In the days before the win over the Commanders, the Ravens brought back a sage and a mentor to defensive coordinator Zach Orr to get more productivity and cohesion on the backend. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the pieces of the Ravens defense and the addition of Dean Pees to help a beleaguered secondary that held up against Washington.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Ravens defense, Dean Pees, Jaden Daniels, Brian Robinson, run defense, Lamar Jackson, Washington rivalry, Patrick Mahomes, roquan Smith, Kyle Hamilton, Marcus Williams, Eddie Jackson, pass coverage, turnover issues, senior advisor
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
8
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We’re Baltimore positive. Find us at Baltimore positive.com settee placed on the dial. Whether you’re out in podcast, Landia ran into a guy on Sunday night in York, Pennsylvania, who, on the eastern shore heard my Todd rungren interview and had never heard of me, or Baltimore positive, or Luke wasn’t even a sports fan, and ran into me on the streets of York Pennsylvania, said, Hey, you’re the long haired radio guy that interviewed rungren. So the Todd rungren interview still up there, even to the concert was Sunday night. We will continue to add Z Cohen on this week talking about Baltimore City Council. Baltimore City Council. Luke and I were together with Leonard Raskin and Brett Steele and whole bunch of friends My My dearest friend, John Keller, was in for my birthday this weekend at Pizza John’s. So you’ll be hearing those conversations, a lot of oral conversations. There a lot of pizza conversations, a lot of East side of Baltimore conversations, but certainly no conversation more valuable than Baltimore, greater than Washington. We don’t get that opportunity very often. Luke, we’ll go through the fans. We’ll go through the price of the tickets. We’ll go through you know your view from the Kevin Byrne Hobbit press box in the corner and the fans coming in and really from television, was a weird sounding game, because it did sound like there were 20 or 30,000 of them and 20 or 30,000 of us and but all that being said, the defense and how they performed against this best in class rookie who doesn’t have all the tools, and certainly they don’t have the defense, but that was more impressive than Any burgundy and gold team that I have seen rummage in here or around here at any point. Maybe Shanahan had it going for five minutes. Joe Gibbs had it going for 30 seconds, you know, over the course of the last 30 years, but the body of work from when Kevin Eck and I went down to the stadium in 97 and Ray Lewis stole the game. And it’s a brand new thing. And I tell you what, 30 years later, the fact that we’ve been their daddies in the marketplace for all of this time, and you get together, and they bring this kid up here, knowing that the defense is sort of the shaky part of the operation here, that if the Ravens were going to lose, it was going to be because of their defense, not because of what their offense didn’t do. Game was close enough, and that kid looked capable of winning a game, and he’s going to win a lot of games. And four years from now, I will measure this. Four years from now to be a Derek Henry will be gone, whatever, but four years from now, where Lamar is and where Jaden Daniels is and whatever the accomplishments are. And by the way, that’ll be my 60th birthday, so I’ll have a good measuring stick on that. Um, you know, these are, these are the two bright lights in the league. Mahomes aside, but this is the great hope for the league that it’s really changed the way the game is played. Yeah.
Luke Jones 02:57
I mean, anytime you have someone who can make plays with his arm and with his legs. That’s optimal. I mean, that’s what you want, as much as the there’s still a place, I think, for the traditional pocket passer. If there is that traditional pocket passer, has to be really, really dynamic,
Nestor Aparicio 03:17
like Joseph Vincent Flacco, who short another game. I just work that out. Oh, as I get older, I appreciate older people.
Luke Jones 03:24
Joe continues to be a great story, but he would be the first to tell you that when you see guys like Lamar or Jaden Daniels or throw Josh Allen into that mix, heck, even Joe burrow, who we don’t think is, well, he ran for a touchdown on Sunday night. But I mean, to get back to Jaden Daniels, I mean, this kid’s dynamic, and anyone who saw him play in college and win a Heisman last year, and what he did at LSU, you knew that this had a chance to really translate to the next level, and he’s playing at a very high level. And I think this is where we look at what the Ravens were able, were able to do defensively to make things more difficult for him. For starters, I think one of the I don’t want to say understated parts of the game, because I think everyone talked about it, and it was acknowledged even during the game, losing Brian Robinson was a big loss for that Washington offense. He’s their best running back. He is someone who’s able to create some yards after the carry and make people miss and get some yardage. And that’s not to say that Robinson was going to run for 100 yards against this ravens defense. I mean, this ravens say what you want about the Ravens D, but their run defense has been elite. Their run defense has been as good as it’s been at any point in recent years, so that hasn’t been an issue. But would Brian Robinson have added a little bit of an element to their running game that would have maybe taken some of the pressure off of Jaden Daniels, sure, but I think what the Ravens defense did well was they did a nice job of keeping Daniels hemmed in. You. He did not really bust out. He had, what a nine yard run at one point in time where he ran for a first down. But, I mean, he finished with 22 rushing yards. I mean, we’ve This is the kind of kid like Lamar Jackson, who, if he gets loose, he can run and take it to the house. I mean, he’s got that kind of ability. I don’t know if he’s quite as fast as Lamar, but he’s pretty darn fast, so you have that. So what they were able to do, and I’m not shocked by this, and this is still where you do credit the defense. They were able to make Washington extremely one dimensional. Now, to your point, Jaden Daniels did a heck of a job with their their offense being one dimensional. In fact, I thought it was. There were a few different points in the second half where I kind of felt Washington did him a disservice, even trying to run it on first down after a while, because it just put them in second and long. You know, I think it, it got to the point where he just said, you can’t run it. So why are you even trying give Jaden Daniels an extra down to try to pick it up with his arms? So and he, you know, he made some great throws. Uh, certainly be remiss as much as you might look at that Washington offense and say, okay, they still need to put more around him. Terry McLaren’s great, and Terry McLaurin has been great for a long time. It’s just he’s been saddled with not so good quarterbacks, but he’s been able to play for a long time, and I think anyone who’s watched that team knew that, but now it’s a case of he’s got the quarterback that can maximize what he can do. So I think from Lamar Jackson to even roquan Smith, and roquan is not someone who pays lip service to quarterbacks, right? He’s not just going to compliment the opposing offense just for the heck of it, roquan’s a little more old school in that way. Roqua was very complimentary of Daniel’s after the game, and I think you saw that they he made plays. I think the Ravens did a good enough job. I’m not saying good overall that the past defense needs to continue to get better. Still, too many big plays, but I think they did a better job in not letting the ball thrown over their head for a 70 yard play, which, hey, Daniels, go back to that Monday night game against Cincinnati. Remember a couple of those deep touchdowns that he threw? He can throw a deep ball as well as anyone in the league, you know, even as a rookie. So they were able to mitigate that factor. And I do think there’s something to be said that they made things difficult for them. And at times, even when it was driving to kick a field goal or score a touchdown, they made them work for it. They had to convert third downs and all that. So, you know, that’s a low bar. I get that that’s almost like I’m damning them with praise a little bit in saying that. But at the same time, you know, when you have an offense that’s humming the way the Ravens offense is humming right now, frankly, you don’t need your defense to be great. You know, they just get a couple stops here and there, and they were able to do that. They were able to hold Washington to three at a couple different points where it felt very critical. But I think if, if I’m sitting there as a Washington fan, as much as I would never want to be, that I’m coming out of that game really encouraged by the way that Daniels played on the road, you know, again,
8Nestor Aparicio 08:17
Lynch, I mean, like, at all. I mean, and the fact that early in the game, a second quarter, when things were still very much in the balance, he’s getting up into the huddle with 1819, seconds left to go up onto the line I’m talking about, and the Ravens are making their moves, and he’s watching the clock, and he steps back out of center. He’s adjusting the line. I’m thinking to myself, you know, Lamar had a hard time doing that a year or two ago, right? And to this point, it took monk in and the offense he he works like a veteran, and from a visual standpoint, um, and the sort of unflappability of i He just doesn’t look big for him, and that kind of frightens me as the Baltimore Washington balances here, because I’d hate for them to win three Super Bowls over the next 10 years, and us to not win any like I’ve been there. I’ve been there. I what used to go to the we talked all these capital Center shows, how many capital Center shows I win, where somebody had 1000 or Riggins jersey on and saying we won, and I’m in Baltimore saying I don’t even want to see him on TV. So there has been a point where you don’t get my Baltimore up too much, where I’m saying James Flacco and all the stuff that Scott Van Pelt fakes. The accent I have the real one. I could bring Gina shock in, drop, drop the mic on all y’all, um, but I would say this for the DC thing, the rivalry part of it. If you don’t like Washington and you’re old school like me, mmm, I don’t know. It looks like they they got their guy for the next three to six years from now, where Lamar is six years into this. I’m frightened about where that kid’s going to be six years from now. So should the cowboys and the Giants and you. You know, the Eagles teams in that division, because it just it. It does feel like he’s going to be there. And I’m shocked by that, by any rookie that can come in and do this, right? We’ve been watching this. Show me any rookie six weeks into this, it looked like he knew what he was doing. Mahomes, maybe, I mean, in the last 20 years, tell me any, not even Lamar. Forget Lamar was green. He was a 32nd player taken in the draft. I’m talking about one one, Joe burrow, these guys that Trevor Lawrence, three coaches in can’t figure it out. Sam darnolds and another team doing pretty good right now, but to do it six weeks in with a lost franchise without a lot of weapons, I’ll give you McLaren. I’ll give you a play without his running back on Sunday. So he could even say we didn’t get a full punch at them. We almost beat him. Yeah. I
Luke Jones 10:47
mean, it’s really impressive. I mean, I mean, you mentioned Patrick, Patrick mahomes Sad his first year. I mean, Alex Smith was still the guy there. So, I mean, for one, I mean, it’s rare territory where a one, one is just handed the job week one. He earned that. I think. I mean, I, I wasn’t watching Washington with bated breath during training camp, in the preseason, by any stretch, but he did enough work. McCoy
Nestor Aparicio 11:11
stole their backup.
Luke Jones 11:15
8It feels like it, right. No,
Nestor Aparicio 11:17
I you know Marcus, dude. Marcus, five miles apart. I don’t pay any attention to that. Yeah. I mean, it’s like they haven’t existed in 20 years. You know, I just sent them. I mean,
Luke Jones 11:27
you nothing them, right? I mean, that they’ve been irrelevant. I mean, the only thing that Washington was really notable for over the last 20 years was Dan Snyder making it an ass of himself.
Nestor Aparicio 11:38
I mean, seriously, he was the brand, yeah. So, yeah. So,
8Luke Jones 11:42
so that’s where this is so notable. And, and let’s be clear, I I’ll give a nod to RG three with what that phenomena was, until late in his rookie year, when he got hurt against the Ravens. And that was, I mean, that was a phenomenal, I caught him, yeah, that was a phenomenon. I mean, that really was. And I think again, this is where, you know, we always get caught up in the moment, and that’s where, you know, as we were talking about the Ravens offense, we’ve seen the Ravens offense look extremely dynamic in recent years, but with Jaden Daniels, it feels like, Man, this feels like it could be special for them. And you just said it, the good news is, he’s not in the AFC. So so, so you talk about that, but in terms of just local bragging rights, I mean, Washington for, for all the the hoopla and cachet that they earned in the 80s and the early 90s with with Joe Gibbs and, you know, even the mark rippin Super Bowl, they’ve been completely irrelevant since then. I mean, you know, you can, you could probably sit there and try to remember the playoff appearances there aren’t that many of them, but over the last 30 years for them, so for him to come in and look the way that he’s looked, and they have a ways to go. There’s no doubt about it. I mean, their defense isn’t good enough. I mean, that’s that was obvious when you saw say, flowers, have a career day as a receiver in the first half on Sunday, but this Jaden Daniels just really talented, really looks the part isn’t rattled to your point. And I say this with no disrespect to Lamar Jackson or any other quarterback that became a phenomenon really quickly. I mean, this kid’s doing it at such a rapid level of his command of the offense and what he’s doing, and again, that’s why Sunday, Brian Robinson not being there was big for him. They’ve leaned on their running game a lot. I think it’s fair to point that out. It’s not like they’re just asking Daniels to throw it 50 times. There are so few quarterbacks who can do that. I mean, Kansas City has looked better since, you know, they’ve had Isaiah Pacheco become their guy the last couple years. And that’s a, you know, that’s ease the load on Patrick mahomes A little bit, so that having some help is not something that a quarterback should apologize for. But you’re seeing Daniels do things as a rookie less than two months into his career, where you do say, wow, it looks like that already. What’s it going to look like in November and December? What’s going to look like in year two, let alone year five or six? So, man, I the one thing that Washington and commanders fans a new ownership there. I mean, they’re, they’re absolutely in the business. They can sell hope with that kid. I mean, there’s no question about that. So he was impressive again. I think the Ravens did a good enough job of making things difficult that they had to earn it. You know, there weren’t that Cincinnati game last week. I mean, what I have one Jamar Chase, catches an underneath pass and goes 70 yards for the touchdown. I mean, there, there weren’t any plays like that, at the very least. So it was nice to see them clean things up. There was a high degree of difficulty on some of those plays. I mean, some of those plays. I mean, Brandon Stevens was right there on the corner, and he just makes catches, right? I’m. He just makes plays at times. You do have to tip your cap. I mean, the perfect defense can be called. You can be in right position, and you remember, the other guy tries to So, really impressed with Daniels. If I were a Washington fan, I’d feel more excited and heartened by what I saw out of him in that environment. Wasn’t 70,000 Ravens fans, to your point, we’ll get into any of that. But it was an electric atmosphere. It was exciting. You know, there was definitely, I got to the to the stadium at nine o’clock, and you can always sense, you know, as you’re as you’re even, as you’re driving to the lot, whether there’s a buzz in the air and there was a buzz in the air, I mean, that was, you know, whether it was more Washington fans, but Ravens fans too. There was, there was excitement knowing that it was Lamar against this young kid, Jaden Daniels, who, you know, looks like he could be the next phenom in that group, you know, of that top 567, quarterbacks in the league, sooner than later, and he, you know, he lived up to that, even with his defense not doing much to help him out, even with the running game being a non factor, even the Ravens their ability to hem him up and not let Daniels get out and run himself, I think, you know, they did a good job with that. But even with that, you know, he made plays and they had a chance. I mean, Washington at the end of the day, they just couldn’t get a stop when they needed to. I mean, the Ravens scored on five straight possessions, and then the final possession, they were in victory formation. He if Jaden Daniels gets one stop after that, you know, after that, what, when the Ravens went three and out, gets one stop from his defense? At any point after that, might be talking about a different game. He might be talking about overtime
Nestor Aparicio 16:41
four quarters for that, they’re running back too. So we have to continue to bring that up like they if the Ravens have to play good out of Tampa, play with that Derek Henry Monday night because he’s got the flu. They’re a different team. They really are. They’re truly a different team. Yeah. I
Luke Jones 16:54
mean, it doesn’t mean you can’t win, but it makes things more difficult. News flash, you want your best players to be healthy and available, right? I mean, it’s not, it’s not a difficult concept. So for for Jaden Daniels to be without Robinson and to not have the this, the robust running in which look, even with Robinson, commanders weren’t going to run for 150 yards against the Ravens defense. I mean, I’m not sure if anyone’s doing that this year. I mean, that’s how good the Ravens run defense has been. So for for him to be in a position where that their offense was made very one dimensional, and to still do what they did and have a chance in the fourth quarter, again, that says something for a rookie quarterback, and that’s why Lamar Derek, Henry roquan Smith, John Harbaugh, in the post game, they were all saying, hey, Jaden is really good. I mean, give that kid a lot of credit. And I think the defense, as much as we’ll point to the defense needing to be better, and certainly needing to be better against the pass, I think you still chalk it up to that that’s a rookie quarterback that’s not playing like a rookie through six weeks. And you know, as far as the local rivalry or whatever, you know, it’s not a rivalry, but local series, let’s call it, every four years, certainly looks like it could be more interesting the next time these teams cross paths. That’s for sure.
Nestor Aparicio 18:15
8If you’re watching out on our video stream, Luke Jones has his new birthday gift, the pizza John’s hat. We were pizza John’s on Friday celebrating the Maryland crab cakes were presented by the Maryland lottery in conjunction with our friends at Jiffy Lube, MultiCare power and Luke up, getting him out to practice all week long. Practice be a little weird this week. Tampa on Monday night. I have no idea the situation down there in the league and where they’ve been sort of sequestered off winning football games and battering other teams. So a big week ahead. All the way around. The Maryland crab cake tour is going to get back out on the road. I’m putting dates together. We’re going to be at mamas on the half shell. We’re going to be I was at Cocos on Friday night having crab cakes. We’re getting down to Costas again for sure. Cooper’s north. We’re going to be back up there next month as well doing the Maryland crab cake Tour presented by our friends at curio wellness. I’m wearing a shirt as well as Liberty pure solutions. As we get the oyster tour out and about, want to talk about roquan Smith. Want to talk about the defense. Um, to your point, they didn’t have the running attack. The commanders didn’t, but passes were open all day. You know, getting receivers open in this defense has not been difficult with or without DPS, with or without Zach or I’m beginning to question the players a little bit as much as the scheme, and just saying, one on one, when you can’t keep pace with Zach Ertz, I who’s not Travis Kelce, he used to be, but isn’t anymore. I think the defense, when they lose games this year, and we talk about the two losses earlier, I mean, they blew two touchdown leads, right? So, and they’ve done a lot of that around here of late in allowing teams to sort of hang around. The commander’s could have won the game. I mean, that’s a fumble away a drop ball. You know, something bad happening. But. Bad snap, right? Linder bomb leaves the ball on the ground and they fell on it. But the game was close, and the game is close because it’s sort of like Fenway Park. This defense is never going to end the game. You know what I mean? Like the game’s not going to be over in the seventh inning if you’re down 10 points, because we’ve seen this team fold up big leads in the end, and all the vital statistics are there to say you can pass against this team, and they’re susceptible to big plays if they can’t get to the quarterback, not running the ball, but throwing the ball. This, this is not a great back seven for that. No,
Luke Jones 20:37
it hasn’t been. And I think what’s been surprising is, I think there was an optimism that it was going to be i Well, they’ve
Nestor Aparicio 20:44
spent a lot of money and time on it, right? Sure, sure.
Luke Jones 20:47
And look, that’s not to say that it’s all bad by any stretch of the imagination. I mean, I think last week aside, I think Marlon Humphries had a better year than he had had the last couple of years. I think Kyle Hamilton, after, you know, a bad week one for his standards, I think Kyle Hamilton’s played much better. You know, it’s not as though they’re completely bad across the board, but I think where we’ve really seen it show up. And you mentioned with Zach Ertz, who is certainly not the player he was in Philadelphia, although he’s still a really nice piece for a rookie quarterback to have. But, you know, I it continues to be that middle intermediate portion of the field. And whether we’re talking about roquan Smith, maybe not looking as certainly not elite in coverage, you know. And I’m not necessarily saying roquan was elite in coverage the last couple years, but was certainly much better in coverage than what we’ve seen to this point. Now, how much of that is him? Is he dealing with some kind of, you know, some kind of element that’s making him a little bit slower, you know? Is it just He’s a year older? Is it something in the scheme that’s asking him to do a little bit too much coverage wise? Is he missing Patrick Queen next to him, as much as we talked about that, you know, Patrick Queen benefiting from roquan Smith. Let’s also acknowledge Patrick Queen’s a good player, and so roquan Smith would benefit from him, depending on certain things they’re trying to do. So now you have a less experienced inside linebacker next to him. They played more dime as a result, where they take Simpson off the field. But no is that? I would say
8Nestor Aparicio 22:21
that queen, roquan thing was pretty special that we didn’t really sure know that until you don’t know what you got, till it’s gone in that way. Because Patrick queen was always not good enough, not not Ray Lewis, not CJ Moseley, struggled a little bit until roquan came. Then, when roquan came, he looked like an all pro player. I you know, I’m not sophisticated enough on a Down by Down basis, but they’re lacking something. Six weeks into this, and we could talk how great they are in their four and two, and they’re going to win the Super Bowl and all, but at some point they’re going to have to go out and defend Patrick mahomes
Luke Jones 22:53
in a big game. Yeah, sure, no question about it. And I think that’s where we look at what happened with this ravens defense in the off season, Mike McDonald right and dinar Wilson, Anthony Weaver on the coaching side. So then personnel wise, Patrick queen, Gino stone, jadavion Clowney, although you know certainly Kyle van Noy and adafe away and Travis Jones and namdi matabike collectively, you know, still had them in decent shape with their past rush and even in gauquet, you know as back in the mix and has contributed the last couple of weeks so but you talk about the players that they lost, and look, I’m not at all suggesting that Raven should have ponied up the money to keep Patrick queen, or that they were going to pay the money to keep Geno stone or go down the you know, give Clowney the two year deal that Carolina gave him. And I’ll say this. Go look at how those players are performing with their new teams by looking at it from a 30,000 foot look and pro football focus, grades and things of that nature. It hasn’t been much to write home about it’s not as though those players have been shining stars with their new teams, necessarily, but as I always say, just because you acknowledge a player is going to be at a price point that you can’t justify paying, and you’re making the smart business and caps decision, that doesn’t mean you’re not going to miss that player. And I think certainly when you look at whether it’s Patrick queen or talking about Gino Stone, who has not been great for the Bengals, but Gino stone was a really great fit for what the Ravens asked him to do on the back end of the defense when they went into three safety looks, allowing them to move Hamilton closer to the line of scrimmage. They’re certainly they’ve had their growing pains in replacing some of those guys. So I think, you know, they’re still in a position where they’re searching for that. So, you know, I mentioned roquan Smith, look their safety. Play beyond Kyle Hamilton, Marcus Williams has not had a good year, and I think Eddie Jackson’s been. Very underwhelming, to the point where, again, go back and look at the second half of Sunday’s game. I don’t want to go as far as to say he was benched, but we were seeing our Darius Washington lining up as a two day too deep safety in the second half. I thought that was interesting to see. So maybe there’s a change there. Maybe Washington kind of just becomes that guy there, but they need better safety play because that, again, we’ve been talking about it since week one and week two. I mean, the raiders were able to exploit that intermediate, middle portion of the field, and that’s how they got back in the game. You know, they had Brock Bowers and some of their other guys that were getting free at that part of the field. How much of that is the linebackers not getting enough depth and coverage, and how much of that is our safeties not coming up quickly enough to converge on someone in that portion of the field? It’s off, right? It’s not it’s not optimized. It’s certainly not calibrated the way that it needs to be, so that that remains a work in progress. And I’m with you. Look the ravens are in a position after years and years and years and years, you know, going all the way back to the the 2000 team, the 99 team, that where they were so accustomed to just having the defense lead the way. And we know that that’s obviously shifted in recent years with Lamar Jackson, but it’s truer than ever now with how their offense is playing, and the offense leading the way, and the defense, albeit really stout and really good and stingy against the run, it’s been bad against the pass, it has not been good enough, so they’ve got to figure that out. You don’t need to be the number one defense in football to win the Super Bowl, you know? And that was a point guys like me were trying to argue about for years and years and years, is they pumped resources into the defense, and at times, didn’t do a whole lot with their offense, specifically post Super Bowl Joe Flacco era, with their offense, but you still need to be able to stop the pass and not allow a team to just go down the field at will against you. And you know, we’ve seen too much of that. And if nothing else, even if statistically, if they’re not going to be a top five or top 10 pass defense, they’ve got to figure out a way to be a little more dynamic. One thing that’s really dried up and you you met you actually mentioned this in a previous segment, takeaways, they need to start capitalizing on some of these situations where a ball has hit a defensive back in the hands. That’s happened a few times here in recent weeks. Now, multiple times in recent weeks, you can give up yardage. You can even give up points. But if you can steal a possession here or there, when it comes to taking the football away, assuming your offense isn’t giving the ball away. And this offense, you know, interception aside and then the near turnover aside, with the linderbomb Weird snap, you know, those, those examples aside, they’ve done a good job project protecting the football. You know, offensively, if they can get more dynamic in terms of taking the ball away a little bit more, making a few more splash plays, those high variance plays that really matter.
Nestor Aparicio 28:06
Stone, yeah, right. Well, not getting they’re having balls hit them in the chest, but they’re not, in general, competing for thrown balls in general. Sense, Zach hertz is standing out there pasture, catching the ball. And a lot of times, I mean, the good offenses, it’s catch and run, you know, or it’s McLaurin making incredible catches, um, you know. But uncontested catches, I would say uncontested catch too. Many of our are bigger this year than they’ve been at any six week point that I’ve seen recently, because they’re not competing in past coverage right now. Yeah. I mean, part of that is thinking they’re going to get to the quarterback and pass
Luke Jones 28:46
8rush to Sure. And that’s been hot or cold. At times the pass rush has been really good, and other times you kind of see it vanish, right?
Nestor Aparicio 28:52
Well, when you have a running quarterback, it vanishes real quick. Well, sure. And
Luke Jones 28:56
again, I also would say, and this is where I’ll compliment them. They did a good job in keeping him in the pocket, right? I mean, Jaden Daniels had 22 rushing yards knowing that Brian Robinson wasn’t going to play, that they were in a position where if Washington was going to have big yardage on the ground, it was probably going to be Daniels doing it, because Austin Eckler is more of the receiving type, more so than running between the tackles. So, so, so, again, I want to credit them on that. I don’t think it was a a bad all across the board kind of performance, but you know it certainly they still need to get better in that front. And again, they need to be a little more dynamic in terms of forcing a few more turnovers. But to your point, you’ve got to get your hands on footballs more frequently to do that, and there just been too many. There weren’t the 40, 5060, yard chunk plays that Cincinnati was making against them the previous week. But you know, there were still what I think it was, four completions of 20 plus yards in that game for Washington. You know that? You. Uh, that’s still too many for the high standard that is a Ravens pass defense and a Ravens defense in general. So, you know, they still, they’ve got work to do. There’s no question about that. I mean, the fact that they brought in Dean peas this past week as a senior advisor. And I even said to you, and you know, I don’t say this to be flippant about it, but I kind of said the fact that they did this five weeks into the season that kind of raised my concern level, because that tells me they recognize there’s something here that’s that’s not right, and, oh, that’s not just an alarm. That’s not just red flag, yeah, and it’s not just Zach or, let me be very clear about that. He’s a first year coordinator. I still think Zach Gore before it’s all said, None is going to be a good coordinator, but guys have growing pains. Mike McDonald, who’s a head coach now, and by the way, the Seahawks, after a strong start, they’ve kind of gone the other way. I mean, well, you
Nestor Aparicio 30:52
know, it would have helped Zach or to go to Notre Dame and be the defense coordinator for two years and come back. And that’s where the mike McDonald thing, he went and coached with with Jim. And by the way, I hope Jim’s okay. I mean, I’m a lot closer with Jim than I am with John, as you’ve noticed over the course of time. But you know, having that, there’s no substitute for doing it. And you could say you sat on the sidelines, you’ve been a player all that. Rokhan Smith, Ray Lewis, a player. I don’t know if he’s going to go out and call defenses this week for the Ravens. It’s a different I remember 30 years ago here when the old farts that at the 4100 club a call, Hey nasty. You know, John United should be the offensive coordinator. What is this? You know? What is Matt Cavanaugh ever done? You know Johnny? You he knows offense. Um, it’s not really that way. And I think Zach, or can know a lot is we talk about hardball being overwhelmed in 20 years, although he’s one of the top 10 coaches of all time, according by the way, the broadcast, I tell you what, tell Chad Steele I’m piss for making me watch it on TV. It was terrible. Nancy and Romo are terrible, like they have lost it, like whatever the fastball is, whatever the study is, robust become an ass kisser, like in the beginning, he was the former player that was into the game and predictive of everything and all that, all that energy’s gone like they’re not an A team. I’m being honest with you, I watch a lot of football. I watch too much football now. I don’t, I don’t get to watch in person anymore. Um, so it was just, it was subpar. It really was. And by the way, congratulations to Kenny Albert, my partner, for number 500 I want to throw that in there on a birthday week, but we’re celebrating birthdays and pizza and oysters and all sorts of stuff. I want to make sure my people get their run. But, yeah, not, not good. And I would say, from Zach, or his perspective, six weeks in, it has been an education. And I think it’s, I don’t think it’s embarrassing for him to bring Dean peas in. It made it, they made it sound like. And again, what they make it sound like and what it is I’ve dealt with, I know how disingenuous they all are, but in this case, it made it sound like Zach said, let’s call Dean. Or John said, let’s find a solution. Or, hey, we need another body in here. I don’t know what Dean Pease is doing on a daily basis. I know when he was there, he was the man, and kind of cranky old man, even 10 years ago in regard to my way or the highway, he had a little bit of that going on. And I don’t know when that probably came from Belichick, the godfather of the flake gate, too. I didn’t point that out last week, but I should have, yeah, I don’t know. That’s an admission, and I would agree that that is all of them saying we want to get better, and I love that. And they, yeah, they probably will get better.
8Luke Jones 33:35
And let me be clear, I’m not being critical that I dislike it or I’m against that move, but I think it is a very clear admission of we need a little bit of help here, and that doesn’t mean Zach or is incapable. Let’s be clear. I don’t think this is at all. Dean Pease is coming in and as the secret defensive coordinator, and is calling No no, but it is an experienced set of eyes and an experienced voice and an experienced mind, and I’ll say this much. And we talked about this. We talked about this when Zach Gore was hired to replace Mike McDonald, we acknowledge the fact that he did not have that apprenticeship in the way that Mike McDonald did. And I even thought at that point in time, now I’m not going to sit here and say that I mentioned Dean P specifically, but I thought at that point in time that perhaps it would serve or well to add someone to the coaching staff who had some defensive coordinator experience at some point in his career. So from that standpoint, had the Ravens added peas as a senior advisor in June or July, or even in the month of August, I don’t think anyone would have batted an eyelash. Then. I think people would have said, hey, it sounds like a smart move. Dean peas is 75 now. He’s he’s out of the the coordinator game, but he still has something to contribute, and he loves ball. He can’t get away from it. I mean, the guy’s retired four times in his comeback, so he’s a lifer. As it pertains to that. So
Nestor Aparicio 35:01
I saw Mike Zimmer on the sidelines in Dallas, and I’m thinking, dude’s got $100 million and still has to do it. I went to Marvin’s in Baltimore, staying at the Four Seasons, running around with the Raiders, knowing they can’t win the Super Bowl, and like, getting paid money’s never going to spend, his family’s never going to spend because it’s that much money. And it’s like, man, dude, I don’t know, you know I I’m sorry you don’t have a hobby. Billy figured out golf. Finally, it’s 70 billing started playing golf. But these guys that are lifers, I, I say that to people all the time, like, if I didn’t do this every day, I’m 56, years old today, what would I do? That’s all I’ve been doing for all my life, for 40 years, despite what Chad Steele and Greg Bader might think of me, this is what I do, and I don’t know that I’m going to do anything else. And I would think from football at 56 versus 76 I don’t know I’m not going to play golf when I’m 76 so I admire these lifer people that have such institutional knowledge that they can bring it back. And probably not, probably definitely. If you’re down in New Orleans covering the Super Bowl, and I’m watching on TV and waving to you, and they win the Super Bowl, they’ll probably point that this is a chapter in the book Dean peas coming back and Zach or in their relationship and all of that. And how it all, how it all really went down, and I’m sure da Costa now be getting coffee together at the end of the season, when I’m writing Purple Rain three. But in all sincerity, that was the goal here. Is, like, who’s available? Who can we get? Uncle Steve has an unlimited amount of money, so we can spend money on coaches. I mean, that’s one thing they can’t do right now, is bringing another safety. You know, they, they just can’t, um, not, not a from a financial standpoint, I’m talking about that coaching is the one thing where you can have as much of it as you want, and it’s, you know, proof positive that they want to win out there. I, I’m okay with DPS being here, yeah,
Luke Jones 36:53
and again, I don’t, I don’t. I never suggested that I dislike the move, or I was opposed to it, or anything like that. But it does raise a red flag. It does draw some attention to, hey, we’re missing something here, and it doesn’t mean our off our defense coordinator stinks. Doesn’t mean our defense is beyond repair, but hey, here’s someone who has a relationship with our new defensive coordinator. Was his first defensive coordinator. You know, his only defensive coordinator as a player, he was the first guy who was still in charge here when, when Zach Gore transitioned into coaching, he’s kept in touch with him. I mean, Zach Gore mentioned Dean Pease as one of his mentors when he was introduced as defensive coordinator back in February. So it wasn’t shocking in terms of, well, you know, being able to connect the dots, but just the timing of it. Again, in hindsight, this is probably an admission that the Ravens should have brought someone like Dean Pease onto the staff from the moment they hired Zach or right just to to be a sounding board, to be someone who has some experience to to help him scrimmage through some of these things. You know. Is it a during the week game planning issue, or is it a bullets flying in real time during the game kind of issue that they’re trying to or is it a little bit of, a little bit of both? Or is it just, hey, we have our safeties not playing at a very high level, other than Hamilton, you know, our two deep safeties, Marcus Williams and Eddie Jackson, are not playing very well. Our inside linebackers maybe aren’t getting enough depth and coverage or are struggling to hang with certain guys who are there. Is there something we can do scheme wise, to clean this up, you know, calm this down, make this less of a liability. And you have someone who has all this knowledge who maybe can help do that. I don’t again, I don’t think this is a dean peas coming in to save the day. This is Dean peas coming in to lend a hand. You know, lend a voice. Lend a be a sounding board. So, you know, we’ll see what this looks like in the coming weeks. If the rate to your point that the ravens are in New Orleans in February, I don’t think it’s going to be that. Oh, everyone points to Dean peas as saving the season. No, no, no, not anything like that. But it could be something that helps. It could absolutely, absolutely be something where you look back and say, Hey, that really he, he provided this for Zach or or he provided this for the secondary, or he provided this from a linebacker standpoint, you know, in terms of, you know, dropping into coverage or certain elements, because, you know, Dean Pease coach Ray Lewis, you know, he’s an inside linebackers coach when he first arrived in Baltimore, so you know, we’ll see how it plays out. And like I said, I thought the defense did some good things on Sunday that, you know, at least, were better than what we saw in Cincinnati. But yeah, they still have a ways to go. But I’ll also point out in the same way that I acknowledged that this ravens offense hasn’t exactly gone up against a murderer’s row of defenses statistically. I mean that Raiders defense is bad. Dallas is awful. I mean Washington not a good defense. Cincinnati, bad defense. Defense. So you know, you go through the list on the flip side, in fairness and in defense of this defense, it has to get better, no doubt about it. But look at who they played, Patrick mahomes, you know, Dak Prescott on paper. At the very least, even though Dallas is completely lost at this point, Josh Allen, Joe burrow, Jaden Daniels, yes, I’m going to put him into that, into that category, into that discussion. Everybody
Nestor Aparicio 40:27
8else will.
Luke Jones 40:27
So this past defense has gone up against some really tough opponents early in the season. That’s not an excuse
Nestor Aparicio 40:35
around the corner too.
Luke Jones 40:38
It has to get better. But at the on the flip side, they have gone up against some really good offenses. So in a big picture sense, what I’m saying here is, I don’t think they’re the worst in the league stopping the pass. I think when it comes down to it right now, from a true talent level and a true performance level, it’s probably closer to, you know, somewhere in that average, below average range, rather than dead last or 31st but to your point, Baker Mayfield is, you know, that’s the next challenge, and they’re going to be facing Joe burrow again, and they’re going to have others that they play later in the season that are going to be more of a challenge. So, you know, every week there’s a new challenge. Every week there’s a new opponent that’s trying to hurt your feelings. So nice.
8Nestor Aparicio 41:28
You get a bye week later in the month too. In Cleveland, um, 27th we get a buy, right? Oh, they’re so bad, so bad. I
Luke Jones 41:35
mean, what a disaster, what a disaster. As our old friend Joe Flacco is winning games for I’ll be at the Indianapolis Colts, but winning games while Deshaun Watson is arguably the
Nestor Aparicio 41:47
he looks better in that colts Jersey than he’s looked in any jersey, including ours, you know. And maybe that’s the beauty of my childhood and Bert Jones, but that white top, you know, he, you know, that’s,
Luke Jones 42:00
8that’s why we hate it so much so, but it’s good looking uniform. I mean, it is. That’s why my stolen it’s still stolen it is. And that’s why my generation’s bitter. I mean, not bitter, but this light has the disdain, because we saw all the old photos and old video and all right, yeah, yeah, yeah, there you go, but, yeah, but that’s a clean look. It is so but, boy, going back to Cleveland, they’re, they’re awful, they’re, I mean, even their defense is falling off substantially. But it all begins with the quarterback. If you have a franchise quarterback who stinks, and you’re paying them that much money, nothing else is going to matter. I mean, it’s really not. I mean, they’re they’re done, they’re done. I mean, we can talk about the Bengals or $78
Nestor Aparicio 42:51
million cat hit next to yourself. Disaster, right?
Luke Jones 42:56
It’s a disaster. We use you disasters. Use too much in sports. And obviously we’re talking relative. It’s sports at the end of the day.
Nestor Aparicio 43:03
We’re not that. David Chad took my press pass and wouldn’t let me get the bashati. Bashati called it the disaster out on the on the back lawn two years ago at the breakers, right? Like for all of them, these guaranteed contracts with this guy, like we’ve talked about it for years, we’ll have a whole week to talk about it. Two weeks from Luke Jones is here. He’s Baltimore, Luke. I am Nestor. You can find him out on the internet. We have birthday week. We have an incredible celebration this week for the life of one of the godfathers of wnst, Phil Jackman. If you are too young to know who Phil Jackman was, I will be glad to introduce him to you on Tuesday and Wednesday, I have found some old tapes of Phil and I, and I’ll talk more about Phil later in a week with somebody who knows Phil, and a bit curmudgeonly, faux curmudgeonly, as I would say. But 21 years ago, it was four days before I met my wife. It was February 4, 19 or 2003 he came in. And I think it was a period of time where he just left the paper. And, you know, I own the stations 21 years ago. You know, this is before drew Forrester was on my airwaves. Bob Haney was here. Is way before Rob long, way before Luke Jones, like a long time ago, 21 years ago, that that that Phil had done a lot of radio with W, b, a, l, and was looking for something to do, and Phil hated my show like he was the TV repairman, that he loved me too much to be mean to me in the paper, but he would have been really mean to me in the paper had he had, he had that opportunity, and I brought him in. He was actually not. It was like K Fabe. It was like real Phil. It wasn’t like the Phil character that beats Nestor up. So we did like two and a half hours of his life story, talking about covering Ali all the deep thoughts on Earl Weaver, he covered you stremsky During the impossible dream season. It for the Springfield paper. So Phil Jackman led a beautiful life. He had beautiful daughters, beautiful grandchildren. His wife sold every. House Tina every house I ever bought and sold, just a beautiful family and a beautiful life. He died at the age of 87 this week after battling dementia in recent years, but But on Sunday morning, I sat here for about three hours and listened to Phil’s voice. Phil will be alive on Tuesday, and you will hear some great, great stories from a great man and a real father figure to everything I’ve ever done here, beginning in 1985 when I met Phil Jackman. So you’ll hear that on Tuesday and Wednesday in large stretches, and if you don’t like it, get on our wnst tech service. Case something happens, 410-821-9678, we’ll be promoting that Text Join, by the way, everybody that was ever kicked off of our tech service because they were on T Mobile, or some at&t, or some I’m trying to think of a cell, cellular one. I’m trying to think of the companies that are gone, that didn’t roll over. You’re back on the tech service now, about 6000 of you getting all of Luke’s text, all of that brought to you by coal roofing and Gordian energy. I would hold my coal roofing mug up, but I broke it, and Bill coastal owes me one, and I haven’t talked to him in a month. All my friends are leaving me since the Orioles lost I am Nestor. He is Luke. We got plenty of football ahead. It’s a big week around here. It’s birthday week. All I brought to you by friends at the Maryland lottery to have Maryland scratch, Maryland lottery Raven scratch offs to give away when we kick off the crab cake tour. Probably next week. Might be week after that, but we’re gonna go nuts through the holidays. I’m not eating turkey. I’m eating oysters around here. It’s the Maryland oyster tour. Brought to you by our friends at Liberty, pure solutions as well as curio wellness. I’m wearing my my roquan Smith curio wellness thing here. We’re wnst back for more. Lots of football ahead. Ravens still better than the Redskins, the commanders, the Washington football team name, anything they want. Baltimore, greater than Washington. Stay with us. You.
