Luke Jones and Nestor assess the play of Lamar Jackson and his limited weapons after Ravens find a way to beat the Chargers on Sunday Night in Los Angeles.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
lamar, running, mark andrews, years, ravens, chargers, play, ball, game, point, talked, quarterback, la, week, cincinnati, lamar jackson, andrews, coco, player, thought
SPEAKERS
Nestor J. Aparicio, Luke Jones
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:00
Looking back at wn st Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive we are positively into the eating the leftover phase. I was very upset the other day I told my wife we didn’t have enough green beans. We ran out of green beans. What am I gonna do with all this turkey and stuffing and gravy and cranberries and all the good stuff. I’m going to add crab cakes to it. Had a little crab cake catastrophe here last week that I’ll be telling our friends at Coco’s about because I went to Coco’s to debride a crab cake home for the holiday. I’m going to have to fix it. We’re going to be doing the Maryland crab cake tour on Wednesday at Coco’s laurelville In the afternoon, I’ll be joined by Ron Cassie, received his my co host with a K. co host get it Coco’s. He’s my co host. He lives in the larva loves to be brought to you by our friends at window nation. 866 90 nation you buy two you get two free 0% financing and our friends at Jiffy Lube multi care there’s one right in the neighborhood where you are my little orange light went off couple weeks ago, haven’t driven as much lately. Suddenly my oil change. But when I do Jiffy Lube is there to take care of that and so much more. Take care of them. They are taking care of us and our great sponsors. We’re out on the road this week. Coco’s Wednesday, Thursday. BMA. We’re going to be at the gertrudes I’ve never had the gertrudes crabcake. I’ve heard it’s a big deal. Looking forward to that. And Dan, Roger souls to be with us on Thursday. Then Friday, we head to Hollywood casino in Perry Ville, where I wouldn’t be cashing my tickets based on my picks the last three weeks, although I’m touch here on 500 If I could just get the Vikings to pull through on Monday night. Look, Joe joins us now after a late night on Sunday night out it’s so phi Stadium in LA First Things First do we didn’t do the trip because Chad Steele and he likes himself on television from what I can tell after the game, but we didn’t do the trip. I’ve been to all the stadia now because I went to that stadia for the Superbowl two years ago. I’ve been to Santa Clara because I went to the Super Bowl. We played out there the year Jim was fighting for life and 15. So I didn’t get to go. You’re so fighting and watching that on TV. I mean, no, no, you haven’t been there. you’ve flown over the big hole there. And what do you make of the SoFi thing when you see it on TV? Because I’ve actually been there. It’s quite something. And every time I see the NFL Network, and I see stuff from there to have the Ravens actually play there was kind of interesting. I don’t know if we’re the last team to go in there because everybody goes in there twice. But we were among the last team to get there four years into this. Yeah,
8
Luke Jones 02:30
I mean, I don’t have any I’d be lying if I said I had any strong feelings about it. I mean, it’s it’s one of the flagship destinations of the NFL now in the same way that we’ve thought of the Cowboys with Jerry down in Arlington, and, and all that but Green
Nestor J. Aparicio 02:44
Bay’s, don’t you
Luke Jones 02:49
know, I’m talking about modern, I’m talking about modern amenities and access what the NFL has become in 2023. That probably epitomizes it, at least as well as Jerry’s world in Arlington. So I mean, it’s impressive. I mean, you see the scoreboard and all of that. I mean, it’s, it seems like an amazing facility, but at the same time, it’s still 100 yard football field. You know what on TV? Yeah, when you really break it down artificial turf, so that there’s always that although, I haven’t heard too many complaints about that playing service, compared to some of the other ones that draw plenty, plenty of criticism. But I mean, it’s it unless you’re there in person. I think it’s tough to have too much of a an opinion of it. But we talked about it when we were in Arlington for the Orioles Rangers, you know, and beyond just being outside the Cowboys Stadium. I mean, you see what kind of monstrous building it is. And I would imagine so far is the same way. But, you know, again, without being there in person, it’s tough to really have anything profound to say about it. I
Nestor J. Aparicio 03:58
8didn’t expect any vibe, right? And then I you know, I can hear some Ravens fan, certainly when things happen. But there was a lot more noise there than I thought I just I watched the chargers on redzone. I say come in and out of it. It’s always other fans sort of taking over the place. I was sort of shocked that it got a little noisy. When Lamar had the ball like that kind of blew me away, just watching it on television that would have been different than being there and actually hearing it.
Luke Jones 04:25
Yeah, I mean, and who knows, maybe NBC just had the field mics miked up in a way that made it sound better than it was but it did seem like a legitimate crowd. I agree with you and I mean, the Chargers the last couple of years I mean even early in the season, didn’t it? I mean they made the playoffs last year let’s let’s remember that I mean, there’s we’ve talked about this there’s so little juice in LA for them compared to the Rams, the Raiders all these years later. USC football still has more juice although certainly some disappointment on that front for Trojans fans. But yes, the Chargers mean They’re disappointing. They’re four and six going into the season. They’re talented. I mean, they’ve got some absolutely really premier talent on both sides of the ball. But they’re the chargers and Brandon Staley is going to get fired at some point here between now and the end of the season, presumably, despite how delusional he was still talking after the game about the AFC being so wide open, it’s like, man, you’re four and seven, your, your defense, Sunday’s effort aside, their defense stinks. And they’re the Chargers they turn the ball over at the worst possible times. And we’ve talked about the Ravens having these excruciating losses the last couple of years, the chargers, that’s a normal thing for them. No, and has been for years. So, uh, but I was definitely surprised on that front. I mean, it was there was a decent number of Ravens fans out there the way it sounded. But it certainly did not. It certainly wasn’t a takeover or anything like that. And what some of us maybe May I don’t know, maybe people that were visiting family in LA or something like that, for Thanksgiving weekend, decided they wanted to get take in a football game. And maybe that’s what it was about.
Nestor J. Aparicio 06:06
Well, for me when I was a kid and I this is all I have to compare it to is my own experience as why I would go to a game or why I wouldn’t. My dad and I would always go to pick an Oreo game when you know, Nolan Ryan was pitching to Nana was pitching or split off was pitching or you know what fidrych was pick, you know, like, whatever. When Lamar Jackson comes to La there, you know, there are 14 million people their tickets were $18. Like, literally, the Chargers tickets are cheap as hell you go anytime you want. And I thought to myself, you know, there might be 10 or 15 20,000 people and love football. In LA, you might be a patriot fan and your team stinks. And you’re like, well, Lamar Jackson’s playing, and I live in, you know, wherever Inglewood and I’m gonna go over to the game. I think the chargers in LA as well as the rams are a little bit of this weird. Novelty, not in a way like when the Ravens come here or when Oklahoma City gets a basketball team or, you know, whenever that Seattle gets a hockey team, and if you’re a hockey fan, you become that. But in the modern era, we’ve seen Jacksonville fail for football. We’ve seen Florida fail for baseball in two different cities over 30 years. They they worked 30 years to get football back there. The Ravens finally make it and play in the new stadium, which, you know, I mean, they’re an AFC team, so they could get there a little more often. It feels like he played in San Diego plenty, you know, over the course of time, and hadn’t been there. The whole la football things bizarre to me. But bizarre as to why if I lived there, and I was just a regular 35 year old dude. And I wasn’t already a raider fan, or I hadn’t already declared myself a fan. You wouldn’t be a rams fan. And you certainly wouldn’t have been a chargers fan. If you grew up in LA at all. That sort of sworn enemy if you’re a Raiders fan, I find the whole thing to be strange. And we will play there much play there Sunday night played on a holiday weekend. Our fans went I mean, I looked on not a lot. It’s a tough trip to travel weekend, all of that, what the seats were filled. And I’m thinking that’s a Lamar effect. And I thought that when we played out there in 19, we played the Rams at the Memorial Coliseum. Look, I’ve been to, I’d say a million road games and went to all of them until I get thrown out. But I’ve been to all of them. And I’d never seen anything like what I saw on the streets of LA that night, which was Lamar Jackson swag being sold everywhere. So I think there’s a point where when he played so far stadium 3000 miles away, I think there were there was a novelty about seeing Lamar play, and I and I believe that he’s become that he’s become a little bit of a must see thing. I don’t know when Jacksonville in a couple of weeks from now people actually go for that sort of thing. But I think in LA there there were people there to see Lamar play.
Luke Jones 08:51
Yeah, I think that’s fair. I think that’s probably the best explanation you come up with other than you know what we talked about just a couple minutes ago, so but it didn’t feel like and look, I mean, let’s face it. This wasn’t a great ravens offensive performance by any stretch of the imagination. It was quite choppy and at times it was not very good and questionable decisions. Lamar think Lamar played a poor game, but he definitely was pressured and he was not very good when he was under pressure, which at times this year, he’s been excellent even when he’s been under pressure. So the Chargers defense in the pass rush really got to him and more so got to the offensive line. So it wasn’t as though Lamar had these extensive opportunities to make something spectacular happened. I mean, we saw the sidearm, the sidearm throw, as you could see on the NBC broadcast with the replay, and he had a couple impressive scrambles, but he didn’t have that signature, Big time play where you just go oh my goodness, that was unbelievable. I mean, now he ran 11 Top scrambled 11 times 39 yards or I guess design runs mixed in there too. So longest Rush was eight. So he didn’t Have that unbelievable wow moment. You know, like I said sidearm throw. Okay, that was a good throw. But we’ve seen Lamar do that before. So yeah, I think that’s probably the biggest reason why and it’s LA. I mean, what the only thing that Los Angeles really, truly cares about from a sports standpoint, is LeBron and the Lakers. And even then they can be fickle. So, I mean, it’s Yeah, LeVar comes to town. And now this was talked about when they were in London back in October, you know, I, he’s been that guy. And he’s been that guy for a few years now, going back to his MVP season. He’s such a unique talent that if you haven’t seen him play, and he’s playing in a market, where he’s not coming every year, like Pittsburgh, and Cleveland and Cincinnati, I mean, yeah, you’re gonna get a little extra traction there. Even. Yes, even for the Chargers who no one cares about Los Angeles at this point. Well, I
8Nestor J. Aparicio 10:52
was shocked that there was this much baby blues there was I guess that was my point in all of it is saying, well, they’re they’re trying to build something out there. But I thought the whole idea and I talked about it last week, the whole ideas poppycock. I don’t know I mean that that franchise is gonna wind up in Europe. I think that’s obvious. And for you know, any of my broken souls who were San Diego Chargers fans, which is F my family, my cousins, my aunt, my uncle everybody out in San Diego, I always feel sort of it’s the big empty and for the ravens to actually go out there and play. For the first time. It’s been a little while. Let’s talk about Lamar. Let’s talk about the offense. Let’s talk about running the ball. They ran the ball. I mean, like and it’s what they should probably should be doing right. I mean, at the end of the day, Lamar ran a little bit at the end. But this three pronged attack that they’re trying to a little bit of Kate and a little bit of Justice Hill. Gus when you need him, Gus, you know when you really need him in the fourth quarter being there. The offensive line to me is still I’m gonna say suspect because I see Linder bomb after blowing people up like a first round draft pick and makes me say Hollywood who but I think the tackles and protection for him and no mark Andrews just still trying to figure it out. And Beckham it feels really choppy with Beckham. It feels like he’s healthy enough to be a part of it. He’s out there running the slants. And say flowers in the running game, which is an interesting, they’ve tried that with do for now for about five years now. And they get say flowers loosen run. They’re still tinkering. And I guess that’s probably to the detriment of the other defensive coordinator, because they’re still showing stuff 1213 weeks into this that Monken and Lamar have you on your toes? Because that Lamar ze hand off. That is the game that’s going to eff up almost anybody when you got two guys with for one speed. And one could go east and one could go west. And you got to figure out if you’re a linebacker, which side you’re gonna move your hips on. And then he finds a hole and you can’t catch him.
Luke Jones 13:03
Yeah, I mean, and I’ll even throw Keith Mitchell in there, because Keith Mitchell speed is right there, if not better than those guys, quite frankly, if you look at some of the next gen stats and player tracking and whatnot, but I mean, it remains a work in progress. I think you look at how they played Sunday night. You know, they didn’t really run the ball that well in the first half. If you go back and look at the halftime numbers, it wasn’t great. I think Lamar was our leading rusher at halftime and, you know, they they finally did get the running game ramped up a little bit more in the second half. I mean, but Gus Edwards didn’t find a whole lot of room. I, I think for me, it’s becoming evident at this point in time that I don’t think Keaton Mitchell is going to become the main guy in the way that they would have envisioned for JK Dobbins had he not gotten hurt in the opener, but I do see assuming he holds on to the ball assuming he continues to grow in terms of responsibility and and being a complete player at the position. It’s feeling like this is keep Mitchell’s job to become a little more prominent and Gus Edwards to become a little more complimentary, if they’re really going to try to reach their ceiling as far as what their offense is going to be. But that’s that’s what I kind of foresee for the running game. And I know Justice Hill you know, he busted one run for 18 yards but thought of some weird some weird usage of the running backs from from Todd Monken. I thought that short yardage situation where Justice Hill ran the ball. I mean, the fourth one called a direct snap to Gus Edwards. I mean, what is that? I mean, that was that was way too cute. So no, I think it was a rough night for Todd Monken. If I’m being totally honest with you, I think he did a good job getting the ball to wide receivers and to Isaiah likely in space early in the game, and they had some success with that. And it’s not as though they didn’t move the ball at all. I mean, they had one three and out, but they really know they move the ball, but it wasn’t even that they got to the red zone and bogged down, they kind of bogged down, you know, in that getting close to field goal range kind of area. And, you know, just it was very choppy, you know.
Nestor J. Aparicio 15:14
And they got to be free and out, right. I mean, they had the 19 play drive, there was nothing right. With the Chargers. I mean, there was a long time where they were iced off the ball late in the game. Well, that’s yeah,
Luke Jones 15:24
8that I mean, the long 19 Play drive that the Chargers had were I mean, obviously clowny gets the strip sack. I mean, it was just a monstrous play by the defense. But yeah, I mean, it was just it was a weird night for the offense, because again, they did some good things. I mean, I, I liked what they were able to do to get the ball to some of the receivers in open space. And to your point, Beckham didn’t play a whole lot. And I think the shoulder was a factor. But yeah, I pointed this out last week, in the aftermath of the Cincinnati game, Beckham was coming off of his two best games, and those were always also his two lowest snap counts. So maybe the idea for Odell Beckham is gonna keep them on a pitch count. And that makes him more explosive. And that’s going to keep him as healthy as possible. So but they’re, I think it’s it’s evident, and the fact that they were 413, on third down, they miss Mark Andrews, and that’s not a knock on Isaiah, likely who had a solid football game, but he’s not the same exact player he even admitted as much himself, you know, whereas Andrews is that guy that when Lamar goes off script, yeah, he can just throw the ball up. Right. So how many times? Has it been a case where Lamar throws it into traffic? And you say, oh, no, no, no. And then Mark Andrews makes an unbelievable catch. They’re not going to have that right now, at least right now, they’re not going to have that. Because who who’s emerging to be that likely is to me more of a guy that get the ball to them on a tight end screen, get the ball to him and space and allow him to break some tackles. And we saw that last year. I mean, he’s tough to bring down you know, one guy usually can’t do it. And, you know, that’s a little bit different. Not that Mark Andrews can’t create after the catch, you know, doesn’t break some tackles here and there, but you think of him is more of the guy that finds a window and sits in the mark delivers it to him or he makes the contested catch. So it’s a different kind of player. So it’s not as though they’re completely doomed at the tight end position. But you’re going from having a top two or top three tight end in football to wherever Isaiah likely ranks. So that means you do need four or five different guys to pick it up. So And to your point, you know, it was nice to see ze flowers had the game he did and they’re gonna need more of that. Yeah, they’re gonna need. Look at the great catch. The Bateman had on the third down on the touchdown drive in the first half. I mean,
Nestor J. Aparicio 17:40
they’re gonna be, yeah, he’s one. And he’s a guy with all of this potential that we haven’t really scratched the surface of when he’s been healthy. It’s very clear why they picked him why he was a first round draft pick. But over the body of work, I mean, especially now that Andrews you know, it’s gonna be six 810 gates 10 targets a game that he’s not going to be there. Yeah, like to see bait MCATs three or four balls a game, right. I’d like to see him be involved in some first downs. I’d like to see him be what the promise of drafting him in the first round was. I mean, we’re, we’re starting to get the report card out on him at this point.
Luke Jones 18:18
Well, I mean, so much of it’s just been that he’s missed so much time with injuries. I mean, even this past week, he had a legitimate injury scare. He went down. It was Wednesday during the viewing portion of practice. I mean, he ran a route and he went to the ground and then was holding his surgically repaired left foot to the point where you’re saying, oh my goodness, did he just have a whatever whatever a setback would be with the Liz Frank injury or Liz Frank surgery, you were wondering if that’s what it was. But you know, he assured everyone he was fine. He was a full go the rest of the week and he played and you know, didn’t look any worse for wear. But I think this is part of what’s so tricky for for the Ravens for Lamar Jackson. Now without Mark Andrews and I get it. He missed a couple games last year and likely stepped in and did a good job. But when you’re talking about a long term absence, and we’ll see if they make it to the AFC Championship, maybe he can come back, they make it to the Super Bowl maybe comes back, but we know he’s gonna be out for the foreseeable future, if not the rest of the year. Think about how the Ravens offense is operated. Going all the way back to Lamar is MVP season until the present day. Lamar has typically been a passer who is focused in on two guys more often than not mark Andrews and whoever the best wide receiver has been. So you know, that was Mark Andrews and Marquis brown. This year it had been Mark Andrews and say flowers. Andrews goes down against Cincinnati. Lamar spread the ball around really well. And it was a credit to him. It was a testament to all those guys for stepping up in game when you lose Andrews on the opening drive the way they did. But in the big picture sense. That’s where the question now lies as far as how is this passing game going to look when Lamar doesn’t have I mean, Mr. Cole said it himself. Andrews and him are peanut butter and jelly, you know, bread and butter, whatever you want to call it. I mean, that’s how innate their their chemistry is almost instinct instinctive, you know, because they came in together. And I mean, it’s unspoken between those two, so you don’t have that. So you have to be better on script with your passing game. And that’s going to require multiple guys to step up because you can’t just expect likely just to become Mark Andrews. It’d be unfair to him. I mean, he’s a second year, former fourth round pick. I mean, he’s got talent, but he’s not mark Andrews. So you need to collectively guys to step up. So it’s got to be more a little more from say, flowers, Gaby, likely certainly Beckham, who’s looked way better the last three or four games compared to how he looked early in the year, but you got to keep them healthy and fresh and explosive. And you’re gonna need more plays from Rashad Bateman, or Nelson Aguilar, who, at times, it looks really good. But other times it’s kind of just disappeared from this offense almost entirely. So it really is going to be a collective effort. And yes, I agree with you that they need to run the ball consistently. And you know, they’ve done a much better job of that as the years gone on. But, you know, this is something you have to figure out. And I think what’s, I don’t want to discourage things not the right word, because I mean, heck, they won the football game, but think what’s a little create some urgency to really get in the lab during the bye week, if you’re Todd Monken in the coaching staff, it’s the fact that you did have this extra rest, and you did have some extra time to prepare. And that is not a good chargers defense. And that was a chargers defense without Joey Bosa. Mind you. You know, that was not a great offensive performance by any stretch of the imagination. So, you know, they’ve got to figure some things out. And to your point, I’d be remiss if I didn’t agree with you on this, the past protection needs to be better. And I get it Khalil Mack is a Hall of Fame caliber pass rusher. Right. I mean, he’s been that guy for a long time. But, you know, collectively, I mean, Lamar, you know, he was under a lot of duress in that game. And I mean, he was able to create and extend some plays and do some scramble here and there and extend a couple plays here and there and complete passes down the field. But by and large, it was very choppy. So they need their offense to be better. The I think mungkin struggled to have a good feel for how to call that game as it went on. But they did get the running game going in the second half. And to their credit, even though the defense did the heaviest lifting by far. They did finish and they did get that play was a flowers and that was intriguing to see. And I agree with you. I’d much rather see him running plays like that. Then Devin DuVernay, who we saw in the first half, where to me that kind of they had a great opportunity late in the first half and they ran du Vernay on a first down for no gain and think that kind of put that drive going in the wrong direction. So they’ve got some playmakers. I mean, Harbaugh said it this past week and I agree with him. I didn’t think it was coach speak whatsoever. He said that they are better equipped now to endure the loss of Mark Andrews than they were last year or the year before the year before that. And I think that’s absolutely true. They have more skill players and more depth as far as past catchers to endure that. But doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy. And I think we saw that Sunday night with some of the issues they had. Specifically on third down. One
Nestor J. Aparicio 23:21
thing I’ll say on Lamar, specifically Lamar is just his play aside, and whatever accuracy he’s going to sometimes he’s going to throw darts sometimes it’s going to sail like every other quarterback sometimes gonna be good decision. Sometimes he’s gonna get away. And he did that two or three times where he looked trapped and got away. When the pocket collapses on him a little bit. I would say this, he’s taking better care of himself. When he’s out in space. He’s not running into linebackers like he was five years ago that you and I’ve talked about. We’ve talked about him being on the field and healthy in December, and being able to do all the things he wants to do with all these gimped quarterbacks injured quarterbacks. I mean, you see Herbert with the left hand all wrapped up. You see boats up there, sit and eat and raisin bran. You see Mark Andrews out you see Marlin Humphrey out you see Ronnie Stanley a shell of what he couldn’t should be. Lamar being Lamar Lamar being healthy and Lamar being upright in December. During the by that unto itself at nine and three, wherever they’re going to be as a one seat a two seat everybody for games are going to drop. Having him healthy is that’s that’s the whole game. I mean, Cleveland doesn’t have that Cincinnati doesn’t have that. We can go through Minnesota, we can go through all these teams that don’t have their quarterback. The Ravens were that team. So you’d be nine and three all day. But if Lamar gets his leg broken, next week against La it’s over, keeping him healthy and having him make good decisions, to not get blown up every week, once or twice, and to say oh my god Don’t get hit like that you’re gonna get hurt. I do feel like where we are the last couple of weeks watching him play Cincinnati, Cleveland. He’s taking better care. He’s making business decisions for the team instead of himself, maybe last year to stay healthy. And I do like that. He’s not getting crushed, or putting himself in a position to get himself crushed. He’s getting down. He’s ducking. He’s sliding. He’s looking for space and getting down. As opposed to I got one more guy to beat and I’m gonna make I’m gonna make Sports Center, because I think he thought more like that five years ago.
8Luke Jones 25:37
I think he did five years ago, I don’t think I think you exaggerate how many big hits he’s taken over the last few years. I’ll continue to say that we just will agree to disagree on that. But you said it. I mean, and look, it’s St. It’s really isn’t anything that’s unique to Lamar. I mean, Kirk Cousins towards Achilles. He’s not a mobile quarterback. Joe burrow, messed up his wrists getting sacked in the puck ketamine Lamar, in the last two years again, got hurt as a passer. I mean, it really is just about the health of your quarterback and you knock on wood, you say a prayer, cross your fingers, cross your toes, whatever it is, you do, you know, four leaf clover, Clover, whatever. You need to keep them on the field. There’s no doubt. And I mean, I I think I think I agree with you to a point but I mean, he got his ankle messed up in the Cincinnati game. I mean, it’s it’s football and he’s gonna, it’s gonna run. I mean, that’s, that’s part of what makes Lamar Lamar, I wouldn’t want Lamar to stop running. He wouldn’t be a special but quarterback.
Nestor J. Aparicio 26:38
You would agree with that, right?
Luke Jones 26:41
I don’t know. I don’t really know if I do agree with that. I don’t think he’s run that much differently. To 2018. Yes. Do I I just I don’t agree with you that he took all these massive was getting walloped every week, he just wasn’t
Nestor J. Aparicio 26:58
8making contact as well as he’s been avoiding it lately. That’s I I’m not looking to criticize him. I’m actually looking to praise him and saying no, no. And I just haven’t seen anything differently. That’s all. That’s all.
Luke Jones 27:12
Yeah, I mean, I think, see, I don’t even think it’s so much him. They’re not they’re not using as many design runs for him. I mean, when he’s taking off, it’s much more him scrambling as a passer. So, I don’t even know if it’s so much Lamar playing differently as much as the Ravens offense and Todd Monken calling games differently. So, I mean, you know, I’m not trying to be disagreeable here. I don’t think it’s I just don’t think it’s a dramatic difference as far as when he does take off. I think he’s, you know, for a few years now has for the most part. And, you know, he still takes a big hit on occasion. But I don’t think it’s this in comparison. Take a look at the hits that Anthony Richardson for the Colts was taken early this year. And you kind of see why he was out for the year. I mean, he was getting crushed. Multiple times I
Nestor J. Aparicio 28:00
saw Josh howling is taking down in a chicken wing and didn’t even get it didn’t even get a call. You know, like so I not seeing Lamar didn’t have Jersey ripped off. I’m not seeing him getting his hair off. I think there’s even a point where some of the defenders don’t want to hurt him. Just shove him out of bounds. Get rid of them that that he has Yeah, he is. He’s thinking about it differently. And to your point, and I will fight with you about this because it was two years ago this week that I got thrown out that he ran the ball 21 times. And those were many of those were absolute design runs. They’re not designing runs for him. And when they do the design is I’m going to run six yards and fall down and we’re going to be in second and four not I’m going to run six yards, try to play my game and deep deep deep and get follow up and we’re in second and two when I got wallop I’d rather be in second and four and, and live another day. I guess. I see it that way watching him maybe it’s on television. I don’t know that it does feel like when he gets into space with the ball, whether it’s trying to find a receiver, or hey, I’m gonna run it or hey, it’s a busted play. And but I mean, I’ve seen him now like trying to throw the ball away in these weird ways when he’s getting sacked because he’s not used to getting sacked. That’s a little. I see more of the quarterbacks in the league doing that like doing that irresponsible like throw the ball, maybe I’ll get a penalty. Maybe there’ll be a receiver. I’ve seen more of that across the league this year. Maybe young quarterbacks under duress and just turtling up the way maybe Peyton Manning did at the end of his career just turtle up I’m not gonna get hit i i liked the way Lamar is taking care of Lamar, I guess to my point, and that he’s not running the ball 21 times and they’re not designing runs six 810 times a game and when the the stringers got tight in the game on Sunday, and it wasn’t Lamar left Lamar, right. He was still Lamar is going to drop back and pass and we’re gonna have a flowers run and we’re gonna have Keith Mitchell run. I just did That would I wasn’t down on Roman when Roman was here. I didn’t beat him up nearly as much as you would a lot of other people did. But he ran Lamar. The way Matt Wieters was catching for butcher Walter for me. And I liked it. Lamar comes into these press conferences, not looking disheveled, not looking beaten up. Cincinnati ankle thing aside, and that can happen anytime. But I do feel like they’re taking care of their $250 million piece of property. And that’s important, because I didn’t feel that way. For three, four years ago, I thought that they were they were dealing with the devil and I don’t feel like they’re playing the game that way anymore.
Luke Jones 30:35
Fair enough. Fair enough. And and look at I already said to me, the bigger difference is schematics and play calling then how Lamar is running when he’s running? You know what I mean? Like I don’t, because again, I’ll I’ll continue to fight you on this idea that he got walloped eight times a game running the ball. I mean, he, it was always uncanny that he avoided taking a ton of hits, considering how much he ran the ball. And to me, that was credit to him. But there is no question that they have tried to move away from that. The Morris talked about this for years. As someone who prefers passing to running I actually, I absolutely believe that I think Lamar is sincere and that now, instinct takes over at some point, when you’re the competitor out there in the same way that it does for Josh Allen in the same way that it does for Jalen hertz, of when you’re a quarterback that’s mobile and has the ability to run and you’re not seeing anyone open downfield, you’re only gonna sit in the pocket so long and then you’re just gonna say, forget it. I gotta, I gotta take off. So, you know, when Lamar does that, he’s still one of the absolute most dangerous players in the NFL. There’s no question about that. But But yeah, they’re not leaning as heavily into the design runs. I mean, there’s no doubt about that. So So I don’t think we disagree nearly as much as it may have come across here. So but it’s different and But all that said, takes one play. I mean, assault with Mark Andrews. You know, Mark Andrews is a guy that has had missed a whole lot of time in his career. Guys are durable or avoid injury until they don’t anymore, and it’s not even that guys are, quote, injury prone all the time. Sometimes it’s just, it’s football, you get hurt. So that’s the key for the Ravens. And that’s the difference of the Ravens right now, compared to the Bengals compared to the Browns with Deshaun. Watson and go down the list of other quarterbacks in the AFC and NFC that are missing time right now. I mean, it’s all about keeping your guy up, right? If you do get a great chance to win. If you don’t, you’re probably done. I mean, that’s just how it is. That’s why, you know, all this talk the last couple years about the Ravens not being as good with Lamar, well, no da, same thing would be true. Patrick mahomes went down or any other team I mean, the Bengals are totally done now without Joe burrow. So I mean, that’s how it works. So he’s healthy, you’re not going would you hope that it stays that way and you hope you can stay relatively healthy the rest of the way as a football team, because if they do, boy, this a team that has a great opportunity to make a deep playoff run deeper than they’ve been in a long time. Nice
Nestor J. Aparicio 33:08
easy week ahead is the Oracle stock Blake Snell with a $200 million. We’re gonna be doing the Maryland crabcake tour all week long on Wednesday. We’re gonna be Coco’s, hence the shirt established in 1985 I’m gonna be there 2023 Looking forward to the the famous Coco’s crabcake as well as a burger and some fries. microcytic Liana is going to be joining us along with Ron, Cassie and others on Wednesday, Thursday, we move the show over to the BMA we’re going to be gertrudes over off the Hopkins campus. Are we going to give it away ravens scratch offs in Maryland lottery our friends at window nation 866 90 nation as well as Jiffy Lube MultiCare putting on all of these things Dan Rodricks on a Thursday, as well as Councilman Odette Ramos and then on Friday, we’re heading up to Perry Ville Cecil County. We’re going to be at Hollywood casino right there in the sports bar. I’m going to visit with Amy and Jonathan and our friends Christian up there Hollywood casino and also going to have Maryland stadium authority Chairman former chairman Tom Kelso joining us to discuss money football, baseball, the city, the stadia live, work, play all of those things that’s going to happen on Friday. We’re going to be at state fair on next week on Tuesday for breakfast on the fifth. We’re going to be a curio and foreign daughter on the 15th Gina shock from the gogos Hall of Famer is going to be joining us later on in the month for the Maryland crabcakes or Hey, wouldn’t be the holidays if I don’t go home that Dundalk at least once I got down there to Costas I’ll be getting back again. To drug city as well. He is Luke I am Nestor. He doesn’t have the week off he’s gonna be riding and doing stuff. But the Ravens have some buy time this week. We all have a little bit of downtime this week. We can maybe focus on the Orioles offseason a little bit watching football here and maybe get some pre holiday tasks done that they have nothing to do with Cyber Monday. What are some crabcakes online I am Nestor we are wn st am 1570, Towson Baltimore. And we never stopped talking nine and three And a bye week for the ravens and Baltimore positive stay with us
