At one point during the 1-5 start, the Baltimore Ravens defense ranked last in the NFL. With better health, better play and the addition of two veterans by Eric DeCosta, the defense of Zach Orr appears much improved and poised to lead the team while the offense continues to try to find some rhythm behind a gimpy franchise quarterback. Luke Jones and Nestor get defensive about the marked improvement and the emergence of key young players.
Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Baltimore Ravens’ recent five-game winning streak and their upcoming game against the Cincinnati Bengals. They highlighted the Ravens’ improved defense, noting significant improvements in point totals allowed from 41 to 16 in the last six games. They also discussed Kyle Hamilton’s ankle injury and his potential absence, which could impact the defense. The conversation touched on the Ravens’ offensive struggles, particularly the offensive line’s performance, and the need for better pass rush consistency. They also mentioned the Maryland crab cake tour and Nestor’s recent colonoscopy experience.
- [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Prepare the defense to face a potentially healthy Joe Burrow and the Bengals’ offense, including Ja’Marr Chase.
- [ ] Monitor Kyle Hamilton’s injury status and availability for the upcoming game against the Bengals.
- [ ] Evaluate the offensive line’s performance and consider potential changes, such as giving Emory Jones a chance.
Ravens’ Recent Success and Upcoming Games
- Nestor Aparicio discusses the Ravens’ recent five-game winning streak and their upcoming game against the Bengals on Thanksgiving night.
- Nestor mentions the Maryland crab cake tour, which will include stops at various locations like Faidleys, Costas, and a new spot called Honeys.
- Nestor shares personal updates, including his recent colonoscopy at GBMC and his wife’s plans for Thanksgiving.
- Nestor and Luke Jones discuss the Ravens’ defense and the potential impact of Kyle Hamilton’s injury on the team’s performance.
Kyle Hamilton’s Injury and Concussion Protocol
- Nestor and Luke discuss Kyle Hamilton’s ankle injury sustained late in the game against the Jets and his participation in concussion protocol.
- Nestor expresses skepticism about Hamilton playing on Thanksgiving night due to his injury.
- Luke recalls previous instances where Hamilton has recovered quickly from injuries, suggesting he might play despite the short week.
- The conversation touches on the importance of Hamilton’s health for the Ravens’ defense and the potential impact of his absence.
Ravens’ Defense Improvement and Key Players
- Luke highlights the significant improvement in the Ravens’ defense over the past six games, with point totals dropping from 41 to 16.
- Luke credits the acquisition of Gilman and the emergence of players like Draymond Jones and Teddy Buchanan for the defensive improvements.
- Nestor and Luke discuss the versatility of players like Hamilton and Jones, who have shown their ability to adapt to different roles.
- The conversation emphasizes the importance of having a consistent pass rush and the potential challenges the defense might face against tougher opponents in January.
Offensive Line and Quarterback Health
- Nestor and Luke discuss the Ravens’ offensive line and its struggles, particularly in protecting Lamar Jackson.
- Luke expresses skepticism about the offensive line’s ability to support Lamar, even if he returns to full health.
- The conversation touches on the potential impact of Emory Jones on the offensive line and the challenges he might face.
- Nestor and Luke agree that the offense has not performed consistently well, and the defense has been carrying the team recently.
Upcoming Games and Playoff Scenarios
- Nestor and Luke discuss the upcoming games against the Bengals, Patriots, and Steelers, and the importance of winning these games to secure a playoff spot.
- Luke emphasizes the need for the defense to continue its strong performance against tougher opponents in December and January.
- The conversation highlights the potential challenges the Ravens might face, including the health of key players like Lamar and Hamilton.
- Nestor and Luke express optimism about the Ravens’ chances of winning the division and making a deep playoff run, despite the current challenges.
Personal Reflections and Community Engagement
- Nestor shares personal reflections on his recent health scare and his gratitude to the GBMC team for their support.
- Nestor encourages listeners to participate in the Turkey Trot event organized by the Y, which aims to raise funds for a good cause.
- The conversation touches on the importance of community engagement and the impact of local events on the community.
- Nestor and Luke wrap up the discussion by expressing their excitement for the upcoming Thanksgiving weekend and the Ravens’ game against the Bengals.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Ravens defense, Kyle Hamilton injury, Lamar Jackson, Bengals game, Thanksgiving, Maryland crab cake tour, Maryland lottery, Joe Burrow, Joe Flacco, NFL playoffs, offensive line, pass rush, Draymond Jones, Marlon Humphrey, Tyrod Taylor.
8
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We call it Baltimore positive. We call it Happy Thanksgiving around here, over everybody is getting a whatever the seasonal jam is for you, if it’s pumpkin pie, if it’s mincemeat pie, if it’s a colonoscopy, GBMC, so you feel better about yourself and you’re cleansed, and the polyps have been removed and all of that stuff. My thanks to my GBMC team for keeping me together and helping me avoid colon cancer. I had a pre cancerous poly removed on Friday. My thanks to Dr oscari, everybody, Christina, everybody at GBMC has been so kind to me, including all the nurses and doctors on Friday, but I’m back up and running. The Ravens have won a football game that’s five in a row. They’re going to play another game in a blink in a minute on Thursday night, it’s Thanksgiving, and we’re gonna get the Maryland crab cake tour back out on the road, including it deep as squalies, where my wife wanted Luke, they told me that I needed more fiber in my diet. And Jen said, Well, I’m gonna make some sausage and lentil soup. And I’m like, we’re gonna get out of the Pasquale. So next thing you know, I walk out in December 11. We’re gonna be doing the Maryland crab cake tour. They’re presented by the Maryland lottery. Have Raven scratch offs to give away. I might even have the candy cane scented tickets to give away, although this ravens batch been a pretty lucky batch for second chances. Amongst other things. Also, we’re going to be at faidleys. We’re going to be at Costas for the holidays, and I’m working on new spot called honeys out in Hale Thorpe. I’ll have a date for that by the time we get to Thanksgiving. Luke’s gonna have Thanksgiving early with mom and sis and nieces and brother in laws and brother and all that stuff up in Pennsyltucky. And he will be making his way to downtown Baltimore Thursday night, where 68,000 others will be celebrating, maybe Joe burrow, maybe Joe Flacco, but certainly there’ll be turducken involved, and the winners of five in a row, Baltimore Ravens taking on the Bengals. And I talk about the Bengals defense stinking, and I’m sure we will talk about that here. And we’ve talked about lamar’s injury for an hour, and we’re going to continue to talk about that until such point he looks like Lamar again. Ravens defense, where, where are we with that? And I’m guessing T Higgins isn’t going to play, because I saw he completely banged his head in the last five minutes of the game on Sunday, the Joe burrow thing appears as though we think he’s going to play. We don’t know. By the time you hear this, you might know, but our defense and what where we are with Kyle Hamilton, and as much as we focus on Lamar, Lamar, Lamar, Kyle Hamilton’s not right. That’s not good for the Ravens.
Luke Jones 02:33
It certainly isn’t, and we’re gonna have to see about that one. I mean, obviously he hurt his ankle late in that game. He didn’t go back in with it was probably at the two minute warning, he walked into the locker room. He was walking gingerly. There’s no question about that, and it’s a short week, right? In the same way that you mentioned T Higgins, I mean the path in this day and age of clearing concussion protocol in a matter of three or four days that happened. That’s not happening. Minute
Nestor Aparicio 03:00
8he in his head. I’m like, he’s not playing. And you know what my wife when, when Kyle Hamilton got hurt, she’s like, he ain’t playing Thursday night. I mean, just looking at it, you just said ain’t playing Thursday night.
Luke Jones 03:10
I’m not ready to count him out yet, because how many times have we seen Kyle Hamilton go into the blue tent over the last couple years? I mean, think back to, I think it was against the Bengals in that Thursday night game last year. Remember he went down and you were kind of fearing the worst. It looked like, in real time, like it could be an Achilles and he was back in the game in a matter of a few plays. So he does seem to be someone who gets banged up, but then is right back in Roethlisberger, tough, yeah, something like that. But, but you mentioned it. I mean, you talk about this defense, and look, I get it. Tua Tung of Aloha, JJ, McCarthy, Dylan, Gabriel, shadur Sanders, after not practicing with the first team since training camp, right and Tyrod Taylor on Sunday. This isn’t a juggernaut slate of opponents that they’ve faced here in recent weeks. There’s no question about that. However, let me throw some numbers out there to you. 4138 3744 those were the point totals they allowed in four of their first five games. Now I don’t care if it’s Josh Allen, Patrick mahomes, Jared Goff, CJ Stroud, that you’re gonna lose a lot of those games, probably four out of five. Unacceptable, right? Unacceptable. Unacceptable. Since then, however, 1716, 619, 16 and 10. On Sunday, those are the point totals they’ve allowed over their last six games, and they’ve made improvement. There’s no doubt about that. We’ve talked about it and Kyle Hamilton, it begins there, right? Because the elohiy Gilman acquisition allowed them to move Hamilton. We don’t need to rehash that too much, but we’ve seen what that impact looks like on an every down basis. Now, where you’re looking to see where Kyle Hamilton is, I joked at ball. More positive.com as I was doing my putting together my 12 ravens thoughts, you know, my prediction piece going into Sunday’s game. And there was actually an instance on Thursday where Hamilton had sat out Wednesday’s practice, you know, with that shoulder issue that, you know, we still saw him have some issues with on Sunday, he’s banged up right now. There’s no question about that, that he’s certainly another guy that, whether he plays Thursday night or not, this mini buy is going to be helpful for him, because he’s banged up, you know, with a few different injuries right now. But it was Thursday’s practice we had seen. He had returned to the field. They go after they do their special teams opening portion, which is the bulk of what we watch as reporters, they go into positional work, right? So that, you know, the defensive backs go one place, the the linebackers go play one place, the edge guys, the defensive line. And obviously, same thing with the offensive positions. But you looked out there at the defensive backs, Kyle Hamilton wasn’t there. So at first I’m thinking, Wait, was he only out here for a little while and then he went back in? Was it just a it just a case where he did 15 minutes of work and didn’t feel right and went back in? Oh, he was working with the linebackers on Thursday during that portion of practice. And it just speaks to the versatility. So clearly that’s made a big impact, although he Gilman has played very well tackling issues aside, he’s not the best tackler in the world. I think we’ve seen that, but he certainly has made a positive impact, and I get it. They they isolated him in coverage on the Mechi touchdown on third and 10. So that that wasn’t ideal, but your defense isn’t going to be perfect, right? But it’s been so much better. And the other one, of course, has been Draymond Jones and his arrival, a batted pass on a third down, one and a half sacks, we’re seeing him show up, whether he’s rushing from the edge. Gives him some ability to, you know, some inside, outside versatility, where he can slide to three technique, four technique, kind of spot and rush from the interior, which is, you know, the kind of thing that they haven’t had, you know, since Matta BK
Nestor Aparicio 06:59
is injury, right? I mean, Travis Jones has played well for for that group, but, you know, in terms of having a more consistent pass rush, we’ve, you know, we, we’ve talked about that a lot. We’ll continue to talk about that. But I think we are seeing a better pass rush than we were seeing, you know, it it showed up at some times where they needed to, needed it to. I keep saying, Where are they going to be when they’re playing the Patriots and the pastors and the Steelers at the end that being the playoff team and winning the division, which we’re predicting, they’re going to do like we think they’re going to win games. We think they’re going to be playing games in early January, and then it’s going to be what’s the pass rush like on that night? Sure, when Patrick mahomes comes in here, Josh Allen comes in here, or whatever, because it sort of looks like it. It’s going to be down that road, you know, I mean, and it’s, I would just say, for their defense and for where the ceiling, we believe the ceiling can be with a healthy Kyle Hamilton up on the line, with all of that, I don’t know that we’re going to see that anytime soon. And I don’t know, to your point that Hamilton’s not healthy, and that roquan Smith’s coming back a little bit, that Marlon Humphrey peanut punch aside, is not what he was, but Wiggins, Starks, Buchanan, Travis Jones, they have some emerging players, you know, not named Matt a BK, that are still out there performing better over the last five weeks than They did the first five weeks, no doubt
Luke Jones 08:22
about well, and in the case, and we’ll start with Nate Wiggins, and I’ll start with him, because, man, he’s gonna be thinking about that interception he could have had on the opening drive. I mean, it doesn’t get any easier than that when you drop that one. But you know, he’s the guy that, with a couple exceptions, this year, even early in the season, he was probably their best player the first four or five weeks of the season, which I know was not saying much, because their defense was horrible, but you were seeing him play pretty well, and you’re seeing him as an ascending player. I mean, you mentioned Teddy Buchanan is certainly someone who, from the first four or five games of the season till now, has improved leaps and bounds to the point where, you know, I’m not saying he’s ready. He’s gonna become a star, but I feel like you can trust him being out there in
8Nestor Aparicio 09:07
Well, you’re the team historian. I mean, name the last 10 guys that have played that position going back 15 years, and how many failures they’ve had there, how many draft picks that they’ve tried that. I mean, the reason they dealt for roquan Smith is because they kept failing. I mean, we we talked about the Costa, and there’s a name that we haven’t brought up, but a low he Gilman, Tremont, Joe. I mean, they’ve done their job in season as we wait on michaelias to do his job off season, but sort of like where the deficiencies were, and when Matt Abigail went down and roquam was hurt and on and on and on, they made the additions were almost like they were listening to our radio show, where on Monday we’re like, Hey, man, like safety position. Not good enough. Not good enough. You said that for months. You said that the day after our Darius Washington went. Down that they weren’t going to be good enough on the back end. And took them three, four weeks into the season to do it. It took them a pass rusher that I don’t know we never noticed much in adafe away, to make it happen. Failed draft pick kind of sort, kind of, sort of, I guess I don’t know for what it was, and the moving parts of their personnel and their ability to coach them up. And we were all firing Zach or and pagano couldn’t do it, and all of that. Nobody’s going anywhere, just like I wrote that day, nobody, Nobody’s going anywhere. Nobody’s getting fired. Everybody’s Hold on. And here we are, and they’re in first place, about 500 all of that, and it didn’t been perfect by far. They haven’t solved all their problems, but I think they’ve went and got some plaster of Paris and some glue and put some pieces back together to at least put themselves in a position to be in the position they’re in which dude awful position they’re not for as bad as it’s been, and for Lamar not being right, and their two best football players are and they’re in first place, and they got to go play Thursday, with or without them, maybe with the commercial King, Tyler Huntley, who knows, against Cincinnati. But they’re in a they’re in a great position to win a Super Bowl. They are. But then they have really good players. They have all these names we’re talking about, if some of those guys start showing up in January, the zay flowers, the mark Andrews, the Derek Henry’s, the Lamar Jackson’s The roquan Smith’s the Kyle. How many Pro Bowlers Am I name in here? How many Hall of Famers Am I name in here? I don’t
Luke Jones 11:44
know. I mean, that’s that. That’s been nothing new since
Nestor Aparicio 11:47
DeAndre High Team, yeah. Well, they have that ability. They come with that chin strap. That’s why they’re playing on Thanksgiving night, right? Because they have all of this star power, and they’re a little disappointing. You’d rather them be eight and four. You know, whatever it would be, they might be seven and five, that they will be seven and five by midnight on Thursday night. So, okay, so they’re not eight and four, they’re not nine and three, they’re not 10 and two, but they’re going to win the division.
Luke Jones 12:14
8We think, I think so. I’m not ready to say that that’s over, though. I mean, we’ve talked a lot about the offense, but let’s you know, to keep it on the defense, defense is better. There’s no doubt about that. Look, it’s tough to sit here and say that I’m buying that it’s this elite, one of the very best, top three or top five defenses in football with the changes they’ve made. And I know a lot of people will cite their stats. I mean, I know the Ravens put in their game release. And look, I mean, it’s interesting, nonetheless, when you consider the first five games were the worst five games start in the history of the franchise, even worse than 1996 but you know, since week eight, and this was going into Sunday’s game, they were first in the league with only three touchdown offensive touchdowns allowed. They were first in third down defense, first in passer rating allowed, first in touchdown passes allowed. Go down the list. I mean, they were first or second. And a slew of categories going back to coming out of the by week eight, which is a small sample, but it’s five games now, right? I mean, that’s a third of a season, you know, a little under a third of a season at this point in time, that’s, you know, that that sample is as big as what you know the first five or six games was. So they’ve certainly made improvements, and they’ve obviously changed the makeup, you know, they had an in season facelift, when you’re talking about Gilman, and what that meant for moving Kyle Hamilton around, Draymond Jones for as much as there was talk about, you know, getting one of the Miami edge rushers, or, you know, getting Quinn and Williams from the Jets, or go down the list of any number of other moves that could or could have been made, or moves that never came to fruition with any team trading for some of those guys. They, you know, they’ve done dealt well with Draymond Jones. I mean, not saying he’s primed to release the team better, but he and
Nestor Aparicio 14:06
it doesn’t matter that it wasn’t better in September. It only matters that it’s going to be good enough in January.
Luke Jones 14:11
Well, and that’s and that’s where the question still lies. I mean, in terms of what they’ve done, they haven’t gone up against great offenses here. They haven’t, you know, I’m not going to sit here and say that you know doing what they did against JJ McCarthy or Dylan Gabriel or shador Sanders or Tyrod Taylor is necessarily going to be an accurate litmus test on what they’ll do against Josh Allen or mahomes or even Drake may or CJ Stroud, or go down the list of whoever they might face in January. Bo Nix, so there’s still, you know what Indianapolis does? I mean, not so much Daniel Jones, but Jonathan Taylor. And you know what that can look
Nestor Aparicio 14:50
like? Could this defense go into Denver, into Indianapolis, or into New England and win a game the second week of January? Sure, yeah, especially if Lamar is healthy, euro
8Luke Jones 14:59
and. And that’s where we still look at this thing. So as they’re presently constructed, you know, with how they’re off, but they
Nestor Aparicio 15:06
win three in a row, right this right now. No, I don’t I they’re too banged up right now. I agree with that. This would be wrong time for the playoffs to come right now for them, their
Luke Jones 15:14
offense just hasn’t been their offense hasn’t been good in a while now. And it’s not just the Lamar thing. I mean,
Nestor Aparicio 15:20
8practicing on Wednesday in the way that, you know, like that, we’ve already learned that so that where they’re trying to get
Luke Jones 15:27
better, right? But their offensive line is not good enough. I mean, it’s just not. And that’s where I even look at this thing and say, Okay, if, if you can somehow get Lamar playing, you know, healthy, you know, get Lamar very, very close to being 100% is this offensive line still going to be good enough? Because, you know, going back to your point you made in a previous segment, I mean, their offense hasn’t looked like that Ferrari version of this offense for even close to a full game, since buffalo, until the last eight minutes of that game, right? I mean, it’s like at that point the offense
Nestor Aparicio 16:04
just go the first three quarters of the season justified everything we talked about for nine months, about it being a Ferrari, and since then, it’s been a broken Ferrari. I don’t think it’s still not a Ferrari. I’m the guy that said Derek Henry would bring them to the Promised Land. Say flowers is a real guy. Bateman, if they can get him on the field. Andrews Isaiah, likely they have these weapons. Right when they put Ricard near as a bowling ball, they feels like they could do anything they want. It feels like they should be at second and two all day, and they’re not anymore. And until they get that thing going to your point, and you don’t think they are, because you think the offensive line is incapable of that, because we’re nine games into seeing that, it’s incapable of that.
Luke Jones 16:47
Yeah, so, so you look at that, and then flip it over to the defense and say, Okay, what is this defense going to be against tougher competition? We’re going to get a much better picture of that, starting Thursday night, assuming I think burrow is going to play, yeah, there’ll be some rust, and you can provide those caveats, right? And they’re not going to have T Higgins, most likely, but they’re going to have a Jamar Chase, who’s going to, I would assume, be very motivated and kind of embarrassed and wanting to show what he can do in a national spotlight. You know, I went when everyone’s been talking about how awful it was to see him spit on somebody, which it was, right? I mean, one game suspension there was absolutely warranted for that. But you also know, he’s one of the very best football players on the planet. And if you don’t have Kyle Hamilton out there, then that changes the dynamics of your secondary considerably, right? And we saw what Chase did against the Ravens last year. I mean, Chase, almost single handedly, sent Marcus Williams to the bench for good, right? I mean, when you go back and look at how that played out last year, so, you know. So I think for me, it’s yes, this defense is so much better and playing well, playing at a high level, albeit against lesser competition. So what will that look like when the competition ramps up here in the month of December? You know, playing Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, of course, doesn’t have a great offense, but, you know, they’re going to be playing New England, you know, Green Bay on the road. High pressure, right? Can you pressure the quarterback? Can you do the things that you need to do, and can they continue to do the heaviest lifting? Right? I mean, they won on the on the backs, on the back of their defense and their special teams on Sunday, they is much, you know, they won on the back largely of their defense two weeks ago in Cleveland, right? I mean, their defense has been doing the heaviest lifting. I mean, go back to the biggest win of the season, the way their defense played against the bears right when, and I get it, Snoop Huntley played well in place of Lamar. It was a great story, but you know what that defense has looked like over the last five weeks compared to the first five? I mean, it’s it’s encouraging. So they’re going to need more of that, because to the point that we continue to make about the offense, you know, is Lamar going to look healthy? Are they going to get any better on the offensive line? I mean, all right, I’ll hear fans wanting to see Emery Jones at guard. Sure. Why not give the kid a chance? Doesn’t mean he’s going to be ready. Doesn’t mean he’s going to be any better than than Voorhees or file alay. You know, we’ve bands in media have clamored and asked about changes to the O line all year, and we saw it was very striking. If you’re on the W, N, S, T, Baltimore positive tech service, who was inactive on Sunday, Ben Cleveland. It shows the Ravens think so much of Ben Cleveland that he’s closer to being off the team entirely than being a guy that can push file Lele or Voorhees for a starting spot.
8Nestor Aparicio 19:41
Crazy. It really is, right. It speaks to it, right? So, so, and
Luke Jones 19:45
that’s what we’ve talked about, like, Look, I know John Harbaugh has had a perceived dog house over the years with certain individuals, and there’s no doubt that that’s been a thing at times that said, I don’t think. Like that horrible. And the rest of the offensive coaching staff are saying, Yeah, we’re going to continue to play anything less than the art what we think our best five is on the offensive line, right? I don’t think that’s how they’re thinking here. I think they felt these are our best five and our backups aren’t good enough. And maybe, maybe Emory Jones, but the kid missed the entire spring and the entire summer in the beginning of the season, right? I mean, he’s a third round pick. This isn’t Jonathan Ogden coming into play. This is someone who needed all that work, and now he’s at a point where, okay, he’s good enough to be active, but is he going to be good enough to supplant one of those guys? And I’m still skeptical about that. I’m not saying I wouldn’t give him a chance if they feel it’s warranted, but that doesn’t mean he’s gonna be able to do the job either, right? So, so that’s where I look at this thing and say, What is your ceiling on offense, with your offensive line, and what impact that could potentially have on your quarterback being less than 100% and continuing to look less than 100% continuing to look less than 100% that’s where it is tough. So you bring it back to the defense and say, Can this be a special defense? I’m still not there yet, just yet, but this group is certainly way, way better than it was the first month of the season. I mean, that’s a captain obvious statement, I mean that their defense was horrendous, even before the injuries started mounting. You know that where, you know it was roquan and Marlon Humphrey and Hamilton missed the what the Texans game, and so they’ve come a long way. There’s no doubt about that. You know, it hasn’t been the toughest slate of quarterbacks, but go back and look at the 2000 ravens, and get back to me at how tough their slate of quarterbacks was that season, right when they were historically great and amazing and just this transcendent group. They also face their share of Spurgeon wins over the course of that season. So you can only play the offenses that trot out there every Sunday and yeah, the Ravens have benefited from their schedule getting softer after it was really tough the first five weeks of the season. So they’ve made progress. We’re going to find out starting Thursday night, they’re going to have a maybe of one of the best five quarterbacks in the league back out on the field. Maybe again, is he going to look like peak Joe burrow? I’m skeptical of that, but he’s going to be out there potentially, and you’re going to deal with Chase, who, like I said, I would assume, is going
Nestor Aparicio 22:31
to be, well, that’s three plays that could cost you 17 to 21 points, right? Like literally, that that’s how you get beat 27 to 24 on Thursday night is because they can make three or four plays. Literally, that’s that’s what’s going to beat you. It’s not going to be long, slogging drives from the Bengals, and certainly from their defensive standpoint, making a play for them, stripping a ball, turnovers, sacking the quarterback, the kinds of things that they haven’t been able to do all year long defensively, because the Ravens should be able to move the ball. Tyler Huntley should be able to move the ball against them Thursday night, if he has to play.
Luke Jones 23:11
8Should. But I would have said they should have been able to move the ball against the Jets on Sunday, and they didn’t consistently. So, I mean, we’re going to find out. I mean, there’s, this is a division game. It’s a big game. You’ve just moved in the first place. You’ve got, you’ve got the tiebreaker at the moment, for whatever that’s worth, right? I mean, the playoffs aren’t starting for another six weeks, right? So there’s still a lot of football to be played. But you want to win another division game, you want to get into this mini buy with a six straight win, and you’re seven and five, and then you’re gearing up for the final stretch, and you say, Okay, it’s go time. Now there’s no more No more layups, because even then Cincinnati on the road is, you know, that’s as we saw in Cleveland last week. You know, you don’t just assume that that’s going to be a cakewalk. So there’s plenty on the line Thursday night, but, yeah, I mean, you look at this defense, and this is be a good test for them, right? The pass rush is looking better. I I’m still not buying it being where you absolutely want and need it to be for January. I think that’s still to be determined, but it’s absolutely better. And Draymond Jones has been a great addition, and alohi Gilman freeing up Hamilton to do the things that he’s done. I mean, we’ve seen it. I mean, you see Hamilton blitz of the a gap. He lines up on the edge right. He sets the edge in the as a run defender. He covers a slot receiver, he covers a tight end. I mean, he does everything right? I mean, he’s, he’s that special of a player, that’s it’s why, from the moment that ardarius Washington got hurt, who, by the way, looks like he could be close to practicing, which I think would would be interesting. I don’t think that necessarily means he’s going to supplant anyone that’s out there on the defense, but it’s another good football player that could be in the mix. So who knows, but. It. You know, they’re in a much more versatile, multiple, dynamic position than they were in with their defense the first five, six weeks of the season with having lost Matta BK
Nestor Aparicio 25:13
at the time, so and roquan and Kyle Hamilton, yeah, but I’m but I’m talking
Luke Jones 25:17
about knowing that Matta BK fundamentally that changed you because he was gone and not coming back. You knew roquan was coming back, you knew Marlon Humphrey was coming back, right? It was just a matter of holding on for dear life as much as you could until you did get get those guys back. So but you know, they, their defense has forced turnovers. You know, as much as we can say, all right, well, you know, these quarterbacks have been great. I mean, they’re forcing turnovers. I mean, to your point. I mean, the Marlin Humphrey playing. And give Marlon Humphrey credit, he hasn’t had a great year. We know that even when you know, taking putting aside the injuries, he hasn’t played at
Nestor Aparicio 25:50
his help to avoid an L on Sunday, and it wouldn’t needed to. Well, I mean, I don’t
8Luke Jones 25:55
know if it’ll I don’t know if they lose that game, if he doesn’t do that, but it’s a one score game. And then suddenly the doubts creeping into your mind of, oh, no, Is this one of those fourth quarter collapses if they go three and out here, all you need is Brees Hall to get loose again, which, by the way, he’s good player. Fumble aside, he’s a good football player. I mean, jets don’t have many guys that you could say that about at the moment, but Brees Hall is a good, good football player. But that was a great play, I mean, and that’s the kind of play that they have been making more of, and that’s, that’s the wild card, right? Assuming, and I don’t think anyone feels that this is like a historic defense, right? No one thinks this is the 2000 defense, or the old three defense, or the 2006 defense or 2011 you’ll go down and name your top five or six defenses in franchise history. I don’t think anyone thinks that this group is in that category by any means, but they’ve improved in the areas that we’ve talked about with the acquisitions they’ve made, the tweaks they’ve made, the improvement they’ve gotten to get a second linebacker to emerge, and Teddy Buchanan and Draymond Jones on the edge all that. Mike Green, I thought had a nice bounce back performance after a really quiet day against the browns, you know, last Sunday, so that was good to see. You know, we’ve talked about Malachi Starks and so young guys are on the come and you’ve gotten Mosher guys back healthy. I mean, Hamilton aside, you know. And you know, I don’t think Hamilton like, I don’t think this is a catastrophic, you know, multi week injury, even if he doesn’t play Thursday night. But, you know, at the same time, the difference here is, can they turn the ball over? Can they force takeaways? And they’ve been doing that over the last five weeks or so. I mean that compared to the beginning of the season, where they weren’t doing it at all, that’s big. You know, you can the bears are a great example of this. You look at the bears in terms of yardage and things of that nature, their defense has been bad when you look in terms of yards per play and things, but they force a ton of takeaways. I mean, they are a high variance defense that has still been able to help them win some football games, because they’ve been able to turn over the opposition. So when you have a defense that can do that, that can cover up some warts, and we saw it even on Sunday, I mean, they had some not so great moments, or Tyrod Taylor stiff arming a linebacker, you know, not a great moment for Trenton Simpson in that spot. And they they’ve whiffed on some tackles, you know, Brees Hall and you know that could have been a different game, you know, if they score there, but Marlon Humphrey comes up with a absolutely massive play, especially for him, coming off of, what, a little over a week removed from finger surgery for him to do that. I mean, that’s credit to him. No doubt about that. So if you can make those kind of plays, then I like their chances more in December and January, even, even with the offense and Lamar being more of an unknown than you’d like it to be right now, we’ve talked about it a lot. Think of their playoffs. You know their playoff track record as much as Lamar and Mark Andrews and zay flowers fumbling against Kansas City, and the offensive shortcomings have been the headliner, and their defense, by and large, has played well in those January games. Go, look at how many turnovers they forced in those January games. Like that hasn’t been a part of what they’ve done at all in January. So can this team have a little more of that going for it as we get into December and then into January, if they can, then that’s that’s a formula for overcoming the fact that you don’t have a dominant pass rusher, you know, you don’t have a Terrell Suggs in his prime Peter bowl, where Michael McCrary in their prime kind of guy lining up at the edge. Or you don’t have that dynamic namdi matabike, 13 sack capability at defensive tackle, but when you take the ball away, that’s another way that you can overcome some of that. So I’m absolutely encouraged by what I’ve seen from their defense. I still want to see more as the competition ratchets up here. Certainly. Before. I’m fully 100% convinced, but I’m certainly convinced it’s a better defense than it was early in the year. I mean, the bar was, you know, the bar was in the basement at that point in time. So certainly it’s gotten better, and you want to see it continue to grow and evolve, and you want to see the pass rush flash more frequently. It’s flashing now, you know, they had some moments where they did get after Tyrod Taylor, but they also had some moments, you know, where Tyrod Taylor was untouched, you know, had a four or five Mississippi and was able to make some dude,
Nestor Aparicio 30:33
by the way, I pull for Tyrod, whether I, you know, I pull for Tyrod. I mean, he’s, I always like Tyrod
Luke Jones 30:39
when you talk about someone, he was a sixth round pick and barely played in Baltimore. I mean, go, look at his numbers. His four years with the ravens, barely played at all. I mean, Joe was always healthy, and they didn’t really blow you know, as much as younger ravens, fans are kind of spoiled with what the Ravens have been the last six, seven years, in terms of blowing teams out as often as they do. The Ravens didn’t do that in those years. So Tyrod was like this complete unknown when he left and, you know, winds up in Buffalo and becomes a Pro Bowl, you know, fringe
Nestor Aparicio 31:12
8pro San Diego charger, screwed them all up, gave him that needle that they shouldn’t have medical issues, terrible,
Luke Jones 31:18
you know, that kind of, you know, that was kind of the end of him being a starter, having a chance to be in a starter on a regular basis, but he’s hung around the guys in what year 15, I guess it is would be. I mean, that’s a heck of a career for anyone, whether you barely play or not, if you played in the league 15 years. I mean, tip of the cap to you. And I even saw a video clip of, you know, John Harbaugh embracing with him and catching up with him, and it’s cool to see him. Hey, we already said it. And look, I don’t say this to pi one about Lamar, but man, I mean Tyrod Taylor outplayed Lamar. I mean not, not in this emphatic, oh my gosh kind of way. But, you know, he looked more elusive, you know, which you know speaks to lamar’s health right now, but he showed that, you know, for a backup quarterback, you can still do worse than Tyro Taylor. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 32:09
tie rods made $82 million playing quarterback in the national
Luke Jones 32:13
Good for him. I mean, that’s awesome, you know. And again, who would have thought that even when he left as a free agent in post 2014 because
8Nestor Aparicio 32:21
you wouldn’t think that for Tyler Huntley, when he leaves, that he’s going to make 82 million. You know what I mean, like, in a general sense of hanging around, tie rod’s been a really good and didn’t play poorly on has no has nobody around him, other than than Brees Hall, right? Yeah. I mean, you know matching made a couple plays for him, but, I mean, my dad looks like he might be okay, too. Taylor, right? Yeah, yeah. I
Luke Jones 32:43
mean, I the guy that are missing on offense. I mean, Garrett Wilson, you know? I mean that guy can play. I mean, he absolutely can, even with their what their quarterback situation’s been like since he’s been there. I mean,
Nestor Aparicio 32:53
oh, my pal Joe Douglas watching all of his
Luke Jones 32:55
8drafts. So, yeah, but, but, you know, that’s that, that’s an offense that’s lacking, and the defense played the way you wanted them to play on Sunday. You know, our love for Tyrod Taylor aside, that’s still not a very good group. So the defense stepping up the way they did, they needed it. I mean, boy, they needed it with the way their offense played, especially in the first half. So and look at that game. I mean, they gave him a short field with the fourth down stop on that second, you know, on that opening drive that the jets had in the third quarter, which was weird. I mean, they, they did some weird things. Some of their decision making was weird. I mean, some of their play calls, you know. I mean, you know, Tyrod had a couple points through the ball when his receiver wasn’t even looking I mean, like they, they did some very jets things that helped the Ravens along the way. But again, hats off to this defense. They continue to play at a much, much higher level. Now it does get tougher for that group, because they are going to be playing some better offenses here Pittsburgh, you know that that’s not a great offense, but Cincinnati can score points, and New England can score points, and they’re going to go on the road to Green Bay in a tough environment. So you know, we’re going to see how this looks. We’re going to see how much of this improvement is just, hey, you’re better, and how much of this is, hey, this is something that plays really, really well. Come January, we’re going to, we’re going to find out, because they’re certainly going to be playing some much tougher quarterbacks than Tyrod Taylor and JJ McCarthy and shador Sanders and Dylan Gabriel, and go down the list of the guys that they played here of late.
Nestor Aparicio 34:27
He is Luke Jones. He is Baltimore Luke. We together are going to be watching Turkey and watching football and hanging with family and doing all that stuff. The turkey trot with the Y is on Thursday. I want to encourage everyone. There’s one right near you, wherever you are, Harford County, Anne Arundel County, Baltimore City. I’m going to be in Towson on Thursday morning and come out and do it for a good cause. Come out and get some some exercise. Be a little chilly on Thursday morning, but I think we’re going to make it through here. Get yourself some pumpkin pie, some turkey in the oven and warm up for Thursday night. Cincinnati. Bengals in town are old. How Joe Flacco and Joe burrow and national television, and a chance to go to seven and five, and a chance to take the weekend off and watch some football and put our feet up and and hang out and do Black Friday shopping, and do all the things that we do here. The Maryland crab cake tour is out on the road. It’s all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery. I have Raven scratch offs to give away. We’re going to be at. We’re going to go back to our friends down in Canton and deeper squalies. We’re going to be back down at the Italian deli on the 11th for Christmas. We’re going to be at faidley’s The week of Christmas. We’re also going to be at Costas and Dundalk. So stay tuned for all that. It’s brought to you by the Maryland lottery. Also my thanks to my friends at GBMC for getting me through my colonoscopy. Public service announcement for everybody out there, the stuff doesn’t taste as bad as you as they made it out to be, like I was fearing the drink on Thursday night and the circumstances more, all of that kind of went okay, and then they told me, like they removed the pre cancerous polyp. So like cancer, me never thought about it my life. I’m 57 years old. Thankfully today. Knock on wood, I’m not thinking about it, but my thanks to everybody. Dr, is scary, everybody on the GBMC team for being so awesome to me. I’ll be bragging about that and shaming all of you, including you, Luke, even though you’re not 45 I’m going to start to shame you now so that the minute you’re 45 you go and do it. But if you’ve got a history in your family as well, make sure you’re doing that. But I don’t have any of that, and I’m good, and I’m back to eating all the stuff that I like to eat, including going to Pizza John’s Luke’s got me hungry wearing that pizza John’s hat now I want a cheesesteak with double provolone. So I’m back to eating a lot. And it’s it’s Thanksgiving week, it’s a week to eat. Love everybody and your family get together. And my wife’s going to be with her family. I’m going to be here hanging out with the turkey trot and the Y folks, and we’re going to be waiting on football, Thursday night, first place Ravens. I am Nestor. He’s Luke. We’re W, N, S, T am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stopped talking Baltimore positive and Oriole maneuverings, if there are such a thing, you.
