As the lowly Houston Texans make their way to Baltimore to become the Ravens’ first victim of the season, Luke Jones and Nestor get prepped for the new Lamar Jackson passing offense under Todd Monken to perform. How high is the ceiling?
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
ravens, week, game, offense, year, point, team, baltimore, marlon humphrey, cincinnati, quarterback, bengals, lamar jackson, lamar, talking, cleveland, wide receiver, owings mills, football, schedule
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome back wn S T, Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive we are positively celebrating 25 years of this madness here at this point and celebrating with our 25 stories of glory. This week it is a number 25 Our famous signs that we took out the Memorial Stadium in downtown Plopper Cleveland and spank the Yanks got to come up with something for the mariners or the Astros, or the Rangers or whomever it’s going to be on the baseball side. Certainly this week. I don’t know that we would need signs for the Houston Texans at this point. Maybe a barn show this weekend, a couple of beers with the goose, but get this thing going, but I am gonna have Dan Passerini on this week. I have had John McLean on this week, the great, great Nils Lofgren will be joining us here at Baltimore positive and so as Luke Jones, who will be in Owings Mills is our sole representative. I am writing letters to Steve shotty. To John hardball to Eric to cost and Sashi brown to start the year. Look, I’m surprised their ears weren’t burned over Labor Day weekend. I know it’s a little bit of a downtime couple of days off last sort of gasp before it gets going. You’ll be out there all week as they get into the ebb and the flow and sort of the thing I get it this and it’s the first time in 27 years that I haven’t had a plan to travel last year, I had flights everywhere. Thought I was going everywhere until Chad Steele decided to fire me as a legitimate media member. But these one o’clock games, when you look at this, and you see September and October, one o’clock, one o’clock, one o’clock, you know, it sets a tone for them to get on schedule to get guys back to keep guys healthy to know when you’re playing. This is the normal body clock, and they really have the JV this week. I mean, John McClane said to me, there’s no chance the Texas can beat the Ravens. So you could listen to that one too. Yeah,
8
Luke Jones 01:57
I mean, it’s go time, right? I mean, we’ve spent so much time in and this is the case every year with the NFL. It’s not like baseball, where we’re talking about a game every night or a game just about every night or two series every week. I mean, it’s we’ve talked about this and we’ve circled this date on the calendar since the schedule came out in May and so much talk so many expectations so much optimism. They went through the preseason, Marlin Humphries, the only injury of node and even that’s only going to be a couple weeks, you know, he’s he’s not going to be out all season. They’re healthy. I think they’re feeling good, although everyone loves our team this time of year, other than maybe the Texans right. But hey, they have a new head coach, rookie quarterback, an accomplished quarterback coming out of Ohio State and CJ Stroud and there’s always that unknown element when you’re talking about a new coaching staff. So not that I’m saying that thinking that the Ravens need to be on upset alert this week, because they’re clearly the more talented team. They’re the superior team as they should be. You know, when you’re talking about which feels
Nestor Aparicio 03:02
like a gift on the gambling side, right, like 10 points feels like patient win by 21. And I don’t watch college football this weekend. It’s some games are a little more a little different than you think when the NIO money starts floating into Baton Rouge and and into into Tallahassee and but in this particular case, like there’s nothing to recommend the Texans you’re in everything the love the ravens, right?
Luke Jones 03:27
Yeah, I mean, it’s just other than the unknown of new coaching staff and new quarterback and lots of other new players. You’re right. I mean, you look at this as the kind of game the Ravens should go out there and handle their business and they should win and they should win going away. Although, as you pointed out college football, Colorado Deion Sanders, and look what happened there against the the national championship runner up in TCU. So you never really know. But there’s so much excitement about this team. There’s so much optimism. Even there, you know, even with their questions on the defensive side of the ball right now even just, you know, wherever you fall on this offense, there’s excitement, but there’s there’s the unknown until you go out and see it for the first time and see Odell Beckham in a live game setting and see ze flowers in a live game setting and see this Todd Monken revamped ravens offense in a live game setting. There is some unpredictability about it, but there’s a lot of excitement and fear the ravens, you’ve had a fairly inconsequential preseason. I even noted in my 12 ravens thoughts late last week at Baltimore positive.com. Other than Jadeveon Clowney and Ronald Darby. You look at the 53 man roster after the dust settled. It’s what you would have expected in late July. It’s what you would have expected in June as so. From that standpoint, it’s not as though anything earth shattering happened over the last six weeks, but it’s time to go play some football and play it for real and it’s great to hear about team chemistry and all these different things that we’ve heard bout over the last couple of weeks and how much these guys love each other. And that’s great, you know that I’m not saying that that’s a bad thing. But ultimately now, we’re gonna have something tangible to talk about, we’re gonna have a real football game to talk about. And whether it’s a three touchdown win, whether it’s a six point win, or whether the unthinkable happens. It’ll be something real to talk about. And for me, as your as I’m back there on the backfield and Owings Mills, and the monotony of it gets to you, after a little while, you keep talking about the same things over and over and over, it’s gonna be nice to see this team in the flesh. Didn’t even get any semblance of a preview in these preseason games. So, you know, at least you got a cameo in past years. But we know how that’s gone the last couple years, so it’s time to kick it off for real and I don’t think we’re gonna learn a ton on Sunday, necessarily about this football team, because of what you said,
Nestor Aparicio 05:54
8to learn what the offense is. See, I think I’m gonna learn a ton. I think I haven’t what I think I’m going to see what they’re trying to do against the bad team, offensively where the mindset is, at least for the first game to come out and say, Lamar is gonna throw it left Lamar is gonna throw it, right Dobbins is going to run, they’re going to run Lamar less than a game like this. I mean, Lamar should run the ball four or five, six times this week, like that’s where it should be. They have other weapons. Now, his weapon is supposed to be the threat of him running. And the sort of in passing, I want to see that I haven’t seen that.
Luke Jones 06:29
Well. You have seen it at times, though, because you can go back to the Miami Dolphins opener in 2019, where Lamar had a perfect passer rating and threw five touchdown. So
Nestor Aparicio 06:39
let’s see that this week, I and I would love to see that he’s capable of
Luke Jones 06:43
that. But of course, he’s capable of that he led the NFL on touchdown passes four years ago. But I guess the point I was trying to make is, it’s going to be one data point. Yeah, we’re finally gonna have a data point. What did we see in the preseason that we can probably take some draw some early conclusion, some preliminary conclusions, way more 11 personnel, and we’ve been talking about that since the spring. Clearly the investment, they made it wide receiver, you’re not gonna see this team lining up in 22 personnel and 12 personnel all the time, it’s going to be much more three wide receiver sets. Now, mind you, that doesn’t mean that they’re not going to run the ball, but they’re going to run the ball more spread out, you know, you’re gonna see that and that’s honestly something I would have liked to have seen the last couple years, you know, with JK Dobbins back there, and a lighter box that you’re facing up front and makes things easier for your offensive lineman make things easier for Lamar Jackson, and that you could see the Red Sea parts, so to speak, on occasion where he might take off still, so so you’re gonna see that I’m intrigued to see what Patrick Ricard role in this offense is going to look like. I don’t think it’s gonna be him lining up at fullback nearly as much I think you’re gonna see him lining up as a blocking tight end, which, by the way, going back to the Nick Boyle injury a few years ago, we had seen more and more of Patrick Ricard as a blocking tight end anyway. So it’s not as though he hasn’t done that. But I think it’s going to be more pronounced because I don’t think they’re gonna be lining up with a fullback all that often anymore, I think you’re gonna see that third and 1/4. And one kind of deal. But other than that, I certainly don’t think we’re gonna see that on. First down, I think we’re gonna see more passing on first down, which is an analytics minded approach of how you do that. I mean, even the Philadelphia Eagles who had a very good running game last year and have a good running game, they run they throw the ball out on first down, you know, that’s kind of an analytics way of doing it, throw on first down, run on second and short, kind of the backwards way of of how things were always done. But analytically speaking, it bears out that works. That’s an efficient way of running an offense. So we’re not going to be able to draw these people will draw big time conclusions from week one. Of course we will, that’s what we did. Right? But you’ll ride that horse for six, six and a half days. Yeah. And then you’ll see something totally different The following week, because it’s so matchup driven. But I guess the point is, we’re finally going to have our curiosity start to be satisfied here. But what I’m trying to emphasize is, don’t fall in love with or just make these wide, sweeping conclusions based on just what we’ve seen week one, because part of it is yeah, I don’t think the Houston Texans are gonna be very good. So that’ll be part of it. But it is going to be nice to see this in the flesh. I’ve talked about this a lot other others who’ve been out there and Owings Mills have talked about this a lot. Odell Beckham looked really good this summer. And to his credit he practiced just about every day I thought he would be I don’t know Ronnie Stanley kind of practice schedule this summer where he practice one day then the next day off and then maybe two days on and one off, he practice just about every day now they met pitches reps, he’s not leading them in reps at the wide receiver position but he looked good say flowers looks very promising. Go down the list that guy guys look good, but It’s practice. Now we get to see it in a live game setting, which is not the same thing. And that’s not a knock on anything they did over the summer. It’s just, we know how this works. Practice is practice, you’re preparing for the season, every single day, you’re out there at practice, Todd Monken is learning about these guys. He’s learning what they do best in, what personnel groupings are going to work best and what play calls are going to work best. And on the flip side, he also learned what they don’t do quite as well. And they’re not going to broadcast that. But things that maybe I saw out on the practice field and other reporters saw out on the practice field or fans who had a chance to attend training camp in August, things that they were working on, then you may never see that again, or may not see it until week. 13. You know, that’s just how this works. So it’s just it’s good to get to a point now where, hey, it’s optimism. There’s excitement, there should be no, I think this is gonna be a good football team. Now we’ll see how good moving forward but we finally get to see some live game action. See what they’re really good at. See if the pass rush is as big of a concern as some believe it to be. See what they’re what they look like a corner without Marlon Humphrey, at least these first couple of weeks. And again, all this hype about this offense. They’re healthy. Mark Andrews is the only guy that’s been banged up recently. But he’s, he’s going to practice this week. John hardball has been adamant about saying he’s fine, you know, and I’ll take John at his word for right now on that because he’s been so over the top adamant about him being fine, rather than being vague as he can be about, you know, other injuries in the past, but it’s all sitting right there for this offense. Now, there’s there are no more excuses. Greg Romans gone. They actually have wide receivers, they have multiple wide receivers. Eric Acosta joked about it late last week that for the first time that he could ever remember they got calls about a couple teams being interested in a wide receiver. You know what, whoever it was du Vernay, whatever it might have been. The point is, they are in a bit better position there. Greg Roman is no longer the whipping boy, so to speak, you know, everyone wanted to put every problem on him. And, you know, there were other things that worked against them. They’re healthy, though. And everything’s in place. They have solid to good depth at every position on that offense. Other than maybe quarterback because if Lamar Jackson’s injured again, they’re going nowhere. No. And that’s the case for any team with a franchise quarterback. Let’s be clear. But other than that, this team on paper looks like they should be an explosive, productive, really exciting offense to watch and on defense. Yeah, there are some questions about corner right now, especially with Humphrey out and the past rush. And we’ve been talking about that for a few years now. You know, so we’re gonna see how this plays out. And I think, fortunately, you know, because I’m not saying that to be a knock on them. But when you do get the JV as you described it in week one, it is kind of a nice way to ease into it, especially when your starters haven’t played in the preseason.
8Nestor Aparicio 13:03
Better not hiccup this week, Luke’s gonna be out. knowings Mills all week long. We will be monitoring all things ravens and on our social media. I’ve had John McClane on this week, the great great Dante Passerini will talk some Oilers history with me, one of my first football heroes on the program this week, as well as those Lofgren. Everybody’s hero playing this joint behind me at the Camden Yards this week, as Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band makes their way back to Baltimore. So we got you covered a lot of ways this week. Alright, so for football and our friends in Hollywood casino, we’re going to be making picks this week with a Christian up there so I got things I’m going to be doing here that are going to start the season the right way. But I thought coach Billick last week by the way sends his best from Minnesota and we were talking football and just life and just catching up and grandkids you know all that stuff. But it reminds me this time of year when I looked down on like alright, they got the JV this week who they got next week. Oh Cincinnati I already have cold Swain I think much of them at this point. Little homecoming there and then and then Cleveland maybe and then Pittsburgh maybe I don’t know where are you on the quartile? You know ability would always let’s take these for the time. You know, where are you in this first month? How do you really feel about the brands How do you really feel about the Steelers How do you really feel about the Bengals borough and you know, damn another quarterback during training camp. So it’s been a little bit different. You mentioned full health or good health or Marlon Humphrey your team’s missing players are where the Aaron Rodgers machine might be up at the with the Jets. It’s a coming out party for everybody in the league. But we talk Padres and Mets and Orioles. You know the surprising teams in baseball. Where are you on the Ravens? Well, how do you really feel about their first month?
Luke Jones 14:54
I mean, I think you look at the first month I mean, rookie quarterback. Week one CJ Stroud. I mean, I think demeco Ryans I think he’s an intriguing head coach. I mean, he’s coming from what’s been in a successful team in San Francisco for several years now. So they might be on the right track. Do I think that right track is gonna lead to a week one win? Where they pull off an upset against the Ravens? Of course not now that my official prediction later this week, but I think you know, where I
Nestor Aparicio 15:17
tried to get it out
Luke Jones 15:17
8here, but I think your lead Yeah, yeah. But I think I think this matchup against Cincinnati and we choose interesting just from the standpoint of look, and Cleveland’s talented, but they’re the Browns right, and I still don’t know where Deshaun Watson is, as a quarterback at this point. I’m not even getting into off field or how anyone feels about him personally. He didn’t look very good when he played late last year.
Nestor Aparicio 15:44
The Browns are better with Jacoby percent at quarterback earlier in the season. Now the way they were playing right, so we’re gonna figure one side or the other out while we’re watching the Ravens Sunday.
Luke Jones 15:54
Yeah, and we’ll we’ll do the overreaction one way or the other. But yeah, well, we’ll get to see what that looks like. I think Pittsburgh’s interesting, you know, as far as this division, I mean, there are a lot of hype on the Steelers that wasn’t there. And there you go is too much being put into how can he pick it and how they looked over the preseason. But, you know, but going back to what you said this first quarter of the season. I don’t think anyone’s overly concerned about Houston and week one. I mean, let’s just call a spade a spade there at Cincinnati. Couple things. As you mentioned, Joe burrow, missed the entire preseason. Now he has been back practicing and you know, it’s not as though he’s only gonna get one or two practices and then he’s gonna be out there. So physically, I would expect he’s fine. But he did miss a lot of raps and that offense missed a lot of reps. So does that mean we’re going to see a Bengals offense that’s firing on all cylinders with the way that they’re capable of doing that? I think maybe not. Now, that might be something that helps the Ravens as you’re looking at the Ravens defense and saying, Ooh, probably know Marlon Humphrey and even Humphrey at his best is that it is his issues covering tomorrow chase on occasions so but it’s a division game on the road. The Bengals have been the team to beat in the AFC north the last couple years they will be until the Ravens or someone else knocks them off so you know that game you don’t feel as good about but home against Indy, another rookie quarterback, Anthony Richardson. Interesting to see what their offense looks like. Could it be another version of Lamar Jackson, Greg Roman, early era? We’ll see. I think they’re intriguing but do I think Indianapolis is gonna be very good this year. Now of course the games being played in Baltimore. So those three games I look at the Ravens being two and one you know, not to say they can’t win in Cincinnati but I’ll give the Bengals the home field advantage nod and then at Cleveland I think you feel pretty good about the Ravens chances go in there and
Nestor Aparicio 17:53
I wonder what when they’re going to be when we get there you know I love that trip every year because you know I like to want to tree mountain getting breakfast and whatnot but you know we’re going to be turning the corner on the Orioles going into the playoffs at that point. Maybe with a buy if this thing can hold up. You know, I look at the Browns man did the browns. They opened with Cincinnati then then they play Pittsburgh on Monday night next week after the kicks concert week two and then they got the Titans at home. Oh and three wanting to two more? I don’t know I don’t know what they are. But I think we’re gonna we’re gonna know more about them then because if they win any of these games, they beat the Bengals they beat the Steelers or they beat the Titans. You’d have to say well that’s that’s something that they beat any or all of them. I mean, they have kind of an interesting we’re gonna know what they are by week three. I don’t know if we’re gonna know what the ravens are to your point. We’re playing the stiffs the JV, you know, like I won’t know what this is from the Ravens. I will know what the offense is and what but I expect the ravens to be three in one. I mean, I really do I mean looking through this and if they lose to the Bengals, okay, I mean, you and I maybe expect that but if they beat the Bengals now all of a sudden you’re talking about something different. You’re talking about that Steelers game and week five as you know if they’re foreign Oh, at that point, really? If they’re that good, then you’re talking about all that promise. And then the purple 10 starts going here and the Orioles have expectations we had a different kind of season here where we’re going to have this orange purple thing because the Orioles could go out with a bang boom boom boom be gone the first weekend of October because that’s the way this works. I don’t think it’s gonna go that way because I have more confidence in them. But as this thing builds in, I really expect the ravens to be good. I mean, and not necessarily good that they’re gonna win the Super Bowl but good here in September. In that head coach players motivated healthy, bad schedule. One o’clock games thanks stay on schedule for them. It would not shock me to see them be five No, go going along, like I like that wouldn’t. I wouldn’t be like, Oh, they can’t do that, that dude, they start stubbing their toe and things don’t go well here, somebody gets hurt something bad happens. That changes it, but they should be for one going to London. Yeah,
8Luke Jones 20:15
I mean, the only thing I would caution is you’re talking about three division road games over that time. And as much as I think you’re on the same wavelength, as me looking at, you know, I think it’s Cincinnati and Baltimore. I don’t think Pittsburgh is going to be bad. I don’t even think the Browns are going to be terrible or anything like that. I think it’s gonna be a competitive division. And well, I think the Bengals and the Ravens are the team’s really duking it out for the division title. That’s not to say that you’re going to go to Pittsburgh or gonna go to Cleveland, and it’s going to be a cakewalk. I mean, I think this could easily be one of those years, where even the Bengals and the Ravens are three and three in the division. You know, that’s, we know how this plays out, right? I mean, it helps in your scenario,
Nestor Aparicio 20:54
if they’re gonna lose, they’re gonna lose on the road, they play them all on the road. So and that’s what they should lose two out of three, maybe, right?
Luke Jones 21:02
Well, I guess that’s my point in saying, I would be a little surprised that they’re five. No. And if they are five, oh, then yeah, you’re talking about this team having the potential though, you’re gonna be in contention, maybe then for the number one seed. Well, that’s
Nestor Aparicio 21:19
8the other plate in AFC Championship game, or 27 years. So like, this is supposed to be loaded for bear. They’re supposed to be the best team in the division. Now, you know, forget Buffalo and the Jets, and whatever the kittens in San Diego is now doing an LA Well, you know, like the other mahomes you have to deal with any of them, but they’re gonna have to deal with some West Coast games. I mean, they’re gonna be making some trips, they’re gonna be doing some traveling. And they better make their do in Cincinnati, Cleveland and Pittsburgh, because none of the other road trips are easy. It’s not just going to go beat the jets and beat a 40 year old version of Flacco, I don’t think they’re gonna get that I think these road games are going to be given Hell, they better they better build some padding. They better not be two and three or three and two. That’s what I’m saying. Because they’re going to short deco scuffle going out to San Francisco and out to LA in the middle of the night, even after the desert, I think. I mean, they have tough trips.
Luke Jones 22:08
They do have some tough trips. There’s no question. I think just in general, you look at the second half of the schedule, although I might beg to differ on the Arizona Game. I think the Cardinals are gonna be awful. And I think part of I think part of that’s by design, I think they’re gonna be they’re looking at at the top picks and next year’s draft. And this new regime is not enamored with Kyler Murray, that we’ll get to that in late October when they play. But you look at the first half of the schedule. Yeah, I mean, you look at this, even though you do have three division road games, you want to get off to a good start because even look in October, I mean, you get beyond these first three games were Houston at Cincinnati, Indianapolis. Let’s just say for argument’s sake two and one, you know, they lose to the Bengals. No shame in that if that happens, of course. But at Cleveland, at Pittsburgh, at Tennessee, home against Detroit coming back from London, we saw how that worked out against the Steelers back in 2017 after the Jacksonville game.
Nestor Aparicio 23:06
Good. I’m a believer in Detroit as a competitor so so as much as you look
Luke Jones 23:13
at that schedule and just in a vacuum you don’t you look at those opponents. It’s not like it’s this juggernaut hardest schedule in the NFL, but you do have three straight road games there. And two of them are division games and then you do have Detroit and we’re gonna we’re gonna see Detroit this week and be a good litmus test for them against the the chiefs, you’re gonna see where they are going up against the defending Super Bowl champions. But no, I think October has the has the chance to be a little sneaky, challenging for the Ravens. Not even sneaky. It’s challenging. Anytime you have three straight road games, and I get it the Titans. I don’t think the Titans are nearly as good as they’ve been here in recent years. And they collapse the second half of last year. We saw that, but it’s a London game. And we all know what happened six years ago when the Ravens went to London against the Jacksonville team that in fairness actually turned out to be pretty pretty darn good that year, but they still got destroyed in that game. So you know, that’s always a challenge. So this, it’s important for the ravens to get off to a good start here. There’s no doubt about some
8Nestor Aparicio 24:14
games this year. Now that I’m looking at the schedule, they’re gonna lose some games. I mean, and look, I’ll continue to
Luke Jones 24:21
go back to 2019 when they’re 14 into the best point differential, the NFL is seen since the oh seven patriots right, the undefeated patriots until the Super Bowl. You know, it comes down to it. This team is all about January anyway at this point. Right. Is there anything they could do in the regular season at this point? That’s not going to have someone saying Yeah, but what about January? What about Lamar winning in January? What about Mark Andrews winning in January? What about Marlon Humphrey winning in January? What about John Harbaugh at this point who’s now as you pointed out a little bit earlier now more than a decade removed from the last time he was in an AFC Championship game? It’s all about January for this team. So my point with that That is, yeah, let’s be clear, you have to play well enough to get there. But, you know, how much is the number one seed worth? How much is home field advantage worth? Now the Ravens have done some of their best work in January being road dogs. I mean, it’s, you know, we’re gonna see how it plays out. But everything about this team between now and what you hope what you expect is getting to January is how do you put yourself in a position continuing to get better offensively, doing enough defensively? You know, figuring out some semblance of a pass rush, making sure you’ve got enough depth at corner, this passing game, taking the next step, you know, reaching a higher ceiling than it ever had under Greg Roman. Everything about this season? Yeah, you need to win, you need to win games, you have to qualify. Let’s be clear about that. Let’s not put, you know the heart or the cart before the horse, but at the same time, just getting there. That’s not good enough anymore for this group for this for this current era of ravens football and Lamar Jackson and those guys would be the first to tell you that it’s time for them to step up. But they’ve got to show that improvement along the way and continuing to get better and doing what you need to do to put themselves in position that once January does come that they’re ready to go and health is a big part of that beginning with number eight staying on the field. There’s no question about that. Here’s Luke Jones.
Nestor Aparicio 26:22
He will be on the backfields in Owings Mills talking all things football all week long. He’ll be on with Dennis at four or three o’clock to five o’clock on Sunday Sports voice. We have so many things going on. It’s football season. We’re doing the Maryland crab cake tour next Friday the 15th of families. A little bit of a down weekend we had Labor Day, it’s 150 degrees this week. It’s crazy Springsteen’s in down. We got Nils Lofgren on the air here this week, as well as his big game with the Houston Texans. Oh, you hear from John McClane, you hear from Dante Passerini as well as an Roanoke county executive Steuart Pittman, we are celebrating 25 years. With our special purple cupcake here. We’re gonna be doing a little pregame, tailgating next week, as the Tampa rays come to town with some big baseball games as well, Hollywood casinos, we’re doing a big event on the 15th. That’s the morning that the ravens are in Tottenham, we’re going to be having a proper British breakfast up in Perryville. At the Hollywood casino and the ESPN casino, they’re going to be having up there as well. So lots of things going on around here. Look just on the bullish nature of all of this. And we’ve talked about this a little bit. The thing that I’m most interested in with with the football team, is what the offense is going to do, and running versus passing, and what their will and their want, and what they’ve been practicing, and how that’s going to convey to the field, not this week. But for this first quartile of games like how is this offense going to look? Are we going to look at and say they’re averaging 28 points a game? Are we looking at say, Oh, they’ve been kicking the ball around? Are we looking at it and saying at Tucker’s kick three field goals every week, and they’re kind of sputtering and they’re only scoring 24 points. And I should say only 24. I don’t know what the defense is going to be. But we’re we have an expectation here at a blank screen of all of these wide receivers, all of these Twitter nuts. And these Raven heads think they’re going to throw the ball 58 times because they’ve got all these guys catching 15 balls a week. And that’s just not. That’s not reality. I don’t know what reality is. And I wouldn’t even throw a dart, but I could start to look at and say, All right, they’re gonna win 34 to 13. This week, I’ve said that 100 times, you know, they’re gonna rack up, you know, 480 yards of offense this week. They’re gonna play HD football. We’re gonna run the ball a bit more. Maybe think they are. What does it look like? Dobbins 18 carries 114 yards, back on four catches, 56 yards and a touchdown, flowers, six catches 84 yards. Bad Andrews six catches 123 yards and a touchdown. I don’t like that’s what it feels. It doesn’t feel like there’s going to be anything gaudy. Because it feels like Lamar is gonna throw for 480 yards. It feels like Lamar is gonna throw for 269 yards and hopefully be 2331 I you know, like, and I hope I come back a week from now. And these are all the positive good news because that’s the way this is gonna have to look, there’s gonna have to be some kind of balance, because it’s not going to be pinball Madden Football. It’s not I don’t I don’t think they’re going to rack up 53 points this week. I don’t think they’re going to play like that. I don’t think they’re going to be big strike in that way.
Luke Jones 29:38
8Yeah, I mean, look, it’s week one there. There’s always going to be there’s always an unpredictable nature of what happens, you know, I mean, someone could get hurt in the first quarter. That’s pivotal to your game plan. I mean, you never really know what’s going to happen on that front. But as I said, I think we’re definitely gonna see way more three wide receiver sets, whether that’s throwing from 11 personnel or running from 11 personnel. I think you’re just that’s going To become their new identity, whereas the last couple years, you know, it was way more 22 personnel to two backs, two tight ends, or one back to tight ends. You know, we saw so much of that under Greg Roman that I think you’re not going to see those looks nearly as often I think you are going to see more throwing on first down that and my mind you that does not mean, if you throw on first down that that that doesn’t equate to necessarily throwing it 48 times a game either. They’re gonna throw up more than they have in the past or in general, I don’t think there’s any question about that you don’t invest at the wide receiver position, the way that they do without intention of throwing the ball more than they did in the past. But I still do think and I’ll continue to say you still have JK Dobbins, you still have Gus Edwards, Justice Hill look for him Nestor, I would not be shocked to see Justice Hill more involved in this offense than we’ve ever seen. Because I do think he’s a good fit for the kind of back that Todd Monken wants to see. This is an offensive line that’s still very much designed to run block. That’s not to say they’re not good past protectors. But any offensive line, they love to run block, you know, they love to get out there and row great and blow guys off the ball. And when the line of scrimmage I mean that’s what they want to do. So, and I’ll continue to remind everyone, Todd Monken at Georgia, what were the Bulldogs known for having one back to back national championships, running game featuring the tight ends. That still sounds familiar to how the Ravens used to play under Greg Roman. So I’m not saying that’s going to just continue. But my point is, those those aspects of an offense are not going to disappear from this offense. Until we see otherwise Nestor the Ravens number one receiver is still Mark Andrews until we see otherwise until we see Lamar is going to back home or is a flowers or Rashad Bateman or whoever that much more than he has in the past. In the case of Bateman obviously flowers and Beckham are new, but you still have an All Pro tight end. And I don’t think we should overlook that we shouldn’t overlook the fact that Todd Monken very much valued the running game at Georgia and oh, yeah, this team can still run the ball really well. Right. I mean, they they better, you know, they should you know, because the personnel wise, it’s not terribly different from where Greg Roman, you know, from when Greg Roman was here, oh, line wise and running back wise. So, you know, we’re just gonna have to see how it plays out. I still will say, I think it’s definitely more passing than in the past. But I don’t think that means pass heavy. I don’t think that means they’re going away from being balanced. We are still talking about a John Harbaugh lead roster here. John Harbaugh likes to run the football. He’s old school in that way. So no, I don’t think Lamar Jackson is going to be throwing it 45 times a game. There might be some games where that happens. But by the way that happened in the past on occasion. So it’s going to be dictated by the matchup, the game situation where they are, healthwise, all of those things, but I think what’s just going to be fun about this is, yeah, there is some unknown, you know, Greg Roman said longer here, you know, that the guy that was the scapegoat for some things that weren’t even his fault. You know, he’s no longer in the picture. So there are no more excuses for everyone who’s left behind. It’s time to make this offense, the best possible version of itself.
Nestor Aparicio 33:23
All right. Well, look, Coach hardball. We’ll have them ready. I hope everybody is reading. My Dear Steve shoddy letters. I have a really special letter for John hardball regarding truth and integrity, especially in regards to journalism, as well as Eric d’acosta, Sashi Brown. They’ll all be getting postmarks from me. This week. You can find all of it at columnists. You can find all of our work and social media looks at Baltimore, look at on Instagram and on Twitter. And on Facebook. We have observations insights on football, on baseball and certainly on Bruce Springsteen, an E Street Band with a long chat with nose Lofton. This week we talked about county government last week was still recruitment and our 25th anniversary with our longtime producer, Ray Bachman, one of my favorite people we had a crab cake out of Pappas last week and told some old stories about signs signs everywhere assigned. Also this week coming up number 24 is going to be the memory of our barn shows and our our purple live shows and Luke you were part of the last show we ever did with Sam Cooke on a snowy night up in green mount station but a long, long legacy of 25 years before the plague really of doing shows. Ryan Jensen just showed up literally I was surfing, building his house out in Colorado. So there’s never a day I don’t see Dan Wilcox. So many, many relationships and friendships that I hope to stir up a little bit during the course of the season with old barn folks that are still with us, and I’ll be putting a bunch of pictures up. It’s always good to see I gave rod Woodson some love on on social media two weeks ago who doesn’t deserve love more than rod Woodson, the Great Hall of Famer so I’ll miss his call. as well so it is football season. Buckle up your chin strap. Get ready to read some stuff. Luke’s gonna be writing stuff. He’s in Owings Mills. We’re following Oriole baseball from the West Coast back here for some tailgating next weekend. I am. I’m thrilled that I have survived. My wife has survived the rest of us not Jimmy Buffett. All the rest of us have survived to get to the point where there’s a September at wn S T, where the Orioles have a 35 over 500 advantage and a lead in the American League East and a chance to get a by a baseball by that. I feel like I’m in Back to the Future something and, and a real chance here to to do something special in October. And we already have a special September with pretty good football around here the rest of the month. I’m Nestor he’s Luke, we’re wn st am 1570, Towson Baltimore come on down to families and see us on the 15th as well. We’ll be giving away some Maryland lottery scratch awesome ravens scratch offs as well as celebrating our relationship with compensate now in our 10th year of our flagship with the mighty eagles, back for more Baltimore positive and wn St. We are Baltimore positive and wn st am 1570, Towson, Baltimore.
