The formerly porous Ravens secondary looked healed against Pittsburgh and Houston during Christmas week and that makes this new-and-improved defense worthy of going into Buffalo and Kansas City in January and winning. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the sudden emergence of Zack Orr’s unit and how roles have changed, starters have been benched and the pass rush has blossomed with better coverage on the back end.
Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the significant improvement of the Baltimore Ravens’ defense, particularly in the latter half of the season. They highlighted the changes made, such as moving Kyle Hamilton to deep safety and benching Marcus Williams. The defense, which was struggling early on, has become a top-five unit since week 11. They praised the contributions of players like Van Noy, Simpson, and Washington, and credited the coaching staff for making strategic adjustments. The conversation also touched on the Ravens’ offensive prowess, led by Lamar Jackson and Derek Henry, and their potential playoff run against teams like Buffalo and Kansas City.
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Luke Jones
Nestor Aparicio 00:02
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T AM, 1570 Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore, positive. We are positively into the new year. Happy Christmas and Hanukkah and Kwanzaa and Festivus and for the rest of us, all that good stuff the Ravens. With a huge victory. On Christmas Day, we are going to be back out doing the Maryland crap cake tour for the first time in 2025 on the seventh of January, we will be at libs grill. We’ll have Maryland lottery scratch offs to give away. Think I’m going to have some magic eight balls, not these leftover Raven scratch also, though, the Ravens will still be scratching and clawing well into January, based on we saw on Christmas Day, also our friends at Jiffy Lube, multi care, powering us up, and liberty pure solutions. One 800 clean water. I have my liberty pure solutions shirt on as we go into 2025, always great to thank our sponsors for remaining. A part of this. We have some new sponsors coming on, some old sponsors leaving. And it is a it’s a fresh year and a fresh chance for the ravens to do what they talked about doing from the night that Lamar showed up in the green jacket with his mom and the disappointment in the last pick of the round and you get in the Super Bowl in Baltimore. Believe that, Luke. You know, we still all want to believe that. I believe it’s certainly possible. They’re capable of it. They’re good enough to do it now, whether they’ll do it or not. But it’s days like Christmas Day, when we do an hour on Lamar and on King Henry, who I’ve compared to Jim Brown for the first time my 33 year radio career, comparing football players to Jim Brown, which is, we don’t do that much around here. It’s like, Well, I think Allen compared Shohei Otani to Babe Ruth, but said that show atani was better. So we had that argument. So it’s not often we see things like this, but to see what the Ravens have done offensively, all right, I mean, I would have you We did an hour on that already. We would have known. But defensively, we thought they were capable of being a lot better than what we saw those first eight weeks, which is going to be part of what led them on the road into January to Buffalo in Kansas City, which it wasn’t good enough for long, long stretches, and now they’re pitching shutouts on the road on four days rest against I don’t you know that that’s not DTR in the Cleveland Browns, they beat up there. And I would say the same thing about naj Harrison and Russell Wilson last week with even without Pickens, the defense has come a long way in a short time.
Luke Jones 02:34
8
It definitely has. And you just said it. I mean, from from the first couple weeks of the season, and I get it, the offense was choppy early on, but really, from about week three on, this offense has been the best, or right there with Detroit for the title of best offense in the NFL this year. I mean, it really has been. And Lamar Jackson’s played at an MVP level, Derek Henry leading the AFC in rushing. And you know, if not for saquon Barkley, would be the rushing champion. And, I mean, go down the list, but through the first 10 weeks of the season, this was a woeful passing defense. They’ve, they’ve been able to stop the run from week one on, right? I mean, that’s, I’ve said it to you, and I thought it for Houston, early on Wednesday that you do the Ravens a favor when you try to run the ball against them. I mean, you’re just not going to do it. You’re not going to be very good at running the football against this team. Can you mix some in here and there? Sure, I suppose. But if you’re going to run first and 10, Second and 10, you’re you’re not doing yourself any favors. But the past defense was a different story through the first 10 weeks. I think we’re always or I think a lot of people have been quick to point to moving Kyle Hamilton to deep safety. We can get into that. Certainly people have talked about when they brought Dean peas in. But let’s call this what it is. They benched one of their highest paid players on defense. I mean, Marcus Williams, came into 2024 with, I believe, the third highest cap number on the team. He’s inactive every week. This isn’t, oh, his role was reduced, or he’s become, you know, a little more of a situational player. He doesn’t play. And I don’t let me be clear, I’m complimenting the Ravens for saying, You know what, this can’t turn into a front office thing versus the coaching staff thing, or egos or covering your you know what? Marcus Williams isn’t good enough, at least for what we want to do as a defense. He is not the right fit anymore, and that might be the nicest way of describing it, because he was that poor on the field through the first 10 weeks. And keep in mind, he had already been benched once before that Cincinnati game, that was the breaking point, that Thursday night game that they won, but for no reason, for what with what their defense did, but they did that. Yeah, and then coming out of the by where, you know, there had been steady improvement, and they were playing better. They played better against Pittsburgh, albeit in the loss out there. They certainly played well against the Chargers. They didn’t play that poorly defensively against the Eagles, right? I mean, saquon Barkley, finally, you know, the dam broke a little bit in the fourth quarter. But it’s not like the Eagles hung 30 on them, or any or or they averaged six yards of play, but they came out of the bye week, and they made another change, Trenton Simpson, who was drafted to be the successor to Patrick queen. And you know, had some splash plays, had some moments early in the season, but we kept talking about their linebacker play, including what was wrong with roquan Smith, right? I mean, roquan Smith not playing very well, and his coverage and all these different things. Well, have you noticed roquan Smith looks way more like roquan Smith since Trenton Simpson went to the bench, I think you look at these personnel changes they made, coupled with, yes, making some scheme adjustments, and that’s a credit to Zach gore. That’s a credit to Dean peas coming in with a fresh set of eyes and a lot of experience. That’s a credit to the players on the field. That’s a credit to Kyle Hamilton for kind of pivoting from being this hybrid all over the place, close to the line of scrimmage player to now being much more of a deep safety who still does some of those things, but it’s much more selective when they do that, and all of those things have added up to this being a top five defense statistically since week 11. So you know, it’s not the 2000 Ravens. And I know we said it in our previous segment, and I’ll continue to say it you’ve looked the last couple weeks. I mean, CJ Stroud even, there were some plays to be made that he just missed guys. So it’s not like the defense is absolutely perfect every single play, but my goodness, it is so much better than it was in the first half of the season, where they were giving up big plays in the middle of the field was a complete sieve. And I mean, the linebackers couldn’t cover, the safeties couldn’t cover. We’re seeing a way different ravens defense now and again. Some egos have to be in check when you bench one of your highest paid players, some egos have to be kept in check when you bench a guy that was supposed to replace your pro bowl inside linebacker. So I credit the coaches. I credit the front office. You know that because John Harbaugh and Eric DaCosta talk, right? I mean, it’s not like there’s these siloed departments where, you know Eric da Costa goes away during the season and it’s all Harbaugh and all the coaching staff, they talk. And I think there were some tough conversations to be had, right? The guys that were supposed to be really important to what they did defensively. Suddenly weren’t anymore, and they made changes, and they they’re using Malik Harrison. They’re using Chris boarded inside linebacker. I mean, these are special teams guys. You know, Malik Harrison was a an early down Sam linebacker and nothing more for them the last couple years. But they’ve they filled roles that they had needs for, and their defense collectively has gotten so much better for it. So, you know, as much as Lamar gets the headlines and Derek Henry gets the headlines, and this offense has been the best in franchise history, and they deserve their flowers. You look at how this defense has played since, you know, since about mid November on, it’s played at a high level. It’s been clearly above average. And you look at that combination, when you have an offense and a quarterback like the Ravens have, and you have a defense that is, at the very least, playing at an above average level, that’ll play in January, you know, that’ll play against Patrick mahomes, that’ll play against Josh Allen, that’ll play against anyone you’re going to go up against. And to your point, it doesn’t guarantee anything, but on paper, it looks much more formidable, much more complete, than it did earlier in the season, where, frankly, they were have needing to, I mean, how did they beat the Bengals? They had to outscore them twice. I mean, it’s that simple. So for them to come as far as they have defensively, it’s really a credit to everyone across the board, because there were some really tough conversations that needed to be had. And I think you’ve seen that group collectively really rise to the occasion. And, you know, culminates with, for all intents and purposes, was a shutout on Wednesday, considering the defense certainly wasn’t responsible for those two points.
Nestor Aparicio 09:26
Well, I want to bring up the Steelers. I mean, you brought up the chiefs, we could bring up the Texans, because we saw them. We saw the Texans and Steelers, but we watched the Chiefs play the same competition the last couple of days, and the Steelers are falling apart, right? I mean, in the Texans are falling apart and the Steelers are falling apart defensively, and there’s back and forth amongst whose fault it is, right? It was pretty apparent around here on the backside, the Marcus Williams thing, where guys were that Marlon Humphrey was having a good scene. Reason that maybe Stevens wasn’t really the best corner selection. Maybe he’s more of a safety or iber kind of player, nickel, dime, something like that. But trying to figure out where these players are, but the pass rush me, Matt abik got a sack like on on on Christmas Day, but van Noy, who looked tired in week 789, 10, the pass rush wasn’t getting home, not even Philadelphia couple weeks ago, right? So am I going back to Thanksgiving, which is a long that was so two eggnogs in a pumpkin pie ago, right? But they play three football games in like a blink. They played the Steelers less than a week ago. Already in the Steelers have lost twice, and the Steelers are having these problems now with Do we have the right players on the field? Where are we? We’re 17 weeks into this. We got health issues and the pass rush and the complimentary part of that, and you mentioned roquan Smith and the Simpson thing, and the back end, with Marcus Williams being out, and our Darius Washington being in, who made a huge play on a fourth down play. But when guys can cover, it makes the pass rush, the quarterback, in strouds case, near the second or two more. Now you get after him. Now you’re in their face. Now the ball goes up in the air against DTR, that’ll be three interceptions next week against the browns, right when that sort of thing happens. But the pass rush was something that was a little more quiet at a time when the ball is going overheads, the whole operation. And then, if you know, and again, I’m highly encouraging you to write Purple Rain three Luke, once they they win all these road games and shock the world, and Lamar puts his Superman chain on in New Orleans. And all that, the changes they’ve made, the elasticity they’ve had in benching at $18 million safety saying that, can we draft? It’s not good enough right now. Let’s figure something else out. But it’s also allowed adoptee away and non de mad at BK and Kyle van oy Travis Jones, you could do all of the guys up front to be able to play a little bit more and be more effective in a pass rush to be to throw a shutout. I mean, it’s it three levels of that defense. It’s happening everywhere right now.
Luke Jones 12:31
Yeah, it’s very complimentary. I mean, let’s, let’s face it, I mean, do I think the Ravens have a great pass rush when you just look at that in isolation? No, I don’t. And I’ve talked about this a lot. You look at their pressure rate, it’s still not tremendous on a down by you don’t
Nestor Aparicio 12:47
have a great player, if they had clowning, but player last year, yes, right?
8Luke Jones 12:52
I mean, he had a great season. Now, would jadavion Clowney have done that the back that up with another year like that? I mean, ask the Carolina Panthers. Probably not. You know, when you look at how things have gone for him there and just knowing his history, but, but my point with that is, when you look at any level of the defense in isolation, or any element of the defense, and let’s stick with the past defense, because the run defense was great from the first couple weeks of the season, but when you look at the pass rush, and you say, okay, Van Noy, H, 33 season, you know, kind of an ageless wonder, right? I mean, they use him in a way, different way than he was used for most of his career. I mean, this was a much more guy that played off the ball, dropped into coverage, played some inside linebacker, played some outside linebacker, played some Sam the Ravens asked him to rush the passer. I mean, he plays much more of a rush linebacker role. He doesn’t drop into coverage very often, no more than a defensive lineman dropping one of his own Blitz, right? I mean, they don’t ask van Noy to do those things. He’s talked about it the last couple years that he always felt that he could be a more productive pass rusher, but he was always asked to be a more, you know, jack of all trades, kind of linebacker, which is fine. I mean, he’s had a long, fruitful career, but you look at his sacks over the last two years compared to what his first eight years in the league, whatever it was, you know, whatever year he’s on, off the top of my head, and you see a player that’s used differently, but used very effectively. Oh, way, you know, he’s having a career year. And, you know, has he become Terrell Suggs? No, right? I mean, Terrell Suggs is gonna be in the Hall of Fame. You can’t one thing that I constantly remind people about when it comes to the Ravens with their drafting, because I see even smart, knowledgeable fans sometimes make comments about the Ravens draft track record and things of that nature. There isn’t a team out there that hits a home run on every pick. I mean, that doesn’t exist. You need to compare it with what you see around the league. And the Ravens continue to be as good as anyone when it comes to drafting, you know, and they’re certainly in that top five, that top tier. But you know, a player like a dafe away has he. Become a home run pick? No, but is he an effective, starting caliber player, and is he still ascending and having a good season, and you look at as a career high in sacks? Yeah. So no, he’s not. You
Nestor Aparicio 15:12
put him in a position to be a second round draft pick that looks the part Rosengarten on the other side of the ball. You know, you put these guys in a position to be all they can be, Linder bomb, right? I mean, why are we drafting a center? Well, things haven’t been the same rander Since Matt Burke wasn’t here. And, you know, I mentioned that on more than one occasion, in regard to Joe Flacco as well, that there is some quarterbacking. And even in the case of Kyle Hamilton, who has this off the chart football. IQ, right? I mean, where the green.he a kid. I mean, he’s a kid in the league in been paid yet. Boy, we have to pay him. Oh, and, yeah, and I don’t like how you even in Brian Billick saying, but you’re just a safety. Ed, um, you know, I, I, but all that being said, there is this point where the totality of all of it works when everybody’s healthy, when everybody’s healthy, and when the scheme’s working, and when they see all right, we got the run thing figured out. Let’s figure out the pass. Let’s get Hamilton off the line of scrimmage, put him back in the back. He’s the smartest guy on the field. Roquan’s Like, yeah, yeah, yeah, let’s do that. Let’s do that. And then it actually works out. It there’s a lot of coaching in this league, right? Whether it’s Tomlin saying we’re going to be better with Russell Wilson and nobody could see that, or whether it’s John Harbaugh saying, I’m going to fire camp Cameron Christmas week, and we’re going to win a Super Bowl like these, these things that happen. And, you know, sticking with Justin Tucker, which was an obvious I mean, they’ve that. They were never let’s his leg fell off. They weren’t throwing him out. But the decisions that they’ve made when the bullets are flying in the season, whether it’s we’re not good enough, let’s go get Dean peas. We’re not good enough. Let’s bench our safety. Not good enough with this linebacker. Let’s Chris boards better. I mean, we can. God, my God, we got special teams guys that are better. Let’s get those guys on the field, and then the good fortune of these guys staying healthy and no fact that we are this far in that they could get guys better. They could get mad at BK right? They could get van Noy into a position to that they’re all having Christmas dinner and feeling really good about themselves, right? All of them. I mean, maybe not Marcus Williams, maybe not Simpson, but the guys that are playing, I mean, our Darius Washington, he looks like a guy who’s going to get a lot of money at some point now, right from being a guy who was just a little guy in a corner to being a guy who might get himself more paid,
Luke Jones 17:46
yeah, or at the very least, is going to stick in the league, which two years ago would not have been someone that you’d say, Oh, he might have a chance to play for five or six more years. I mean, he’s at least that much. But it all just fits. Right? It all just fits. I mean, it has to fit, as much as we think about this and and, you know, the draft, this is talked about a lot when you talk about draft prospects, okay, you know, what kind of you know, is this guy going to be more of a defensive end and a four, three kind of conventional defensive line front, or is this guy going to be a rushed linebacker? I mean, that was the great debate about Terrell Suggs, if you recall, remember, Suggs gained all this weight thinking he was going to need to do that
Nestor Aparicio 18:25
8to be well, that was the question on Boulware putting his hand in the girt all his time, right? So there’s these guys that are that body type. Ray Lewis was went 26 people say why he was too small now, right now in modern football, he’s sort of normal, but not then. So, right? Yeah, I mean, it’s always, it’s always digging and sagging too. It’s what Lamar is all about. That’s what Purple Rain free is going to be about when you write it. But
Luke Jones 18:50
all the changes they’ve made have made a better fit in its totality. Look in an ideal world, I think Kyle Hamilton would still be playing closer to the line of scrimmage, right? Because we’ve seen how dynamic, how impactful that is, on a week by week basis. But they flat out, said, Look, we’re drowning at the safety position right now. I mean, we’re awful. Eddie Jackson’s not what we needed to replace Gino stone, Marcus Williams, God bless him. What we don’t know what happened to me. He can’t play anymore. And I’m saying this, you know, not quoting the coaches, but you could imagine these conversations happening like, this isn’t working. This isn’t tenable. We’re we can’t have Joe burrow and Jamar Chase throwing, you know, scoring five touchdowns against us, you know, let alone some of these other teams that have even produced against us the way they have. So you look at that and you say, what can we do? What can we do here? Okay, we like our Darius Washington. You know, he’s he’s undersized, he’s five foot eight. We viewed him more through the lens of being more of a nickel. I mean, people kind of forget he started last year as their nickel, and he got hurt in week two. You know, and ended up missing basically rest of the season. But they’ve, they’ve, he’s someone they’ve liked, but now it’s like, okay, safety is a problem. How can we shuffle this, you know, let’s get him more involved. And it started with him kind of becoming the third safety, and they started, you know, kind of fading Eddie Jackson out of the picture, and then obviously Marcus Williams. And so they thought, Okay, well, we still need another deep safety. You know, we still need someone we trust. They the Cleveland game. Remember, they benched Marcus Williams. Eddie Jackson started and gave up the game winning touchdown at the end of Jameis Winston. So they looked at it and said, You know what Kyle can do this? You know, he can play deep safety. We’ve known that, right? He did that at Notre Dame. And, you know, it’s not like he’s never done it. He does it some. He just, we have him closely. Gonna pay
Nestor Aparicio 20:49
Marcus Williams $18 million a year. Hamilton’s gotta be worth 25 Oh,
Luke Jones 20:53
yeah. I mean, Kyle Hamilton’s a completely different player, just in that he, you know, as I’ve said, and I’ve said this as a compliment the last couple years, he’s not really a safety. He’s just a football player. He’s just this hybrid jack of all trades, who can rush the pass, passer, cover, play, run defense, cover, deep, all these different things, but for what they needed. And, you know, the the really simplistic example I’ve used for this was and that was different, because the need was more of a an injury. It was when they moved Marshall yonda from right guard to left guard, because his shoulder was messed up, right. This is different because Hamilton’s healthy, Marcus Williams was healthy, just couldn’t play, and they just said, You know what? We have a need here, and we’ve got, we’ve got to make this fit better. How’s it going to fit? Well, let’s, let’s move Kyle Hamilton back deep. I’m guessing, long term, they’re hoping to find their next Marcus Williams, and then they can get back to moving Kyle Hamilton all around to add the flexibility to do that as much as they want, at the very least. But for right now, it’s where they are. I mean, it’s just, it’s where they are right now. So they did it, and it’s worked really well. Their safeties have played at a high level. They’ve gone from not the last few years, I mean, even going back to Tony Jefferson and Chuck Clark, you know. So we’re going back several years with that. They very much were a three safety dime defense. When they got in the sub package, quite a bit, even, even nickel. They were using three safeties because Hamilton would play the slot, he’d play the nickel spot. But they’ve gone away from that. One
8Nestor Aparicio 22:23
of the things that made Gino stone pretty prominent in the story, exactly, right?
Luke Jones 22:27
But because they didn’t have three, you know, they were struggling to find two safeties worth their salt. They said,
Nestor Aparicio 22:33
well, Hamilton wasn’t picking the ball off. He was up in the front creating havoc to get the ball up in the air last year,
Luke Jones 22:39
8crossing fumbles and getting sacks and everything. I mean, again, Kyle Hamilton is that dynamic that he can play anywhere. I mean, other than maybe nose tackle, that might be the only spot disruptive
Nestor Aparicio 22:49
to the quarterback and disruptive to the operation of the offensive line, is still a tool that, to your point, the minute they win this Super Bowl and you write Purple Rain three, they’re going to want to get him up on a line of scrimmage and figure out we can get a different kind of safety. We can’t get a different kind of Kyle Hamilton,
23:08
right. And again, that doesn’t mean and maybe the lesson learned from this, moving forward in the big picture, will be that Kyle Hamilton, there might be more of a balance, right? They might play him deep a little more often than they did before. But now it’s, Hey, let’s, let’s try to get back to me. Otherwise, Gunner Anderson a shortstop or third base. Oh, that. Oh, sorry, we’ll talk about that later. Short stopper right now, but it’ll probably be a third baseman as it gets older, as Cal Ripken was right. I mean, so, but now, but, but, well, they’re only gonna
Nestor Aparicio 23:33
have that much out of Kyle Hamilton for a period of time, right? He’s only gonna play like Lawrence Taylor for for a limited time. I mean,
8Luke Jones 23:41
who knows, right? But I but
Nestor Aparicio 23:43
we are talking about a special player that they decided we don’t really want to clean up hitter. We’re going to let him play third base, even though shortstops more like that’s what they’ve done here, and it’s been a magical fix, because they have personnel. And, to your point, um, hybrid personnel, which is what Kyle van Noy is like to be able to, uh, pivot in the middle of a season. And they went in the lab and made it better sometime around Thanksgiving, sometime around Philadelphia, right? They made it better. Yeah,
Luke Jones 24:16
no, no question about it. So it all just fits better. And it doesn’t mean that this is what it’s going to be next year, the year after that, three, you know, anything like that, but in the here and now, they needed to fix their fast defense, and they’ve been able to do that. So again, it’s a credit to not just Hamilton, not just Zach or not just Dean Pease everyone. Because, you know, guys have been asked to do different things. Guys have gone to the bench. Other guys have suddenly seen their role expand. I mean, let’s
Nestor Aparicio 24:47
8be honest, if you got a guy back there that’s lining everyone upright, and I would go back to Ray Lewis and just say there are plays made that we’ll never know about, right? Like. Make, yeah, that they know about that get made in games, because if you’re not lined up, you’re not going to win in this game. Like, sure you know what I mean, alignment, assignment, technique. Alignment is you got to be in the right spot. If you’re not in the right spot, you could be the fastest, strongest, you know, prettiest, bestest, whatever. If you’re not aligned, you’re screwed. So let’s start with that assignment. Do you know what happens post snap, and what your assignments going to be once the ball happens? And to your point, in this league, you’re being put in conflict the whole time. It’s the it’s what the Ravens really managed to do against the Texas which confuse them defensively. And then there’s, are you good enough? Well, Kyle Hamilton’s good enough to play seven positions on the defense, right. Arteries. Washington’s good enough to play two or three, right? Like they’re all blendable to some degree. You don’t want roquan and pass car, you know? I mean, there’s certain players you don’t want to see in matchups, right? I mean, it’s how the Ravens win with Mark Andrews. It’s how Travis Kelce is one for a dozen years. Is matchups make these defenses, but get into the right position if you’re not there, and then once the ball is snapped, everybody doesn’t know what to do. You have with the Steelers have right now, and just go Google the Steelers week right now and how they’re feeling the next 10 days about their defense, because they’re having the problems that this team had when it was losing to like Jameis Winston, yeah,
Luke Jones 26:26
and I think you brought up Hamilton, and obviously we talked about this some last week. I mean, everything’s been so expedited, right? Everything’s been so truncated with the schedule, so we haven’t necessarily had a chance to give some of these topics quite as much oxygen, but you mentioned with Hamilton and Marlon Humphrey went out of his way recently. I can’t even remember which week it was, but went out of his way to talk about Hamilton, his IQ, his football acumen, in terms of helping these guys get lined up. And let’s, let’s also talk about the other factor that we haven’t necessarily talked about recently as much we’ve talked about it in terms of Zach or and Dean peas, but the other Assistants, they lost, right? And, you know, when you go from having the defense that they had last year, I mean, that triple crown defense, first in points, allowed first and turnovers, you know, takeaways first in sacks. I mean, that was extraordinary, right? It wasn’t 2000 ravens level, but it was, it was special. You know, it was a heck of a defense last year. So you have that, but you lose Denard Wilson, and you lose Anthony Weaver, and you lose Mike MC I mean, beginning with Mike McDonald, right? I mean, I kind of buried the lead there. It’s going to take some time. And I think for as much as there, it was baffling from the standpoint of, okay, why are you having these issues on the back end? Because even if you want to buy that Marcus Williams is maybe it a little slower than he was a year ago or two years ago. How did this go from being so great, from a past defense standpoint, to so woeful? And that’s where you look at it and say maybe the issue was some coaching, you know, some some coaching exit, right? I mean that the exit of Denard Wilson and some of the other assistants, and that’s not to bash the guys that were left behind or the guys that they hired, but it’s different, and sometimes it doesn’t
Nestor Aparicio 28:18
fit. Again, Hey, man, on the offensive side, they had a coach die in training
Luke Jones 28:21
camp. Sure. No question. I mean, that’s another part of the offensive line. We have mentioned his name in 12 weeks. Joe della Sanchez, I mean, we’ve mentioned it in passing probably a couple times in the last two months, right? But, but again, all of this goes into how does it all fit and for this team, for its needs, for its deficiencies. Kyle Hamilton, going from more the hybrid role to a little more of a traditional deep safety role has worked wonders for this team, and it might be that they were lacking some things from a coaching standpoint, or let’s just say there were some gaps in how you transition from one coach to the next. And that doesn’t mean that the next coach stinks or can’t do the job. Sometimes it just means, hey, you got to put a band aid on this while you figure this out, big picture wise. So they’ve done that, and it’s worked, and their defense is playing at a much higher level, and it looks like the kind of defense now that you have a much higher level of trust to go into buffalo, to go into Kansas City, that doesn’t mean they’re going to shut out Josh Allen or Patrick mahomes, far from it. But when you have a defense that’s playing at a higher level, and then you have your own Josh Allen or Patrick mahomes and Lamar Jackson and this offense, and what they’ve done all year on paper that’ll play, that’ll give you a heck of a chance to go in there and win, even on the road. Doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. They’ve got to go out and do it. And you’re probably gonna have to get lucky, in the same way that the 2012 ravens got lucky along the way as well, and the 2000 ravens got lucky along the way as well, but they’ve got a chance, and you. You know, you mentioned it a few minutes ago. They’re healthy. I mean, think about their biggest injuries on defense all year. Michael Pierce was on IR for seven weeks. Arthur millet has missed most of the season, and you know, he was a really nice nickel piece for them last year. Van Noy had a broken face. Been healthy. I mean, this team has been so healthy. And look, that’s where you you say a little prayer going into week 18 that that that continues against Cleveland, because this is this. I mean, the two you mentioned, the 2000 ravens, They were a pretty healthy bunch overall. You know, they had a couple injuries here and there along the way, so that a quarterback change and like, Yeah, they did right, no, but I’m saying looking at, I guess, the house, looking at the defense, but the 2012 defense, think about it. Ray Lewis missed most of the regular season. Ed Reed at that point was dealing with all kinds of minor injury. I mean, he was just so banged up at that point in his career. The LaDarius Webb was their best corner at the time. He was lost for the season in week six, Jamil McLean was lost for the season in, I think December, Ellerby was beat up late in the season. I mean, they had injuries all over the place. Not they had,
8Nestor Aparicio 31:11
they added, they moved their offensive linemen and they fired. But no, I understand all these moving parts happening this time for a championship team. Brian McKinney, like right
Luke Jones 31:25
the defense, Terrell Suggs. He tore his Achilles in the spring. He didn’t play until week seven, and he was never really Terrell Suggs that entire year. So now that team was very much led by its offense and its quarterback going on a historic run that January. But again, it’s all about how it all fits, and this defense for as maligned as it was over the first three months of the season, and rightfully so, their past defense stunk through the first 10 weeks of the season, it’s playing at a much higher level. Now you’re talking about a defense that statistically, overall, still isn’t going to wow you with its numbers. From a pass defense standpoint, it’s still towards the bottom of the league and passing yards and all that. But when you go from week 11 on, mid November on, this has been a top five defense statistically since then. So put that with Lamar Jackson and Derek Henry in this offense. I mean, gotta go do it. Gotta go do it. Just like last year, everything was there for them to do it. They didn’t do it. But, I mean, it’s, it’s, to quote Brian Billick, way back when it’s sitting right there. Just gotta go take it.
Nestor Aparicio 32:32
Happy Christmas to everybody out there. He is Luke Jones. He’s Baltimore Luke. You can find him out on the interwebs. You can find both of us out of Baltimore, positive anytime, anywhere. At am 1570 as well. We’re going to be doing the Maryland crab cake tour beginning the seventh of January, puts dates together into January. We are doing a cup of soup or bowl. Marcella grabbed me at the bar on Christmas Eve when she was giving me crab cakes to turn into crab melts. Are you coming in again? Right? Yeah, we’re doing it again. So we’re looking forward to that. So that’ll be happening in February. We’ll have some more details on that. I may or may not be getting it. Derek Henry, Houston Oilers Jersey throwback. I don’t know I’m I’m working on it right now, fully compared into Jim Brown a dozen times here and in writing, you could check out Luke’s work at a Baltimore positive. Also get my column nests up as we turn the page on 2024 into 2025 we’re going to play all football if the Ravens don’t play with their food. Is Luke used to like, usually likes to say against the Browns to start 2025 there’ll be a home game here two weeks from now. We’re going to do some baseball around here as well. You’re going to find a whole bunch of good stuff on the radio, as well as some new music stuff that’s actually old music stuff coming out to the front of Baltimore positive during the holidays. Merry Christmas. Happy holidays. To everybody out there and they get through it all safely. I am Nestor. He is Luke. We are W, N, S T, A of 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore positive. You.
