Luke Jones and Nestor fete the dominant AFC top seeded Baltimore Ravens on a regular season for the ages after a 56-19 dismantling of the Miami Dolphins to earn three weeks of time to get ready for the next game that counts. One win away from bringing an AFC Championship Game to Baltimore for the first time since 1971.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
play, team, ravens, lamar jackson, lamar, orioles, year, game, sunday, marlon humphrey, days, week, win, wide receivers, happened, baltimore, miami, beat, playing, divisional round
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor J. Aparicio
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:01
Welcome back, WN S, T, Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive we are positively into 2024. You know, back when I used to write checks and we always weirded me out after I get the new year, we don’t write checks anymore. So I have to say 2024 And Happy New Year. I’m not wearing like, you know, the Tierra or the crown, the hat that I would vomited on the coastal highway in Ocean City. If I were there tonight, nothing like that at all. It’s just the purple Crown of the AFC belongs to the ravens and I they’ve never played, I said this last week, and you chastise me and you’re like, Nah, no, no, the 19 team, you’re forgetting these great teams, they add? Boy oh, boy, if there’s an exclamation point, um, they put it on it as the year ended in 2023, broke down. Jacksonville, gone San Francisco out. And this Miami team to be running score up at the end really speaks to where they are and where they think they’re heading later in the month. Luke Jones. Yeah,
8
Luke Jones 01:07
and look, I’m still gonna, I’m not gonna let you off the hook on the 2019 thing. They were a great team in 2019. They were perceived in a very similar way the difference however, and this is where we’re going to go in the direction of talking about Lamar Jackson and the fact that he sewed up the MVP award, because he’s not gonna play next week. Or if he does, it’s a series or whatever they ended up doing. But he’s going to be MVP for the second time in his career first time since 2019. The difference of this football team, however, as great as they were in 2019, and as much as we were talking about them, in the terms that we’re talking about this team, the difference is the passing game for this team, to what we saw Sunday was 2019, like in the sense of blowing out a team boat racing a team specifically in the second half the way that they really poured it on. And we’ll give our nod to the defense as well, considering how banged up they were and how well they played even without that. But when you see Lamar Jackson do what he did throwing the football and this group of wide receivers, which doesn’t have Mark Andrews, you know, wide receivers, tight ends, lacking Mark Andrews doing what they did guys getting wide open, guys making one handed catches, going forward on a fourth in law, fourth and relatively long and poor going, uh, Justin Tucker fugal. Going forward on a fourth down situation like that Nestor that was 2019 S only. In that case, it was typically them running, and going forward on a fourth and one or a fourth and to anywhere on the field because of their running game. But their ability to make plays and we’re seeing it more and more make big plays in the passing game, which wasn’t necessarily something they were doing earlier in the year, they weren’t getting those big, long explosive passing plays that they’ve been getting here, more and more as the years going on. I mean, that makes them extremely dangerous. And
Nestor J. Aparicio 03:05
that allows you receiver like it is an organization Correct? Really isn’t it’s not about one thread. It’s even Batemans in on this likely sin on this Justice Hill can be in on this out of the picture, right? Sure. Yeah. And look, I mean, they have
Luke Jones 03:21
their primary ones, right. I mean, say flowers set a record for receiving yards by a Ravens rookie. So so that was great to see. Certainly he’s been leading the way in that regard. But yeah, we see Beckham make a fantastic play after a couple quiet. Couple quiet weeks for him. We’ve seen Nelson Aguilar at different times make plays for them. When you go down the list. It’s a much more capable group of wide receivers. It’s not the best in the league, but it’s certainly good enough no up no matter how you want to rank them. It’s good enough. And that’s something that we weren’t saying about last year’s group of receivers of the year before or even 2019. We know the wide receivers other than Hollywood Brown. And Willie Snead occasionally wasn’t a whole lot to write home.
Nestor J. Aparicio 04:04
8Goes ears are burning out in Cleveland right now when you start going back through the other wide receivers that serve really we’re never here. Sure. Well, at the back half.
Luke Jones 04:14
He had Derrick Mason he had an incline bolt in the back half of Joe’s ravens run no question about it. So you know Majan that a quarterback does better and has more success through the air when he has better receivers, Lamar Jackson, another example that imagine how that works. But I think everything as it pertains to now talking about, look, I couldn’t care less about what’s going to happen in week 18 against Pittsburgh. Doesn’t matter just doesn’t stay healthy.
Nestor J. Aparicio 04:41
Right? It’s crazy. Like when you think like 20 days, maybe 21 day like literally they might play Saturday might play Sunday, two weeks from now. However, it turns out there’s gonna be three days of football, not just this weekend. Then next weekend, the playoffs like this week, it’s gonna be sort of weird and light. All these weird wildcard teams fight And amongst each other and, you know, bills and dolphins, there’ll be all of that. But I mean, it feels bias from a fan’s perspective. And we still got six days where we get there. It’s like, Alright, let’s get through that. They’re gonna play games on Saturday this week Saturday for and again at eight, and then they’re gonna play all day Sunday, no Monday night games. And then we’re gonna watch six games the following weekend, we’re gonna be asking, How healthy is Marlon Humphrey? What’s that Mark Andrews coming back and how Seidler doing and, you know, a boy Kyle Hamilton and me they they did okay without him. And we were all worried about that didn’t look so good for a driver, two or three. They’re early in the game. But like all of these injury things and the injury stories and all that. I’ll just say this, and you could say it for baseball waiting for the Orioles for a couple of days and what happened to them? Boy, it feels like a long time. And it feels like even for fans who are scolding me for thinking like throwing the ball when you’re up 40 points isn’t a jerk move. No matter who you are, when you do it, whatever it is, whatever your exclamation point is. But like for the fans that are foaming and Frothing for this AFC Championship Game, knowing there’s only one team and having to now pair through next weekend and the Steelers wanting to win needing to win really right. And, and then what happens to fun Joe Flacco is gonna play the next weekend. So as Josh Allen and Patrick mahomes, they’re all gonna play the next week, and you’re the only one and if you win the 49 is only one or two. Oh, and then somebody’s gonna show up. And you know, where I got great. I’m gonna have fun with this ad on Facebook. Is it going to be the browns in the bills? Is it going to be the bills in the chiefs? Is it going to be Jaguars? I don’t know. I dolphins I don’t know. Like, it’s it’s an amazing thing, looking at this path and saying the styles make the fights the Ravens really don’t care because they think they’re better than any and all of these teams. And they’ve been proved that against the Browns one time they’ve lost to them and the Colts you know, whatever. There’s bad awful beats were when they were actually outplayed them for the first 58 minutes or so just a little while. And in all three of those games, how close to perfection this team has been and the exclamation point, a boil Boy, this feels like a long time for me, for you, for us, for fans, for any gamblers for antibody. It’s just like this a long time to be down until the next time. There’s a real game and it really matters. And that’s going to be amped up at a whole different level. But it’s exciting, but it’s also perilous right?
Luke Jones 07:39
It’s unsettling. I think that’s the word that I would use their I mean, I don’t think you I don’t think this team is afraid of anyone at this point. Nor should they be I mean, when you look at what they did against Miami on Sunday, and I did say to you, I wasn’t fully sold on Miami in terms of being this top tier contender, why they’ve beaten one team with a winning record all year, the Cowboys, they beat them in Miami and a cowboy has been lousy on the road all year. So I think Miami has the makings of being a good team. I think they have certain elements of their team that are phenomenal. And we saw that firsthand. Early on, but they have flaws. But yeah, I mean, it’s a long layoff it is and what I was most impressed by beyond just the performance on Sunday, which was very impressive. I mean, Lamar Jackson, five touchdowns, perfect passer rating. Like I said, he locked up the MVP. It
8Nestor J. Aparicio 08:30
was an all time or even day, it was New Year’s Eve fans. Tickets were 200 bucks to get in. That’s not happened in a long, long, long, long, long, long time. 10 years, probably since the Flacco era, that a game and a regular season game has had that demand on it. And, um, it’s just impressive. You know, it was never it was
Luke Jones 08:49
but I think what really impressed me as it pertains to what we’re going to be talking about now, which is three weeks from now. No, you and I will mention the I’m sure we’ll talk about the Ravens Steelers game and the way that we talk about a preseason game, you know, a five or 10 minutes of what happened. You hope no one gets hurt because you can’t rest all your starters, we know the reality of what the roster is and how many guys you can deactivate, but we know that they’re most certainly they’re guys that are banged up. And, you know, Ronnie Stanley Morgan, Moses, Lamar Jackson because of that, and because he’s large x and but
Nestor J. Aparicio 09:24
I can’t ask for more than three weeks, though. I mean, I think what’s interesting
Luke Jones 09:27
8though, and this is going back to what I was getting ready to say what I was so impressed by was John Harbaugh was asked about 2019 Lamar was asked about 2019 indirectly. Ronnie Stanley was asked about it, and he made mention of it. Patrick Ricard. I mean, we we’ve talked about this the last couple of weeks, I mean, as much as you think of 2019 not being that long ago because, oh, it’s still this Lamar era and it’s not like Lamar has been around a decade like Joe Flacco was, but there aren’t a ton of guys left from that team, but Every single one of those individuals, instead of saying, we’re not making comparisons, or this is a totally different team, or That’s ancient history, you know, being flippant about it, every single one of them said, that’s part of their journey, and they’re not going to, they’re not going to take it for granted. And not that they were admitting that they did that four years ago. But I think it’s really an acknowledgment. And this is what I’m going to be working on at Baltimore, positive.com here over the next couple of days, coming out of the holiday is steam went through a heck of a lot these last four years to get back to this stage to this point, and I know that we’re in the playoffs, and they even won a playoff game in 2020. But to be the number one seed to be the team that has to win one game to host an AFC Championship and Baltimore for the first time since 1971. I mean, think about that, to be the favorite, knowing that everyone else right now, every team that’s looking like they’re that’s either clinched a playoff spot or is planning to or looks like they’re going to be there. Every single one of those teams have advanced scouts right now saying what? How in the heck do we beat the Baltimore Ravens? I mean, they’ve got best defense in the league for my money, at least, you know, I mean, some people say Cleveland, I’ll still take the Ravens defense over them. They have the MVP of the league playing at a high, extremely high level and Lamar Jackson. They have talent at it all over the place, you know, so there’s all that going on. But for the ravens, They know what happened four years ago, and they know what they’ve been through since then. I mean, the entire league COVID. And how we’re that was Lamar is contract situation, his injuries, the injuries they had team wide two years ago, and what that did to them before the season even started, they’ve been through a heck of a lot. So for them to be back in this position. Four years later, when even in the aftermath of that Titans loss. So many different people were trying to reassure themselves and say, Well, this is a young team, they were a year ahead of schedule, Lamar is only 22 years old, they’ve got all these provogue play. And look there. There were elements of truth to that, of course. But it’s really tough to put together this kind of season, and to get on this kind of roll. And it sounds funny saying this in a week where they had some guys sidelined with injuries, especially in the secondary. They’ve been relatively healthy, you know, when you hope you get Mark Andrews back at some point in January, you know, you hope there’s some some legs to that, but most of these other guys should be back. You know, I mean, Kyle Hamilton should be good to go for the divisional round, and go down the list of the other guys that were missing. But, you know, as as great as they look right now, you also know that the stars have to align. And I mean, the Ravens know this, as well as anyone in their history when you look at what happened in 2000. What happened in 2012, the disappointments of Oh, six and 2011. And yes, 2019. So I was just really impressed with the maturity of, you know, the way that some of these players talked about 2019, Ronnie Stanley mentioned, hey, you know, we’ve got to make sure we’re sharper with our fundamental fundamentals and our preparation. And I don’t think he was saying that to dress down. Anything that happened individually. I think it was. We’ve said it. It wasn’t just a Lamar Jackson thing in 2019 that breakdowns all over the place against the titans in that game. So I think it’s you know, Patrick Ricard, you know, he kind of gave us a soft endorsement for them playing there. You know, the starters played a little bit next.
Nestor J. Aparicio 13:28
This is the weirdest thing is they haven’t played a bad game all year. Right? I mean, I mean, ever come close to playing a bad game. Like if I had to pinpoint the worst game ever played all year.
Luke Jones 13:37
Okay, first off, offensively, they were awful. And I mean, like, the things they did in that game. I mean, let’s face it. I’ve given the Browns credit that the way the Browns played in the second half and Deshaun Watson and the way that played out, they outplayed the Ravens in the second half. But that Pittsburgh game, I mean, that’s, you use the word disgraceful a lot. I don’t use that word very often. But that was as close as it gets to a disgraceful loss. That’s how bad that loss was. But your point is well taken. I mean, they’ve been that good. All year. And it’s not that they’re perfect every week, far from it. But no team’s perfect every week. And I think what’s interesting, you made a met, you made mention, and I want to say this, because it just popped in my head because you made mention of these wildcard teams, or even talking about these other division winners. It’s you see how the league is on a week by week basis, Nestor, and where the ravens are right now. And look, they need to be that way. 20 days from now or however many days it’s going to be when they play their next game and the divisional round. That means something you know, not talking about week 18 They have been so good. So great. Let’s call it what it is. It’s been great that these playoff teams all feel their way closer to being weighed closer to the middle of the pack or worse than what they are to the Ravens right now. And that’s that’s a tribute to how well the Ravens played. I mean, we talked so much about this schedule after the ball I know the Rams game and go on to Jacksonville go into San Francisco, and then coming home against Miami went for no. And they won three of those games convincingly.
Nestor J. Aparicio 15:10
And came back home, went to LA came back home. I mean, they spoke game. I mean, they went Arizona, they’ve
8Luke Jones 15:16
handled every single challenge. And we talked about this this past week, the short week with Monday night. And look, they started out, it was shaky early on in this game. I mean, the defense especially, you know, I mean, Miami, they can score points, and they can throw the ball and Tyreke hills, unbelievable. And, you know, I mean, that was a Miami offense that didn’t even have waddle or Ibrahim most are running back. But the Ravens were missing some guys as well. So that’s no excuse for either team. But, you know, the Ravens have just been that convincing here in recent weeks. There is an unsettling feeling of how do you maintain that edge? And I don’t, you know, for anyone that’s saying that that’s an argument to play against Pittsburgh. For what right? I mean, I feel like the argument for that to say, Oh, well, they play a couple series. That’s almost like talking about the preseason game argument where you say, Okay, you go out there for a series, what are you really accomplishing there? Right, it doesn’t have the same tempo, you don’t have the same urgency. all you’re really doing is risking someone getting their ankle rolled up, or you’re gonna
Nestor J. Aparicio 16:21
want to win. So yeah, exactly. So He seals are playing for real. So yeah,
Luke Jones 16:25
so that’s where I just look at that and say, okay, believe me, and I felt this way in 2019. I didn’t waver from that, regardless of what happened against Tennessee, I think they should rest their key starters there. They’re the most important players on the team, I think should be hold or should not play more than, you know, a series to whatever it is. I don’t put Lamar out there at all. But you know, we go down that list. But regardless of how you approach that week, 18, you still have that week off? And, look, they’re going to be working. It’s not like horrible. This isn’t like the bye week where you’re going to the guys go away for six days, you don’t do that. But what do you do in terms of prep, in terms of what you do with your practices? How do you maintain that edge? And that’s why this is why I do draw the comparison to 2019 because that team was on such a roll. And then yeah, you had a couple of weeks where you kind of you’re shutting it down, right, dude, I’ll
Nestor J. Aparicio 17:26
8go Jack Torrance on John Harbaugh. You’ve had a long time to think about this. Sure. Sure. I mean, yeah. About it for weeks. And it’s so incredibly ideal. It couldn’t be any more ideal, right? It’s, it’s perfect. You need the rest. You have identified these veteran players, and a couple other guys, Kyle Hamilton, some other guys, Marlon Humphrey, you got to get those guys, right. You’re gonna be playing quote unquote, an inferior team. I’ll take devil’s advocate and say to you, whoever they get, it’s going to be on a roll. Whoever they get, it’s going to be feeling good about whoever they beat the week before where they are and Kansas City buffalo all the teams with perceived high ceilings, even Jacksonville perceived I ceiling, that if they show up on a balmy 61 degree day on January the 20th, and they draw the 330 game. Or maybe they draw the 830 game and it’s 18 degrees and the winds blow I mean, I like and that’s going to change the style of the fight for me. You know, I don’t like Lamar in bad weather. I don’t love Lamar in cold weather. I don’t love I don’t I wouldn’t love them if the wind was blowing a whole lot like I you know, and that would matter if the game was in Buffalo Kansas City Year wherever rain blowing sideways, freezing rain? I don’t know. I don’t know. And that’s why I’m not. But they’re prepared for all of that they played in all of that. And they’re going to be schooled on all of that. And, you know, I mean, they’ve the scout teams out there, there’s only four or five possibilities or teams they actually can see. It feels like 100 At this point, but by next week we’ll have all the Houston’s in Indianapolis is and in all those teams sorted out but you know, if they see a wicked hot Flacco who went down to Jacksonville and threw four touchdowns and they beat Jacksonville, 42 to 14 or something, you know, I mean, like, that’s who you’re gonna see, you’re gonna see a winning team, not a backup team, and you’re gonna see a team that’s playing. I don’t know what that means. I mean, look at Chubb getting hurt at the end for the dolphins and what that mean for them with what they have going on, and they have to play buffalo. I don’t know who’s going to navigate this. But I feel like whoever navigates it. It’s going to be, you know, it’s gonna be a real football game here. And they’re not going to care much about the Ravens record, although
Luke Jones 19:41
they have to figure out how to beat the Ravens. So I mean, and look, I mean, this is how it works. It’s January, right? Nothing’s nothing’s assured, you know, nothing’s guaranteed. I mean, we keep using the 2019 example. There are plenty of examples that you can look at of teams that looked unbeatable and then someone punches them in the mouth in the divisional out or they lose in the AFC Championship game. So I mean, it’s I hesitate to say all the teams are good in January because I don’t think that’s true anymore as as we’ve expanded to a third wildcard and you kind of look at the records of those teams that are battling it out for the seven seat in either conference, quite frankly. But yeah, I mean, how are they going to maintain the reg? You made mention of the weather? I mean, look, I’ll disagree with you. I love Lamar in any setting, the way he’s playing of weight. I mean, the way he’s played most of the year, but I would say, especially over the last six weeks or so, where he’s just, it feels like his and I say this, not to bash how, how he was before, because I think this is the maturation of any young quarterback, quite frankly, in today’s game other than Patrick mahomes, who, you know, isn’t having his best season Let’s Let’s call a spade a spade. But I just feel like the heartbeat, you know, the heart rate is slow down for him in those settings where he used to be a little, a little more jumpy, right. And again, I think it say the same about Josh Allen in settings, you know, like that. And, you know, go down the list also hasn’t
Nestor J. Aparicio 21:05
been down 20 to three at halftime this year. But like, you know what I mean, like, but no, but no quarterback does
Luke Jones 21:11
well, in those settings, you know what I mean? Like, for as much as we talked about that, I think that was more of a talking point and 19. And under Greg Roman just because they weren’t a pass first operation. But no, no offense does well, in that, but I’ll say this much. Heaven forbid, if they find themselves maybe not down 20 to three, but let’s say they’re down. That would happen with
8Nestor J. Aparicio 21:33
a block kicker, block punt to fumble, ball goes at me. But that’s how that happens. And that’s how the issue hits the fan. And oh, man, the crowd gets quiet. And we all look up and say, All right, how are you getting in the phone booth? Now you hope that doesn’t happen? Right? That’s total worst case scenario. Of course, your point and 19 that happened and they were incapable of getting up from that if, and I don’t think that they would be incapable of getting up from that. Even if all those things conspired. And they didn’t make fourth and one and the ball got popped free. Or they got a bad call, which is certainly possible. Yeah.
Luke Jones 22:06
I mean, you just they’re better. I feel like this team all the way around is better equipped to handle those types of things happening. Now. You don’t want those things to happen. Let’s be very clear. Either side of the ball, you don’t want to have weird things happen. You mentioned the weather. You don’t want bad weather in general not it’s not a Lamar thing or not, uh, Josh out and like, weird things happen when the conditions are like that when it’s windy, when it’s rainy, you know, when it’s muddy, you know, so, but it can happen in January. The good thing is this team because of their balance because of how well rounded they are, you know, they have their relative weaknesses. We’ve talked about the fact that they’re they’re run defenses a little bit softer than their past defense. And you look at divan a chain did which, by the way, I mean, he’s there. He’s there, Keaton Mitchell, right. I mean, he’s a really, really talented player, you know, over 100 yards. But, you know, that I mean, this is a team that even its weaknesses, again, relative, relatively speaking, you don’t feel that there, it’s going to be their undoing. And, you know, again, you have to go out and do it and it’s going to be a challenge. It’s a good challenge just like we said this with the Orioles you know, talking about those five days. Yeah,
Nestor J. Aparicio 23:20
it was a challenge. Oh, yeah, the Orioles they’re gonna play it but just 2024 it’s a new season. It is.
Luke Jones 23:27
8It is. But but the whole thing with this first round by I mean, you don’t have to deal with the wild card round in the same way that the Orioles didn’t have to play the best out of three. So as much as
Nestor J. Aparicio 23:38
perfect. I’ve just hope they don’t screw it up. I mean, that’s it. That’s it, and you got 20 days to sit on it. We’re going to talk. By the way I am going to like break out the whole Rolodex of all the radio row people all the media people all the Lamar haters, lovers, badgers, believers, every person I know is going to appear here in the next three weeks, because that’s what we got, like literally just sitting around and waiting on all of this. And I you know, for me with all of it. You mentioned the weather. And this is where I would get flip it and say look, if you’re trying to find ways to beat the ravens, like literally what’s going to eliminate the Ravens on one of these two games, right? What’s going to do that? Mistakes, block kicks, fumbles intercept, that’s what’s going to do it. I mean, I don’t think it’s going to be lack of execution, or the offense just fails or they’re not good at this or they’re not good at that. Or the defense is gonna get slobberknocker and have somebody put 59 on them. You know, at some point eight here in a couple of weeks, or the Tucker’s gonna miss a kick or that any of that I think the thing that beats them first thing that beats them is really bad weather lowers the bar for what is possible. So good weather, which is something if you’re a Ravens fan roofer that that’s all I’m saying. Like what can derail this? I I’m trying to figure this out. I’ve just watched them play 16 Flawless, mainly football games, for the most part, a couple mistakes here and there and they got and they paid for the mistakes they made against Cleveland against Indianapolis against Pittsburgh. They paid for the mistakes in the end and close games. But most of these Greeks haven’t been close and the level of talent hasn’t been closed, especially once they got healthier, right, like once they made their they navigated, Dobbins not being there. And they got through the Marlon Humphrey. And then they lost the Andrews and they had to navigate that. But this team has navigated that navigating stuff, dude, they’re winning. They’re winning by 40 points. I mean, it’s insane. And they’re running the score up it’s I mean, like, this is a different level of how good they’ve been and what the expectation is that they better least play championship game here. Yeah, I mean, this better not better not lose Joe Flacco or Josh Allen freeway, you know what I mean? Like literally, I mean, I don’t think they could lose to Trevor Lawrence or, I mean, the Colts. I mean, God, you know, some weird thing happened to Gardner Minshew beats the chiefs and we like I wouldn’t be afraid of losing to them. I mean, I would lost the Colts. But I am much more afraid of big quarterbacks, and I’m much more afraid of bad weather, that that’s how I feel about their chances. I think that’s the thing that screws them up, or some awful injury, they might have beginning of the game, but they don’t, they don’t make a lot of mistakes. They don’t kick the ball around, they don’t turn the ball over. They haven’t played a bad game all year or really bad game or you went so far in Pittsburgh called disgraceful. I thought at that point, they were still relatively depleted trying to figure out I didn’t think they were capable of beating teams by 40 points for a month straight at will, in the toughest part of the schedule on the road during the holidays. But without Kyle Hamilton, you know, on and on and on and on and on. They had there’s nothing they’ve done that leads me to believe they’re not going to win the Super Bowl. I’m trying to figure out what could screw it up.
Luke Jones 27:06
Because you have to play the games. I mean, it’s it’s that simple. They’re the favorite. They should be the favorite. I’m gonna pick them to win every game they play the rest of the way other than I don’t really care about gay teen and maybe the Steelers beat them when you know Tyler Huntleys presumably playing or or maybe Josh Johnson even you know who might not have been played hotly in that in that game because you have four quarterbacks on your 53 man roster right now. But I mean, look, again, you got to play the games and you got to play clean football to your point, they’ve done a really good job taking care of the ball. You know, Gus Edwards has the fumble one Sunday, and then they pick a pass off right after that. I mean, so their defense takes the ball away. So, you know, they’re just they’re really, really, really good. And, you know, we sound like a broken record saying this every week, but that’s the kind of roll they’ve gotten on. So you know, just because you made mention the Pittsburgh game for me when I said that that was way more than me thinking very little of the Steelers more so than that. I thought the Ravens you know, should blow them out. But anyway, I watched that game from the Orioles split off from the Camden Yards press box. That’s, that’s how long ago it’s been. They’ve had one loss since that day, you know, so it just speaks to the role they’ve been on but, you know, you got to stay sharp. You want to get these guys healthy. You’re doing your advanced scouts go to work, and they’re looking at it and they’ll have a little more clarity after next week to at least Okay, these are the wildcard matchups, you know, you’re not going to play the number two seed right? You know, you can, you can eliminate certain teams, but hey, gotta watch out for these possibilities. So, you go to work and you try to stay as sharp as you can you get as healthy as you can, I think other than guys that are on IR right now. I think the guys that Miss Sunday’s game talking about Hamilton, Brandon Stevens, Kevin Zeitler they should be fine, certainly by division by divisional round weekend. So I think they’re going to be just about 100% You know, again, you you can’t rest everyone in week 18 So
Nestor J. Aparicio 29:06
you hold your managers they should have a full complement when we would think a map you would
8Luke Jones 29:10
think and fully acknowledging that Ronnie Stanley and Morgan Moses both been playing with long term injuries we know Marcus Williams hurt his pack what week one he’s been playing with that all year long so so you have that you’re not going to bet your Queens got some gold with the shoulder? Definitely. I know no question about it. I would try. Again. You can’t rest everybody you have a 53 man roster and you can elevate a couple guys from the practice squad. But even some of those guys that will be active on Sunday you’ll try to do where the secondary
Nestor J. Aparicio 29:41
was in the second half against the dolphins on Sunday even up 30 points. The guys that were out there playing that’s going to be who’s played and that’s the best they got and they don’t they there’s no taxis why they’d be calling guys up from Rochester. I don’t say I mean, like they’re literally at the end of the roster. The second They’re right.
Luke Jones 30:00
Well, I mean they were on Sunday, but you know you can elevate three guys you’re hoping some guys it’s as far as some of the backup guys that got nicked up you’re hoping that they’re good to go for Sunday
Nestor J. Aparicio 30:13
8you’re not gonna play Marlon Humphrey Sunday you’re not probably not gonna play Hamilton Sunday right like you don’t think so. I don’t know if ro Quan is going to play or Patrick queen with the like so I’m just going through the names you’re mad at BK you don’t want him out there. You know I don’t know if I want Linden Linder but I am I’m just going through names and saying I
Luke Jones 30:33
don’t want to hear you but but you can’t but you can’t rest everybody. Like it doesn’t work that well. You know what I mean? Like you can ask to you can you do do Oh, I know I hear you on that. But you can deactivate seven guys. Presumably, we’ve mentioned a few of them are going to be inactive because they’re hurt. You would assume Lamar is deactivated, you would assume at least one of Stanley and Moses are deactivated. But you can’t you also can’t just play 22 guys and then hope that you’re gonna get through a game that way. So you are going to have to play some guidance but they’ll they’ll be judicious with that and there’ll be some guys that will be active but might play a series or two and then they are on the sideline with no thoughts of going back in unless two guys get hurt you know, so that that’s part of it. But
Nestor J. Aparicio 31:19
going back tylan Wallace to run around play while going back. But
Luke Jones 31:23
I’ll no doubt Laquan Treadwell who was just promoted to the 53 man roster, he will see some time at wide receiver for the Ravens. Speaking of that, ze flowers is another guy that I would try to really limit because he’s been banged up. He had the calf this week he had the foot last week he’s played and he’s played well. But he’s been banged up. You know, we always think of the veteran players we think of the guys that have obvious injuries that were they missed time. But keep in mind the rookie wall. It’s a thing now sometimes it’s more exaggerated than it is in reality but I’ve talked to so many rookie players or a lot of times second year players because they don’t admit it at the time but they say yeah, at the end of my rookie year I was exhausted
8Nestor J. Aparicio 32:06
I’ve never played that long in my life seasons especially and I want to say now our day is here completely because as I’ve been you know for last week watching all this dish tidy bowls all play and everybody’s out that the guys playing eight games and you’re going to opt out of the one. I mean, if you play for four years of college football you get to play in 40 Total games in your whole life. You do all of this weights It’s why you lift all them weights and you put your body at risk and all this stuff trying to go to class trying to get a scholarship trying to show off for everybody all that you get to play 40 times and you get to play in a bowl game you opt out like III but I want everybody to opt out of this Pittsburgh game this week. I’ll tell you what, man it’s it’s New Years you got things I got things we got things everything to Baltimore positive crabcake tours out on the road we’re doing the biggest bestest said word radio row week ever. So just write that down February 5, Nestor promised the greatest radio row week ever and he’s done some pretty good radio row weeks. Yes, so I’m gonna have some big big doings in the 2024 Look, we made it through another year. How about that and we made it through a year and we’ve lived long enough and your father and my father we’re no longer here would appreciate a year when the Baltimore Orioles won their division and the Baltimore Ravens won their division. We’ll talk about the tourney right we let’s leave it at that just for what we have the Ravens in the Orioles you know you got to go back 69 And then you know like getting way back in the day to be looking back at yours where the sports prosperity we need to get the least on, I think
Luke Jones 33:43
yeah, but think about it. Orioles had the I know the Texas Rangers won the World Series but Orioles had the best record in the American League. Ravens finished with the best record
Nestor J. Aparicio 33:53
saying that about the ravens, like the 30th of January Well, oh, I had the best record but you said it.
Luke Jones 34:02
8You made mention that they better at least get to the AFC Championship, this will be my final thought I’m going a step further. If they don’t at least get to the Super Bowl. It’s that’s that’s gonna be a tough pill to swallow with how well this team is playing right now talking about this at New Year’s A lot can happen. They have to play the games. There are gonna be some other teams. Not all of them in the AFC but I think there are at least a couple other very compelling teams in this tournament. The Ravens will be favored as they should be. But they’ve got to go out and do it but especially four years later, being back in this position number one seed home field advantage, chance to play in the AFC Championship, knowing it’s in Baltimore if you get to the AFC Championship, boy if they’re not playing in Vegas can be a tough one to swallow. But I’ll say it right now and I already said it. I’m picking them to win every game the rest of the way. So you’re asking my Super Bowl pick. There it is. Week 70 Luke Jones is picking the ravens to win The Superbowl I know I’m going out on a big limb saying that I get it I wish
Nestor J. Aparicio 35:02
I had one of those happy new year things to go Happy New Year with you but Happy New Year to you Happy New Year everybody in the audience out there. The Maryland lottery of course sponsor everything we’re doing our friends and when donation 866 90 nation, call them order some windows while it’s cold outside, you’ll be very appreciative that you did as well as our friends at Jiffy Lube multi care as we go into the new year with more wise conversations, and certainly more good football ahead as the Ravens of 2023 have done something that really no other team has done. He’ll talk about 19 and six and other places, but really even put Luke out on the Super Bowl or bus train. So while plenty time to talk about that as the clock strikes midnight and we get into 2024 I am Nestor he is Luke Luke is going to be out knowings Mills for the next three weeks watching the blades of grass grow as they await pretty good right I left you on a on a funny note. So that’s my last inside joke for 2023 I’m back for more. We are wn st am 15 70,000 Baltimore playing all the greatest hits. We are Baltimore positive stay with us
