Heeding the roar of Detroit Lions in sound Ravens defeat

It was a bad night at the stadium. The Baltimore Ravens were mostly manhandled by the Detroit Lions. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the roar of Jared Goff and Aidan Hutchinson after a demoralizing 38-30 loss and a short week of prep for Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Luke Jones and Nestor Aparicio discussed the Baltimore Ravens’ disappointing 30-24 loss to the Detroit Lions, highlighting the team’s defensive struggles and the absence of key players like Matt Abika and Kyle Van Noy. The Lions outperformed the Ravens, running for 224 yards and sacking Lamar Jackson seven times. Jones emphasized the need for improved tackling and pass rush, noting the Ravens’ inability to run the ball effectively in back-to-back games. The conversation also touched on the potential impact of injuries on the team’s performance and the importance of bouncing back against the Kansas City Chiefs in the upcoming game.

• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Prepare the team mentally and physically for a tough road matchup against the Chiefs in just 5 days.
• [ ] Evaluate the defensive line depth and explore options to improve the unit.
• [ ] Closely monitor the status of Calais Campbell’s neck injury and determine his availability for the Chiefs game.

Ravens’ Loss to Lions: Initial Reactions

• Nestor Aparicio introduces the topic of the Ravens’ loss to the Lions, expressing concern on both sides of the ball.
• Luke Jones disagrees with Nestor, stating the loss was convincing and could have been worse.
• Luke highlights the Lions’ performance, noting they were the better team and outperformed the Ravens in key areas.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the Lions’ recent success and their potential as a top team in the NFC.

Detroit’s Dominance and Ravens’ Mistakes

• Luke emphasizes that Detroit’s performance was impressive, running for over 200 yards and winning the line of scrimmage.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the Ravens’ struggles, including self-inflicted errors and the Lions’ effective game plan.
• Luke points out the Ravens’ lack of a pass rush and the Lions’ ability to keep Lamar Jackson from scrambling.
• Nestor mentions the Lions’ calm performance, despite the Ravens’ mistakes, and the importance of leadership within the team.

Ravens’ Offensive and Defensive Performance

• Nestor and Luke discuss the Ravens’ offensive performance, noting they scored 21 points early in the third quarter.
• Luke highlights the defense’s failure to answer the bell in the second half, leading to multiple sacks on Lamar Jackson.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the offensive line’s struggles and the impact of the Lions’ pass rush.
• Luke mentions the Ravens’ inability to run the ball effectively in back-to-back games, a significant departure from their usual performance.

Impact of Injuries and Future Concerns

• Nestor and Luke discuss the impact of injuries, particularly to Matt Abika and Kyle Van Noy, on the Ravens’ defense.
• Luke expresses concern about the Ravens’ defensive depth and the potential for a crisis if key players remain injured.
• Nestor mentions Marlon Humphrey’s comments about the team’s performance and the need to improve.
• Luke emphasizes the importance of the Ravens’ upcoming game against the Chiefs and the need to regain their aura.

Ravens’ AFC Championship Prospects

• Nestor and Luke discuss the Ravens’ chances of making it to the AFC Championship, given their current performance.
• Luke points out the challenges the Ravens face, including Buffalo’s strong schedule and the need to win games to stay competitive.
• Nestor expresses concern about the Ravens’ ability to win games and the impact of their current losses on their playoff chances.
• Luke highlights the importance of the Ravens’ defense improving to have a chance at the championship.

Ravens’ Defense and Future Improvements

• Nestor and Luke discuss the Ravens’ defense’s poor performance and the need for improvements.
• Luke mentions the importance of the defensive line and the impact of missing key players like Matt Abika and Kyle Van Noy.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the need for better tackling and overall defensive play to improve the team’s performance.
• Luke emphasizes the importance of the Ravens’ defense in regaining their aura and competing for the championship.

Ravens’ Offensive and Defensive Strategy

• Nestor and Luke discuss the Ravens’ offensive and defensive strategies, including the importance of running the ball effectively.
• Luke highlights the need for better game planning and adjustments to improve the team’s performance.
• Nestor mentions the importance of the Ravens’ leadership and the need for key players to step up.
• Luke emphasizes the importance of the Ravens’ defense in setting the tone for the team’s success.

Ravens’ Upcoming Games and Challenges

• Nestor and Luke discuss the Ravens’ upcoming games, including the important match against the Chiefs.
• Luke highlights the challenges the Ravens face, including the need to win games to stay competitive.
• Nestor expresses concern about the Ravens’ ability to win games and the impact of their current performance on their playoff chances.
• Luke emphasizes the importance of the Ravens’ defense in setting the tone for the team’s success and the need for improvements.

Ravens’ Leadership and Team Dynamics

• Nestor and Luke discuss the importance of leadership within the Ravens’ team.
• Luke highlights the need for key players to step up and lead the team to success.
• Nestor mentions the importance of the Ravens’ leadership in maintaining team morale and performance.
• Luke emphasizes the importance of the Ravens’ defense in setting the tone for the team’s success and the need for improvements.

Ravens’ Injury Concerns and Future Outlook

• Nestor and Luke discuss the impact of injuries on the Ravens’ performance and future outlook.
• Luke highlights the importance of the Ravens’ defense in setting the tone for the team’s success and the need for improvements.
• Nestor expresses concern about the Ravens’ ability to win games and the impact of their current performance on their playoff chances.
• Luke emphasizes the importance of the Ravens’ defense in setting the tone for the team’s success and the need for improvements.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Ravens loss, Detroit Lions, defensive performance, Lamar Jackson, Matt Abika injury, Kyle Van Noy, pass rush, offensive line, fourth down decisions, AFC Championship, Kansas City Chiefs, defensive depth, game plan, missed tackles, leadership.

SPEAKERS

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Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 tassel, Baltimore. We are Baltimore, positive. We were up late on Monday night, along with all the rest of you Maryland crab cake tours coming back at you. We will have Raven scratch off. It says x2 that’s l2 at this point, one into the Ravens lost. On Monday night. I don’t want to say convincingly, but convincingly enough for me to be convinced that there should be some concern on both sides of the ball. Luke Jones joins us now. He was up late. If you want any of our locker room sound, you’ll get all of that out of Baltimore. Positive and of course, Luke’s available out of Baltimore, Luke on the internet after he sleeps in a little bit and gets a little bit of rest here in a short week. Hey, not just you dude. I mean, let’s start the party. You know, Ready? Set Go. They lost. And it they lost,

Luke Jones  00:55

yeah. I mean, I’ll actually disagree with you a little bit when you said, maybe not convincingly. I think it was very convincing. I think it was, could have been worse. And certainly, if you see the final score, you say, Well, it’s a one score game, and I get it, they drove down the field in the final minute to score a touchdown. That isn’t Garbage Time, because it allowed you to at least attempt an onside kick, which they got the bounce up in the air for it, you know, for what it’s worth, but it’s this was different. We’ve talked about this team so many times in not so many times, but when they’ve lost in recent years, maybe it’s not as extreme as it was in Buffalo a couple weeks ago. But we tend to say what the Ravens beat the Ravens. And yes, they made some mistakes, and they had some self inflicted errors. I mean, Derrick Henry with another fourth quarter fumble. But I think it was very simple, Detroit was the better team. I mean, and I have not said that very often when the Ravens have been beaten in recent years, a lot of times it tends to be like, how did that just happen. This was Detroit coming in and frankly, doing the kind of the kinds of things that the ravens are accustomed to doing to other teams, when you talk about running for over 200 yards, when you talk about winning the line of scrimmage, what we’ve talked about the pass rush at times not being maybe as dominant as maybe the sack totals have have looked in certain years, but certainly we’ve seen games where they’ve sacked a quarterback six or seven times. But this was a very convincing, humbling kind of defeat for the Ravens that want to be clear. Detroit’s really, really good when you try to put this in perspective, before we start talking in terms about the sky falling, and this team is in deep trouble, or, or they’re, you know, they’re in deep you know what? They played a buffalo team that might be the best team in the AFC, before it’s all said and done. And certainly the ravens, I think, are still going to have something to say about that. Kansas City will have something to say about that, certainly as the team that has been at the top in the AFC, but on the flip side, looking at the NFC, this is a Detroit team that won a heck of a lot of football games the last couple of years, and they got humbled themselves in week one, playing at Lambeau, playing a division opponent, and you see how they’ve rebounded these last two weeks. So if you tell me, at the end of the season, we’re talking about Buffalo and Detroit as the number one seeds in each conference, not saying that excuse, I’d be happy with that,

Nestor Aparicio  03:36

because somebody fresher win a Super Bowl, you know, talking about number one seed, but they’re there. You’re right. If they’re playing in the Super Bowl, as absurd as it sounds, just picturing a bill’s helmet and the lion’s helmets, a little absurd and a Super Bowl, sure. So we wouldn’t be shocked as we sit here week three looking at the pedigree, having done 60 minutes, you know, heavyweight fights with both of those teams, one at home, one on the road, across the board, they’re talented. I’m talking about whether you’re talking about penne soul, whether to about Hutchinson, whether you’re talking about the kid in the back who had a terrible night safety, right, like, but, but it’s a great player. They picked on the kid from from Alabama instead, a little bit, tried to anyway, but Laporta Gibbs, the running backs up golf remind, you know, he reminded me of choke, cool. Don’t he look? You know, he’s just he looked completely like he had been seeing a shrink for a decade that started out in Hollywood at the beginning of this mess to calm himself. He played calm in a storm. I mean, I heard R Hey, who? And I’m not at the game because, you know, because they have no integrity. I’ll always point that out. Um, and. And my wife says to me loud, Wow, sounds like Whoo. And and then at the end, let’s go lions. Yeah, I heard that at the end too, so I know the crowd was there, but one team was throwing helmets flailing all over the after a third fumble in a row. We had mentioned Derek Henry’s role in this. And you know, Lamar is the king of the the ground beater at that point, right? Like just sort of when things go wrong for this group, Marlon, Humphrey, Ronnie, Stanley, Mark, Andrews, Lamar, who just goes to the list of the people that have been here their leadership in the same way we saw Adley rutschman and gunner Henderson and all those guys came to them the leadership group, the group that needs to perform in order for you to win. Oh no man in the post game, Ryan Clark, they asked Ryan Clark, she still think the raves could go to Super Bowl. I don’t know. Maybe I don’t know. I don’t know. They got, they got to start showing

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Luke Jones  06:03

up. It’s when the lights are on, you know. I mean, it’s week three. I mean, and to answer your question about Jared Goff, well, Did I not say to you in our lead up to this football game that he’s a completely different quarterback if you don’t get any pressure on him, I mean, if you get any pressure on him, and they got, I mean, they didn’t sack him once

Nestor Aparicio  06:22

again, seven on seven all night, right?

Luke Jones  06:24

I mean, right, you know. And look, that’s that is true to an extent of any quarterback, but he is one of the more extreme examples of, if you pressure Jared Goff, he looks awful if you don’t pressure Jared Goff. He’s one of the very best quarterbacks in football, the Ravens got zero sacks. They hit him five times. Granted, you know, I think the story is still the fact that they ran for two under 24 yards. But hey, 28 of 22 under two yards, a touchdown, some big third down conversions, a massive, gigantic a fourth down conversion at the end, but also had one on the first drive, if you recall. So I hear everything you just said, and I’m not disagreeing with that, other than, you know, I mean, it’s week three, it’s a long way to

Nestor Aparicio  07:12

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go. I’m not throwing talent, but it’s like they need to show up when the lights are on. But yeah,

Luke Jones  07:17

and you know, I can sit here and say, or anyone that can can sit here and say, well, they lost the buffalo on the road by one point, and the lions, it felt like the lions dominated them at times. And you know, it’s not as though they lost by four touchdowns, so, but they’ve got work to do. I mean, there’s no question about it. And I mean, for me, it begins with how the defense played. You have to begin with that certainly the offense, which scored 21 points, you know, had 21 points early in the third quarter, coming out of halftime and driving down the field, and you’re thinking, Okay, you’re leading. You’re up 2114 you’re feeling good. Where do you go from here? And the defense never really answered the bell, and then as the second half went on, mean, the sack started to pile up, as far as Lamar being sacked. Now, he sacked seven times, six of those in the second half, I think. And this is, you know, without me having the time and the and the energy of wanting to get a little bit of sleep as I got home early, early Tuesday morning. But you know how much of that was the offensive line, how much of that was the coverage downfield, how much of that was Lamar Jackson holding the football, how much of that was the lions pass rush and their second level doing an excellent job of keeping Lamar from breaking out and scrambling. They built the cage. They they built that cage. They played excellent, complimentary defense in that way. So I I’m not going to sit here and say the offensive line played well, because I don’t think that was the case either by any stretch. Let’s be clear. And I don’t want to say all the sacks were on Lamar for holding the ball too long, by any means, because I don’t think that was the case. But I think you’ll find examples of each of those. And certainly, as the fourth quarter went on and you’re behind game script wise, not game script, but and in terms of how you want to be able to play. And let’s face it, other than the first drive, I mean, the Ravens didn’t run the football very well and didn’t really get in situations where they could run. That makes

Nestor Aparicio  09:25

two full games. Now, if you go back to halftime of the bosses game, right, like, literally, right,

Luke Jones  09:29

the first time of the Lamar Jackson era, where they’ve been held under 100 yards rushing in back to back games. I mean, think about that at seven years, right? I mean it. I mean, this is a team that, if you recall, they had a game in Denver where they they broke, you know, they they valued an NFL record by rushing for 100 plus yards so many times that they had Lamar run on the final play of the game. That ticked off Vic Fangio and all that at the time. But that’s neither here nor there. They couldn’t do it. And. And that was the other part of Detroit’s game plan. I mean, you saw they had eight in the box, and they, you know, they really tried to kind of stack their front and they played a lot of two two split safeties, real wide. I mean, that’s why, on certain occasions, they were able to hit some passes down the middle of the field. But, I mean, that was a heck of a game plan by the Detroit defense. And I think, you know, especially when you saw how the game started out, you know, you’re kind of like, okay, is this going to be the kind of game that the ravens are going to go off and score 40 plus again? And let me be clear. I mean, yeah, they scored a touchdown at the end to get to 30. But Detroit, as the game went on, they did a really good job in that regard. But, I mean, you can’t bury the lead here of this being a fraudulent ravens defensive performance. I mean, it just was. And I get it, there’s no namdi Mada BK, they missed him. There’s no doubt about it. They absolutely missed Kyle van Noy. At the same time, you can’t give up 224, rushing yards. I mean, Marlon Humphrey said it after the game. I mean, we’re not very good. I mean, period, we know the standard in this town, it’s not to be, it’s not even to just be merely a good defense, let alone be a bad defense, the way they’ve been through three games, with one of those games being against the Cleveland Browns. Whoop. Dee doo, right? I mean, truly, whoop Did you whoop? Dee doo, that you held down the Cleveland Browns, who haven’t scored points against anyone and who won, they won, but not at all because of their offense. Well, you saw

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Nestor Aparicio  11:34

my clip at the end. I mean, I know you’re busy at the game, and even better, that I’m not up than the little Little Kevin Byrne press box in the corner bothering you in the fourth quarter, but Marlon Humphrey, when they were doing all the Heming and hauling at the end, I shared it on Facebook. He put his head back, and he’s like, we’re in last place. F You know, like, and I’m thinking, yeah, yeah. And I don’t know, Kansas City in five days, dude, yeah,

Luke Jones  12:03

no question. And boy, you want to talk about something. You want to know who got a shot of adrenaline and a shot of energy watching what happened Monday night, the Kansas City Chiefs, who we talked about it in our in our previous segment, going around the league. I mean, even in victory on Sunday night. It’s not as though they looked all that terribly impressive against the New York Giants, but now they’re looking at it and saying, Hey, all right, we got to win. Under our belt, we found some things offensively in the second half against the Giants. Baltimore’s coming to town. But man, did you guys see their defense? Do you see that they can’t they couldn’t stop the run at all. Did you see that Detroit was able to make force Lamar Jackson to hold the ball? And, you know, we they were able to get pressure on him and bring him down seven times. I mean, that that’s some life for them at a time where they’re not feeling themselves in terms of aura. I mean, biggest thing for me, just if we’re talking in terms of, like, the big picture narratives, right? It’s a lot of what you just said. I mean, this was a prime time home game. They’re wearing the all black uniforms, you know, they’ve got the light show at the stadium. To your point, the crowds into it all of that. Detroit didn’t care. I mean, that they really, they squashed that aura. And that’s not to say the Ravens won’t get it back, starting next Sunday, you know, and sun Sunday in Kansas City. I mean, they better, right? You don’t want to be one in three. It’s not insurmountable, but, boy, you’re starting to have some different conversations.

Nestor Aparicio  13:33

But, well, I’m already having different conversations about the AFC Championship game. When you’re in this kind of a hole, thinking we’re going to lose two or three. All year we’ve lost two. And it’s September,

Luke Jones  13:42

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well, and you see what Buffalo’s, you see what buffalo schedule looks like until November, right? I mean,

Nestor Aparicio  13:47

it’s, I mean, they’re gonna have a three game advantage by the time the Ravens lose their next game, right? Whenever that’s going to be.

Luke Jones  13:53

I mean, who knows? I mean, it’s the league, right? I mean, you were saying, both of us were saying how impressive Green Bay looked through two weeks and they lost in Cleveland, right? I mean, you never really know, so I don’t think you can get too caught up in that if you’re the team itself. But, man, I mean, that’s, that’s a soul searching kind of defeat right there, in terms of, you know, what are you going to do to fix the defense? Especially, I mean, John Harbaugh didn’t have any further update on on Matt abika. Now, they didn’t play some on IR on Monday, but by the way, you and

Nestor Aparicio  14:25

I did a lengthy piece about that. Do you want to, like, recap that just for a second, because I don’t think they talked enough about it in the broadcast. And I think this thing’s kind of come on over a weird weekend, right? Orioles playing the Yankees people out. Do you know, doing whatever they’re doing, the Mada BK thing, just seeing him in street clothes on the on the sideline. You know, it’s not like Aikman and Buck touched on the fact that there’s just concerning, because you’re pretty concerned over the weekend.

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Luke Jones  14:50

I mean, you have to be concerned. It’s a neck injury and and I’ve never said that he’s out for the year, but when you’re talking about a neck, when you’re talking about seeking. A couple different opinions. And John Harbaugh said himself symptoms he’s experiencing. I mean, think about that. When you’re talking about a neck injury and you’re saying symptoms you’re experiencing. I’m not going to speculate on what those symptoms are, but we’ve walked, we’ve all watched football our whole lives.

Nestor Aparicio  15:15

They’re neurological. I know that much, right?

Luke Jones  15:17

You’re talking in terms of, you know, whether you’re feeling numb, numbness, or ting tingling, you know, look, I mean, he wasn’t, it’s not like he was in a neck collar on the sideline or anything like that, right? I’m not, I’m not saying his career is over, or being an alarmist to that degree, but there’s obvious concern when you’re talking about a neck, a neck injury or a head injury, you know, concussions, that’s a different animal than a hamstring, an ankle, even a knee, even a knee injury that cost you the rest of a season, generally speaking, unless you wreck every ligament in your knee. Generally speaking, it it’s a good prognosis long term, when you’re talking about a neck now again, that doesn’t mean, even if he does have to go on IR that, that he can’t come back, or anything like that. But you’re talking about something that isn’t necessarily a quick fix, where he’s going to be back on the field in two weeks. Or maybe they got good news over the weekend, but you know, it’s certainly something that you know did not come up until a day or two later. They were not according to John Harbaugh, they were not necessarily able to identify or pinpoint an exact moment when this happened plenty of times. It can be something that looks pretty benign as it pertains to many car crashes on every single play for an NFL player, especially an NFL defensive lineman. So you know, they didn’t talk about it much on the on the telecast, and maybe that’s a good sign, but it also might just be that, hey, the Ravens just aren’t saying a whole lot about it, out of respect to Matt abika. And some of it is also when you are talking about a neck injury, when you are talking about concussions or something like that. And I’m not saying this is that, but you don’t always know right away, and sometimes you do have to wait and see and see what happens. But I think we saw this is a completely different defensive line. And I’ll also point out Travis Jones was kind of in and out of the game and looking shaken up at a couple of different points in the second half. So boy, you want to talk about full blown crisis mode is if you don’t have Matt ABK and suddenly Travis Jones isn’t 100% and that’s we saw that, you know, we saw that at times. So it’s, it’s concerning, you know, one of the, you know, when you when we would go through the roster and where the Ravens were on each side of the ball, you know, during OTAs, during mandatory mini camp, going into training camp, you know, one of my relative concerns, not that I was, you know, being an alarmist about it, but one of my relative concerns for a roster that looks really good on paper, overall, you know, in the minds of many people, the best roster In the NFL on paper, but one of the relative concerns was, you know, how much defensive line depth Do you really have? And look, it’s a salary cap era. Every team in the league has some areas where you’re going to have some concerns, and you’re going to say, man, we can’t afford an injury there. Matt APK, there’s a reason why they paid him close to $100 million so on a four year deal. And you saw that by halftime on Monday night Exactly. So you know, he’s one of those guys. I mean, look, we know there’s one player on this team that you truly say if he gets hurt for an extended period of time or a season ending injury, Lamar Jackson, in the same way. It’s Josh Allen for the bills. It’s Patrick mahomes for the chiefs, Joe burrow for the Bengals. That’s why the Bengals season is shot now. But that’s just reality. But you that doesn’t mean you don’t have another five or six players on your roster. You know, in some cases, maybe a couple more than that. Where you say, Man, that’s a guy you really, really, really don’t want to lose. That’s a guy that really changes the complexion of how you want to play. And I’d absolutely put namdi Mada BK in that category. You know, not to say the Ravens if he can’t come back, or if he misses an extended period of time. It’s not to say they won’t be okay or they can’t figure things out. But man, that really changes things for your defensive front. And then when you throw in Van Noy as well, then you get a group that was a shell of what you want to be, and the guys that were out there, they need to play better, right? I mean, you don’t just give them a pass. I mean, Kyle Hamilton said it in the post game, you know, shame on us, if, if, if we lose one Pro Bowl player, and we completely fall apart. I mean, that’s, that’s not an excuse. Doesn’t mean we don’t miss the guy. But we can’t play like that, you know, you can’t go from one extreme to the other. You know, this isn’t, you know, this isn’t. Oh, we’re a top five defense with him and and it’s okay to be terrible without him. No. I mean, there’s no one that. Has that kind of threshold. As far as the defense, like I said, in football, the quarterback is kind of the one player where you speak in absolutes in that way, so they can’t use it as an excuse. But until he’s back on the field, whenever that might be, and if he’s back on the field in 2025 man, they’ve got to figure some things out. And if you’re Eric Acosta, you might need to be really looking, not might you’re going to need to be looking to see, how can I improve that group? Because what we saw on Monday night, I mean, we use the term a lot, going back and using the term John Harbaugh used a decade ago. I think it was after a loss in San Francisco with how the defensive backs played, he used the term that was below the bar man, that defensive effort, that defensive performance, that was as below the bar as it gets for a Baltimore Ravens defense, even last year with all their issues they had with their past defense. Go look at the runs, the run defense, numbers, they still stopped the run. You know, that wasn’t a major issue. That was just a mess on Monday night. And that’s it was a very humbling experience, very humbling defeat for that defense, I mean, for the whole team, but really for that ravens defense, that man, I mean, I get it. You’re missing van or you’re missing Matt abika, but you got to play way better than that. I don’t care if it’s the lions, the bills, the chiefs coming up on Sunday, whoever that was, not ravens, football whatsoever.

Nestor Aparicio  21:33

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Well, the part of stopping the run that it sort of never ended for them, just the huge holes and and, I think when you saw the group from Cleveland last week that front four, or, you know, for you young, old timers like me and Luke, that remember, you know, McCrary and Sam Adams and goose, I actually thought of goose during the game, you know, on Monday night. Remember some of the stuff he used to say down on the sidelines. But this without Matt ABK and they’re going to be with Adam this week, right? I mean, yeah, we’re not injury reporting this out, but the notion he’s going to play in five days seems to be, wouldn’t think so. Right? Think so. Wouldn’t think so. Right, how different it looked and how different it felt in the middle. And people like, what’s up with roquan? And I’m like, roquan can’t even see what’s going on. I’m watching. I’m watching. He’s getting behind his lineman trying to guess which way the running backs going. And it certainly wasn’t roquan Finest Hour either, right? I mean, this is one of those nights where, like, Derek Henry plays the dog, and the middle of the defense was a mess, and I felt like they were out coach. I felt like scheme wise, when that lions OC got down on the goal line, nobody was thinking of

Luke Jones  22:51

Ben Johnson. Was right. What a Oh, no doubt. Well, and to the point you just made about roquan, but, but you know, this applies to the whole defense, next gen stats, you know, which is the NFL analytics department, like they, you know, they track these kind of things. And, you know, they kind of did a a contrast, you know, they talked about the fact that the lions didn’t turn the ball over. They talked about the fact that they made the optimal decision on every fourth down they were faced with, including the fourth and two, right? I mean, I think there was a lot of debate, as you know, what, what the, what they, they were going to do there, you know, with, you know, two minutes to go, and, you know, their, their defense had started to play well, right? I mean, after that touchdown that the Ravens got coming out of the third quarter, you know, coming out of halftime, that their defense started to settle in. And I think a lot of people were saying, in fact, I can tell you, and I won’t, I won’t name any names, because I think it was just the same discourse. Anyone that was watching at the bar or watching at home, there were one or two reporters nearby me that said, there’s no way they’re going for this, right? They went for it. I mean, that’s Dan Campbell, right? And that’s where, and it’s not even a well for

Nestor Aparicio  23:59

any lions fan, you like big balls in your coach. There you go, right there, right like, and they’ve and they’ve been burned

Luke Jones  24:04

by some as well. But I think when you look at those, and this is where we talked about this seven years ago, talking about this with John Harbaugh, right? You kind of have to look at it in the big picture, as far as is it a net positive or a net negative? When you talk about these fourth down decisions over the long haul, and yeah, Detroit’s been burned on a couple occasions over the last few years, but they’ve also had some like this, where you say, Wow, but the next gen stat that I wanted to cite to you, as we were talking about the defense, they they credited Detroit with only Four missed tackles on the night. You want to know how many they credited the Ravens with 2020, missed tackles. They they track the rate. Now that’s one source. And maybe pro football focus says, uh, fewer than that, or maybe they say more, right? But the point is, to your mind, you know, to your point, they opened up some. Impressive holes in the running game, but they didn’t tackle either. I mean, it was like I said, this kind this game. The Lions came in and did what the ravens are accustomed to doing to people leaning on them with the run game, being efficient in the passing game, the defense getting after it and being sound. They played very clean football, you know? I mean, Marlon upri lamented the fact that, you know, they couldn’t get a takeaway, whereas you see the great play today, you know, yeah, Derek Henry can’t fumble for a third straight game, including second out of three in the fourth quarter at a critical time. But much like Ed Oliver in that opener, Aidan Hutchinson made a fantastic play punching that ball out. There you go, one of your playmakers making a big play when you absolutely need it. Where was that from? The Ravens stars, right? Roquan Smith didn’t make a play. Kyle Hamilton didn’t make a play. Marlon Humphrey was one of the weak links on their defense. Now, as I said to you that I’m on Ross city, Brown’s a heck of a player, but Marlon Humphrey, I mean, and we saw even late in the first half that groin issue that he had late last week in I assume that same issue popped up, because you could see he was kind of tight on the sideline. He actually came off the field, you know, for a couple plays late. He was gimpy, really. I mean, that’s the word I would use for it was, but regardless, he wasn’t getting the job done. You know, I thought their outside corners played okay. I thought they were fine. I thought a woozy a Wiggins made a nice play. One point, Wiggins, yeah, for they got a big stop in that spot because of his his past breakup on second down. But as far as how Humphrey played, how the front seven played, how their safeties played him. I saw mount, you know, Malachi Starks missed a couple tackles. You know, like I said, it wasn’t Hamilton’s best game. I mean that just that was a poor defensive showing. I mean, it just, it was poor. And you can, you can try to explain it away all you want, about Matt abika and absolutely they missed him, and absolutely they missed Kyle van Noy. But you know what? The Baltimore Ravens back in the day played some games without Ray Lewis and Ed Reed, and the standard was not, Oh, it’s okay to be absolutely terrible then. Now, they had some games back then that without those guys that they struggled to let’s let’s not act like they were invincible every single week. But, man, the bar is still higher than that, even without those guys. I mean, that just wasn’t nearly good enough. And like I said, give proper credit to the Detroit Lions. This is not, this is not like week one, where the Ravens did a lot of self destructive stuff, and it almost felt like, you know the football gods, or however you want to coin, it, conspired against them. You know that that weird deflection touchdown,

8

Nestor Aparicio  27:48

all of that, there’s the calls would say they beat themselves in week one. They know they got beaten in week three.

Luke Jones  27:54

Yeah, no question, right? I mean, you, you could make the argument in week one that the Ravens did a lot to beat themselves. Look, they made mistakes on Monday night. Don’t get me wrong,

Nestor Aparicio  28:03

they didn’t look like a good team Monday in Buffalo. They looked like an outstanding team for three

Luke Jones  28:08

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against the team that was better in the final five minutes. You know, just the margin for error was that tiny, whereas Monday night, like I said, it felt like that game could have been even worse than it was, right? I mean, that’s that’s where it just felt that Detroit so thoroughly controlled them for stretches of that game. And I mean, it just again, the final score eight points, and they were able to try an onside kick. I get all that. But you know that last touchdown, let’s face it, Detroit certainly changed how they wanted to play. And I mean, this was a Ravens offense that, unlike last week, where they started slowly against Cleveland, and then came on in the second half, this was the opposite, you know, they had 21 points, you know, early in the in the third quarter, you know, getting that touchdown coming out of half, they take the lead. You’re thinking, Okay, now you’ve got the lead. You’ve got the game flow kind of back in your favor. And Detroit just punked them from that point. I mean, this, this was a game where they, you know, Detroit came in and, you know, it’s the bully stealing their lunch money, which the ravens are so used to be in the team that does that. Detroit did it to them on Monday night.

Nestor Aparicio  29:19

Luke Jones can be found at Baltimore, Luke, He can be found getting some rest, because we’re going to need it. It’s a short week. The Orioles are ending this week. We did an hour on Kyle braddish and and Trevor Rogers, a magnificence as well. So short week, we have injury concerns. If you’re on the W, N, S, T tech service, you’ll get all the breaking news first, just like you got the injury report. And of course, Luke will be out knowing mills the first opportunity that they have to break all of this down. We’re going to continue to break it down. Get you ready for the Chiefs game this week. I’ve got the Maryland crab cake tour on the road. All of it brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery. I have these shimmery, shy people to call it Matt, but I sort of looks like that. Helmets that they’ve wore, the matt helmets last year. The scratch offs lucky batch will have these out for all of our sponsors. Fade leaves. We’re going to be at cost this. We’re going to be back at Coco’s here in the coming weeks and eating crab cakes. My taste in his countdown, brought to you by curio wellness and foreign daughter is also available out at Baltimore positive. I have a new segment out there called in the city because we talked to so many of the city council people, including city council president and all of that’s added Baltimore positive. So we continue with some charity, some city stuff, some Baltimore stuff, some crab cake stuff. But most importantly, it’s football season around here, and nobody does it the way we do. I am Nestor. He is Luke. We are W, N, S, T, am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. Back for more on the GBMC hotline. Stay with us. We got football. You.