touchdowns, and can still run a long way on occasion, as we saw on Wednesday. So you have all these different pieces that individually are problems, but then when you put them all together, there is any good offense will tell you the whole point of how you score and how you be productive and how you be explosive and how you win football games is to put the defense in conflict. The Ravens epitomize putting the opponent in conflict. You know, the opposing defense in conflict, because they’re one great players across the board. And then if you just have an offensive coordinator who understands that, and I think Todd monkin understands that at a very high level, that you just do things to get these guys the ball in ways that are going to confuse and and make the defense hesitate. And we’ve talked about this in the NFL, the margin of athleticism, the margin of error. You know the difference in athleticism for one. Eye to the next is not that dramatic. Lamar and Derek Henry are exceptions to that general rule, but it’s not that dramatic from player to player. You’re talking about fractions of seconds between good players
Nestor Aparicio 40:13
ran away from caught him on the next play, right?
8Luke Jones 40:18
It’s that slight split second of a guy moving in the wrong direction, that guy not exploding off the ball the way that he wants to the guy looking in the wrong place for just a moment. And the Ravens exploit those moments and absolutely kill you in those moments. So Mars
Nestor Aparicio 40:35
got this thing about having people getting up on him and being off balance when they get to him. I mean, for whatever reason, they never get clear on him, because body control, yeah, the hips and what he does with that with and Ronnie Stanley said in the post game, world class athletes kind of embarrassing. These guys that know they’re really fast and they’re world class, and they get up on Lamar, and there’s a different thing, because they can’t square him up. And that’s a, you know, again, that’s another thing about how little guys make it in the league, and having balance or vision the Muggsy Boaz is of the basketball just something different about them. And with Lamar, it’s to your point getting guys off balance, because wherever they’re coming at him, they’re coming from one foot, not from two feet, in full speed. And He’s strong. He’s way stronger and bigger than you think he is. We
Luke Jones 41:34
can all relate. We can’t relate to what Lamar Jackson does on an NFL field, but I think any of us from the time we were six years old, playing in Little League, right all the way up through however you know whether you played in high school, whether you played in college somewhere, we can all remember seeing someone on the field, whether you were six years old, 10 years old, 14 years old, 18 years old, where someone was just so much better than everyone else, whatever the sport, and you just know that you’re just like, well, that kid is so much better than everyone else. Lamar Jackson is that, except it’s at the highest level that there is, and that it’s why it’s so difficult to beat him. You can do everything right. We saw that again on on the touchdown pass, the likely right? I mean, they they had him right where they wanted him. From a schematic standpoint, how many times have we seen that we’ve seen just this year, let alone his career, where schematically, a team plays it right, and they’ve got him right where they want him, and he still rips your heart out because he’s just the best athlete on the field, right? And it’s just, it truly is, and especially on the day where he passed Michael Vick as the all time Russian quarterback. And look, we’ve known that that was going to be. It was just a matter of, was it going to be in 2023 2425 26 what? When was it going to be? Because you knew Lamar was going to be that, because he’s been that great from the moment he walked on the field as a starter, but it’s just it’s remarkable getting to watch him every week. But these guys all know it’s not about Lamar winning another MVP. It’s not about how many guys are going to be named to the Pro Bowl next week. It’s not about what their DVOA rating is. It’s none of that. It’s about winning in January. And,
Nestor Aparicio 43:23
8yeah, it’s not about home field advantage anymore. Now, still have that now, it’s about winning there,
Luke Jones 43:28
but they got that one home game that makes that easier. You’re not going to be in a position again. I’m working under the assumption. I’m giving them credit here. This isn’t I can assume I don’t play right? I can look ahead. Our job is to look ahead right for the Ravens. It’s about Cleveland, but assuming they take care of business in week 18, they put themselves in a position where they have that home game, and now after that, it’s going to be, can you win two games on the road, and unless someone else gives you a lot of help or something really weird happens, it’s going to be buffalo in Kansas City. But you know what? Joe Flacco had to go to Denver and beat Peyton Manning, and then he went to his reward for that, going to Foxboro and needing to beat Tom Brady. So in that way, it’s not terribly different for this team right now. So stay healthy, rest up here. They’ve got another mini buy here over the this weekend of you know when you play on a Wednesday. I mean, what the Monday Night Football game still five days away by the time they finish that game on Wednesday. So they’ve got a chance here to exhale. They’ve got one more game that they have to take care of business, and then it’s go time. You know, there, there is no bye week. This is their bye week right now, right? I mean, they’ve get it. They’ve got a chance here to rest up, and now they’ll settle into a little bit more of a normal schedule at this point, so, but boy, on Wednesday, they looked the part. They sure looked the part. And to your point, we’ll get to the defense, but really, really impressive all the way around the way they went to Houston and just absolutely clobbered another playoff team.
Nestor Aparicio 44:57
He is Luke Jones. He is Baltimore. Luke. Find them out on the interweb. You can find me anywhere the internet is serving as well. We’re gonna be doing the Maryland crab cake tour up at libs grill on the seventh of January. All that brought to you, my friends, at the Maryland lottery. It’s last chance on the Raven scratch offs here. We have a lot of great guests again, a lot of music classic will be coming your way through New Years, and a little bit of downtime for Luke, at least to maybe chill out a little bit over the weekend and enjoy his nieces enjoy the post holiday. But before we do that, we will do some defense here and talk about Kyle van Noy and roquan Smith and Marlon Humphrey and and Zach or and these chest might hurt from not having shoulder pads on, trying to run around and high five guys with his body. I am Nestor. He is Luke. Merry Christmas. Happy holidays. Happy New Year. The ravens are on the good stuff here to start to zero to five. We’re Baltimore positive. Stay with us. You.
