It feels like that mesh point scramble that helped propel Lamar Jackson to being a two-time MVP candidate with his wheels has been put in the shop by new Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Declan Doyle. Luke Jones and Nestor get ready for Ravens and Cowboys in Rio and talk about when No. 8 becomes a true second running threat in a game that feels like it’ll have a lot of Derrick Henry on the turf at Estádio do Maracanã.

The discussion assessed the Ravens’ response to an early loss and their readiness for an international game against Dallas.

Game Context

• The Ravens must manage a long flight, unfamiliar conditions, and a potentially difficult field in Rio while avoiding a 1–2 start.
• The key unresolved availability questions are: Will Zay Flowers and Ronnie Stanley play? Will Nnamdi Madubuike return after practicing fully?
• Dallas has talent in Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, and George Pickens, but its defense has been vulnerable.

Team Strategy

• Without Zay Flowers, the offense is less explosive; the discussion favored using Lamar Jackson’s legs more selectively while relying on Derrick Henry and protecting Jackson.
• The offensive line and pass protection remain concerns, especially if Ronnie Stanley is unavailable.
• The defense needs improved third-down execution and tackling. The play of safeties Malachi Starks and Jalen Hawkins was identified as a major concern, while Nnamdi Madubuike could improve the interior pass rush.

International Game Preparation

• Ravens and Cowboys travel to Rio for an unusual international matchup.
• Long travel, recovery timing, field conditions, cleat selection, and mindset were discussed.
• The Ravens’ response to their previous loss under new head coach Jesse Minter was a central theme.

Ravens Offense

• Zay Flowers’ potential absence would reduce offensive explosiveness and change Dallas’ defensive approach.
• Ronnie Stanley’s toe issue could affect protection and the overall offensive plan.
• The conversation focused on balancing Lamar Jackson’s passing, designed runs, scrambles, and injury risk.
• Derrick Henry was viewed as central to the running game, while the interior offensive line and tight end group remain unsettled.

Ravens Defense

• The defense’s too-high safety structure depends on strong third-down execution and tackling.
• Jalen Hawkins and Malachi Starks struggled against New Orleans.
• Nnamdi Madubuike’s potential return could strengthen the interior pass rush alongside Trey Hendrickson and Travis Jones.

Broader Sports Discussion

• The Orioles’ sweep of Toronto was discussed, along with Pete Alonso’s leadership and the frustration of a disappointing season.

Nestor Aparicio 0:01
Welcome home. We are WNST AM 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We call this thing Baltimore positive. We’re positively going to be out on the Maryland Crab Cake Tour. First up at State Fair on Thursday. By the time you hear this, though, we will be all pointed toward not just Rio this weekend, but Pizza’s in Essex. It’s all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland Lottery. I will have the Ravens Kiss Face Bird for scratch offs, and I’m getting a lot of feedback on the Kiss piece. So I pulled it back up to the front of Baltimore Positive. I hope you enjoy my old Paul Stanley sit down and chat about how they were never going to put the makeup back on until they did. GBMC also sending us out. We have a lot of GBMC stuff coming up, and we have a new sponsor. I don’t have anything to. Well, I can show you the Rosedale Bank app on my phone, but it will show you how much money I have or don’t have. But Rosedale Bank’s about to come on. Kevin Benson’s going to join us next week over Pizza Johns. They pretty much saved Baltimore positive during COVID five and a half years ago, so we are delighted to have them be a part of what we’re doing around here. And Zach Dermer from Far and the Dermer, who bring you the comfort everywhere, including the comfort of our audio vault when Luke is up trying to save the Orioles from the world and and waving Pete Alonso goodbye on Wednesday night. Because I know at a baseball head, I knew you were going to be there on Wednesday, one or the other, because you you love baseball that much. And we get like, dude, weekend off. We just get to sit around with our feet up, and and we don’t have to fly 5,100 miles. We don’t have to clear security. I don’t have to get a visa for you or me. I could take you out on our visa over to Kosters to get some crabs if you want this weekend, and we can we have crabs all afternoon, then go home and watch the game like normal people. You can mow your lawn like it’s good. The Ravens are in Brazil. Luke Jones is here. He has been at Owings Mills, and how are they holding up out there? You know, after loss, I I said on Monday, and if you heard anything I said this week, Harbaugh was such a drudge. Like like after that kind of a loss, it was a really ugly week. One in one, one in five last year, and I think it stacked up over the course of time. In the beginning, they didn’t lose a lot. The AFC Championship game, oh 809, I’m talking about 17 years later, when after a loss, it wasn’t a fun place to be, and I don’t know that how that’s going to work with winter, and it shouldn’t be a fun place to be, but it got macabre out there when they were pissing games away, and they pissed a lot of games away in the Lamar era as they did last week. I don’t know whether the oxygen was different this week, but I tell you what, dude, this Rio thing and the flight and the Cowboys being prepared financially and thinking this thing through about how they’re going to be the 40 Niners and not be the Rams. I hope they have their act together. Let alone the turf and all of that. Say Flowers, Ronnie Stanley, Madabika. We’ll get to all of it. But this is one and two on a 5000 mile flight back home. Even with the crappy schedule they have ahead, wouldn’t be good vibes on Monday morning around here because it had been good vibes this week.

Luke Jones 3:01
Yeah, it’s certainly not. I mean, I think they’ve handled it fine this week to this point. As you and I are speaking in real time, as they’re not yet traveling there, but will be. And you know, they’re leaving late Thursday night, and you kind of have a Friday recovery kind of day that they’ll do. They’ll do some stuff, but you know, it’s a long flight. You’re hoping guys-they’re not going up the

Nestor Aparicio 3:21
mountain and taking pictures with the with the redeemer.

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Luke Jones 3:23
No, no, they’re just not. I mean, I’ve been to Brazil. There’s no

Nestor Aparicio 3:26
easy way to do that.

Luke Jones 3:28
Well, and they’re not there long enough anyway. Yeah, I mean, you didn’t go out there Monday and and say, okay, well, you guys have Tuesday to tomorrow and Humphrey

Nestor Aparicio 3:35
will be shooting video out of the plane as it’s landing to look like he went somewhere. But I don’t. Those guys won’t be at it to help this go on the Koco Cabana on Friday night. They won’t be.

Luke Jones 3:43
No, I don’t think so. I don’t think so. But I think going back to what you were just saying about the loss and responding from that, and just being Jesse Minter and a new coaching staff compared to John Harbaugh, and you know, not that it was the same old coaching staff year after year after year. But I think this is where you’re really saying, okay, new coaching staff, show what you’re made of in terms of setting the tone for the week, in terms of getting good work in, in terms of having honest conversations, in terms of finding the right balance of making the corrections, but also not dwelling on it. Because to your point, you do have a little bit of a different week. Maybe in that way, it’s a good thing that their their routines changed up a little bit, rather than guys having, you know, where it’s just kind of a routine travel, where where you have more time to think about what happened this past Sunday, right? So, you know, you you look at this. I mean, Dallas, it looks like they’re taking a similar approach. It’s not like the Cowboys got to Brazil on Monday or Tuesday, right? This isn’t the 40 Niners getting to Australia a full week before the game compared to the Rams flying in what two nights before or night night before whatever it was, you know, whatever craziness. Which, by the way, I saw Sean McVay the other day after they won in week two. Had kind of had the walk-off moment that you know what he was asked what was different from week one to week two, and he said, “Well, the idiot coach didn’t have a bad travel plan this time around. So he, I, I saw that he made some fun of himself, which I think you need that from time to time. And I’m not saying that’s what Jesse Minter’s doing this week, but I think it’s always interesting to see how a coaching staff’s going to respond to a loss compared to a win, right? Not to mention

Nestor Aparicio 5:26
the players too, right? Because we’re all looking at like, how’s Lamar going to respond? How’s the room respond? And sure, I mean, Harbaugh lost his quarterback for the year this week, right? Like he’s up for three wins. He’d love to come back and take this gig all over again. You know, he would love being in New York until this week. It’s going to get real tough because, like, after you lose, how you handle it, dude? All get our ass kicked in life, right? We just do, and it’s like how you get back up. Ali lost. Everybody lost. Gretzky lost. Michael Jordan lost. Every Michael Jordan lost so much in the beginning it pissed him off that he never wanted to lose again. I mean, and and to that, I mean, look at the clown running the country. I’m a winner. I never lost. I never had a loss. I mean, until you lose, you don’t get any humility and you don’t build any any muscle, you know. And for this Minter thing, I it’s interesting to me because he might be the coach for the next 17 years, and he might win five championships here. He might win three with Lamar, right? I mean, that’s what Steve thinks. That’s what Eric thinks. Literally, it’s what

Luke Jones 6:24
they hope. I mean, you know,

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Nestor Aparicio 6:26
right? I mean, so watching them piss a game away against against the guy who started 11 games in the league at home. I mean, really, it it same old, same old. She said it on the podium. I didn’t have to write that in my column. This he said it. He knows what the oxygen is and what the temperature is. And dude, nobody knows more about the Harbaugh tone than Minter to come in and say what part of it would you take and what part of it would you leave. What part of John do you not want in the building because you know John well and Jim, and what part is the Jesse Mentor part? And I think, dude, you and I have been boujoin’ for eight months about him and this and that and his beard and his-he’s boring. He’s this, he’s that. Well, his defense failed on Sunday, and he’s the defensive guy, and his team failed on Sunday, and he’s the team leader, and his quarterback and the offense and third and one and like just all of it. Let’s see how they do. You know, I’m not. He’s lost one game. Harbaugh lost a lot, and Harbaugh won a lot more than he lost. So in this case, for me, this is a testamental, dude. This is the game I thought they were going to lose. I’m going to say that all along because it, it’s just I saw how they handled Wembley in a general sense, how the organization feels about it, how Chad Steele and Sashi feel about getting on a plane and going to Brazil and taking it. What a pain in the ass it all is, and we don’t want to do it. Harbaugh hated it, and like all of that. Let’s let’s see them embrace it to some degree, and let’s see them find a way to win 28 to 26, because I don’t, you know, this is not going to be the turf’s going to be a mess, the air is going to be a just all of it is going to be different, and you know this is this is a really interesting game. It’s in Rio de Janeiro, dude. Like that’s interesting unto itself. If they sucked, it’d be interesting. But with all of this expectation and national TV and Cowboys, I mean, not playing the the Falcons there. You know what I mean? Like this is this is kind of neat. I I I’m glad I’m not there because I don’t have the fortitude this weekend to even sit in the cold and watch my buddies and Hooty the Blowfish and get spat upon. It is a lot of effort. I mean, I went to to Wembley. I did all of that. I’ve flown all over the world. I flew to South America. Did 17 days earlier this year. So like, I I know what that’s all about. You know, I hope everybody has a good experience. I you know I’m excited. I’m thrilled for my friend Jen, who’s down there, and Leonard, and people have been popping up all over my timeline that are down there having a good time. But the Ravens got to come back, and I remember the flight back from Wembley. So do you, and that can’t. And I don’t mean a meltdown. I don’t mean losing 37 to three. That’d be terrible. I just mean losing. They can’t lose on Sunday for me. They can’t come back one and two. And you’re going to pitch to me. They’re a good team by beating the Falcons and the Titans and some bums the next couple of weeks. We’re going to be right back to what’s going to happen when Buffalo shows up.

Luke Jones 9:30
Well, look, I mean, every week’s a referendum in the National Football League to some extent, even when we say it’s not because everyone reacts a certain way. Truth is, the season’s not over if they go one and two, but I want to touch on something that you just said. I think these international games, obviously, who has more talent, who plays better, right? But part of that is embracing it, right? I mean, you’re mentioning Wembley. Well, they won. They they went to Europe. They went to London and won in 2023, right? So they handled better. Yeah, they did it better. And I’ll point out the Dallas Cowboys. This is their first international game since 2014. Right? I mean, none of these players. I mean, none of these players. You

Nestor Aparicio 10:15
know what? That speaks to how much Jara must have hated

Luke Jones 10:20
it. Sure, sure. I mean,

Nestor Aparicio 10:21
and Jara runs the league. The league. Sure. And so, great point. Thank you. I, I mean, that didn’t even occur to me because it seemed like Jara loves making all the money from the international game that he would want to be a part of it. But nah, let let let let let Lamar’s boys go over there and play. You know, let let Shawn Khan. He ain’t got no fans in Jacksonville. Let him go play. Well, you know. So this is fascinating to me that that they might hate it too.

Luke Jones 10:51
No, I mean that’s what it kind of boils down to. I mean, I I don’t think there’s certain teams that inherently hate it more than others. I think it’s just a matter of circumstance. And to your point, some teams and owners have more clout, and probably were able to avoid more games. But now we’re entering a period where there are going to be more international games. It’s just the reality. I mean, Sashi Brown the other day was literally talking about planning for a game next year where the Ravens are going to give up a home game, right? So, which I don’t know how your season ticket fan base feels about hearing talk about

Nestor Aparicio 11:22
screwing me on my PSL sash, but you know that was part of the promise of the PSLs is that like I’m going to get the pay and see my team play. I mean this league is just a disgrace, and I mean week after week I find things to say like you you know breaking promises of all kinds, but everyone keeps watching. Everyone keeps watching because they can bet on it. Well, and I would

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Luke Jones 11:46
also say, I mean, I’ve said this about Thursday night football for years, right? If you if you hate the product so much, do not subscribe to Amazon and do not turn it on. When you turn it on, if you don’t think football

Nestor Aparicio 11:57
players should be playing three days after they play, watch

Luke Jones 12:00
it, right? And and look, I’m I’m not I’m not saying that to to sound holier than thou. I they don’t run horses two

Nestor Aparicio 12:08
weeks back to back in for millions of dollars in the Triple Crown anymore because they know it’s not good.

Luke Jones 12:12
Right, but but to go back to Ravens Cowboys in this this Sunday’s game, there is that element of who embraces it more. I mean, the 40-it’s recency bias because it’s the most recent one that we have. But you look at what the 40 Niners did, and look, going to Australia is a little more extreme. I mean, you’re literally on the other side of the world, right? These, the these are long flights. When you go to Europe, it’s a long flight. But for example, I mean, they’re going to be playing Sunday in Brazil. It’s only an hour off of what our time is, right? There, there isn’t this. There’s a long flight, but there’s not this insane time zone adjustment, right? Where, where you’re wondering, okay, what do we do with our sleep and all that kind of stuff? That’s a little, little more mitigated. Now you still have a long flight, and there’s still the the challenge of that. But I think for both teams, it’s a matter of who embraces it, who says, “Hey, we get to do this, rather than, “Ah, man, we have to do this. Right? I mean, it’s kind of like life. Do you have to do something, or do you have a mindset to say, “I get to do something” Do I have to go to work, or do I say, “I get to go to work and have a job that pays me very handsomely, as NFL football players should say, as coaches should say, because they are compensated insanely well. So, yeah, I think there’s an interesting element to that. I think the fact that you have two quarterbacks, Lamar Jackson, goes without saying, and Dak Prescott, who’s off to a really, really good start this year. I mean, it’s funny. You kind of look at the Cowboys’ offensive numbers. They haven’t really run the ball, and George Pickens is off to a very underwhelming start. See now, C.D. Lamb’s off to a great start, but you kind of look at them and you say, “All right, they looked awful against the Giants Week One. You know Harbaugh’s debut and Jackson Dart looking like the franchise quarterback and then gets hurt immediately in week two and changes the trajectory of their season. But you know, and in week two for the Cowboys, they beat Washington, but Jaden Daniels goes down in that game. So look, Caleb

Nestor Aparicio 14:17
Williams last week too, right? Like I mean, it was a hell of a it was a it was a brutal week. I mean, and to think that Lamar is going to go 17 for 17 here, right? Like that’s Joe Burrow, all those guys. I was just going to say, I mean,

Luke Jones 14:29
Joe Burrow. I mean, for as much as they’re talking about the Bengals being two and zero and leading the division and all that, I mean, Joe Burrow’s already dealing with the bad back, right? In week two, how’s that going to go? So that’s where I kind of and look, I was the, I thought of the same thing as everyone else from the moment that the news leaked that Jackson Dart was out for the year. What was the first thing that came to mind as far as John Harbaugh and the Giants? Are they going to go trade for Joe Flacco? The Bengals. I mean, I’m not sure. I short of someone doing something. Insane, like offering you a second-round pick or something like that. They need Joe Flacco as an insurance policy for Burrow. I mean, it’s just it’s just the reality. But but this game, these quarterbacks, these offenses. I mean, Zayflower is not practicing Wednesday between the history of the hamstring for well a little over a month now, and the field conditions. I’m skeptical we’re going to seize Zay Flowers on Sunday. I don’t know that for sure. Maybe that changes over the course of the next couple days. Maybe they held him out in week two, and it truly was that extraordinarily minor in week one that they were just being that cautious, saying, “We’ll we’ll hold you out for week two, and we’ll see about Rio, right? I mean, so I I think wait and see at best. There, Ronnie, they’re definitely a

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Nestor Aparicio 15:49
different team without him, dude. Right? Like, no doubt. I mean, the whole game plan’s different for the Cowboys’ defense, and for them, and for how they can get after Lamar, and how they can get after Derrick Henry, and Stack Box, and play, you know, play more man. You just different things they’re going to be able to do, right? Yeah,

Luke Jones 16:04
I mean, it’s it’s this simple. In the five drives that he’s played this year, the Ravens scored four touchdowns. The other was the fourth and goal unsuccessful, so easily could have been five for five. In the 15 drives, and I’m excluding the quarterback kneel down at the end of the Indianapolis game, because I don’t want to, you know, that kind of skews the data. But in the 15 possessions without Zay Flowers, three touchdowns, right? So four out of five with him, three out of 15 without him. Now they weren’t going to continue to score touchdowns four out of five with Zay on the field, but it speaks to how much more explosive, how much more dynamic it looked in Indy through those first 25 minutes of that game. So, yeah, there’s the Bateman question. There’s the other wide receivers. There’s are you going to run Derrick Henry? I would even say this. You know, Jesse Minter was asked about this Monday, and let me be clear, he wasn’t on the injury report, but you know, I think Derrick Henry to me was a little dinged up in the second half. If you look, if you go back and look at a couple times when he called for a breather, I I think he was a little. I’m not suggesting any shenanigans here. I’m not suggest he was out there on the field Wednesday. He he looked fine, right? But but it also speaks to how tenuous this can can be when you’re already down one of your very best playmakers on offense,

Nestor Aparicio 17:25
and Henry’s not enough to win the game unless the defense really stinks. You know what I mean? Like this was where the Titans were, and this is that mesh point Lamar thing that I they don’t really want to run Lamar much, right? Like I would think that Declan Doyle’s philosophy on this over seven months is more like Nestor was in Canton in nine years ago, sitting up in the press box and being like, “Jesus God, he’s running the linebackers! Like now, nine years later, I can never

Luke Jones 17:56
let that go

Nestor Aparicio 17:57
because he couldn’t play like that, and he can’t play like that now. And I guess that’s what I’m saying is I’m not seeing Lamar as a six to 10 time a game running threat yet, yet, yet. And I guess that’s Derrick Henry. And I think that’s was that

Luke Jones 18:15
is that good?

Nestor Aparicio 18:16
You’re gonna say no.

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Luke Jones 18:18
You’re probably no. You’re probably asking the question.

Nestor Aparicio 18:20
You’re probably going to say like he’s going to have to run the ball, and and really well and effectively to be like he used to less, not 21 times. No,

Luke Jones 18:31
no, you know, like no, no one’s advocating for 1,200 yard rushing Lamar anymore. I mean, no one is. When you look

Nestor Aparicio 18:39
up and say he had 70 yards rushing. If it’s one play and it’s 64 yards, that’s great. That’s awesome. But I don’t. I I think they’re willing to settle for that now, to some degree, more than seven or eight runs, and hoping to get it to 118 yards, just because he breaks two of those or three of those instead of just one, and and only one when it’s a mess, not anything designed in that way. And I look, I’m, is that a good thing? I’ll answer you flat out because you just challenge me like a caller. Yeah, I think it’s probably a good thing. But then he’s got to become a hell of a quarterback, and that’s hard to do with no Ronnie Stanley, Zay Flowers, Mark Andrews dropping the ball. I mean, but he’s got a not a hell of a quarterback. He has to be an effective quarterback, whatever that is. Effective meaning like receivers have to get open, catch the ball. He needs protection. He needs to be perfect. He needs to be not throwing bean poles up with 22 seconds left to go when the game’s on the line, just to give the ball away like he did at the end of the game the other day. Like, come on, man. I mean, I, I, I’m just.

Luke Jones 19:44
I mean, we’re talking about a two-time MVP, so he’s already become a hell of a quarterback. So I’ll, I’ll clean up the wording a little bit there. But I would, I would challenge and say when you have a full week without Zay Flowers, and you know you’re not going to have Zay Flowers, and there’s zero design runs for. Lamar for Lamar Jackson, and he scrambles once outside of a two-minute drill at the end of each half. I don’t think that’s enough. I think you’re, I think you’re cutting off your offense at the knees in in those circumstances. Well,

Nestor Aparicio 20:11
why are you paying Lamar? Are you really paying him $60 million a year to be a pocket quarterback and let Lamar and let Derrick Hensley be? He’s one of the very best quarterbacks

Luke Jones 20:19
in the league. I mean, he he’s a great passer. He absolutely is a great passer. But

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Nestor Aparicio 20:24
he, the legs is what got him there, dude. This is a great bar bar room art. I mean, we should do this. It’s not the only thing that got him there, but

Luke Jones 20:31
yeah, I would agree. That’s what makes him transcendent, and that’s his superpower. But and you take

Nestor Aparicio 20:36
that away from him, and he’s not Peyton Manning, he’s not Tom Brady. If you take that away from him, I mean that’s what made him even better than Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, and that’s kind of my thing. Exceptional.

Luke Jones 20:50
What’s the motivation for taking it that element out entirely, and so he doesn’t

Nestor Aparicio 20:56
get hurt, so you don’t end your season the way the the Commanders just did, in the way that that Jackson Dart. I mean,

Luke Jones 21:02
for someone. I mean, okay. I I hear. I I I will continue to say

Nestor Aparicio 21:07
we gonna play conservative poker. We gonna play risky. You know what I mean? Like this is this is the beginning of winning about winning

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Luke Jones 21:13
poker about winning poker. Okay, right. And they didn’t win on Sunday, so that’s more the point I’m trying to make here. Look, I am not remotely saying that Lamar Jackson needs to rush for 1,200 yards. I’m not saying he needs to rush for 1,000. I’m not even saying needs to run for 850 or 900. But we saw what this looked like with a Lamar Jackson who played much more from the pocket last year, out of necessity because he was banged up. wasn’t a very good offense, you know, over the over the the duration of that time. So my point with that, especially when you’re talking about a week where you don’t have Zay Flowers, is I’d like to see a little more Lamar with his legs. I’m not talking about a lot. I’m not talking about 12 design runs a game. Not that that that would be nuts,

Nestor Aparicio 22:00
right? But if the headline on this piece of Baltimore positive, and it will be, should Lamar Jackson be running more? If that’s literally the headline, we’re both going to say yeah, right. But we’re we’re both also going to say if I own the team and it was my asset, slow that down. Give the ball to Henry. Let him throw it. Let’s protect him. Let let’s let’s not design traffic for him. Let’s not have him run into linebackers like the jackass Venezuelan Dundalk yells on the radio. Let’s not have him run into linebackers on purpose. We have running backs to do that. We have tight ends that we have other people to do that. It feels like that’s a little bit of more of the current philosophy, right? And when I said, “Listen, listen, man, you and I always get into this with Lamar and the people that hate me get into this out on the YouTube’s and whatnot about me not liking Lamar. Lamar has a one. There’s a lot of things about Lamar, and when I said he’s going to have to be a hell of a quarterback, he. I’m not saying he wasn’t a hell of a quarterback. I mean, Tom Brady was a hell of a quarterback. Now he’s a lousy broadcaster and a poor actor. But like, he’s going to have to be a hell of a quarterback on Sunday night without say flowers, without Ronnie Stanley, with as you said, maybe Derrick Henry getting a little older. Mark Andrews is whatever it is, and it was fine at various points last week. So was Devonta’s walk. I mean, you know, some of the these Chris Moore, these guys can catch the ball. But all that being said, he’s going to have to be a hell of a quarterback moving forward in order to win and be an MVP and win a game 5000 miles from home on bad turf without safe flowers, without Ronnie, you know what I mean. He’s gonna have to be a hell of a quarterback. So I just wanted to couch that. I don’t want to put words in my mouth, but like I just literally, I said hell of a quarterback. I’ve been moving forward. It takes a hell of a quarterback. Joe Burrow, pick anybody you want. Pick pick Mahomes. If Mahomes has to play without Zay Flowers, without Mahomes wasn’t a hell of a quarterback when his left tackle stunk, right? Like so, and and he’s not looking to run either, but he’s built different for it. And I think as Lamar gets older, we’ve been saying this as Lamar was younger. We’re getting up on nine years into this. As when Lamar gets older, he’s going to have to be more stationed, more more all that. Well, I don’t know if they’re going to win on Sunday. Lamar’s going to have to look like the other Lamar for a minute, I guess.

Luke Jones 24:26
Well, and and that’s and that’s kind of my point when you talk about the circumstances. I mean, for example, I mean, go back to the third and one play in the second half on Sunday, right, against the Saints. I mean, they threw a deep ball to Chris Moore. Is that really your best option in that spot? Lamar running is a better

Nestor Aparicio 24:41
option. Lamar running

Luke Jones 24:42
or Derrick Henry running in that spot, right? So again, for me, it’s recognizing where you are as an offense, where you are from a personnel standpoint, what the game situation is. Look, you run a couple Lamar a couple times early in the game. You know, design run. Doesn’t that have an impact on the defense? Then the rest of the game, especially if he

Nestor Aparicio 25:05
busts one for 13 yards. But that’s what I just breaks one tackle and zigs and zags and dives, and

Luke Jones 25:10
right away you you planted that seed in the mind of all those defensive players and those defense. You know, I’m gonna laugh like hell if the

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Nestor Aparicio 25:17
second play of the game is because you just said that. Like, but I just

Luke Jones 25:21
but but that was my thing where I looked at a game without Zay Flowers and again zero design runs. That’s one thing, but he only had one scramble that wasn’t in a two minute drill at the end of the half. And if you go back and look at that, that was in the third quarter, and he stood in the pocket about probably close to 10 seconds. It was one of those plays where no one was open downfield, and he finally took off. Then, so that’s that’s what I’m talking about. I I mean more so if you’re at full strength, they got him not thinking about running, right? Like I don’t think he wants to run. I I I’m not sure how much of this is Declan Doyle and how much of this is Lamar Jackson and what he wants, right? I mean, if I’m being touched,

Nestor Aparicio 26:00
let’s protect this. I mean, I don’t know if protect this very valuable. I mean, it’s not

Luke Jones 26:03
Roger Dorn level. You know, we’re not talking about him going and saying, “Well, I’ve got this in my contract. I’m not doing that himself. But, but I, you know, I I do think there’s there’s that dynamic that could be at work, right? So again, I’m not. I didn’t mean for this to me bringing that up to be a 15 minute. No, dude, I love this conversation because I love it that

Nestor Aparicio 26:24
on second down, if he starts running around a little bit, and I love that you said he doesn’t want to run because I was thinking it right before you said it. I’m thinking maybe Lamar doesn’t want to run 30 seconds before because I haven’t thought about this a whole lot because in the off season it wasn’t in our mind that we’d be two weeks into this getting your ass kicked by the Saints, not having Zay like looking at it and saying, “Well, if it’s if it’s not Derrick Henry, and I’ve already said out loud while I wear Titans blue with my Leonard Raskin thing, who’s in Brazil having a good time, if it’s not Derrick Henry running the ball, then who’s our hold on Ronnie Stanley $20 million, Zay Flowers more than 20 million. Derrick Henry underpaid, but oh, it’s Lamar. Yeah, let’s give Lamar. Yeah, you know, like you only have so many. Is the best play throwing the ball to Devontaz Walker, or is the best play, the most transcendent player in the game taken off? Great question. But the minute he gets hit, Jesse Minter becomes the five and you know five and 12 coach early in the season, right?

Luke Jones 27:24
At the same time, all boy, there was so much discourse about Jackson Dard going back to last year, right? With him taking the hits. I mean, you want to talk about someone who actually truly was running in the linebackers? It was him. He got hurt in the pocket on Monday night, right? I mean, there there is an element to this, and look again. This isn’t Luke Jones saying he wants the 2019 version of Lamar Jackson that that’s rushing for 1,200 yards, right, or running 20 plus times against the Minnesota Vikings. By the way, I was thrown

Nestor Aparicio 27:53
out by Chad Steele for calling that unsustainable. I pissed Harbaugh off immensely. He went after me after the podium that day when they had to go play down in Miami because I called it unsustainable. That was my word 678, years ago, and it clearly was right. Like literally, it it is unsustainable that he could do that. You just admitted that, but like this is turning the water off’s no good either, right? Well, and and that’s my point, right? I’m talking about what are the circumstances of any given football game, any given week where you’re missing Zay Flowers,

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Luke Jones 28:30
and you have all this turnover with your pass catchers, especially at the tight end position. I mean, let’s face it. Like Mark Andrews threw two weeks, set a couple drops. One one of those passes behind him. You know, I kind of put that on Lamar just as much as Andrews that that one early this past Sunday, but we’re clearly I I think he’s been fine overall, but this is clearly not the dynamic Mark Andrews of five years ago at this point in in his career. So when you’re missing Zay Flowers and you’re saying okay, what about Bateman? Okay, what about these other young wide receivers that are unproven on this roster? What about these young tight ends behind Mark Andrews? Like, hey, it’s not to say I don’t like Hibner or Cuevas, but are those guys that are going to step up and give you meaningful contributions in the here and now? You have all those variables, and that’s that to me is where I then go back and look at Lamar and say, “Would it hurt to have a couple more design runs sprinkled in this week? And that’s my point, more so, right? So in the

Nestor Aparicio 29:29
third and one there, they haven’t run a mesh point to to date. The other team knows it’s Lamar Jackson when you’re up on the line of scrimmage there and you bring Derrick Henry in and you play that game, and Lamar takes off, dude. They get a yard every time on that play. I mean, that’s what I’m saying. I mean, I mean, especially if you’re an offensive mind and you can isolate Lamar to know you can draw the line, you can move a tight end, you can put somebody in motion, you can get the right wide receiver in the right spot. You can make it look like it did last week when Henry went right, and instead Lamar runs for 28 yards. In that, in that, if your philosophy is thinking about that, clearly that wasn’t in the playbook on third and one, right? I

Luke Jones 30:14
mean, it’s just they they weren’t thinking about it in in that spot, right? I mean, remember when

Nestor Aparicio 30:18
Cowher would always stick it up your ass by sticking Cordell Stewart, Adeline, like literally, would just there would be some play. Hines Ward would turn into the quarterback. You know, weird stuff would happen on those kinds of plays, and you would just get burned because you just were not prepared for it. And I think Lamar could do all sorts of things that you’re not prepared for, especially if no, if they haven’t pulled it out of the playbook yet. It’s trickinery, right? But but that little trickification with Lamar would be interesting to me.

Luke Jones 30:47
Yeah, and look, that’s not to say we’re not going to see that. That’s not to say he’s not going to run at all, right? So I just, for me, it was just Sunday circumstance being what it was. And you know, we’ve we’ve seen an offensive line that’s run blocked quite well so far. Pass protection hasn’t been so hot. I mean, if if I’m just probably being kind, Sam. Where he was Stanley,

Nestor Aparicio 31:07
by the way. So

Luke Jones 31:09
it’s tough for me. I mean, he didn’t practice Wednesday. He missed all of the practice week last week until Friday, and didn’t do a whole lot on Friday based on what I was seeing. Now we only watched the first half hour of practice, but very much looked like a mental day for him, being out there on the field and probably not taking a ton of reps. And I mean, let’s face it: when he left the game late in the third quarter on Sunday, it was a one-score game at that point in time. It’s not as though the Ravens were up three touchdowns. So

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Nestor Aparicio 31:38
I kind of felt bad from sitting there looking at the the tablet. I mean, that dude’s been through hell to try to get back on the field. And look, and he’s been very

Luke Jones 31:44
healthy the last two years. I mean, he’s he’s missed one game the last two years. I

Nestor Aparicio 31:48
mean, on a personal level, I don’t really know Ronnie Stanley because I mean, Chad Steele pulled him up early on and told not talk to me. Nobody talked to me at the end. I mean, just as well, but you know this. So I mean, Ronnie Stanley’s somebody I’ve never he didn’t know who I am, and I don’t like. And I watched his act, and he’s very quiet and very professional in how he went through it. But what he went through as a as a man, as a player, from an injury standpoint, to come back when he had all the money in the bank. I love Eugene Monroe, but he didn’t want to do it. I love Jo, but he didn’t want to. He didn’t want to play with a bad toe, you know. After and he was going to the Hall of Fame. He had plenty of money. I, you know, like on and on and on about that. I Ronnie Stanley’s been give me an Ed Block Courage Award for the life of 30 years of the Ravens of the players I’ve seen. I put Pitta, you know. I’ll put some guys in there that, I mean, all these guys are effing tough, right? I’m not, you know, like I’m not in any way. But Ronnie Stanley, to me, I’ll stand up for him and say, “Man, I, dude, no way you could have convinced me three years ago he’d still be playing football and be out on the field last Sunday. Let alone, like, you know, I tip my cap to Ronnie Stanley on that because he did, he he’s he loves the game. He doesn’t have to do this. I mean, we all remember

Luke Jones 33:04
what happened. I mean, he signs a deal, gets gets hurt two days later, literally two days later, has the ankle, comes back the following season. Remember the game in Vegas? I mean, he looked awful. I mean, looked awful. He looked like one of the worst left tackles in football. Misses the season, comes back, delayed start to 2022. Is he still trying to work his way back? I mean, yeah, there’s no question about that. But it’s funny. I mean, you mentioned Jonathan Ogden, and let me be clear. I’m not. I don’t know any specifics of this toe injury. I’m guessing it’s not anything close to what Jonathan Ogden dealt with, but it’s a reminder to Ravens fans of a toe injury for a left tackle can be that can be tough. I mean, that can be something that is not easy to play through. And I think you know he tried to give it a go this past week and held up. These are big

Nestor Aparicio 33:53
men. There’s a lot of weight on toes. I mean, and and and with the turf, I mean, he’s not going to play this week there, right? I mean, it’s-I

Luke Jones 34:00
don’t know. I mean, it’s look-it’s grass compared. It’s not the old carpet stuff, right? I mean, we’re not talking about artificial turf, but it is something where you look at this thing and say, if he couldn’t get through last Sunday’s game, what’s going to be different this Sunday? We’ll see, right? And how does

Nestor Aparicio 34:18
that affect what they’re trying to do offensively?

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Luke Jones 34:20
And that’s where you look at it and say you hope, at the very least, you know, Carson Vincent with another week of first team reps to prepare to potentially start that can help the operation overall. But, but yeah, I mean, and this is kind of what it goes back to with Lamar talking about the, you know, philosophically, you know, this team isn’t necessarily in its best state to be throwing the ball a whole lot right now without Zay Flowers, with a new interior offensive line that is still finding its way. I mean, go look at the passport. You know, ESPN and all these sites track like pass block win rate and things like that. And there’s always subjectivity in it, so you’ll see some numbers that look different. From one source to another, but their numbers aren’t great in that capacity so far. I mean, we’ve seen Lamar be under pressure a good bit. One element we’ve talked about it a lot. Going back to training camp, I talked, I told you, and we’ve seen it. They’re under center way more than at any point in Lamar Jackson’s career. One thing that teams are can do to combat that is a lot of blitzing in the A gap, you know, with the inside linebacker. Just create

Nestor Aparicio 35:24
trouble right at the snap. Yeah, where you’re

Luke Jones 35:26
you’re you’re doing this under center play action. Well, what’s the difference with play action from under center compared to shotgun? You have to turn your back to the defense when you’re under center. That A gap blitz guys can be right on top of Lamar Jackson just like that if you’re not on your p’s and q’s to to have your protection set properly, and and guys don’t execute and win their one on ones, so so you know, look, I’m not shocked by that. I’m not saying that to be overly discouraged about where the Ravens are. I said to you throughout the spring and summer when you considered a first time play calling offensive coordinator, no matter how much of a genius you think he is, and I think Declan Doyle’s really smart, right? I think he overthought the third and one last week, but I think overall he’s really smart. But you do have so much personnel change. I mean, you have three brand new starters on the interior of your offensive line. You turned over your entire tight end room, other than Mark Andrews, and we know how important tight ends have been over the course of the Lamar Jackson era in this offense. So at wide receiver, I mean, you added to Kobe Lane. You thought he was going to be your number three wide receiver. He might be your number two by the end of the year, and he breaks his wrist in Week One, right? Zay Flowers doesn’t make it through the first half, so they’re dealing with a lot on offense. So all of that is why I endorsed a few minutes ago. You know, maybe throw in a couple more design Lamar Jackson runs, which he can bust one, or at the very least, it’s just it’s putting that defense in the in the blender, the spin cycle, so to speak. In terms of oh wait, Lamar’s Lamar might run, like Lamar might be looking to run, you know, and not to say that teams never account for it. They always have to account for it. So there’s always that. Well, that’s when you

Nestor Aparicio 37:07
beat their asses when they fall asleep.

Luke Jones 37:08
Sure, sure. But just when they

Nestor Aparicio 37:10
stop accounting for it, that’s exactly when you want to use it. But but they just they just

Luke Jones 37:13
have a lot going on. Now that said, as we bring make it a little more specific to this matchup with the Cowboys, the Dallas defense stinks, like really stinks. They’re hoping to be a little bit better this year, right? But anyone who watched that team play, even a couple times last year, they didn’t stop anybody. So, and you look at the and this is not

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Nestor Aparicio 37:36
an elite offense. I just wanted to say that before we get to Dallas, say they can’t be elite without Ronnie Stanley and without Zay Flowers and without Lane. I mean, like all the things we talked about three weeks ago about them being 12 and 513, You know, they’re going to be the best team in the like. All it’s nice that Burrow gets hurt too. That always helps too, and that the Steelers stink. And but you got to go win some games here. And I thought they were an elite team. You start taking their best players away. They’re they’re no better. They’re no they’re the Giants. They’re Jackson Tharpe. You know what I mean? Like they can’t play a season without Ronnie Stanley and Zay Flowers. This can’t be the beginning of Zay Flowers missing 10 weeks and Ronnie Stanley just being at the end because there’s gonna so all summer I sat here and talked about the end for Marlon Humphrey, for Ronnie Stanley, for Mark Andrews, for Roquan Smith, for Colleius Campbell, like on and on and on. And it’s week three, and if Ronnie Stanley’s the first guy that’s going to be really problematic from an age standpoint, that’s a big problem for this offense right now because they don’t. I remember the old Jared Gaithers and the old you know next man up and all of that, dealing for Bryant McKinney to try to win a Super Bowl when Michael Orr couldn’t do it. The left tackle thing, man. Like, there’s a reason those cats make 30 million bucks.

Luke Jones 38:53
Very true. But I’m going to throw one number out to you: 238 yards. That’s how many rushing yards Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson combined for two years ago against the Cowboys, who had Michael Michael Parsons at the time. So, again, like I said in Week Two, this very much feels like a matchup to not overthink this thing too much. Right? See if it’s the grass

Nestor Aparicio 39:15
to run on in America. Right. Of

Luke Jones 39:17
course. I mean, you know, if the footing ends up being a disaster, I mean, both teams are going to struggle with that, right? I mean, Dallas wants. I don’t think Dallas is going to be looking to run the ball a whole lot with. Dude, all you have to do to beat the Ravens

Nestor Aparicio 39:30
at this point is if Lamar can’t run and won’t run, and they don’t want him to run, they’re just an ordinary team. You know what I mean? And because of the grass, because of the philosophy, whatever it is, if Lamar’s not running, I’ll say that as part of the headline at Baltimore Positive. If Lamar’s not part of the running here to some degree, especially with No Z Flowers and the bad turf and like all of that, if I don’t, I don’t, I don’t think they can beat good teams. You know, they might beat this this bunch this week. They might. You know, I am more. We have. At all about their defense playing against the Cowboys’ offense, which well that that’s what makes this more of a shootout. I said 2826, It might be 3735, but I I I have no idea what to expect with the international thing. And now knowing the Cowboys hate it too, it’s good.

Luke Jones 40:14
Yeah, yeah, and this is where we can actually transition to the defense because as much as we’ve talked about Zay Flowers and Ronnie Stanley, Namdi Manabike practiced fully on on Wednesday. That’s kind of what I’ve been waiting to see, right? For someone who hasn’t played since week two last year, for someone where the ramp up throughout training camp was just so incredibly deliberate. I’ve never seen a slower ramp up for somebody than what they did with Namdi Madibike, and that’s not me being critical. I’m just-it’s an observation. So, the first couple weeks still limited, limited, limited, ruled out week one, limited, limited, limited, ruled out. Week two, full participant. So is Sunday the day when we finally see Namdi Madibike back on the field? Because I think we, you know, there’s obviously some unknown in terms of how does he look. I think more so probably how does he feel Monday? How does he feel Tuesday? How does he feel Wednesday? How does he feel with the cumulative impact? We still know so so very little about the the specifics of the neck injury. So I think there is at least a little bit of holding your breath. At least a little bit. I’m not. I’m. I’m not. You know. I’m not trying to sound fatalistic about it. But just how does he feel? Does he have any symptoms? You know. Is there anything that makes him feel not great? Where then he has to revisit this, or he needs to go back to the sideline, right? All of that. But it looks because we’re we’re at the point now where if he’s not going to play this week or next week, then you start to ask, well, why wasn’t he on IR? Why why didn’t why didn’t you put him on IR? And and and part of that is you wanted them to keep practicing. You wanted to keep ramping up, right? If you go to IR, you can’t practice, right? You sit, you you can do things on in the field house, and but you can’t practice with the team. So, but you add him to the mix. I think one thing that’s been evident, as much as you know, I think Trey Hendrickson, even though he hasn’t, you know, it’s not like he has three or four sacks already. But I think you’ve seen him be disruptive, but you’re still looking for that interior pass rush presence. That you know. Okay, you can get some of that from Travis Jones. You get some of that from Clayus Campbell. You can slide Tavious Robinson inside in a third and long situation, and he might be able to you know kind of put put a move on an interior lineman in a way that maybe a bigger guy doesn’t. But there’s a reason why the Ravens paid Namdi Matabike what they did a couple years ago, right? This guy’s really, really good when he’s right and healthy and on the field. So you add him into the mix, you hope for a defense that, let’s face it, it’s not as though the Ravens’ defense played horribly overall on Sunday. They they broke down on third downs and in the fourth quarter, specifically the breakdowns. I mean, it’s the same story we’ve been talking about for years, right? A defense that plays really well for three quarters and then can’t get after the quarterback. What the hell happens? Well, and and and and a big culprit, not just those elements, on Sunday specifically against the Saints, they couldn’t tackle. I mean, go back and look at some of those plays. I mean, they just blew tackles. Where just bring a guy down, right? The whole essence of a Jesse Minter defense, which it’s very similar to what Mike McDonald does in Seattle and what Mike McDonald did here, is you’re playing so much too high shell. The idea is to force the opposing quarterback and the opposing offense to, you know, to to use an old NFL filmstorm, matriculate the ball around the field. You know, like the idea that you had to sustain a drive, right? The idea that you’ve got to convert third downs. The idea that you’re going to throw underneath and throw underneath and throw underneath and be patient enough to not to not take the eye candy that a defense is going to throw, and

Nestor Aparicio 44:02
we’re not going to let the ball go over our head.

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Luke Jones 44:04
Correct, correct. And and in and in their defense, it’s not as though the Saints completed completed like 50 yard bombs, right? They didn’t. They converted on third down. They were excellent on third down. Now I’m not I’m not excusing the defense to if you’re going to play that philosophy, you’ve got to execute. You’ve got to get your stop. Can’t fail five

Nestor Aparicio 44:22
times going down the field in third down. Correct. I mean,

Luke Jones 44:24
like that just killed them. So because winning first

Nestor Aparicio 44:26
and second downs beautiful, right? That’s great. That

Luke Jones 44:29
that hasn’t been a problem for them, right? I mean, the the Saints didn’t just win on third down. They converted a lot of third and long. So one, I would say, hats off to to Chuck and to Chris Alave and to you know to that operation, I think I think we’re going to see that the Saints are better than we thought. That doesn’t mean I’m ready to say that they’re going to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl or anything nuts, but I do think they’re better than we thought. But that’s also I would also say if the opponent. Is going to have to be that good on third down week after week after week after week. It’s kind of like talking about that that power hitter in baseball who’s on a heater. At some point in time, like you’re not going to be able to do that every single week. So I would say I still am optimistic about this defense. Madabike being back in the picture can be a major factor for them, especially on those third downs that we’re talking about.

Nestor Aparicio 45:25
Well, that’s nice that we think the defense can get better, right? I mean, it certainly you got after you got after Starks and Wiggins this week too, right? Like these are first round draft

Luke Jones 45:33
picks. Period. Yeah, I mean, well, and Wiggins wasn’t. I didn’t have a problem with how Wiggins played. I mean, for me it was Starks and it was Jalen Hawkins, right? I mean, we’ve talked about this for years. Kyle Hamilton’s been phenomenal, right? No issues there. This this is in addition to Kyle Hamilton, the Ravens have invested a ton at the safety position, going back to you know Marcus Williams, the signing there, which was the same off season. But go back to having

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Nestor Aparicio 46:01
Chuck Clark play, and they love Chuck Clark, the the human and the and the mind. But they make that position better, make that position a centerpiece position. But I’m talking about

Luke Jones 46:09
like prominent draft picks, and they’ve spent money there, right? So for them to to invest what they’ve done at safety, and for their two deep safeties, their two high safeties this past Sunday to play as poorly as they did. That’s not a good thing, right? I mean, that those guys are key to making this work. Not just with the too high shell that they want to play, but also that enables you to deploy to deploy Hamilton in all these different ways. If those guys play like that, then you’re going to have to revisit putting Hamilton back in. You know, the kind of that song and dance they played the last but Trey

Nestor Aparicio 46:43
Hendrickson’s got to get home too right and Madabike being a huge part of this

Luke Jones 46:47
but but I do think those two guys specifically were a big part of their problem on Sunday it wasn’t just those two guys but I I saw it and I I don’t like to cite this too much because I think there are a lot of variables and there are a lot of blind spots in how they try to do this, but Pro Football Focus when they do their grades for teams, Jalen Hawkins and Malachi Starks were the two lowest defensive graded players for the Ravens. That matched my eyeball test. Going back and watching it, they they were bad. So that needs to be better. But I do think if we are going to see Madabike Sunday, and I think there’s a chance now that now that we’re talking about full practice participation, Madabike watch gets serious now. Now I’m like, okay, you can keep saying he’s close, he’s close, he’s close, he’s close, but if he’s only limited, you’re kind of thinking he could play Sunday. I think he could play Sunday. This is the first time now where I’m really starting to think that because the the last couple weeks, where it’s like, well, he’s still limited. Even the Ravens, you know, even with their history of as recently as last year with the injury report with Lamar that one game, you know, they’re not going to have him be limited, limited, limited, and then he’s back on the field, right? The optics of someone with a neck coming back from a neck injury, you know, like you’ve got to be more mindful of that. And I think even just practically speaking, you wanted not that they’re hitting a ton in practice in the regular season. They’re not, but you needed to at least see. Okay, he’s taking all the first team reps. He’s lining up here. He’s doing that. He’s doing all the things he did before his injury. He feels good. We think he looks good. He’s ready to go, right? I think we’re getting to that point now. So I’m not going to guarantee it. I don’t know that for sure, but put it this way: the fact that he’s a full go leads me to believe that when we’re sending out the WNST text alert for for the final injury report on Friday, that he’s not going to be ruled out like he was the last couple weeks. I think you’re going to see he’s at least questionable, and then we’ll see how he’s feeling. Everybody’s

Nestor Aparicio 48:49
going to be questionable based on the turf down there. They’re going to want to get down there and walk around, right? Yeah,

Luke Jones 48:53
I mean, like they’re they’re going to get on the field Saturday, from what I understand, to kind of see what it looks like there. I mean, here’s the big thing: when we are talking about grass, right? So we’re not talking about a the vet in 2001 in the preseason, right? We’re not talking about something catastrophic in that way. But when you have a field that a lot of soccer games are played there, so you know how I think with soccer players, there’s probably having talked to someone who knows the beautiful game way better than I do. A lot of soccer players will complain about if if a if a field’s bumpy, right? If if it’s not completely level, you know whether not necessarily talking about huge divots and chunks and stuff like that, but just the wear and tear because you want the ball to roll, you want it to be true, right? In the same way, an infield, you know, good ice, good ice, exactly, exactly. So, so it’s like that, but I think both teams, and I, I heard Jerry Jones give an interview, and I, I saw, I think it was a quote, I think it was him, might have been Schottenheimer, I’m not sure, but both teams, they’re going to bring all their different options for the different length of their cleats, right? I mean. Whether it’s going to be like you know you need the the the longer ones to to really have better you know if the fields you know like not not real reliable. Well, the Cowboys

Nestor Aparicio 50:09
put 25 years of science into this. Nike, all of them, right? Like let’s you know they’ll they should have shoes for it, whatever it is, unless it’s a slop show. If it’s a big show, it you know then it’s the old Cleveland Browns stadium when it rained. Sure, and

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Luke Jones 50:24
and and that’s the thing, and that’s how you have to approach it. And and again, this goes back to the mental part that you talked about at the beginning of our conversation, where you can say, “Oh man, we have to go to Brazil. It’s a long flight. Why do we have to? You can live in you can live in that world if you want to, right? And you can do the same thing with the field, or you can say, “Hey, this is a pretty cool opportunity. We got a chance to bounce back. This is a Dallas team that certainly has talent. Like we can’t just roll the ball out and win by any stretch of the imagination. But they’ve got their flaws. There’s no doubt about that. I don’t think the Cowboys are going to be anything special this year whatsoever. But you’ve got to have the right mindset about going there and starting fast and playing well, and with the field, even if there are some concerns, you have to approach it like you just said. You know what? If it’s sloppy, then you got to you got to picture and say, well, you know what? We could play a game in Baltimore, and if it’s a a right Kansas

Nestor Aparicio 51:17
City and it’s raining,

Luke Jones 51:18
it’s wet. If it’s raining, it’s gonna be a sloppy. You think it’s gonna be nice in Buffalo

Nestor Aparicio 51:22
when you get there in

Luke Jones 51:22
January. Exactly. So like that’s that’s where you just have to you have to have the right mindset, right? And and I think for Jesse Minter and company, you know this coaching staff and these players under a new coaching staff, you very much need to fight the here we go again in terms of what happened in the fourth quarter this past Sunday, and I think you need to embrace the idea of hey, we get a chance to go play in Brazil. It’s kind of cool, you know, play in a different country. Like you can have those kinds of thoughts, or you can just piss and moan about it. And you know what? There’s pub that probably increases the probability of getting yourself beat. Then if you’re just going to be unhappy about it, right? So that’s where I’m not privy to that. But around the building, is it more of a we have to do this or we get to do this, right? And again, that’s kind of a philosoph. That’s a life thing, really, quite frankly, when it boils down to it. But you’re hoping the Ravens have a little more of that in them on the heels of what happened this past Sunday. And if they do, yeah, we’re gonna see about safe flowers. I’m not feeling great about that. We’ll see about Ronnie Stanley. I am feeling better about Matta BK, so you know, go get go win a football game. I’m not impressed with this Dallas team, and I haven’t. It’s rare when I’ve been impressed with the Cowboys over the last 30 years. It’s got a man. You want to talk about teams that, with such great resources, have done so little on the field. But that said, Dak Prescott’s really good. C.D. Lamb’s really good. You know, he hasn’t done a whole lot to this point, but George Pickens can wreck games, so that that defense has to play well. And on offense, protect your quarterback. Run the football, run the football, right? I mean, this team absolutely gashed the Cowboys two years ago. Not saying it’s going to be for 250 plus yards again, but I see no reason why Derrick Henry can’t have a big game. And yes, I I would like to see Lamar Jackson run a couple more times than what we’ve seen, or certainly what we saw last week. If we’re talking about another week without Zayflowers,

Nestor Aparicio 53:24
do I have to do this or do I get to do this? I’m

Luke Jones 53:32
getting yeah, it’s like motivational speaker Luke this week. There you go. You know, there’s your there’s your locker room. I love

8

Nestor Aparicio 53:38
philosophical Luke, man. We need more. Hey, before we go, because it’s a weekend. Philosophical Luke, does philosophical Luke have any philosophy on watching the Orioles sweep the Blue Jays? Good for America.

Luke Jones 53:52
I will say this: I will give the Orioles credit that they looked way more interested in playing this series than the Blue Jays did. I mean, the Blue Jays got off to a what a three nothing lead on Monday night, and they like had a real chance. Yeah, I mean they. I mean, I mean that they didn’t have not really, but but they were still a game ahead of the Orioles entering that series. Boy, that doubleheader on on Wednesday, the Blue Jays looked completely disinterested. I mean, like that was-they might as well gone home. It wasn’t until Schneider they challenged that weird Jeremiah Jackson had his foot on the on the outfield grass, you know, because when they banned the shift, part of that that whole rule change. If anybody

Nestor Aparicio 54:35
saw that the Blue Jays were out partying on Tuesday night at the Four Seasons or something, let me know because you know. But

Luke Jones 54:40
but I would just say maybe they had the

Nestor Aparicio 54:42
team party on the rainout. The Orioles played the Orioles

Luke Jones 54:46
played harder than them. They swept them on Wednesday, and Pete

Nestor Aparicio 54:50
Alonso got to bring everybody out and be a good leader.

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Luke Jones 54:52
I don’t even want to bother going through what all needs to happen because by the time we already did to this, the White Sox may have won already. And it’s over anyway, but but yeah, they’re not making

Nestor Aparicio 55:04
the playoffs, and they don’t deserve to make the playoffs. No, they don’t. And and and but

Luke Jones 55:08
but the Blue Jays showed me they didn’t deserve it either, because boy, that was a after the first couple innings on Monday night, boy, that was a team that just completely mailed it in. You know, Getty was

Nestor Aparicio 55:17
playing in San Antonio anyway. He wasn’t even watching. Yeah, he’s fine. So Getty doesn’t need it, and Hetty last year.

Luke Jones 55:22
But for them, I mean, you think about how close they came to winning a World Series last year. It’s another example. Whether we’re talking about the Orioles or any team in any sport,

Nestor Aparicio 55:30
grab the ring.

Luke Jones 55:32
If if it’s right there, you better take it because there’s no guarantee you’re going to get back the following year. I mean, we’ve been talking about that with Lamar and the Ravens since 2019, right? So every

8

Nestor Aparicio 55:41
time I see we’re Sig, we talk about the Bills. So yeah,

Luke Jones 55:43
so I mean that, but yeah, that was a, you know, hats off to Pete Alonso, most valuable Oriole, as I told you, unanimous, big shock there. As I, you know, he, it’s just it’s part of what makes this year so frustrating is he’s been everything they could have imagined, and you know, on and off the field in terms of leadership, how he handles himself with the media, everything, and it just-I hate that they wasted year one of Pete Alonso because, you know, as he gets older, like you don’t know if he’s going to do this every single year of the contract. We’re asking that about

Nestor Aparicio 56:14
Lamar this year, right? Like as you get older, let’s-I’m not-I’m

Luke Jones 56:17
not there with Lamar. All right, good

Nestor Aparicio 56:19
enough. All right,

Luke Jones 56:19
you know, maybe a couple years down the road, maybe, but you know, Lamar’s

Nestor Aparicio 56:23
making twice as much money, so let’s see him go out and win on Sunday. Run the ball, run the run the ball, run the ball, Declan. Um, he’s Luke. I’m Nestor, and go write some more of that philosophy down and bring that back to me on Monday. We’ll be doing the Maryland Craft K tour Pizza Johns next week. Again, big thanks to our newest sponsor and my bank. Literally, been my bank for seven years. His Rosedale Bank, so we’ll be talking more about them. And Luke, to welcome Rosedale, and I’m I’m going to do this with Kevin Benson next week, and with you know the whole crew over there. You know they were Rosedale Federal Bank for like a million years. Rex Barney did spokesperson work for them over the course of time, I think a lot of different celebrities over the course did Oriole baseball with Rosedale Federal Bank. We have a right now; it’s only $1, but after the first 100 times that I do it, we’re going to step it up to $5 a fine. So every time I say Rosedale Federal after this segment instead of Rosedale Bank, I get $1 fine as a new sponsor, so it just lets you know that they’re Rosedale Federal a lot longer, and that’s the point I’m trying to make to everybody over there that I’m gonna make a mistake. Rosedale Bank, they’re our new sponsor. We’re WNST. Stay with us.