How can the Ravens avoid an 0-3 start in Dallas?

Despite the 0-2 start and playing in Dallas this Sunday at 4:25pm, the Baltimore Ravens are still a one-point favorite on the road. America still believes in Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry but how will the offensive line handle Micah Parsons and the Cowboys? Luke Jones and Nestor get ready for a huge test for the offense to show improvement over two very choppy, sloppy losses.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

ravens, game, lost, offensive line, team, week, lamar, point, dallas, play, raiders, season, win, luke, owen, good, baltimore, year, day, dak prescott

SPEAKERS

Nestor Aparicio, Luke Jones

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W N, S T, tassel, Baltimore, Baltimore positive. We are trying to remain positive during a time where there’s if we were taking phone calls here, this would be Baltimore negative. I promise you, over 1057, the sky is falling. But around here, Luke and I are trying to be sane, which is why we’re going to get together, stay calm and eat oysters and crab cakes. We’re going to be at fates on Friday. We’re going to be a cost this next Friday during the Maryland crab cake tour. I will have the Raven scratch offs. Have the Gold Rush sevens, elbows, a handful of these left. But the Ravens scratch offs are now out. Our friends at Jiffy Lube multi care have raced Luke from back and forth from Camden Yards to Owings Mills. We will not be represented at Owings Mills on Thursday because Chad Steele won’t allow a lifetime Hispanic reporter in to cover the team. But Luke will be at Camden Yards, where the Orioles are trying to get right, the ravens are trying to get right. They haven’t started blaming the media yet, Luke, but you’re out there, you’re seeing all this. It’s up. I don’t know. I don’t remember a week like this involved. I mean, I remember losing AFC Championship games. I, you know, remember losing the ALCS to the Royals back in the day. But I don’t remember sort of the double whammy of oh and two, when the team supposed to go to the Super Bowl and eight of 10 series, and they can’t get out of their own way. On the baseball side, this has been a weird week to be a sports reporter and to be out on the street after so much optimism around here the last couple of years, at least. Yeah, it is.

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Luke Jones  01:33

It’s definitely not a difficult time if you’re a Baltimore sports fan. I think that’s stating the obvious. Oh, and two start Orioles. I mean, the Al East is all but shot at this point, barring a miracle, and now it’s just a case of holding on to the top wildcard spot. And mathematically, they’re still way better than what the tone is, way better than how it feels, but it’s not 100% until they came this

Nestor Aparicio  02:00

close to blowing the Ravens off next week for the bills game, and you and me up to New York, we start spreading the news. We take a bite of the Big Apple. Gonna be five days back. What a time to get there. It’s a I mean, the way you plan this out, the ravens are going to be at least one and one, right? I mean, they could lose the Kansas City, but they had to beat the Raiders. I mean, both of these teams have found themselves in the weirdest of spots, and we’ll get to baseball, and we’ll get to pitching, and we’ll get to Brandon. We’ll do all of that because you’re out there every night. But on the football side, we’re trying to get ready for this football game. And dude, I don’t know where we are if it you know when Sunday Night Football comes on in the row and three like that, that just can’t happen. And they’re going down the Dallas started as a favorite. I guess people down on Dallas, based on what happened with the saints last week and thinking, well, the Ravens have to win at some point. Some point better be Sunday at 430 Yeah,

Luke Jones  02:51

I think you’re right about that. I mean, I was even having this conversation with a few people on social media over the last couple days. As disappointing as an Owen to start is as much as you hear all the statistics, which are really skewed by the fact that a lot of terrible teams start, oh and two over the course of history. So I don’t think the ravens are a terrible team. I don’t think they’re anything close to that. I still think they’re a really good team. Are they playing really good football at the moment? No, they’re not. And we’ve talked about the O line and transition from Mike McDonald to Zach or and all the different things that even in the off season, I and even as recently as early September, I said to you, there might be some things that are choppy early in the year. Now I didn’t pick on two, but I picked one and one. So with all of that being said, I’m still fairly nonplussed about an Owen to start other than you need to start seeing meaningful improvement with your offensive line sooner than later. There’s no doubt about that. But all their other issues, I think, are issues that will work themselves out over the course of the season, and they’re still very talented however these next three games, and specifically talking about Sunday, since we’re talking about a trip down to Arlington to face the cowboys who are coming off of a beat down, you know, suffering a beat down to the upstart New Orleans Saints of all teams, oh and three. Feels different. That hits different. That is when you start to not that it’s insurmountable. But I think then you start to question, okay, what’s going on between the ears, in addition to just what the obvious issues are on the field, what’s going on in terms of the mood of the lot of the locker room? You know, many of the questions we’re asking about the Orioles right now when you talk about how long they’ve struggled, but it’s different when it’s the start of a season, right? I mean, you go into the year and you lose to Kc and and you say, okay, that stinks. It stinks for morale, but it’s the chiefs, right? I mean, it’s a two time defending Super Bowl champions. There’s no shame in that. But when you lose to the Raiders, and then if you are talking about losing another game, and you’re Oh, and three. The first time since 2015 then that’s that’s different. That’s when the mental part, the emotional part, that those other issues that you know, even as reporters privy to some locker room access, very little locker room access, compared to how much time these guys actually spend together in the locker room. That’s when you do start to wonder if something else is awry or something else is a miss, or

Nestor Aparicio  05:24

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I hear that about the baseball team, because they’re losing. Once you start losing, questions start happening, and body language starts to matter, and who’s pointing at WHO and who’s disagreeing on the sidelines. I mean, they’re losing 13 to three in the second quarter, and somebody’s in somebody’s face on the sideline, which isn’t that. I mean, Kelsey got an Andy Reid’s face at the Super Bowl, right? And all of a sudden he’s beat his girlfriend on the internet like it’s crazy, but emotions get real crazy if they get behind and and whatever tensions there are, still thinks the most important, I mean, the death of Joe delis, and I, I will continue to say that that is something we’re not going to we’re not allowed to talk about or but we’re going to talk about because I think that that’s an that’s an effect on this thing, on the operation of the offense, not just emotions and him being there and him being popular and being kind and like all of that. But just, there’s a teaching aspect to take that wisdom. You take Mike McDonald away from the defense in the Jade, I think taking personnel away is one thing we see that on the baseball side where they don’t have the same players. But I think, you know this offensive line thing with the ravens, if I were poking around out there, I would be poking around for first some of these guys weren’t good enough. Like, you know, we question that all off season, but to think that it’s just going to get righted, I don’t know. Man, the offensive like watching file Layla, watching the breakdowns, watching baldy break the game down on the old line, and seeing and even having John say, like on Monday, were inconsistent. That’s a, that’s a, a weird admission for John. I think, I mean, I

Luke Jones  07:03

don’t think it’s weird. I think it’s stating the obvious. I think the, you know, some of the comments might be harsher than that, you know, behind closed doors, or if you’re talking about the truth serum, so to speak. But I mean, it needs to get better. There’s no question about that. The Joe de los angeles aspect of this is absolutely there. I don’t know if it’s worth belaboring, because what are you going to say? I mean, that’s not something you plan for, right? That’s not something you can anticipate. I mean, that’s that’s just life right there. We’re

Nestor Aparicio  07:31

not talking about football. That’s life, dude. They buried their coach the day after they lost to the chiefs on national TV, and then came back and laid a turd against the Raiders, and the offensive line was the reason. So to me, the other a lot of things about that. I mean, let might not be good enough. The players might not be good enough on the offensive line.

Luke Jones  07:48

That might not be but, but at the same time, you’re also talking about a second round rookie who did look better in week two than he did in week one. Andrew Voorhees, I think, is showing enough, even though, in an ideal world with your offensive line, he would be probably your worst offensive lineman, and right now he’s probably their third best or fourth best, but I think he’s shown enough to still warrant optimism that he’s going to get better. File Lele is the one that I’m just not sure about. John Harbaugh was asked about Ben Cleveland on Monday, and, you know, said that file Layla beat him out. I was out there. Ben Cleveland worked at left guard and center all summer, so I don’t know how much of a true competition it was. It’s just clear they don’t believe in Him, and the way that they didn’t believe in Brian McKinney for stretches of time and wanted Michael Orr to be the left tackle. But when it came time to, you know, to really settle in and have to put your best group together, they begrudgingly put Bryant McKinney at left tackle, and then they did what they did in 2012 I mean, I’m not saying it’s a perfect comparison. I’m just saying it reminds me of that a little bit. Ben Cleveland Brian

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Nestor Aparicio  08:56

McKinney was a lottery pick that they needed to fire under his ass to get him to play. He probably could have gone to the Hall of Fame had he been as motivated. And is not on the Love Boat. Is John Ogden. You know he had, I mean, Ryan McKinney was a beast if you could get him to play, if you get the best out of him. I don’t know that any, any of these guys, other than Linder bomb, have BEAST MODE left in them, although Ronnie Stanley is Ronnie Stanley’s

Luke Jones  09:19

played really well. Ronnie Stanley’s played really well. I mean, he has, I mean, now he showed up on the injury report on Wednesday. Sounds like much more of a maintenance day. I mean, John Harbaugh, flat out, said he’s going to play Sunday. That That tells me that was more rest day than anything concerning physically. I mean, I believe it’s the first practice he’s missed or sat out going back to OTA. Yeah, maybe mandatory mini camps. So he’s been very durable, and that’s one reason I think we’ve seen a bump in his play, you know, compared to what it’s been the last three, four years. So, you know, but, but I was just the Ben Cleveland thing. Was just, it’s something that, it reminds me of a little bit. Ben Cleveland is in year four. He’s never made it onto the field. It’s. Clear that they don’t trust him. You know, he’s filled in on a few occasions and done reasonably well, but not saying he looked like Marshall yanda out there filling in for Kevin Zeitler the last couple years for what, three starts over the previous two seasons. But, you know, with foul Lele, it’s I just, I’m not seeing it. I’m not seeing enough quickness. I’m not seeing him play with enough functional play, playing strength for someone who’s 380 pounds, where you would say, You know what? Okay, you know his foot works. One thing, his speeds, one thing, you should never get pushed by Mauls people, right? He doesn’t Maul people. So we’re going to see, but absolutely the Joe D element here. And I say that with no disrespect to George warhop, who they brought in to replace him. Go look at his resume. He’s coached offensive line in the NFL for a very long time. It’s not like they just promoted their assistant line coach who’s three years out of being a graduate assistant at Colorado State or something like that. I mean, this is an accomplished replacement, but it takes time. It takes time to to come in, and you’re trying to swim upstream with the work that these guys have put in for months, and in some cases, the instant institutional knowledge that some of these veteran offensive linemen have had for years under Joe D so it’s part of it. It’s uh, like I said to you, talking about the defense and other issues with the offense or the special teams, all of those things, I still feel very confident that they’re going to get worked out. I said to you over and over, you know, with Zach or that it might be a little choppy. It was with Mike McDonald two years ago when he took over, and Mike McDonald had had the apprenticeship at Michigan for a year. Zach gorse never called plays as a defensive coordinator at any level prior to this year. So I think it’s important, in the same way that you would look at a rookie quarterback or anyone that’s a first time starter as a player, to offer some patients now doesn’t mean how they’ve played has been acceptable, but in terms of trying to project it out, in terms of looking at a trajectory for a coach, I think they’re, you know, you need to think about that in the same way. So again, that’s where I’m not long term. I’m not as concerned about but the O line, yeah, and lo and behold. I mean, you’re talking about another defense that while they got gashed last week by the saints and got embarrassed by the saints playing at home, they still have Michael Parsons, you know, they still have DeMarcus Lawrence. May not be what he was a few years ago, but they’ve got players who can play. I mean, it’s maybe an overall defense and overall roster, I’d say for Dallas, probably not where it was a couple years ago. You know, they’ve had some attrition, but it’s still a team that you have to go down there and got to play good football, and you’ve got block and you’ve got to be more consistent in everything you do. I mean, John Harbaugh used that term consistency. He didn’t say that just about the offensive line. He used that term consistency. I I saw one of the other reporters. I can’t remember the exact count, but it was up in the teens the number of times he mentioned that, just talking about various elements of the football team. So they’re absolutely a submergency. And again, I’m sitting here saying I’m not pressing the panic button over Owen, too, but you followed. Oh, and three, boy, I’m reaching for it, because, again, that’s when, to me, the mental part of this really starts to set in. Some of those intangibles start to set in, as far as questions about that stuff, you know, not just strictly what’s happening on the field. Two

Nestor Aparicio  13:36

and three would be an upshot three weeks from now, if they win two of these three games, two. I mean, there’s two and three. So two and three is still a mess in early October, but it’s navigable. If right. You could start to chunks and wins together when the schedule gets a little softer, but it felt softer last week when the Raiders came to Baltimore’s 10 point underdogs and and this feels not soft at all, going to Dallas, going to Cincinnati, and two, it feels like this is a first place schedule, and every week’s going to be a prize fight for Lamar. Yeah,

Luke Jones  14:13

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it is at the same time. I mean, if you want to look at it through the more positive lens, they were a toenail away from potentially having a chance to win in Kansas City. I mean, that’s how close it was there and Vegas. I mean, make one play if one phase of the game makes a play in the final 11 minutes of that football game, including Jordan stout not shanking a punt, if, if he gets a 55 yard Boomer, maybe the defense makes a stop. Maybe the defense picks off Gardner Minshew on their second play of that final drive, no one made a play so and they lost by a field goal. So that’s where you have to I think that’s where you lean on experience with Okay, five years ago, this was a young team. Now, not so much. I mean, Lamar Jackson’s in year seven mark. Andrews is in. Or seven, Marlon umpreys in Europe eight. I mean, go down the list of the guys that in 2019 when they went on their amazing 14 and two run, they were very young at that point in time. You know, Marshall yanda and a bunch of kids, basically, you know a couple other guys as

15:17

well, fame eligible, Marshall yanda and Terrell sucks as well, yeah, but

Luke Jones  15:21

we’ll see. I still don’t know if either one of those guys will end up being first year ballots, but we’ll have another time. We’ll have another discussion. I don’t think either one of them are first ballot Hall of Fame.

Nestor Aparicio  15:30

I thought John says a lot of stuff that if, oh, why they threw me out as I waved my hand at him and say, any coach is gonna say that Nestor a coach is gonna say he’s a hall of fame or BFC first ballot, because it’s not true. What?

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Luke Jones  15:42

Well, see, see, right there, you’re making an assumption. I’m not convinced of that.

Nestor Aparicio  15:48

I think Ananda might be Suggs will not be okay.

Luke Jones  15:51

I mean, okay, I

Nestor Aparicio  15:54

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I tend

Luke Jones  15:56

to probably agree with you. I don’t think that’s beta complete it to criticize a head coach. What

Nestor Aparicio  16:01

year is this right now? Is this 20? Is 24 right? Wake me in 27 yonder will be in Suggs will be waiting. Okay? Now, that’s what I’m saying. That’s okay. You know that’s your opinion. Enough to go on that I’ve been in a room with those guys, and I know who gets in line, and I I don’t even care who they are. I look at them and say there’s already 15 guys that they threw out last year. Because I have Howard Balzer and I have Clark I have all the voters. I know all these people, other than Tony grossi. I know him a little bit, but John McClane, all these people that vote, there’s they just don’t Peyton Manning gets in for Eli Manning won’t get in first time.

Luke Jones  16:40

I don’t know if Eli Manning, well, right? I mean, he won two super let, let’s

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Nestor Aparicio  16:45

go back to Okay, fair enough. This

Luke Jones  16:47

is not a great topic for you know, late in game. That’s

Nestor Aparicio  16:51

our faith lease topic on. So I just came up with that. That’s okay.

Luke Jones  16:55

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Okay, I don’t know, you talk

Nestor Aparicio  16:58

enough sports. You don’t need to talk sports. You don’t want to talk well. I mean, I just narrow it to forget Marshall, you know, 2019

Luke Jones  17:04

right Hall of Fame voting is four, five months away, trying to make you forget they’re owing to, yeah, but, but no, I think, you know, going back to the point of, and now I’m starting to lost my, lost my train of thought, talking about a veteran team, and dealing with Owen too, and being in, you know, a unique space here. I mean losing back to back games with a healthy Lamar Jackson at start as the starting quarterback is rare territory that’s only happened a few times. I mean, that speaks to how good, how great they’ve been in the regular season when he’s been healthy and upright. So when you start, oh and two, and now, if you even want to count the playoff game at the end of last year, you’ve lost three straight meaningful games, that’s where you do need to lean on experience, and you do need to lean on guys who’ve been there before, even someone like a Kyle van Noy who’s been there before elsewhere and been through some tough times elsewhere, and also Been to the top of the mountain elsewhere. But I think this is where you have to really understand and recognize you cannot win two games on Sunday. You cannot win three games on Sunday to suddenly be three and Oh, as opposed to going into the day oh and two. You really, truly do have to compartmentalize, as cliche as it sounds, and I roll my eyes hearing this these kind of things, because we all hear them all the time, but you do have to compartmentalize and truly make it one play at a time, one quarter at a time, one drive at a time, one quarter at a time, one half at a time, one game at a time, when you start, oh and two, because, again, you can’t make it back in the same way that we’ve been talking about this for weeks now. About the Orioles offense, you’ve been scuffling. If you’re Adley rutschman, just for one example, you’ve been scuffing worse than scuffling. You’ve been playing bad since July. You can’t make that all up with one swing. You know, you can’t make that all up with, you know, you can’t hit a five run, home run with the bases empty. I mean, there’s just no such thing. You can only handle the task that’s presented to you, and that’s where I think this team just needs to say, Hey, let’s go to Dallas. Cowboys are good, but they’re not, all right, I’m not even convinced they’re good, let’s be clear. But they’ve been to the playoffs. They’re a team that has been really good. You have to go down there and play good football. And Dallas is kind of saying the same thing. They can’t, they can’t erase what happened against the saints last week. But hey, you know, the ravens are coming to town, and they look a little more vulnerable, maybe than they’ve been in recent years when Lamar has been healthy. So, you know, I think it’s on paper. There’s nothing about Dallas that terrifies me, or really makes me say, oh my gosh, other than Micah Parsons, and that’s where we go back to the offensive line discussion. Say that with no disrespect to CD lamb. I mean, he’s a great wide receiver, but I mean the Ravens. Uh, they let Davante Adams do things to them late in the game. But you know that that’s not the only reason why they lost. So, I mean, you just need to go down there and handle business. It’s not that complicated. This is a team that’s won a ton of football games. This is a team that had a chance to win both of these games to start the year. In the case of Vegas, they should have won that game. I mean, my goodness. I mean, I saw Aaron shots, you know, with talking about DVOA and, you know, post game win probability and everything. I think he said that the way that that game played out, the the Ravens would be, you know, a winner 95% of the time, you know, just looking at the stats and the game flow and all the different things that happened. So it was a weird Lukey kind of way of losing. But unfortunately, the Ravens have made that a part of their identity the last few years. So, you know, I don’t have, you know, this magical breakdown about what needs to happen. I think this team just needs to go out there and play good football. And so Dallas team that has not stopped the run very well. You want to try to get your run game going. I think that’s easier said than done when you’re talking about the ravens and their difficulty blocking between the tackles, but get Derek Henry to the edge. You know, they were able to do that a few times against the Raiders, and it worked beautifully then. Now it needs to be more consistent in the case of Lamar Jackson. I mean, you know, Lamar hasn’t played bad football these first two games. Has he played his absolute best MVP level football? No, not yet. But they need MVP Lamar over the east that next three games. You need your best player to rise to the occasion here. And again, it’s easier said than done, if you’re running for your life. And I a lot of people pointed to the Miss, you know, the misfire he had to a wide open Mark Andrews against the Raiders. He was feeling pressure there. That wasn’t there. But that’s what happens when you’re not when you’re not controlling the pocket, and when you’re in a position where your quarterback is feeling heat too frequently, then they start to feel it even when it’s not there. We talked about this a decade ago with Joe Flacco, at a time when the Ravens offensive line was diminished, and what that did to him. You know, it happens to a lot of quarterbacks. You know, there’s the famous Sam darnold Seeing ghost line, you know, from from several years back, although Sam darnold playing much better football in Minnesota. But, I mean, they just need to go down the Dallas and play like they’re capable of playing, but they’ve got to do it for 60 minutes, you know? I mean, it’s, this isn’t some I don’t think they’re a bad football team. I think, I still think they’re a really good football team, but got to go prove it. You’ve got to go show it. I mean, adafeo a kind of said that they’ve got to take their pride back. You know, he kind of offered a good quote there. I mean, he didn’t, wasn’t pressing the panic button, but he acknowledged that they’re, they’re prides wounded right now, you know, they’ve kind of been, you know, their lips been bloodied a little bit here over these first couple games. You know, they’re, they’re not used to being Owen too. I mean, this is very weird territory for this generation of ravens players, so but, but it’s nothing complex again. There’s no three win play, you know? You just have to go out there and and win every player win as many plays. And they

Nestor Aparicio  23:12

would be a very impressive team if they’re three and two, if they come back from Cincinnati and they’re three and two, oh, my God, even if the Orioles are eliminated by then, which only will be, that would be, that would be something because I’m giving them two and three as a ceiling. I’m giving them one and four as a warning shot, and I’m giving them oh and three as big problems on Monday morning if they’re oh

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Luke Jones  23:33

and three. Yeah, no question, I would agree with that. I don’t know

Nestor Aparicio  23:36

many places they could go in the league that’d be harder to win. I mean, you know what? I mean? Like, what would be a harder game this week going to Buffalo? Maybe, I don’t know, where else could they go, where you’d say, Oh, my God, it’s a tough game. They have to go out and play hardballs, brother, later in the year, then their games on the schedule that I looked at the charges and thought, well, what’s that? Charges might be eight and one by the time they get there. You know what I mean? Like, I start to see who was good last year, who was good this year, they better win on Sunday. I mean, oh, and three around here would be a different kind of floor, right? Something, really, something we haven’t seen around here. And it’s amazing to me, they started the week as favorites. I mean, I don’t, not that I’m supposed to understand the Vegas thing, but loving the Ravens on the road, loving them on the road, and an NFC place where there’s history, and they beat these NFC teams because they can’t prepare for Lamar. So there is some, there’s some juice to think that you put $1 on Lamar this week, and the Ravens need to win that. John Harbaugh’s not going oh, and three Lamar is not going on. So if you feel all of that, then, you know, go take your that’s why people bet on the games, I guess, yeah.

Luke Jones  24:41

And if you look at not that, I’m, you know, me, I’m not a big sports gambling guy, or, you know, pay too much attention to it, but I have noticed, I mean, the ravens are still regarded as the favorite to win the division. Now, despite Pittsburgh being two, and, oh, despite, you know, anything you want to look at, they’re, they’re

Nestor Aparicio  24:57

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still good enough. They can make the Pittsburgh games up. They. Play them twice if they’re good enough, right? But,

Luke Jones  25:02

but my point is, they’re still very highly regarded. And again, this Dallas team was kind of perceived as being a team that could take a step back. I mean, there are lots of questions about the future of the head coach there, you know, with Mike McCarthy. I mean, I think that’s obvious. I think it was, you know, there were big questions last January, when they laid the egg that they did in January. I mean, they are, I’ve used this comparison with you before, and Ravens fans won’t like it, but you know these teams, they’re not identical. Let me be very clear about that, but they’ve kind of had some of the same issues in terms of having some really impressive regular seasons, and then it doesn’t show up in January. Now, I think the Cowboys have been less impressive in the regular season than the Ravens have been overall over the last five or six years. But, and I think their struggles in January have been magnified in my gut. My goodness, it goes back three decades for them at this point, you know, they also get blown

Nestor Aparicio  25:54

out. That’s the thing about hardball, that if I were ever making his Hall of Fame thing, there have been very few weeks where the Ravens roll the ball at and lose 41 to 19 Well,

Luke Jones  26:04

and that’s, that’s what I’ve kind of talked about with this, this whole thing about they blow these fourth quarter leads. I mean, when you consider what their overall record is, relative to acknowledging that, yeah, they’ve had what, I think, nine games over the last three, you know, two plus seasons now that they’ve either led by more than one score or they’ve had a fourth quarter lead and they’ve lost those games, but you’re talking about nine games, and then you know, you throw in what, one or two others in that mix over three years, if they just lost those games in conventional ways, like they lost by 10 points or 13 points or an occasional blowout. We won’t even talk about that. So they’re impressive enough

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Nestor Aparicio  26:43

to have a lead every week. I mean, last year, what did they play 12 minutes the whole year behind or something. It was crazy. It was

Luke Jones  26:49

crazy, right? I mean, exactly they I know sharp football had the stat and I put it, I included it and linked to it in my 12 thoughts talking about the Kansas City game. The Ravens trailed for as many plays in the second half in that opener, it was like already over a majority of compared to the total number they had trailing in the in the second half last year. I mean, that’s what you’re talking about. I mean, such strange territory. I mean the Vegas game, they didn’t trail until the very end, right? I mean, they, you know, it was either tied or they had the lead for the entire day, until the last minute there. So that was the weird part about the playoff

Nestor Aparicio  27:27

game against Kansas City last year’s they were playing from behind, right? And they played from behind last week. They don’t play from behind, sure, much, if ever. Yeah,

Luke Jones  27:36

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so, so, so that’s where you look at it. And you can look at it one of two ways. You could say, Okay, well, maybe this team isn’t as good, or you look at it and say it’s Kansas City, and they’ve still, no matter how these next 15 weeks play out, in terms of assuming they play well enough that they’re playing in January, which I still fully expect that, you know, if they lose Sunday, then then I start to waver at least A little bit on that one, sure. But point is, they’ll still have to try to figure out a way to beat Kansas City if they want to get to where they want to go, but that’s a long ways away. Again. You can’t make all this up. You know, there’s no three win play to suddenly make yourselves three and Oh, on Sunday, get a win one and two is fine, right? I mean, that’s the number of teams that have been one and two to then go on and do special things, you’ll find plenty, you know. I mean, that’s, that’s not, it’s not that strange. It’s not that insurmountable by any means, but, but, yeah, if it’s oh and three, and if you go down there and you know, Dak Prescott chucks the ball all over the place against your secondary, that has been very Jekyll and Hyde. I mean, I mentioned this to you, but, I mean, how about the fact that this team’s last and pass defense right now? I mean, that’s, it’s very surprising. You know, they’ve got to clean up that middle intermediate portion of the field. I mean, there’s no excuse when you have Kyle Hamilton, Marcus, Williams and roquan Smith. You shouldn’t have teams that are constantly making plays in that portion of the field against you. I mean, okay, Kansas City is one thing, but you know the Raiders, I mean, Brock Bowers, who made some great contested catches. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not talking about those, all of those plays, because sometimes the other team, you just chalk it up to the other team trying too. But when you’re talking about some of these plays where guys have been wide open, or guys are slow to react in coverage. You know, his own coverage are not closing in fast enough on some of these windows. So they’ve got to, they’ve got to fix that. But, you know, at the same time, this is a Dallas team, I really, if there’s one thing you’d say about the defense so far, they no one’s run on them. I mean, Kansas City didn’t run on them, the Raiders. I mean, the Raiders running game was a joke last week. I mean, they got to the point where they just gave it up. They had one decent run on that final drive, but they did nothing in that regard. And, I mean, I think this is one of those things where it’s funny, because I was the guy, of course, that wasn’t over the moon about the dare. Henry signing for a variety of reasons, and we talked about that, but at the same time, that doesn’t mean you go back in time and you’re doing what Dallas has done, which is bring back Zeke Elliot. Like, like, that’s supposed to be a thing in 2024 I mean, really? I mean it’s not 2018 like, I mean, I they’re backfield. Yes, there are philosophies to not pay running backs, but that doesn’t mean you just bring back a washed up running back, you know? I mean, that’s what it is. So I really doubt their ability to run the ball with any level of effectiveness, any level of consistency, and I think that’s just going to make things that much more difficult for Dak Prescott. I mean, as much as Dak Prescott is a very good quarterback, and obviously just got a big contract, there was another off season distraction. I mean, for them, CD lamb, Dak Prescott, you know what’s going to happen with Michael Parsons down the line, but Jack gets all the commercials. Lamar doesn’t, right, yeah, but, but at the same time, Dak Prescott is one of those guys that you know he needs, he needs enough around him, right? There are very few quarterbacks that can go into the phone booth. Lamar is a phone booth quarterback right now. It’s not done in the same conventional way as other quarterbacks that you would say that about, but Dak Prescott’s, I don’t think, is the guy that can do that, right? I think he’s the kind of guy that if everything else around him is kind of breaking down, I it tends to go poorly for him. He’s got to distribute the ball. Lamar does. Lamar can eat the Lamar take off. Yeah. Lamar can literally do it by himself. Sometimes you don’t want him to again. I agree. You don’t want him to be taken. You know, 18 rushes and 18 hits. But Superman not to fly. No, I’m saying not to do it that much. It’s insane to tell him not to do not to do it at all, or to do it so little.

Nestor Aparicio  31:46

But using that all year, by the way, Superman telling him not to fly when Lamar runs 214 times this year,

Luke Jones  31:52

I welcome telling you, it’s what makes him transcendent. He’s the greatest Russian quarterback, 50,000

Nestor Aparicio  32:00

$50 million they don’t pay $50 million to throw the ball. Million dollars to

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Luke Jones  32:03

throw the ball. No, they pay him to do both. But, yeah, but, but with Dak Prescott, it’s, you know when, when other things are breaking down around him, he looks very

Nestor Aparicio  32:15

pedestrian, yeah, I would say, yeah, yeah. I mean, he’s, he’s just pro throwing the Ravens too this week? Yeah,

Luke Jones  32:20

sure, sure. I mean, especially, I mean, you know, we’ve talked a lot about the Lamar against an NFC opponent thing. But you know, one thing that I’d like to see the Ravens do, and you know, this is challenging, because, again, I I’ve been the guy talking about, okay, you know, this thing isn’t going to be fully calibrated pre snap with the things that they like to do defensively under Zach or to the degree that it was under Mike McDonald as time went on. But yep, they haven’t really been all that aggressive. They haven’t blitzed that much. I mean, look, O A n oy had really good games. Travis Jones had a really good game. Their pass rush was a little more Jekyll and Hyde than I would have liked against the Raiders, I think it was really good from large stretches of the game. Obviously, they had five sacks. I’m not sitting here saying the pass rush was bad. But I also thought there were some crucial moments where maybe they needed to step put their foot on the gas a little more in terms of being aggressive, maybe trying to really get Gardner Minshew out of whack. I think you could have an opportunity to do some of those things against Dak Prescott as well. And I’m not saying you blitz every play, let’s be clear about that, but it’s been a little more conservative on that front than I would have thought. So you know, maybe we see the Ravens change up some early season tendencies in that regard to really try to get Dak Prescott out of sorts. But again, we can talk about all these different elements, and beginning with the offensive line, but you got to go out and win one on one matchups. You got to go out and fulfill your assignment as an individual player, and then as a unit, and not commit as many penalties, you know. And I’m not even talking about the questionable ones. They’ve had too many penalties period, including pre snap. I mean, as much as I didn’t love the tush push play call to Charlie Kohler on third and one late in the game, Derek Henry can’t jump there. I mean, you can’t have those things veteran player or rookie. You can’t have those things that kills your operation when you’re searching for consistency. You know, very few teams are going to be good enough to overcome those things. So you look at this team, you know, defensively, yeah, their last and past defense, their first and run defense. And we saw what they did to the the raiders in the first half on Sunday. And offensively, you know, as for as much talk as there’s been about the offensive line, they’ve moved the heck out of the ball. They’re first in the league in yards. You know, they’re fourth in rushing yards, albeit a lot of that being Lamar scrambling in week one right pass offense, they’re fourth in passing yards. It’s not as though they are not moving the ball, but you’ve got to be more consistent in terms of being efficient, converting on third downs, converting in the red zone. Are not committing penalties to put you behind the chains. You know, those, those little things really start to add up and become big things for you and wipe out what have been some good things otherwise. So, you know, how about cleaner football, fewer mistakes? You know, that kind of football. I don’t need to see the spectacular chunk plays, although those are nice and you want to have those, but just, let’s start seeing a cleaner operation, you know, on both sides, in terms of fewer penalties, you know, clock management, having some time outs, I mean. And you know, some of a lot of that’s coaching, what I’m mentioning here, you know, no one’s absolved from this when you’re owing to but I think so much of this is just go out and play the way you’re capable of. But got to do it for 60 minutes. You know, it’s not that complicated. We try to make it really complicated, and then you kind of take a step back and say, just go play. You know, you guys are really good. You know, even with some of the losses they sustained in the off season, they’re really good at just about every position group on the field other than, you know, the offensive lines. You know, really dicey right now, at least at a couple spots, but, but otherwise, I still think this is a heck of a football team. But Owen two is Owen too, and you got to go out there and win games. And it starts with handling, you know, going out there and handling a Dallas team that I don’t think is as good as it was talent wise a couple years ago, but is still a team that has expectations, still, to your point, a challenging place to play, not the most challenging in the league, but a challenging place to play. And gotta go out and play 60 minutes. They played 52 minutes on Sunday, or 50 minutes on Sunday, and we saw what ended up happening at the end, so gotta go out and play a more complete football game. Or, yeah, we will be talking at oh and three, and the tone will be drastically different at that point. That’s it. When, to me, you really start to question what exactly is going on if you’re coming back to Baltimore and you and I are reconvening early Monday morning, talking about an O and three football team. But no, I’m not going to give you my prediction just yet, but I think this team is going to rise to the occasion, understanding where they are and understanding where they can’t afford to be come Monday morning.

Nestor Aparicio  37:19

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Last thing for he’s on the injury front, just that they’re pretty healthy, like, you know what I mean, like, against the grain of the last five years, going back before the plague, um, you know, they’ve managed, at least through training, camping. Remember a couple years ago they lose Dobbins. They they lost key people. They’re at least going out and playing with their football team right now. Yeah. I

Luke Jones  37:43

mean, they’re a little banged up right now. I mean, keep an eye on Kyle Hamilton, you know, there were a couple moments during Sunday’s game, and he’s off to a slow start. I mean, we talked about this more so in week one, where he and roquan Smith just played maybe their worst game. You know, when you talk about those two guys together, you know, he was not as I don’t think he was as bad Tuesday or up Tuesday week two, but still didn’t look fully himself. You know, he’s listed on the injury report. Missed Wednesday’s practice with the back issue. I don’t think it’s going to keep him out of the game, but he’s a little banged up, and he was a little banged up during training camp. I mean, that’s the one thing with even the best of players, you know, if you’re dealing with some physical issues, even early in the season, that’s where you get a little more concerned, because it’s like, okay, is this something that’s going to linger? But you know, other than him, I mentioned Ronnie Stanley got a day on Wednesday. John Harbaugh already said he’s going to play. We’ll see about Nate Wiggins. You know, I don’t know if you and I have even brought it up, but you know, he was involved in a car accident last week and missed Sunday’s game. I’d like to get Nate Wiggins back on the field and involved in this. You know, nothing against Marlon Umphrey and Brandon Stevens, but this kid’s a first round talent that has insane speed. You’d like to have him on the field, you know, matching up against some of these speedier wide receivers that they’re going to see here over the next few weeks. You’d like to get him integrated into what they do defensively a little bit more. I’m not saying he’s going to take someone’s starting job, but I think he can be into that rotation. But, you know, be annoyed with the eye. You’re right. I mean that, and I think for me more specifically, that’s where the concerns for the offensive line persist, because this is their group, right? I mean, this is their group, with the healthiest Ronnie Stanley we’ve seen in four years, Nestor Aparicio, the moment. You know, you hope it continues that way. So, I mean, this is their these are their guys. This isn’t a case where their offensive lines diminish because they lost two guys to multi week injuries in training camp. So, so So, yeah, but overall they are health, relatively healthy, you know, guys on the injury report this week, but you know, the early indications are not guys that are, you know, other than Wiggins, that are going to miss the game. And you know, we’ll see about Wiggins over the course of the week. I saw him in the locker room on on Wednesday, so it’s not as though he’s, you know, in a dark room. Dealing with really bad concussion syndrome symptoms or or laid up in a neck brace or anything like that after his car accident. But you know, he’s sore. I mean that that happens. Anyone who’s can, who’s been involved in a car accident can attest to something like that, even if it’s a minor, relatively minor one. So, but they are pretty healthy, and they’re going to need all their guys, because even though I’m confident in this team going out to to Arlington and playing well and doing what they need to do on the road, you know, this is not a layup game by any stretch of the imagination. To your point, the sports books are giving them a lot of respect here going on the road, but at the same time, they gave them a lot of respect last week against the Raiders. What they were eight and a half point favorites, nine point favorites, nine point favorites, whatever it ended up being, depending on which site you look to. And they lost. So you know, to borrow an expression from the team that they just lost to last week, just win baby. I mean, it’s really his that simple for this team this week, and you just need to go out there and play a cleaner, more complete football game, and they do that, I think they have a heck of a chance to to win on the road against the Cowboys team that I think has some pretty definitive weak weaknesses. I mean, they’re just neat. They haven’t really been all that good on either side of the ball over these first two games against, you know, against Cleveland, yes, certainly not against the saints, where they just they were embarrassed. So that’s a team that’s going to be plenty motivated. But hey, you’re Owen too. If you’re not motivated, you know, if I’m questioning whether the other team’s more motivated than you, then they’ve got way bigger problems than just Owen, too. And so that’s where, again, I expect this team to to be ready to play come Sunday afternoon.

Nestor Aparicio  41:39

He is Luke Jones. He is Baltimore, Luke. He’s out on all the social medias. He’s heading from Owings Mills to Camden Yards to Camden Yards to Owens Mills, and not to Dallas, but we will be monitoring all things in the afternoon on Dallas. Luke will be at the ballpark with Brandon Hyde and with the second place Orioles, who are headed to New York next week. Lots of things going on around here, including Friday. We’re going to be a fade Lee’s Alexa to market, doing the Maryland crab cake tour, presented by the Maryland lottery, in conjunction with our friends at Liberty, pure solutions, putting us on the road for our oyster tour. One 800 clean water, if you have well water, if you need clean water, they take great care of me. They can take great care of you. They’re up in northern Baltimore County. Work the whole area, including plumbers at Liberty, pure solution, Jiffy Lube, multi care, puts Luke out on the road gets back and forth from Camden Yards to Owings Mills and back to his palatial estate in Pennsylvania. Probably. Happy birthday to your brother here this week, your birthday is coming up. My birthday is coming up. We’re going to be doing the show at Costas next Friday, on the 27th in Dundalk, we’ll be giving away Maryland lottery scratch offs. And then on the 11th of October, the mutual birthday of Luke and I somewhere in the middle. And my love to Jim Palmer, happy birthday to him and Sammy Hagar. October 11, it’s a Friday. We’ll be at Pizza John’s in Essex, doing the Maryland crab cake tour and talking pizza. My favorite pizza, which is the Hawaiian pizza with pepperoni. I’ll feature that on the show that day. I know if you don’t like pineapple, shame on you, but that’s okay. I like pineapple, and I’ll have pineapple my damn pizza anytime I feel like it at Pizza. John’s uh Orioles are struggling. Ravens are struggling, and we’re going to try to come back next week and have better radio here. Have happier times. He’s Luke. I’m Nestor. Wnsd am 1570 Taos in Baltimore, we never stop talking Baltimore. Positive. You.