The combination attack of the Baltimore Ravens and the ability of Lamar Jackson to command the offense of Todd Monken has been on display all season but Monday night’s effort in Tampa was balanced and lethal. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the offensive operation of the best team in the NFL evolving its game and expanding the possibilities with Derrick Henry and company.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Ravens offense, Lamar Jackson, Mark Andrews, Derek Henry, Zay Flowers, Rashad Bateman, Keaton Mitchell, screen passes, blitz protection, offensive line, Todd Monken, playoff contention, championship goals, quarterback improvement, NFL defenses
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:02
8
Welcome home. We are W n s t am 1570 we’re Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore. Positive, you can find all of our work out of Baltimore. Positive, com, our W n s t tech service with breaking news is now available. You can text join or w n s t to 410-821-9678, Luke, remind me, I gotta put a commercial in the air about that. We have the Raven scratch offs because it’s pretty good. Our tech service, the Raven scratch offs are pretty good as well. On Friday, we’re going to be at mama’s on the half shell. I am. I’m going to be like, like the rock. Finally, I have returned to Owings Mills. We’re going to be at mamas on the half shell. We’re going to be a foundry row. I call it painters mill, where I saw Frankie valley in the Four Seasons back in 1980 we’re going to see lots of friends. Finn McCusker, our son of scunny from Nacho mamas, is going to be joining us for an oyster and a crab cake. Also my old pal, Mike Warren, stopping by hump and how he’s going to come by. We’re going to have a tribute to the late great Jeff amder of skip Jack’s fame, I may actually wear my skip Jack’s jersey on Friday. I’m probably going to bring my brand new. It’s not new, it’s old. Skip Jack’s tenant clock battery operated two double A batteries. I’m going to stop at drug city pick those up on the way out there, Luke and I’ll be there. I’ll be there on Friday. Luke will be in Owings Mills doing ravens in a shortened week this week, all brought to you by friends at Jiffy Lube multi care. They send Luke out to make sure that he is reporting on all things reporting and certainly into the wee hours on Tuesday morning. Worried about Marlon Humphrey a little bit, certainly not worried about the Ravens offense at this point and a short week getting ready for Cleveland, but really a breakout offensive game for more than just Lamar Jackson on Monday night, plenty of praise to go around and sort of that missing guy the 89 who’s been 86 in some way, returns and you know, Mark Andrews is going to catch two, two touchdown passes in A Super Bowl, if they ever play in a Super Bowl, because it’s probably the guy he is. But it’s been quiet around here. Even Baker Mayfield made more reference than last week, than than anybody around Baltimore’s made for Mark Andrews in a while.
Luke Jones 02:12
Yeah, and he’s only caught three touchdowns over the last two games now. So, I mean, certainly back, yeah, we saw this. You know, you could see this coming the Cincinnati game, you know, was a little more involved. And caught a touchdown against Washington, and then catches two touchdowns on Monday night. Nice stage for him. Became the Ravens all time leader in touchdown receptions, surpassing Todd even I get it. I mean, the punch line will be, well, there ravens haven’t had many passing games to write home about over the years, and many wide receivers to write home about over the years. But that takes nothing away from what Mark Andrews has done, 43 touchdown catches in 94 career games. Todd heap had 41 in 133 career games. So certainly, Mark Andrews will be the first to tell you, it’s helped having Lamar Jackson as his quarterback for all but a few games of his very impressive career. But look, I I think the first month of the season, it was more quirky and weird than alarming that Mark Andrews wasn’t involved. And you know, when you kind of looked at some of the metrics, I mean, it wasn’t as though he was really, really slow or not getting open. I mean, pff has all kinds of different grades and tracking. And you know, what was, you know, there were numbers saying that he was still getting separation. I mean, maybe wasn’t 100% remember, he had the car accident back in mid August, and I had actually heard that he was a little banged up even before that happened, you know, kind of just going through your typical late camp soreness. So how much of it was that? And as I pointed out in our previous conversation, Nestor, there’s one football I mean, at some point in time you can’t expect that every single skill player that the Ravens have is going to eat every single week, and what we saw on Monday night, obviously, zay flowers has the the ankle issue. He played through it. He ended up playing, ended up playing 42 out of 59 snap. So it’s not as though he was limited to the point where he wasn’t on the field, but certainly didn’t see him overly involved, other than the backwards pass, of course, that hopefully will get struck from the playbook, at least how they tried to run it in that spot. But you know that that led to opportunities for Mark Andrews Rashad Bateman had a career high in receiving yards, catches a beautiful deep ball for a touchdown. We’ve talked about this going back to last year with Bateman, that he runs good routes. He gets open. And last year, the thought was for whatever reason. And I said over and over, I don’t think it was a personality conflict or anything like that, but for whatever reason, and I think a big part of it was Bateman’s lack of health and, at times, lack of availability. For a couple years there. But you know, la. Are, has certainly shown good chemistry with him this year. And what this is now three straight weeks where Bateman has set a new season high in receiving yards. So he’s, he’s going, I mean, he’s looking like a really good number two receiver to save flowers being the number one and,
Nestor Aparicio 05:18
oh yeah,
Luke Jones 05:19
even though he only had 34 yards with about five minutes to go in the third quarter, Derek Henry breaks an 81 yarder where the blocking was fantastic. Again, another one of those plays where he’s barely touched, and he does what he did, runs the ball in the fourth quarter, ends up having a big night. You know, it wasn’t if you’re ranking the reasons why the Ravens won in the fashion they did. Derrick Henry is pretty low on the list this week, but doesn’t mean mean it’s any less impressive. And I’ll also throw this as I mentioned. Derek Henry Nestor, we’re getting closer and closer to the time where I’m not saying it’s imminent, but I have gotten a sense in the not too distant future, we could see Keaton Mitchell back on the practice field. Now, I am not at all saying that he’s going to be 100% or that he’s going to be a big factor of what they do down the stretch, but we all saw what Keaton Mitchell did last year, before that unfortunate knee injury. So so much of it is going to be how does he look? But from what I understand is rehabs gone well, his straight line speed has been really good, so it’s going to be a matter of getting him back on the practice field and seeing what it looks like. So kind of scary to think, even if you get that, get a Keaton Mitchell at, I don’t know, 90% by January, something like that. I mean, again, that’s a pie in the sky. It’s not something they need, but it could certainly be something that would be welcome to add to what they already have. You throw him into the mix as a change of pace for Derek Henry. So as it pertains to this offense, it really is on a weekly basis, kind of just feels like the rich get richer. I mean, they got to stay healthy. We know that. But even on Monday night, on the night Wednesday, flowers was less than 100% and playing through that ankle, they didn’t miss a beat. You know, they didn’t skip a beat with all these weapons that they have, beginning with Lamar Jackson, but so many other guys, catching the ball, running the ball, doing the things that they need to do to have what, in my mind, is pretty clearly the best offense in the NFL. He’s
8Nestor Aparicio 07:22
Lou Jones. He’s Baltimore, Luke. He did not catch or throw any screen passes on Monday night, but Lamar Jackson did, and that’s been a little bit of a quizzical part of the development of the offense and the pulling of offensive linemen that are ostensibly, I think there to best protect and get out and be more athletic than bruising. I think we were always concerned about the makeup of the offensive line, the personnel who was going to play where, you know, it’s calmed down dramatically since the first two losses, right? And part of this is Mark Andrews being involved in Bateman, being involved and run after catch and and the fact that the respect level of the defense and stacking the box on Derek Henry, you just you’re not going to do that with Lamar throw on the ball over your head. So, as Lamar always says, Pick your poison. That was your headline last week as well. It was his headline in the in the post game after the game on on Monday night, screen passes something that haven’t seen a lot of the shotgun versus under center. We saw yippie snap by I put out, you know, so much for running a clean operation when the ball’s getting snapped overheads, and they had some problems with that in the middle of the game, dude, when you’re winning by three touchdowns and you just beat the hell out of every other team, we don’t talk about the deficiencies of the problems, and you and I haven’t developed a two year thing on, why don’t they throw more screen passes? Why don’t they Well, they win every week, so we don’t talk about that. But when it’s effective, you see another not even a gadget, it’s just another tool in the golf bag. I think,
Luke Jones 08:57
well, let’s face it, the Baltimore Ravens were terrible at screen passes for a long, long time across multiple quarterbacks and multiple coordinators. I mean, when was the last time the Ravens consistently ran good screen passes? I mean, maybe Ray Rice, but a lot of that was the check down variety kind of throws to the flats. You know, of course, we all remember the Ray Rice play in San Diego back in 2012 but it’s just been something. And Todd Bucha was asked about this earlier this season. Was kind of asked about the screens. He said, Yeah, we didn’t run them last year as much because we stunk at them. So, I mean, that’s there you have it. I mean, they’re just, it’s another way that they’ve just become really, really good. It’s another part of their operation that has just gotten to be so good. And you know, I made a point about Derek Henry a couple minutes ago where you look at it statistically, most of his yardage came in the fourth quarter. And of course, he had his 81 yard run late in the third quarter. And certainly you wouldn’t look at what he did. Directly as a major reason why they won that game on Monday night, because they it was Lamar throwing the football. You know that they had so much success through the air through three quarters, but where he does make an impact. And we, we talked about this leading up to Monday night’s game, and this has been talked about a lot recently, because we’ve seen these toss plays, and specifically these toss plays late in the game. But it really does speak to how this offense, every offense, talks about making the defense defend every blade of grass. Greg, Greg Roman used to talk about that a lot, and there were times where the Ravens got really close in their ability to do that in the Greg Roman offense, you know, do not no one should be dismissive about what they did in 2019 or what they did at, you know, 2020 another year, where they ran for, you know, 3000 yards, or 2021 where, you know, they they were so injured at running back, but until Lamar got hurt, you know, this is a team that was still in contention for the number one seed in the AFC you know, late in early December that year, and certainly what they did last year, in their first year under Todd monkin, but especially with seeing Lamar throw that deep Ball to Rashad Bateman, this is truly an offense where you you have to defend the entire length and the entire width of the football field, and that is so extraordinarily difficult to do when you have a quarterback who can do what he can do, when you have a 250 pound running back who can throw or who can run 21 plus miles per hour when he gets going. Takes him a little while to get up to that speed, but when he does that, I mean, look out when you have a backup running back who is a good receiver out of the backfield and can catch a ball and go 2025 yards for a touchdown, when you have two you know one dynamic, you know number one wide receiver and the most dynamic number two wide receiver the Ravens have had in quite some time. And again, I get it. That’s a low bar in the history of the franchise, but the point is still well taken. And when you have two tight ends in Mark Andrews and Isaiah likely, and yeah, throw in Charlie Kohler, who doesn’t get a lot of volume, but when he is out there in a route, he can make a play for you. And you know, to your point, that you made a little, you know, in our one of our conversations, you know, the, I guess the only down note offensively was Patrick Ricard dropping a pass where he had a chance to make a play. But, I mean, how do you defend that? I mean, again, and Kyle Hamilton was was asked this in the post game locker room. And you know, he’s talked about this. Marlon Humphries talked about this. Roquan Smith has talked about this going back to even before this year, right? I mean, this has been talked about from the moment Lamar took over midway through 2018 but they all say, my goodness, I I’m so glad that I don’t have to defend this offense and I don’t have to go up against this quarterback other than practice, because it is just so it’s a nightmare. It’s an absolute nightmare. And when you have this much and it’s not as though all these guys are going to be all pros, and all these guys are going to go to the Pro Bowl, and we know that, but collectively, it’s just, it’s an absolute nightmare. It’s not just a headache. It’s a full blown migraine headache. On how the heck you defend all this? Because it truly is when it’s this thing is clicking the way it is right now, and the offensive line is playing the way it is right now, and if they can knock out some of the penalties, which is about the only thing that meaningfully slows them down at this point, you you really do have to defend the entire length and the entire width of the field. And I don’t care if you’re the 2000 Ravens. I don’t care if you’re the 85 bears. I don’t care if you’re the 2002 bucks or the 2015 Broncos, or the 2013 Seahawks, any of those groups would have a heck of a time trying to slow this offense. Offense down. Well, it’s not a bad
Nestor Aparicio 14:12
you could slow it down at nine out of 10 plays, but it’s the one play that you know why, right? I mean, it was so quick strike to me on Monday, which is different in regard to I look up and they’re up by 10 points, 14 points, and they haven’t played well, and they haven’t put together drives. They’ve just and they’re not fluky plays. They’re just plays where, like, you can’t tackle them, and the speed is there, and somebody misses a tackle, or somebody misses an assignment, and our defense is guilty of that. I mean, that’s how we looked up in Tampa. Was 10 points back in the game, and goblins out there getting hurt in the last 45 seconds because of just busted coverages, just complete busted coverages, and Lamar against the Blitz. Let’s talk about that a little bit more in. Regard to screenplays, in regard to just picking it up, identifying it that got sacked a couple times early, right? Couple times early. They didn’t have it together. And, you know, and, and then Linder bomb over the head with a snap again. So they’ve had, if they had lost the game 42 to 41 somehow, somehow, you know, if some something went wrong, we’d be talking about the problems in the offense instead of how incredible it is because they throw a ball backwards and fumbled it. They they snap the ball over their heads. Ricard missed a the missed plays they’ve had, but the the Blitz protections and the beating of the Blitz in whatever way that is, however you beat the Blitz, find single coverage, find a mismatch. You have that with flowers. You have that with Mark Andrews. In a lot of cases, when he had maybe more speed, we’ll put he’s back catching balls, beating the Blitz, and that being where we’re going to we’re going to blitz Lamar. That’s going to be the way to do. It didn’t work so well on for Tampa on Monday night in in the aggregate, because they blitz more than they did. They put 61% of the
Luke Jones 16:11
8time. Yeah, they Blitz, and it didn’t work. And teams of blitz against Lamar this year, and it hasn’t worked. I mean, he’s had the answers. And, you know, I want to point out one thing the the snap, the remember the replay, it went off. Zay flowers. I mean, I don’t think it was a bad snap, as much as the timing of the play. Somewhat, something was off there, right? So, and look, I mean, when we’re pointing out things like that, and I don’t want to be dismissive of that, because that can be a turnover, and that can be a big play in a close game, but it really just speaks to how much they truly are chasing perfection, because that’s how good it’s been otherwise. I mean, that’s how great it’s been, how elite, how special it’s been. But, yeah, I mean, you’ve got to clean those things up, and you’re going to have some hiccups here and there. You know you’re Lamar is going to get sacked for on occasion, and that’s why it was so strange. Because, I mean, he’d only been sacked seven times in the first six games. He gets sacked on back to back plays on, you know that that first drive? I mean, it was, well, there’s
Nestor Aparicio 17:11
hunting in this sport for 25 years. You know that the harm is, when you’re Baker Mayfield, you drive the team down the field and just throw the ball to Marlin Humphrey in the end zone. That’s when, like, this offense hasn’t done that. That’s how they’re going to lose to the Chiefs doing stuff like that. Yeah.
Luke Jones 17:26
I mean, that’s how any team’s going to lose, right? I mean, look at when you see what the when the turnover margin is plus two for one team or the other, that team wins. What is it? 85% of the time, something like that. I mean, that’s what you’re talking about here. I mean, that’s just that’s a basic principle of football, that whether it’s 1980 or 2024 I mean, that the game’s changed a lot since then, but that’s something that still does apply very most of the time. So so they have to clean those things up, but as it getting back to the Blitz, and I just think they have better answers in terms of their hots and throwing the backs or throwing a quick game or whatever it might be there, they’ve been a cleaner operation since the first couple of weeks and picking that stuff up. It doesn’t happen perfectly all the time. No team’s going to be perfect with it. Has to be the one to recognize is that? Oh and then, but that’s the thing, yeah. I mean, Lin, you know, Linder bomb has a factor in that as well. And obviously, you know, you’ve had you go through the course of your week, what are your answers? You know, when they Blitz the What’s your answer here? What’s your hot you know, what’s your call here? So you scrimmage that, and you prepare that. But when the bullets are flying, yeah, it’s, it’s on your quarterback. And I think Lamar has just done such a fantastic job of recognizing getting them in and out of plays. He has so much more autonomy at the line of scrimmage before the snap than he’s had in the past. We saw that become more of a thing last year, and it’s only continued in year two in the Todd Monken system. But I mean, he really, the spectacular plays have always been there, right? I mean, Lamar has always been able to run. He’s he’s been from even as go back to his rookie years, first year, he’s been a better passer than people would give him credit for. He’s gotten way better since then, let’s be clear, but he’s always been better than his biggest detractors would say. He’s been in that way, but his just overall command of the operation at this point. I mean, he is, he’s running the show. Now, is he running it to the degree of late career Peyton Manning or late career Tom Brady, no. But what quarterback is doing that? You’re talking about Hall of Famers, amongst Hall of Famers, right there. But I’ll, I’ll say this. I mean, he’s, he’s in charge. I mean, he’s running the show. You can see, you can see times where they’re checking from a from a pass to a run, they’re flipping the formation. I mean, they’re doing all those things. So, yeah, there’s, there are elements to this offense that are bit. Built in to, I guess, quote, help the quarterback. But why would you run a lot of play action? Why wouldn’t you run a lot of pre snap motion? I mean, these are principles that all quarterbacks should use, right? So it’s not, oh, well, Lamar needs this. No, it’s not that at all. It’s Lamar is better for that, just like any quarterback would be better with those elements, you know? So it’s just they, they have so many more answers. And, you know, you think back to, I vividly think back to the wild card loss to the Chargers lamar’s rookie year. Remember, at that point in time, the thought was, oh, oh, it’s the dime, right? You run the dime defense against Lamar, and this, you know, this bumper car kind of offense that it was at that point in time, and and that stops it. And then we saw the following year that some teams tried to do that, and if they didn’t have the right personnel to run it, then the Ravens would kill you, and they’d use heavy personnel, and they just run over you. Then, you know, they’re some of the things that Tennessee did and Dean peas did in that playoff game against the ravens, even though a lot of that just had to do with the Ravens turning over the ball and getting stopped on fourth down. I mean, go, go back and look at that playoff loss. They had a ton of yardage. They didn’t have any issue moving the ball. It was finishing drives. You know, in more recent years, it was the cover zero blitz that Miami ran in that third, that ugly Thursday night loss three years ago. And you know, teams doing that? Well, we’ve seen the last couple years that that’s kind of gone away. So there is no way to teams haven’t solved this offense. They’re not going to solve this offense in the same way that no one solves Patrick mahomes, or no one solves, you know, take your pick. Josh Allen, right. I mean, you might, might have a good game against them. You might be able to beat them, but there’s no like solving that. Oh, this is figured out. And I think Lamar, to his credit, when there have been these type, you know, whatever the strategy would be at any given point in time to stop him. He gets back in the lab with the coaching staff, and he figures it out, and what were once weaknesses are now strengths of his. And it just yeah, that’s how you become great. You know? That’s how you become someone who’s on a path to be to be up a three time MVP and a Hall of Famer, and someone whose legacy is the only thing left to do is to win championships. So, I mean, that’s, that’s all it is at this point. I mean, that’s, that’s where we are. I mean, and we know that we knew that last January. That’s why that loss hurts so much for the Ravens. But I mean, you’re just seeing someone who, yes, continues to have these incredible physical gifts, but his mind continues to grow and evolve and improve and mature as a quarterback. And, I mean, that’s what you want, you know, you don’t want a quarterback mentally to be, you know, Tom Brady wasn’t the same guy in year 10 as he was in year two, and in year 20, he wasn’t the same guy that he was in year 10. You know, at that point, his physical skills had diminished, but he had all this working knowledge. You know, his brain was so much better than everyone else, and that’s why he was still winning MVPs and Super Bowls into his 40s.
Nestor Aparicio 23:12
I mean, that’s why Joe Flacco, you had still go do this, right? I mean, Joe Flacco is, yeah, has been reading defenses since Lamar Jackson has been born, and same thing with Aaron Rodgers, even though he can’t do it as well, those guys just have an institutional knowledge of 15 more years of doing it than anybody who’s 25 right? I mean, and that’d be the case for Joe burrow or Trevor Lawrence or some of the young guys, Jared Goffs that are coming on that just they’re 30. These other guys are 40 or and especially when you have that ability to extend your career in that way. And this is where Lamar is athleticism. We all believe that when his athleticism left him that he couldn’t compete at that level. He’s now moving to a point where, when he slows down, if as long as the arms, okay, like flacco’s arms, okay, as long as you can throw the ball, um, he’ll be able to play football a long time. That being said, he’s got to stop running into linebackers. And I’ll always say that that less of that is better, and we’re not, of course you will that. You might as well put that on your forehead, yeah, better. Less of that’s better, especially when you can throw it the way he throws it. But,
8Luke Jones 24:25
well, sure, sure. And look, certainly don’t want to see him take a helmet to helmet hit like he did in the middle of the field. But he hasn’t taken more. I thought to where he was, 2019, let’s say I mean his first. I’ll continue to say he’s very good at avoiding big hits, much more so than other scrambling quarterbacks. But yeah, hey, luck is a is a part of avoiding injury in the NFL. You can also be very unlucky. We’ve seen all that. Chris Godwin, right? Yeah, go. Back to where Lamar was in 2019 his first MVP year. Yeah, first MVP year. 1200 yard rusher leads the league in touchdown passes. But you know what was? What? 27 28/29 and pass attempts, whatever it was at that point in time, obviously it was much more of a run first offense, and they threw the ball when they wanted to, but didn’t, you know, they didn’t need to run the or throw the ball very often at that point in time. And what we said at that point, this was five years ago, was the natural progression for Lamar Jackson was going to be, yeah, the the runs always going to be there. I mean, putting aside, you know the freakish injury kind of scenarios, Lamar is always going to be a mobile quarterback, right? I mean, even Lamar at 35 years old, he’s not going to run like he does now, but he’ll still run faster than most quarterbacks out there. I would think so, but, but the thought with him was always going to be, you want the passing part of this to continue to increase and continue to elevate and get better and mature and grow and understanding that the natural regression of an athlete, you know your athleticism isn’t going to be the same at age 21 going to age 27 or 28 and Certainly when you get on the other side of 30. But the other parts of the game are growing for him so much that, you know, I think there was a thought in 2019 of how long of a career at an elite level will Lamar have? I think at this point in time, five years later, you look at this and say, now he has to stay healthy, just like anyone else again, anyone can get hurt on any given play. You know, we we all remember what happened to Joe Theismann. We all remember what happened to Alex Smith, right? And those weren’t guys that were running, you know, to use your expression, running in the linebackers. So there is an element to just needing to stay healthy and having some good fortune and all of that. But putting aside those scenarios, you look at how this this quarterback is playing. I mean, there’s no reason to think Lamar can’t do this for a really long time, and what he continues to do as a passer. I mean, you know, the rushing has been there. You know, we’ve seen him put up big numbers in terms of passing touchdowns. Nestor, go, look at how many passing yards Lamar has in the league. You know, I want to say I was looking at this before we started our segment. I don’t have it in front of me now. I think he’s sixth in the NFL and passing yards, you know, six or seven, somewhere like that. So not only is the efficiency still through the roof, he’s now doing it from a volume standpoint, at a level that he wasn’t being asked to do previously. And oh yeah, that’s even with Derek Henry in the backfield for him to hand him the ball. So I mean, this is just such a high level operation across the board. And you know, it’s not, oh well, he’s a great dual threat quarterback. Yes, he is. He’s a great quarterback, period, right? I mean, there’s no caveat. There’s no Yeah, but anymore. I mean, the only Yeah, but that’s left on Lamar Jackson’s career is winning championships, you know? And that’s the same one that Josh Allen, Joe burrow, you know, anyone not named Patrick mahomes Has that that’s active in the NFL right now. So he’s just a great quarterback. You know, the fact that he can run the way he does is amazing, and the fact that he continues to improve and improve, and, you know, is becoming such an elite passer at this point in time. I mean, it’s just, it’s so impressive. I can’t say enough, but he’d be the first to tell you that he’s not alone, and he’s getting more help. And he has Derek Henry, and he has, you know, he’s had Mark Andrews from the beginning of his career, but he has a, what’s an emerging, very viable, number one wide receiver in zay flowers, you know, certainly the best wide receiver that he’s played with, but Rashad Bateman’s coming on. You know, we’ve seen it with Isaiah likely. I mean, that just they’re very deep, and it’s a good operation. And Todd monkin is, I mean, to borrow the Greg Roman expression. He’s certainly in his vault. You know, yeah, there’s a play every now and then or there. There can be a play calling sequence every now and then, where you scratch your head. I mean, no one’s going to be perfect. But I mean, this is just, this is very high level stuff across the board that they’re running at this point in time. And I mean, I just, you know, people will say, Okay, well, they don’t. They’re not in true passing sets that much when you have a quarterback like Lamar run play action when you have an offensive line that maybe isn’t built to be in true pass sets 40 times a game. Then, so what then? Then run play action. Do boots? Run those things. I mean, you don’t have to apologize for anything you do. But I mean, there it’s just, it’s really high level. It really is. And again, it goes back to that principle of forcing defenses to defend every blade of grass on the football field. And good luck. I mean, good luck, beginning with number eight, but including his entire supporting cast. I mean, this is just really, really high level stuff, and I don’t know how you slow it down. I really don’t. Short of the Ravens beating themselves, you have to be aggressive. I do think you have to take chances, and that’s where I will at least commend Todd Bowles for trying to blitz as much as he did. It didn’t work. But I don’t think you can just sit back and let this group just moved down the field on you either. I think you got to take some chances to try to swing the game, you know, in your favor, here and there. But to this point, you know, since the first two weeks, aside, the last five weeks, teams haven’t been able to do it. So, you know, Cleveland, good luck. Denver. Good luck. Cincinnati’s already come up short. You know, despite a fantastic offensive effort on their part, you know, we’ll see Pittsburgh, their defense is really good. I think Pittsburgh can probably get a couple stops here and there against the Ravens. But is Pittsburgh’s offense going to score enough for that to matter? I very much am skeptical of that. So, you know, you just look down this list. And, I mean, it’s tough looking at the remaining schedule and saying, Who definitively has a great chance to beat the Ravens. I mean, teams have chances, because it’s the NFL and it’s Any Given Sunday. But I mean this, this operation is just, it’s humming. I mean, this is some really, really high level offense that we’re seeing across the board. And again, it begins with a quarterback who is maturing and getting better, and that’s terrifying for the rest of the National Football League. Should
Nestor Aparicio 31:53
be terrifying for the Cleveland Browns this week, who have to pick up the pieces and figure it all out. I don’t think the ravens are going to stub their toe this week. Luke and I will be talking about all things brown. It’s also World Series. This week we have the Maryland crab cake tour. Con converging with the Maryland oyster tour. We’re going to be adding mamas on the half shell on Friday in Owings Mills at Foundry row. We’ll have Raven scratch offs from the Maryland lottery to give away. Also our friends at Liberty, pure solutions sending us out on our oyster tour. One 800 clean water is a way to make that happen. If you have well water, I have the cleanest water. It’s delicious, it’s perfect. And it was like making my sink green because it’s well water. You need to have it treated. They do that one 800 clean water, liberty, pure solutions. They also take care of all your plumbing needs as well. I usually wear my curio wellness shirt, my foreign daughter shirt. I’ve got my move product on my back here as I stand and do tons and tons of radio here this week, and get ready for the Cleveland Browns. We’re going to be out in Cleveland a bunch this week, talking to a bunch of Cleveland friends, just about the Guardians. I get some baseball, some football mixed in. It’s always good to check in with our Cleveland friends, even when their football team stinks, which is most of the time. Over the course of 26 years of of w, N, S, T, he is Luke. You can find him out of Baltimore, Luke, and anywhere the internet is served, we are serving up royal farms coffee every morning, real fresh, real fast, as well as that fried chicken in the afternoon. All of our sponsors have just been rolling out the carpet for our oyster and our crab cake tour. We’re going to get back down to pizza. John’s. I was there over the weekend for some pizza and some cheese steaks. I didn’t get a proper cheese steak there last week. I’m wearing my fatly shirt. We’re gonna be back down at fates for Christmas as well as Cocos, all the places that ship crab cakes for the holidays that we work with, including Costas. We’ll be telling you about that as we get up onto Thanksgiving and onto Christmas. It is a great Halloween Week. The ravens are back in first place. Things are Well, everybody’s healthy. Marlin Humphreys side might even get Keith Mitchell back, and we’ll be talking football here during a short week and getting ready for the World
Luke Jones 33:47
Series. I
Nestor Aparicio 33:48
am Nestor. He is Luke. We are wnst. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and we never stop talking Baltimore. Positive. You.
