Getting defensive about Ravens defense after loss to Burrow and Bengals

When the offense commits five turnovers it’s hard to blame the defense for a loss. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss Joe Burrow coming back from a serious injury to defeat a beleaguered Ravens defense that lost some luster on Thanksgiving night against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Baltimore Ravens’ defense after their loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. They highlighted the defense’s strong performance in the first half, including a goal-line stand and limiting the Bengals to field goals. However, the defense struggled in the third quarter, allowing key plays and third-down conversions. The offense’s five turnovers also contributed to the loss. Injuries to key players like Nate Wiggins and the pass rush’s decline were noted. The conversation also touched on the Ravens’ upcoming games and the need for offensive improvement to secure a playoff spot.

• [ ] Analyze the defense’s performance in the second half and identify areas for improvement.
• [ ] Monitor Nate Wiggins’ injury status and determine the impact on the defense.
• [ ] Evaluate the pass rush and pressure on the quarterback, and make adjustments to be more disruptive.
• [ ] Review the offense’s turnovers and work on ball security and decision-making.
• [ ] Develop a plan to get the offense back on track and regain confidence.

Maryland Crab Cake Tour and Holiday Plans

• Nestor Aparicio discusses the Maryland crab cake tour, mentioning various locations like CASAS, Dundalk, and Honey.
• Nestor talks about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame event and his mother, Regina, who reminded him of his mom.
• Nestor mentions inviting Pete Coring and the Italian men’s club to Deep Pasquale’s for a feast.
• Nestor expresses disappointment in the Ravens’ performance on Thanksgiving night, focusing on both offense and defense.

Defensive Performance Against Bengals

• Luke Jones acknowledges the defense’s performance in the first half, noting the goal-line stand and red zone success.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the Bengals’ time of possession advantage and the impact of Nate Wiggins’ injury.
• Luke highlights the defense’s improvements since early October, particularly in the red zone.
• Luke criticizes the defense’s performance in the third quarter, noting the Bengals’ success on third down and key plays.

Impact of Injuries and Offensive Struggles

• Luke Jones discusses the impact of Nate Wiggins’ injury on the pass rush and the defense’s overall performance.
• Nestor and Luke talk about the offensive struggles, including turnovers and the quarterback’s health.
• Luke mentions the importance of Marlon Humphrey and the challenges faced by the defense with Wiggins’ absence.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the Bengals’ offensive weapons and the defense’s performance against them.

Evaluating the Defense and Offense

• Luke Jones emphasizes the defense’s role in the first half and the offense’s struggles in the second half.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the importance of the defense’s performance in the red zone and on third down.
• Luke highlights the defensive players’ frustration with the offense’s performance and the impact on their own play.
• Nestor and Luke talk about the Bengals’ offensive success and the defense’s ability to limit their impact.

Looking Ahead to the Steelers Game

• Nestor and Luke discuss the upcoming game against the Steelers and the importance of winning to stay in the playoff race.
• Luke expresses concern about the offense’s performance and the impact on the team’s overall success.
• Nestor and Luke talk about the importance of the Steelers game and the potential impact on the division standings.
• Luke mentions the challenges of playing on the road and the need for the offense to improve.

Reflecting on the Season and Playoff Hopes

• Nestor and Luke reflect on the season’s performance and the team’s playoff chances.
• Luke discusses the importance of the remaining games and the need for the team to win to stay in contention.
• Nestor and Luke talk about the impact of the Bengals’ win and the potential impact on the division standings.
• Luke emphasizes the need for the offense to improve and the defense to maintain their performance.

Final Thoughts and Future Plans

• Nestor and Luke discuss the importance of the upcoming games and the need for the team to perform well.
• Nestor mentions the Maryland crab cake tour and the various locations they will visit.
• Nestor thanks the listeners and sponsors for their support.
• Nestor and Luke express their hope for the team’s success and their appreciation for the listeners.

Luke Jones and Nestor discuss …ter loss to Burrow and Bengals

Fri, Nov 28, 2025 9:38AM • 30:47

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Ravens defense, Thanksgiving loss, Joe Burrow, Nate Wiggins injury, pass rush, red zone, offensive struggles, Lamar Jackson, Marlon Humphrey, defensive line, offensive line, playoff hopes, Pittsburgh game, Baltimore positive.

8

SPEAKERS

Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We’re Baltimore positive. Positively into the crab cake season. Happy holidays. Everybody out there. Hope your leftovers are tasty. Send them over to me. I’ll take all braving leftovers. I’ll take the legs. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland lottery and GBMC. We’re taking the Maryland crab cake tour on the road. We will be out at various places two weeks from now, doing three in a row. We’re going to be a CASAS and Dundalk for the holiday week with Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Regina shock, and that’s become a little bit of a tradition. She reminds me my mom anyway, so and she was banging the skins with Cyndi Lauper and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame a couple weeks ago. Girls were just wanting to have fun. So we’re going to look into that. We’re also going to be a new place called Honey. Called honeys and hail Thorpe. I’m looking forward to having some delicious Asian food over there, some Korean food, as well as a crab cake. And we’re also going to be back at deep pasquale’s Having to feast to the Seven Fishes. And I think Pete coring is going to join me too. Anybody who’s Italian, I’m going to invite the whole Italian men’s club that I spoke to a couple weeks ago to meet me at deeper squalies for breakfast. Nancy Longo, good Italian girl, tells me they have great pizza there. So, and this guy’s wearing his pizza John’s hat, so I know he wants to get back to Pizza John’s as well for the holidays. And, yeah, it did not go well on Thanksgiving night on either side of the ball. I thought, really, we can discuss the offense that we have and Lamar and his health and all that, but Luke Jones, where are we with the defense in holding a bunch of field goals? I mean, it could have been a lot worse. I mean, if burrow could have finished some drives, it really could have been uglier than a three touchdown loss. It was a bad, memorably bad football game for the Ravens on Thanksgiving.

Luke Jones  01:46

Yeah, and look, we’ll get into the defense in terms of the second half. The pass rush wasn’t great. Pressure rate wasn’t great. I mean, that was something that took a step back after, I think seeing some encouraging movement in the right direction the last few weeks, but by and large, I can’t hold the defense as accountable as the offense, right? You know, as culpable as the offense for what we saw on Thursday night. I mean, look back at that first half, Cincinnati was over four inside the red zone. They spotted them the ball at the two yard line and the defense made a goal line stand there. You know, the following drive the Cincinnati gets the ball at midfield, right? I mean, when you

Nestor Aparicio  02:30

8

stop the team the ball at the two yard line and don’t get a point, you feel like we’re gonna win. Yeah, that’s a flip of a flip of a flip.

Luke Jones  02:36

Really, it was borderline miraculous that they were only down 12 seven at halftime, when you consider how their offense had played in that first half, and but you looked at it and you saw, well, they ran Bengals ran 45 plays in the first half. Time of possession was about two to one. You know, it was 20 minutes and six seconds to 954, almost on the dot, two to one. That generally Nestor does not bode well for the rest of the game. And then when you couple that with Nate Wiggins exiting with the foot injury that you know John Harbaugh indicated, it’s not like season ending, but doesn’t mean that he’s not going to miss a game or two. Here, it adds up. And I think you saw a version of Joe burrow that, let’s face it, Cincinnati had a good opening script. You credit them for what they did on the opening drive. You credit the Ravens for tightening the belt inside the red zone, as we’ve seen them do so often. You know, it’s not as though this defense has been elite between the 20s, but we’ve seen it be when they since. They’ve made their improvements, since early October, when they made the changes and Gilman arrived and then Draymond Jones arrives at the trade deadline. They’ve certainly been really, really good in the red area and limiting the opposition to field goals rather than touchdowns. I mean, it’s, it’s math, it’s simple math, right? I mean, you, you don’t have to be a football genius to figure that out, but the second half on Thursday night, the success that they had had in high leverage when you’re talking about especially in the red zone, but also on third down. I mean, Cincinnati was third of three of 11 on third down in that first half, and then they come out in the third quarter, and the Ravens just couldn’t get off the field, and now Cincinnati made some great plays. I mean, there are a couple great connections from from burrow to chase, which, you know, that connection you could tell wasn’t in mid season form. I think that was evident, but they still made up, made some plays. I mean, the the tanner Hudson touchdown catch. I mean, now it’s phenomenal. I mean, that’s a one handed catch with Kyle Hamilton in coverage on you. I mean, that’s one of those where you begrudgingly tip the cap that said they didn’t make burrow nearly uncomfortable enough for my liking, knowing Patel knowing that he hadn’t played a game in over two months, and you’re kind of wondering what his clock’s going to be. He’s really good dude. No question. There’s no doubt, no question about it. But they didn’t do enough to disrupt him. And, you know, they didn’t blitz a whole lot. When they did Blitz, it didn’t get home. I mean, we all saw the it was a great pickup by what P Ryan on that one, you know, big play. You know, Malachi Starks had a missed coverage on the yosevash Touchdown. I mean, it just it wasn’t good enough. It was all you could reasonably ask them to do defensively in the first half. That went away in the third quarter, and honestly, kind of predictable, right? I mean, you’re you’re not going to continue to hold them down to that extent, if your offense is going to continue to not get the job done. I mean, you you knew that you weren’t going to continue to hold them to field goals if some things didn’t change, and losing Wiggins hurt and their pass rush, which hadn’t been perfect the last few weeks, but I felt like was ascending. You know it felt like with Draymond Jones arriving and Mike Green being better over the last month or so, I guess Cleveland game aside when he had an ankle and you could tell he wasn’t right, but, but there were at least some signs there to say, Okay, this is moving in the right direction. I don’t know if it’s going to be what it needs to be in January, but it feels better than it did seven weeks ago. They took a step back in that way on Thursday night for me. So that’s really my biggest takeaway from the defense. I mean, again, spotting them the ball. I mean, you turn it over five times, just you don’t even have to say anything else, five turnovers. But then you consider the circumstances of some of that, where there was a goal line stand and they held them that, you know, they’re over four inside the red zone in the first half. I mean, to your point, it could have been way worse. I mean, it was such an odd game in that way, because you look at like the likely play with the offense, and you know, the offense could have scored more points, but their defense could have given up way more than 32 and I’m not going to sit here and say that the defense played well in the second half. And, yeah, that was my lead question to Hamilton, when he was on the, you know, Kyle Hamilton, when he was on the post game podium, you know, especially on the, on the heels of the heavy lifting you did in the red zone, you know, how in the first half, how frustrating was not getting off the field on third down in that third quarter. And I mean, you could see it on his face. I mean, there was a high level of frustration. And look, I think they were good teammates, as they should be when they’re talking to the media and when they’re front facing, and guys seem to be accountable. I seem like everyone talked that you would want to talk in the post game. But how can you not be frustrated if you’re the defense with how that offense played on Thursday night, and I think that caught up to them then as the game went on, and they weren’t getting the burrow to the degree that I think they needed to. Quite frankly,

Nestor Aparicio  07:49

he is Luke Jones. We were discussing defense and, as it were, and the Wiggins thing, the injury, and just where we are with Marlon Humphrey, and also with with a Woozi, a who, by the way, and I mentioned Jason Garrett. I even tweeted and socialed that I thought Jason Garrett did a nice job. He drafted a who’s third round is, I forgot about that. He talked a lot about Cheeto is, you know, so and he made some nice plays. I mean, that guy’s been a heck of an addition. He has

Luke Jones  08:20

been, there’s no doubt about it. We’ve talked about it a little bit in passing. And look, I mean, Humphrey, of course, missed time with the ankle, or not the ankle, the finger, had the big force fumble inside the five against the Jets. So it’s not as though he’s been awful. I thought he was really bad early in the season, which, you know, and obviously ended up missing some time. But even before then, I didn’t think he was playing. Think he was playing well. But I’ll be honest with you, not discounting what Humphrey does when they go to dime and he moves inside, and Hamilton’s playing dime and he plays nickel, and that impact, if we’re just talking about him purely as an outside corner, compared to a Woozi a as an outside corner. I think a Woozi is played better than Humphrey. I absolutely think that problem is, and we saw this, you know, with with the critical pass interference that TJ Tampa committed when Wiggins exits, Woozi A comes on the field, and now you’re in a position where, when you go dime, Humphrey’s moving inside, because, you know he and Hamilton are playing the the dime and the nickel respectively, and now you have TJ Tampa on the outside, when, under normal circumstances, he’s not out there in that spot. And that was just a bad pi. That was the right call. That was frustrating, because that pass wasn’t, it wasn’t an uncatchable ball, but that pass was not going to be completed. He did not need to interfere there, and he did. And it was another pivotal play where they didn’t get off the field on third down in that second half. So, you know, you look at it, and obviously, I mean Cincinnati, I mean they didn’t have T Higgins. It was pretty I was surprised. How much burrow kept going to Tinsley, and that was pretty clearly the T Higgins role in that offense. But you know, the silver lining is Pittsburgh doesn’t have, you know, other than Metcalf, doesn’t have these weapons on the outside, where, if Wiggins doesn’t play that, you feel like you’re in deep trouble, but it’s still not ideal. I mean, Wiggins, other than Hamilton, could argue Wiggins has been their second best defensive player this year. I mean, I mean, I think he’s somewhere in that space, you know, he’s played well, you know, very well at times this year. So, you know, we’re going to have to see about that. But for me again, my biggest takeaway beyond he needs to be back as soon as possible. Is just disappointed. I I thought their pass rush was making some taking some nice steps here in recent weeks, and that felt a little more early season. Pass rush a little more than to my liking, so especially against a Bengals offensive line that I’ll give them credit. If you look at some of their numbers, they have gotten better since the beginning of the year, where they were just awful. But, you know, that was still that’s that’s a below average group, and you’d like to be able to be a little more disruptive than they were, just knowing the circumstances. I mean to his credit, I thought burrow moved around well enough. You know, I was wondering how limited he would be in the pocket. Not that he’s a guy that takes off and run, but he’s still a guy that moves to, you know, he

8

Nestor Aparicio  11:30

didn’t exactly look like a guy even played in 10 weeks, right?

Luke Jones  11:33

But I was questioning what that would look like. But even with questioning that, there was still very much an expectation of you need to make things really uncomfortable for him. This a guy who hasn’t played a real football game in two and a half months. And they did that to some extent, in the first half. And, you know, after that opening drive, it’s not like he did a whole lot in that first half, after that early, you know, or that field goal on the opening drive where, you know, their script, their opening script was good until they got to the Red Zone anyway, but, yeah, second half. I mean, that third quarter he made, he made some great throws. I mean, there’s some, some plays there that you just tip your cap, right? I mean, Cincinnati, for as much as we’ve banged on, their defense being this historically terrible group. I mean, they were scoring 30 plus points, you know, multiple games with Joe Flacco. And, you know, we saw Joe Flacco until the the shoulder caught off to him the last couple weeks he was playing good

Nestor Aparicio  12:25

talk about Chase. I mean, it doesn’t matter. We could talk Wiggins Humphrey ouzier, bring McAllister and Rod Woodson back and get his dude. He’s great.

Luke Jones  12:36

8

Oh, of course. I mean, say what you want about him spitting on Jalen Ramsey. I mean, you know, he’s a knucklehead, and that’s probably one of the nicer ways I could describe him as it pertains to that. But he’s a generational talent. I mean, he’s, he’s phenomenal. And, like I said, I mean, burrow threw to him 14 times. They only connected seven times. I mean, you could tell their timing wasn’t quite right. And, and there were also some good plays in there. I mean, you know, there were a couple pass breakups in there as well, you know, but he was going to get his and then, you know, again, you just look at some of the other plays. I mean, that that that touched down the tanner Hudson. I mean, that was a great catch. I don’t know what you want Kyle Hamilton to do differently there. I mean, could the coverage have been a smidge better? Sure, it’s just, it’s a contested catch. God made a one handed catch the yoshibos play. I mean, well, to your point,

Nestor Aparicio  13:24

a Woozi, a Starks, they all had big breakups. I mean, they got in the way on plays that would have connected, aside from the laundry, on a play that wouldn’t have connected. But they they, they played good defense at points where they broke. They were in position.

Luke Jones  13:42

And again, this is what we go back to. There were busted plays. I’ll say that nobody. I mean, it’s not like, I mean, what they did? They had the big the 43 yarder to chase, right? And yoshibash Caught a 29 yard touchdown. I mean, those were the two big plays. The rest of it was, you know, six yards, seven yard paper cut. I thought, I thought they did a good job using Chase brown out of the backfield as an extension of their running game. You know, that they ran the ball a little bit better on the Ravens. And I would have liked to have seen right, I mean, but that that’s kind of been the one thing about the Bengals offense that you gave them credit for. You know, as much as you know, they lose burrow in week two, and Jake Browning was just terrible early on. That’s, I mean, that’s why they went out and got placo. Their running game got a lot better. So they did enough, right? I mean, it’s to your point, like, I don’t come away from this game thinking that all the Ravens defense was awful in this game. They were bad in the third quarter. But gosh, you consider the spot that you put them in, and even looking at in a in a big picture sense, other than the fact that we knew that Joe burrow was, this is the first time he was playing in two and a half months. It’s Joe burrow. It’s Jamar Chase. You go into that game, are you saying, Hmm, 14 points scored, we’ll get the job. No, and that’s where we come back. Two it’s the offense, right? The defense had had its warts. You know, they, they weren’t perfect. They weren’t 2000 esque, right? I mean, certainly they, they needed to be better in the third quarter when, I mean, they just couldn’t get off the field on third down. But you go back to that first half alone, and like, the defense right there, like, that was the halftime conversation. Like, if I’m if I’m on that team, the halftime conversation is, defense, you did your part in the first half. Offense, you better come out and do some serious work in the second half, because we’re lucky that we’re down 12 to seven right now and not down 17 points right now. So you know, and they didn’t do that in the second half. I mean, it’s just that simple. So burrow was, and the Bengals were going to get theirs offensively to some degree. And then again, when you’re the

Nestor Aparicio  15:47

better team all night, which is really the part where we’re scratching our heads here the next 10 days, waiting for the Steelers saying it wasn’t supposed to play

8

Luke Jones  15:53

that way at home. And that’s why I said, Look, I don’t want this to be that the season’s over or they can’t win the division, or they won’t win the division or but we’ve talked about it. We talked about this to the Jets game, even in victory, that just how that looked and how that was unnerving when you lose to the Bengals and the Jets or and you play the way they did offensively against the Jets the four days earlier. I mean, what’s the GET RIGHT game at this point, these were supposed to be the get well, games for your offense, and you saw how they played. Now, I don’t think they’re going to turn the ball over five times every game the rest of the way, but, man, I mean, all bets are off at this point. It’s funny. And this is, you know, I’m working on this for Baltimore positive.com It was setting up to be one of those nights when you’re sitting there watching the Chiefs lose another game in Dallas, and you’re, you’re thinking, man, they’re six and six, they’re, I mean, their division hopes are completely shot. I mean, they were before Thursday, but especially now. But you look at that and you’re thinking, wow, the chiefs, I mean, they might, it might not happen for them this year. You know me, I’ve been the guy that said over and over, you don’t doubt Kansas City. You don’t doubt Kansas City. They’re six and six at some point the math. You can’t ignore the math, right?

Nestor Aparicio  17:14

And that still doesn’t mean you want to be the division winner. Of course not. But to your point, they might not make the playoffs. I would agree with that,

Luke Jones  17:22

but, but now you look at and if the Ravens win, even if it’s not like this overwhelming five touchdown boat race kind of victory or anything like that, they just win. And they’re seven and five, and they’re leading the AFC north. And you know Kansas, or you know Pittsburgh’s playing Buffalo, and you see where Kansas City is, and we’ve seen the bills look very mortal. And you’re you’re looking around and you’re saying, man, there’s they’re smelling Not, not like, Oh, they’re the favorite to win it all, but they’re smelling different than those other teams. Instead, they just came right back to the pack of so much in the AFC, of who’s good, right? And when that happens against the Bengals and that defense specifically. I mean, it’s just, I don’t know all bets are off. I don’t know if they’re going to make the playoffs. I don’t know how many games are going to win the like. I don’t think they’re going to lose like. I’m not going to sit here and say, Oh, they’re going to lose out, and they’re going to be six and 11 and everyone’s going to get fired. Like, no, I don’t think that’s going to happen, but I can’t sit here with any conviction and say that they’re going to win four out of five, which still kind of, you know, we’ve talked, we talked about

Nestor Aparicio  18:34

8

two last week, right? We said four and two. I don’t

Luke Jones  18:36

know if they’re showing signs that gives me a lot of confidence that they’re going to do that when three of those games are on the road and the one game, the quote, easier game of those five, is Cincinnati. Who you just

Nestor Aparicio  18:49

lost to any of this is that the offense doesn’t look right, the quarterback doesn’t look healthy, and the offensive line is not good, no matter this day it’s the

Luke Jones  19:00

defense still has, still has fair questions about the defensive line, in the pass rush, right? That that’s

8

Nestor Aparicio  19:05

felt better. This team is not the team we thought it was in August. I mean, it’s

Luke Jones  19:10

just not. I mean, you and I talked about it before this game, you know, because you made, I think you had said, I’m not sure if they’re good, and I made the comment like, I think they’re good, in the context of, like, being good enough to make the playoffs. But, man, after Thursday night, I’m not even sure they’re they’re that right now. I mean, they’re on the outside looking in and until we see, pending the result of Pittsburgh buffalo, they got

Nestor Aparicio  19:33

to play their way in. They got five games left against all kind of playoff caliber teams, and a team that just beat them with a $50 million quarterback, that’s up right now. So and you got to go there and do it, which is never fun.

Luke Jones  19:46

8

And this is where you go back to the reality of you were one in five. The math does not change there. That one in five is with you the rest of the way you. So, yeah, do I from a true eyeball test? Did I think they were always better than one in five? Sure? That said, I think we all were looking at the eyeball test when they won five in a row and saying, it doesn’t feel like they’re a jug or not in the midst of this five game winning streak, and they came crashing back to reality in the rest of the pack, in the AFC well on Thursday night, big time and again, the problem with that is, I mean, you’re six and six, you got three and two. The rest of the way, you’re nine and eight. I mean, maybe and and by the way, that still might, might get

Nestor Aparicio  20:38

it done. Well, then you’re rooting for the bills on Sunday at four o’clock. Let’s start with that losses.

Luke Jones  20:44

Yeah, yeah. Because, I mean, it’s just,

Nestor Aparicio  20:47

you better get the Bengals a loss or two more. Because, like, if the Bengals win next week and you see him again, they start to smell themselves, that they’ve won three in a row.

8

Luke Jones  20:55

They’re interested. Look, they’re I mean, they’re still four and eight, right? I mean, the math is overwhelmingly against them, and that defense stinks. Credit them for how they credit that defense. They deserve all the, all the credit in the world for how they played Thursday night. They they beat the ravens, and they had something to do with those five turnovers, right? You know, other than the one where Lamar just, you know, he pumps and the ball slips out of his

Nestor Aparicio  21:16

Hey, they didn’t have breakdowns either. And other than not being able to tackle Derek Emery, once or twice, played fairly clean. They played a good game, and they gave them our hell even on plays when they didn’t chase.

Luke Jones  21:27

Catch Lamar, yeah. But I think what is interesting about the Bengals is, do you know who they play next week? They play buffalo. They play I’m sorry, they play buffalo, but, man, you talk about this three game stretch for them, whether they make the playoffs or not, but they’ve already handed the Ravens a loss. Buffalo is a team that is, you know, I mean, these teams have clashed in the playoffs. They’ve got a chance to to play spoiler to Buffalo and really put buffalo in a lot of peril. And then they play the they host the Ravens. And then if they can get through that, you do look at their last three games, and I’m I’m looking for their schedule in front of me at their game notes, and of course, I’m play the bills, the ravens, the dolphins the last three games and the browns. So they have the dolphins, Cardinals and browns at the end. I thought it was we play the Steelers next week. They’re done playing the Steelers, which they’re done. Yeah, I didn’t realize that, but, yeah, but they split. They won that Thursday night game. And then a couple weeks ago, Pittsburgh beat, you know, Flacco didn’t look good. I mean, they turned the ball over. They weren’t. They were, they were bad in that game. So, like, look, there were three and eight. What? What are the odds of them winning six in a row? And then, I mean, if they do that, then, boy, you’re talking about, uh, potentially, maybe they could be the miracle

Nestor Aparicio  22:43

8

Steelers this week and the Bengals next week. So the bills are gonna play a big role in this, right?

Luke Jones  22:47

They are, sure, but, but that said, Boy, they’ve got a chance here to completely, I mean, ravens go there in two weeks and lose, and then you’re not like, then you’re okay. What were the results of the Pittsburgh games. What is going to happen against New England? I don’t know if you saw them. Jordan love, who is a polarizing figure, as far as how he’s perceived, he played a whale of a game against the lions on that on Thanksgiving afternoon. I mean, so you’re going there week 17. I mean, knowing there could be 10 inches of snow on the ground. I mean, like so it’s,

Nestor Aparicio  23:22

and also the gackers would be playing for a buy, right?

Luke Jones  23:25

I mean, you would assume they’re playing for something, right? However, it’s going to shape up there for them. But, you know, but Micah Parsons, right? I mean, so it’s just them, yeah. I mean, it’s, it’s, this is when you lose to the Bengals, like in the way that they did on Thursday night, not so much that I think they’re going to turn it over five times every week, because we know that’s not going to happen, but all bets are off. Man. I mean, I don’t know. I A week ago, two weeks ago, three weeks ago, four weeks ago. You know, I’m talking before, like the early stages of the five game winning streak. I to a man, I was feeling quite confident that they were going to win this division and make the playoffs.

8

Nestor Aparicio  24:04

All bets are off. Yeah, they shattered your confidence in that.

Luke Jones  24:07

I have no idea in them. I have no idea. And to be clear, that’s not me saying it’s over and they won’t, because I don’t have a high

Nestor Aparicio  24:15

look at these players and say they have good players. Now when are they going to emerge? Where is Marlon Humphrey and Ronnie Stanley and roquan Smith? Where are these veteran guys? Where? Where’s the offensive line?

Luke Jones  24:26

8

I mean, the offense, yeah. I mean the defense. We’ve talked about it. The Matta BK injury was massive. That was a massive loss for for a group that wasn’t necessarily a dynamic, dominant pass rush, right? We know that we took him for granted, didn’t we? Yeah. I mean, there’s, he’s certainly shown his value. I mean, regardless of what his future is going to be. I mean, we don’t know if he’s going to play again at this point, but at least with the defense you’ve seen growth and improvement. And again, I even even Thursday night, like, as disappointing as the third quarter was, i can’t i. I find so much fault in what they did when you see what they had to do in the first half, right? But this offense, and you said it, they’ve got all these. I mean, they’ve got a two time MVP at quarterback, they’ve got a multi Time Pro Bowl tight end, they have a Pro Bowl left tackle, they have a Pro Bowl center, they have a Pro Bowl wide receiver, and zay flowers out a multi time Hall of Fame caliber wide receiver, and dandre Hopkins, who’s not that guy anymore, but still makes plays, right? They have all these pieces that tell and by the way, it’s essentially the same group they had last year, when this was a record setting, historic level, kind of all

Nestor Aparicio  25:36

I feel all that way. And I feel like Thursday night, they didn’t have a quarterback that delivered the ball cleanly. I feel like Lamar is not throwing the ball well, and that’s got to change, right?

Luke Jones  25:45

But I think what complicates that for me is when you keep coming back to are they going to going to be able to fix all of this? Are you going to be able to get Lamar back on track? Are you going to be able to do all you need to do, when you consider the state of this offensive line and how it’s just not very good. And look, I don’t think we’ve mentioned his name. You mentioned it in passing, like, okay, Emery Jones, All right, great. He’s in a rotation with with Voorhees. Now, I didn’t see anything to be I’m not saying I wouldn’t play him ever again either. But, you know, he had a penalty. I mean, that’s that there are no so talking to someone last week, you know, with close ties to the team, and it’s what we you and I have said over and over and over, the idea is, if you truly think the answers are on the bench right now for this ravens offensive line, you’re sorely mistaken. They’re playing their their best, let’s say they’re playing their best four and a half right now, because Voorhees and, you know, Emory Jones is finally at the point now where he’s practiced six weeks and he’s healthy, and it’s a third round pick. But you know what? He was a tackle in college. He’s learning guard, right? I mean, there’s a big learning curve just making that jump, let alone a position change. So could he end up being the starter for the rest of the season? Sure do that. Does that mean I think he’s going to be Ben Grubbs or Marshall yonder at guard? No, absolutely not. So they’re going with what they have right now, and I don’t know if that’s going to be good enough. And that’s just the simple truth, and they’ve got five games to go, we’re going to see the bar is still not extraordinarily high, like, I don’t think Pittsburgh’s running the table at the same time. You can’t expect Pittsburgh to just lose out, either. So I don’t know what’s going to happen. Ness, I mean, it’s that Thursday night shattered whatever confidence level I had in this team, and now it’s like, we’ll see. We’ll see. I mean, I still think the defense is certainly better than it was early in the season. I think it’s a good defense, not sure it’s great. And on the flip side, their offense to mean it’s just just an absolute. It feels broken, because even when, even when they’d have good plays, it turned into something bad, or someone’s open, and something bad happened, whatever practicing normally on and that’s not and that doesn’t help. I mean, like, we’ll go back to what we said, and, you know, I know we started talking about the defense, but it’s, it’s defaulted back to the offense, because the offense is, that’s what lost in the game. You know, the quarterback and the offense lost in the game on Thursday night. I mean, there’s no question about that, but this is where you hope. And this applies for Nate Wiggins now too, but this is where you hope. You’ve got the long weekend. These guys will get a chance to exhale, have a little bit of pumpkin pie, little bit of a respite, and it’s a five week sprint, and it’s got to be a sprint, because if it’s not, then it is only going to be five weeks, and then it’s going to

Nestor Aparicio  28:48

be over, and it’s got to go four and one, right? It can’t, I mean, it really, in this division, I guess. I mean,

8

Luke Jones  28:55

well, here’s where it can be three and two if you beat Pittsburgh twice, right? I mean, you could, you know, you’d lose two out of three to the other, but you beat Pittsburgh twice. That probably, okay, well, I mean, you know, you kind of look at it, well, if

Nestor Aparicio  29:10

you lose the Cincinnati, and they went out, Cincinnati’s got a really easy schedule at the end, so

Luke Jones  29:15

in but, but that’s that’s asking a lot, that’s asking a lot of that defense.

Nestor Aparicio  29:21

Well, they beat the Raiders. Luke Jones is here. He is Baltimore. Luke. I am Nestor, Baltimore. Positive.com we are going to be doing the Maryland crab cake tour in December, many, many times, in some new places as well. So I’m looking forward to that. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland lottery and our friends at GBMC who took great, great care of me, making sure that I don’t have colon cancer. So there is your words of wisdom for everybody out there, get over and see Dr askeri and let him wake you up with the good news that you don’t have cancer and that you finally got the colonoscopy thing done. So all of this eating this weekend should remind all of you to take care of your gastrointestinal and take care of your body. Take. Of your health. It is the holidays. I’m taking care of my health with eggnog and cookies amongst other things. Big appreciation for everybody. Made it through the holiday with us. We’re getting up on the Steelers next week. We got some great conversations here through the holidays. Got a lot of local guests. I’ve been very inspired by my little AI journey here of late, and putting it all together for the holidays here, man, all these years into it, 27 years into doing this thing. My thanks to our friends at curio wellness and foreign daughter for sponsoring our 27th tastiness treats, which I’m going to bring back for the holidays, except for the peach cake, because you can’t get I’m going to insert eggnod For peach cake, the boozy eggnog from Jenny’s ice cream. So I’ll do that instead of the peach cake. I am Nestor. He is Luke. The ravens are six and six, and we’re still Baltimore, positive. Happy holidays. You.