So far, so good through the first 60 minutes of the Jesse Minter era, not just as the head coach but also as the defensive play caller and chief accountability officer. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the first look of this Baltimore Ravens defense and a domination of the Colts in Indianapolis to start the season with a 41-23 win.

The discussion assessed the Ravens’ convincing Week 1 road win over Indianapolis and the early impact of their new coaching staff.

Defensive Progress

• Jesse Minter accepted responsibility for the defense’s opening-drive problems, while the unit settled in afterward.
• Marlon Humphrey and Roquan Smith produced the team’s two takeaways, easing concerns raised during the offseason.
• The Ravens used three safeties on nearly every defensive snap, emphasizing versatile, positionless defensive backs.
• Trey Hendrickson materially improved the pass rush, while Tavius Robinson also made an impact.

Sustainability Questions

• The Ravens looked capable of contending, but can the defense maintain its performance against more explosive offenses and through the season?
• Can the offensive line reduce its penalties, and can the team keep key players healthy, particularly Zay Flowers?
• The group was encouraged by the new coaching staff’s energy but cautioned against declaring the Ravens the league’s top team after one game.

• Prepare and give away Ravens scratch-offs at the Maryland Crab Cake Tour Breakfast Edition at State Fair on Thursday the 24th. (@Nestor Aparicio)

Week 1 Result

• The Ravens opened the season 1–0 with a dominant road victory over the Colts.
• The offense performed well, while the defense improved significantly after Indianapolis’ opening drive.

Defensive Approach

• Jesse Minter’s accountability and defensive leadership were discussed.
• Marlon Humphrey forced a fumble and played effectively on the outside.
• Roquan Smith intercepted a pass.
• Three-safety personnel featuring Malaki Starks, Kyle Hamilton, and Jalen Hawkins was a defining feature.

Personnel Impact

• Trey Hendrickson generated pressure even without recording a sack.
• Tavius Robinson contributed a sack and multiple quarterback hits.
• Nnamdi Madubuike was nearing a return, which could raise the defensive ceiling.

Areas To Monitor

• Offensive-line penalties and execution need to improve.
• The team must manage injuries, including Zay Flowers’ hamstring issue.
• The Ravens’ consistency against stronger opponents remains unresolved.

Nestor Aparicio 0:01
Welcome home. We are WNST AM 1570 Tass of Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive, positively into a victorious week of football. Luke Jones will be out in Owings Mills all week long. Ravens headed to Brazil next week after taking on the New Orleans Saints. As you will hear here this week, as the Saints come marching in, we’re gonna have a little bit of Saint stuff with some music conversations all week long, including some fun with our 28th anniversary here. All of it brought to you by friends at the Maryland Lottery. I’ll have Ravens scratch-offs to give away when we convene next Thursday, the 24th. I think the Ravens are heading to Brazil to Rio that day. I’ll have some rock and roll stories with some of my pals, as well as some baseball stories. Casper Wells going to be joining me, as well as Alan McCallum. So, baseball, rock and roll, and now it’s time to talk some football. Luke Jones is here. All of it brought to you by Farnin and Dermer. They are comfort guys. They’re your comfort guys, and I got to get Zach maybe over to State Fair next week. Talk about. We’re not here to talk about the Orioles, are we, Luke? Not yet, anyway.

Luke Jones 1:06
Oh, I mean, we’ll talk about it. There’s not a whole lot to say at this point in time when it comes to the Orioles. But look, I mean, it’s week one. Week one win in the books, one and zero. First time the Ravens have been one and O since 2023. Remember, two years ago was the zero and two start. Last year they lost week one, beat the Browns the following week, and then it just completely went to you know what after that, right? But there’s always a level of excitement, you know, when you win your first game. That’s just you know it’s tough to beat that, right? And and especially considering the manner in which they won, the offense certainly overshadows everything because of just how well that group played in Declan Doyle’s debut as play caller. But I think the defense beyond the opening drive did a lot of things to like. I think, first of all, I was really impressed. I said this to you after we kind of did our first segment talking about the offense, but I was really impressed. Jesse Minter in his opening statement-he kind of you know-he went through the things that you’d hear from John Harbaugh or any head coach in the league, but he got to the defense, and right off the bat, he said defensively, I thought I didn’t do a great job on the first drive. They had us on our heels a little bit, and then I felt like we were really settled in on defense after that, but the fact that he said I didn’t do a great job, I think in so many cases, whether you’re talking about a head coach, a coordinator, any of the players, it’s really easy to say we and us, right? And there’s, and it’s not even a nitpick. Like this isn’t me saying, oh well, Jesse Minter did this and John Harball didn’t do this. It’s not that at all. I just like the fact that someone who is known as this defensive genius-it’s the biggest reason why he’s a head coach in the NFL now. But right off the bat, he said, “I didn’t do a great job on that first drive. And then Roquan Smith kind of, I think, added a little more context there and just said, “Look, we kind of were surprised that the Colts came out pass happy as as pass happy as they were on that opening drive, and

Nestor Aparicio 3:07
everybody was waiting for the next play to be a run, literally exactly until the last couple plays, and

Luke Jones 3:11
then Jonathan Taylor does run it in. But yeah, so so I but I thought that was I liked that I I liked a head coach, a coordinator, anyone who’s in a position where you can kind of deflect some criticism away from either your teammates, if you’re another player, or the coach, where you just say, “No, I didn’t do a great job on that first drive. Look, I mean, that’s there’s truth to that, but I’m sure players would also say Jesse’s calls were fine. We we weren’t ready there. We didn’t come out ready to play on that opening drive. So, but I that that was just something that kind of resonated with me in the post game. But I think overall with the defense, I said it in our previous segment. I’ll say it again. I think when you consider how scrutinized Roquan Smith and especially Marlon Humphrey were throughout the off season. I mean, how many fans, how many media? I talked about Marlon Humphrey taking a pay cut all off season, right? And how I was so surprised that that never came to fruition. But for those two individually to come away with the two takeaways that this defense had, I mean, that was encouraging to see. That’s what you wanted to see.

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Nestor Aparicio 4:24
Seeing him run around and be this sort of bandit of the football late in his career, and the value that he has, and whatever they make of him behind closed doors that none of us have ever seen, quite frankly, and certainly not what I even see as a citizen on the internet, just of the post-game phone, just all of it, right? The mod thing that he is. I think about Rod Woodson and his greatness. I think about bigger corners, Jimmy Smith kind of guys. Maybe even guys that wanted to be a little bit more physical was harder for Jimmy. Later on in his career, but special talent guys, special six-two statuesque, not Dwayne Starks, those kinds of guys that weren’t going to fade in and become a tough guy all of a sudden, right? Or not even just a tough guy, but a guy that could tackle Derrick Henry if he had to. You know, had a body to be able to do that. I don’t. I mean, Kyle Hamilton’s cut from a different cloth, and I think we saw that. And we’ll talk about decoy ways that the greatest football minds in the game, like Jesse Minter, can employ great players as decoys to not even have to utilize them to set them free, and and then rush Malachi Starks, the guy with the giant helmet on, to get after the quarterback in a play when it matters or felt like it mattered. They were up three touchdowns that time. Let’s be honest, right? Yeah. But in pivotal moments, the the Marlon Humphrey thing, it feels sensible. Like when I was with Marvin, sitting out at the Bertucci’s at the mall that they’ve now ripped down, and Owings Mills, and he’s got the paper. Remember the Bertucci’s? They had the paper with the crayons out there. You could do, and and he was drawing up how Woodson was going to be a great safety at some point. Like I, I don’t know. I mean, with these defenses, you don’t call it two corners, two. I mean, there’s just this fly guy thing where there’s five guys running around that need to be able to play tight ends, play running backs, cover a wide receiver, make sure the ball doesn’t go over there. But more than that, no, there are assignments as as much as anything, and have the speed and the acuity to get to the ball, and if nothing else, get there and pull the ball out.

Luke Jones 6:39
Yeah, no question. I mean, Marlon Humphrey-he’s been in the league 10 years now, which is kind of crazy to think that, right? I mean, he was drafted in 2017. He has 18 forced fumbles in his career. I mean, and the the big year was the COVID year, 2020. He had eight forced fumbles, but well, and that’s

Nestor Aparicio 6:59
not an accident, obviously, right? I mean, I mean, it’s clearly right. I mean,

Luke Jones 7:03
and obviously, you think back to the Peanut Tillman for the Bears and the Peanut Punch. I mean, that Marlin has done a similar thing over the course of his career, but that’s a pretty impressive skill to be able to knock the ball out. I mean, he took that away from Jonathan Taylor of all people on Sunday, so that was good to see. I liked the play made in coverage, you know, on a downfield throw, you know, knocking the ball away. I mean, that was good to see sticking with a legitimate starting wide receiver. And I think the other thing that’s interesting about Marlin, and we saw this on Sunday. I can say this now: we saw it throughout training camp, I would have thought if you had asked me what Marlon Humphrey’s role was going to be for the Ravens back in May, right when it was evident that they weren’t going to cut him, right, that he was going to be on the roster in 2026, I would have been working under the assumption that he was going to play much more inside and move around a lot more. He’s played on the outside exclusively, and I mean that’s he struggled big time last year. I mean there’s no other way to to sugarcoat it. He was bad last year, so he still had an ability to take the ball away. Right, he had four interceptions last year, so that was still part of what he did. But there was just a really low floor, or a really, really low floor to go with. Not the

Nestor Aparicio 8:26
well, he got thrown at last year enough to pick some balls off, right? Like literally, yeah, sure,

Luke Jones 8:30
no question, no question. See,

Nestor Aparicio 8:31
see, a lot of bases, you’ll get caught, right? Sure, yeah, yeah.

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Luke Jones 8:34
That that’s that that that’s a that’s actually a good comparison there. But I think it was, you know, the fact that he’s played on the outside. I mean, you look at the snap count distribution. I said it to you in our previous segment, and since we were talking about that, now all the snap snap count numbers and all that come out. I mean, this team ran three safeties on the field on all but two plays the entire game. Malachi Starks played all 54 snaps. Kyle Hamilton played all 54 snaps, and Jalen Hawkins played 52. Right, so it speaks to what their true base defense is. We saw

Nestor Aparicio 9:07
a lot of Hawkins too, like not just like he was in on stuff to me, and I was like, because I’m looking for new guy, I’m looking for names, I’m looking for numbers. You know, I mean, I had to get my glasses, you know, right away. I’m like, I got, I, I don’t have a flip card anymore up in the press box and got replays, right? So you know, I think everybody’s feeling it out. But I felt that, dude, right? Literally,

Luke Jones 9:26
yeah, yeah. I mean, that’s but but that I, not just me. Anyone who followed what Jesse Minter did in, I almost said San Diego, L.A. with the Chargers. But anyone they lost, you can

Nestor Aparicio 9:40
call him whatever you want. But

Luke Jones 9:42
anyone who saw that, and anyone who saw how Mike McDonald likes to operate his defense, whether you’re talking Seattle or his days in Baltimore, you knew three safety looks were going to be the kind of the top priority, right? And and that’s what we saw. But in order to do that, Kyle Hamilton’s lining up at the nickel. Spot or the dime spot almost exclusively. So the question was, and that was my question back in April and May. What, where does that leave Marlon Humphrey? Is he going to play on the outside, or is he going to play on the inside? But he’s going to be a little more of a sub package guy and not a guy that’s going to be on the field every single snap. But what we’ve seen since the start of training camp has been a guy that’s playing on the outside exclusively, and he played-I’m pretty sure-close to being on the outside exclusively on Sunday, right? But to your point, and I think it’s an important one, especially in this day and age, when you look at personnel differently than just okay, well, you have two corners. You have two a free safety and a strong safety. You have a nickel come on the field on obvious passing situations, and that’s that. No, I mean, with the way that teams get so creative with formations, we talked about this with how Declan Doyle deployed Zay Flowers on Sunday. I mean, Zay lined up in the backfield. He’s moving up, moving all over the place. So there’s only so much. Unless you’re going to play straight man and try to travel with a receiver, which that creates its own challenges, you need to have versatile defensive backs who are kind of positionless, right? You almost have emotion

Nestor Aparicio 11:17
can’t dictate your defense like that. Yeah, I mean not in real time like that to get the mismatches that the other guy wants to get. Your gig is to not have mismatches no matter what, like literally.

Luke Jones 11:28
And and you’re not unless you have five All Pros back there, you’re gonna have a

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Nestor Aparicio 11:35
mismatch.

Luke Jones 11:36
Yeah. So you need to have guys that are versatile. You need to have guys that are capable of covering. Well,

Nestor Aparicio 11:41
that’s what Zay Flowers is. He’s a mismatch for the other team every time, right? Exactly.

Luke Jones 11:45
Yeah. I mean, okay, you’re not going to throw a jump ball fade to Zay Flowers, but you can do just about everything else with him, right? And clearly, get him

Nestor Aparicio 11:52
a step in the right direction and get him the ball. I mean, especially in that first series where he broke some ankles, turned. I I said he had good cleats, and then after that, he winds up, you know, slipping twice when the hamstring thing happened on that other play later in the game. But I mean, did a hell of a lot of damage in between here and there. And I guess that’s my point: is one guy can do a hell of a lot of damage to your defense if they identify Marlin as the old guy.

Luke Jones 12:18
Yeah, exactly. But until he strips

Nestor Aparicio 12:21
the ball away, you know, beat him five times, then he’ll take the ball away. I mean, and and the team goes eight nine, no bueno, you know, literally,

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Luke Jones 12:28
right? But but he did well in coverage, right? Nate Wiggins held up. Nate Wiggins wasn’t tested a whole lot. See when the

Nestor Aparicio 12:34
Bengals come, you know what I mean? Like that. That’s going to be really the. And again, everything I wrote about my columnists and you and I are going to address the Cowboys. Didn’t look very good on Sunday night either. It’s just sort of like I don’t know when they’re going to play a really good explosive offensive team in the way that this backside could get exploited because they get number one picks back there across the board, literally across. I mean, Hamilton Wiggins, you know, Marlin was one at one point, and Roquan’s a holo. I mean, Roquan was so good they couldn’t be bad enough to get him. He wasn’t like getting Natalie Rudman or whatever. You know what I mean? Like they got a hell of a lot of talent over there, dude.

Luke Jones 13:12
Well, and and and that’s one reason why I have very high expectations when Jesse Minter comes in as a guy that’s very much regarded as a really impressive defensive mind, and you kind of look at what he did with the Chargers, who, by the way, did not look good in the post Jesse Minter era on Sunday. I mean, against Arizona, PU at home, no less. But when you when you bring someone like Jesse Minter into the fold after you pretty clearly had some coaching deficiencies, and I don’t think it was just Zach Orr. I think there were some other deficiencies in terms of their defensive coaching staff. They also didn’t have anybody get

Nestor Aparicio 13:49
after the quarterback either, so or could scheme it up as such, no doubt.

Luke Jones 13:53
And we’ll get to Trey Hendrickson in a moment, but I just I think with Jesse Minter, especially considering his forte, is more so the secondary. You know, I’ve been asked. You know, and haven’t necessarily had a complete answer because one, they’re not going to go go through it into intimate detail, and two, I kind of just wanted to see how it played out. But you kind of look at this defensive coaching staff at the top. Jesse Minter calls the plays, right? He’s not officially the defensive coordinator, but no disrespect to Anthony Weaver. Jesse Minter is running the show on defense, right? But that said, he has more of a secondary background, whereas Anthony Weaver, obviously, is a former NFL defensive lineman, coached NFL defensive line for as his forte, including here in Baltimore, not long ago, and yes, he’s the defensive coordinator who’s going to do a lot of the the groundwork over the course of the week, the game plan, the details, ironing that out, basically having it ready to hand it off to Jesse Minter on Sundays, right? But so you kind of have a. Secondary expert and a defensive line expert, and then obviously that that kind of comes together, and yeah, with with your linebacker play and your edges and all that. So I think that’s where the Ravens feel pretty good about where they are defensively, especially knowing they’re going to get Namdi Matabike back sooner than later, right? I mean, he’s he’s close. Whether it’s going to be this week or next week, I mean,

Nestor Aparicio 15:24
it was an encouraging thing that he sat up in front of the media and talked to guys last week, and

Luke Jones 15:28
was in really good spirits. Right? This wasn’t. Oh well, we’ll see. I’m feeling okay. You know, you know what I mean. Like it was very much a when, not if. And that that echoes what Jesse Minter and Anthony Weaver had said all summer, but until you hear it straight from Adibike, I think that was a different story. But there will certainly certainly be questions in terms of how much will we play right off the bat? How does he look? How does he feel? Right, and that’s probably the most important one, that last one. But you add him into the mix. Look, we talked about it a lot the last couple years. This defense has talent, right? We can we can debate where Marlon Humphrey is at this point in his career. We can debate where Roquan Smith is at this point in his career. We can talk about that with Madabike with the neck and his health. We can play his Campbell, Blaze Campbell, Trey Hendrickson. Even though should have plenty of really good football left. He’s he’s also not a young man, right? He’s not 24. There’s a lot of that

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Nestor Aparicio 16:24
going on, and I think in week one I could be the Debbie Downer and say, “Let’s see how these guys hold up in week 12. Eric Weddle looked good in week one. Steve Smith looked good. You know, I’ll go through any number of these people, and I’m dude. I’m down on Derrick Henry. You know that any anywhere he runs, I’m following him. I mean, not down on him, down with him. I should say. I’ll make sure I get that right for the transcript. But but in a general sense, like I, you know, where I really like him, I like him waking up in Kansas City or in Buffalo or in Houston on January the 26th when I’ll be on the beach in Rio with Getty Lee, but I I would say to you there was nothing about Sunday that won’t pack for me and tell me that they can win a hell of a lot of ball games if this is the if this is the me if this what they get every week kicker kicks the ball quarterbacks healthy healthy healthy healthy healthy healthy healthy healthy I mean Zay Flowers no bueno. Certainly, the the lane things not incidental, right?

Luke Jones 17:24
Yeah, to the offensive

Nestor Aparicio 17:25
game. Yeah,

Luke Jones 17:26
sure, sure. I mean, and that’s I mean that’s a big part of this. I mean, I I couldn’t help but sit there watching Lamar Jackson with the design touchdown run on the opening drive. He had the unbelievable scramble. I mean, even even the the the following day, I’m waking up and I’m just thinking, “Gosh, that was, I mean, Lamar’s had so many highlight plays, and I’m not going to say that’s number one because I don’t think it is. But I’m just in awe of what he can do physically when he’s right. Dude, that play

Nestor Aparicio 17:56
was unbelievable. It might not even be in the top seven or eight, exactly. Of

Luke Jones 18:00
course, of course, but it’s also a reminder. And now, and he did

Nestor Aparicio 18:03
that now, not not when he was 22. He’s doing that now, right?

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Luke Jones 18:07
And did it now after not looking like that for so long last year. Now, I’ll point out he had an escape very similar to that in the Pittsburgh game in Week 18 last year. So it maybe that was. I thought he was

Nestor Aparicio 18:19
on the ground from where I where Tomlin bought me to see it down low, literally.

Luke Jones 18:23
But but but that right there, just speaking to what you said about the health piece that applies for everyone, right? And young guys and old guys, and and you think about it more in terms of the guys that are older and guys that have injury histories, but that’s where you look at that thing and you say, man, that if they can keep guys healthy and they can be mostly intact, you know you’re going to have some attrition. I mean, there’s just no doubt. To your point, Jacoby Lane, it’s disappointing. Not because I knew with absolute certainty that Jacoby Lane was going to have a big rookie season, but you saw how much he was on the field early on, right? You saw that he was a very real part of this offense. This wasn’t like, oh, he’s getting two snaps for every two, two or three. There’s plays

Nestor Aparicio 19:08
designed for him exactly that Zay Flowers is going to get doubled on, and that kid’s going to be sitting wide open to give you 28 yards, right?

Luke Jones 19:17
And and and let’s let’s call a spade a spade with the with the Bateman thing and the uncertainty there, and beyond the off-field piece, that’s now a real question. Just the fact that he’s coming off of a bad season, you’re looking at Jacoby Lane to say, “Hey, can you emerge by the by season’s end where it looks like, hey, you’re a number two starting caliber wide X wide receiver? So, hey, by the

Nestor Aparicio 19:40
way, I got to do a little comedy because we won here. Watching the game with my wife, we haven’t watched the game together in a long time. You know, game ends. You and I do our post-game thing. I go to have dinner with my wife on Sunday night before we’re going to watch Mike Tomlin greatly entertain me, and he and our ball together.

Luke Jones 19:57
It was kind of neat. I I will get to that, but that. Kind of neat, yeah.

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Nestor Aparicio 20:01
I just know it to be really contrived because I’ve been privately with both men dragging one across the room to say hello to the other, so I know all about it. But that which cracks me up even more. But my wife says to me, “Did you talk about Mark Andrews dropping the ball? And I’m like, you know, I don’t think we did. I don’t think it even came up. Strangely enough, not even me being sideways about it or whatever. But it, you know, it does speak to the fact that the offensive line, the mistakes, the penalties, all that stuff that could have been hardball’s dumps on him. And I said to her when they were coming back, it’s three touchdowns. I’m like, don’t tell me they’re going to blow a 28-six lead. I mean, the kickers already missed an extra point. Don’t tell me that they’re going to like at this point they they can’t lose, right? Like that would be very hardball. I mean, they blew a couple, two, three touchdown leads. Bad stuff had happened before. None of that felt like it was even possible, and it felt more like that at total freight training in Miami a couple years ago, and it feels much more looking at the schedule, looking at the health, looking at the calm of Jesse Minter in the post game and all of that, and the family vibes and all of that. I’m, dude, and I wrote this in my column. This at Baltimore Positive. It feels like the Orioles have dragged us through a lake the last six months as fans. As if you think that there’s hope and there’s a championship, and can we win the night? Can we win a championship? The sort of confidence and the as I play music stuff all week, and we don’t have to run around here after they blew a three-touchdown lead, and they’re not 0-1 again, and they’re not one and five again, and and they’re not the problem after the Orioles are about to go on strike. Like, quite frankly, right? Like, feels like this is going to be fun for a little while. I mean, I like literally. I just want to say that out loud. This feels like I can like Jesse Minter in a way that maybe I couldn’t like Harbaugh anymore. Certainly not me, but not even Joe Enoch or you, dude. You and I’ve talked off the air. We’re we’re all worn out on John Harbaugh. Like so, this feels, and nobody dislikes Lamar. And I mean, I loved Eric Henry, you know. So the whole opera. By the way, we haven’t even gotten to the uniforms. I mean, the fashion. There’s a whole fashion segment we’re going to have to do when we get to our NFL segment and talk about the Steelers winning and the Browns Browning and the Saints sainting and like all of that. But, dude, man, when’s the last time you and I had kind talk for the Ravens in any way to say like they look like they’re advertised. They were one and five last year, dude. They were one two. I went about. And Lamar was MVP and all that. But like they haven’t had prosperity six and one, seven and one. Let everybody chase them a while and think that they’re going to be the the the team here that you’re going to have to come to Baltimore and beat. They’re gonna have to beat them again. You know they did that a couple years ago, but be the lead dog. It feels like they they have that ability. It feels like the betters want to make them that. It feels like people believe more in current Lamar than they do in current Mahomes. Certainly, the Bills almost couldn’t get out of their own way. If you believe in the quarterback in Houston, I believe in the system in Houston and the coach there. But whatever the elite is here, whatever we’re scratching at for week one, Luke Jones are the Baltimore Ravens number one in your power rankings?

Luke Jones 23:33
Um, no, I’m not. Okay,

Nestor Aparicio 23:36
no, I’m not playing that game. No, I’m I’m just trying to lead you in the temptation.

Luke Jones 23:41
I’m just, I’m not, I’m not deeming them the Super Bowl favorite after one game, right? They look

Nestor Aparicio 23:46
pretty damn good, though. It was a really, I mean, but yeah, see, I pushed

Luke Jones 23:50
back a little bit. I mean, Buffalo won in Houston, right? A lot of people were picking Houston to win the Super Bowl. I’ll give the Bills credit. I’ll give some other teams credit for for winning the in the fashion they did. I mean, I guess my point is, let’s let this breathe. It was a really good win. I’m very lose a bad game

Nestor Aparicio 24:05
in the first six weeks, even if they’re a good team. I

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Luke Jones 24:08
guess, I guess what I’m saying is, I mean, they’re two years removed from being 12 and five, and three years removed from being 13 and four. I mean, like we’re not, like we’re not talking about a team that’s been drowning in their sorrows for five or six years, right? They had a big. I think they might get different

Nestor Aparicio 24:23
oxygen if they’re 13 and four this time around in January to not have the weight of John Harbaugh and Joe Flacco and Ray Lewis on them. Maybe I don’t know. I mean, I don’t. I mean,

Luke Jones 24:38
I guess. I guess it was impressive

Nestor Aparicio 24:39
for me. I and I’ll say that because I think they can clean up the penalties and this and that, and that’s really the challenge of look. Harbaugh could never clean up clock management. He could never clean up review. He could never clean up his anger and his piss and vinegar. He could never clean. You know, he had things about him that he’s taken with him, and he’s one and zero. Good for him. But like in a. General sense, if there’s going to be new stuff and some new calmness around here, this is where I feel like the prosperity continues because there is some relative calm here all of a sudden that they’re into something good. This is me saying this, Luke. I think they’re into something good. That’s all.

Luke Jones 25:18
I mean, I you asked me if they’re number one in my power rankings, and I just said no, not yet. What ain’t the

Nestor Aparicio 25:24
Rams? But I think it’s I think it’s really important

Luke Jones 25:29
that we not overreact to week one, good or bad, right? I think let this thing breathe. I my preseason prediction by you know as of Sunday morning was 11 and six and winning the AFC North and getting to the divisional round and then we’ll see after that, right? I mean that it’s kind of been my default position for a healthy Lamar Jackson for a really really really long time now. So you know I need to see the offensive line be better. I’m not going to sit here and ignore the fact that multiple offensive linemen committed multiple penalties, and yes, Indianapolis has a good front, and the offensive line did some good things, but that needs to be cleaned up, right? So I’m not going to just sit here and gloss over that after one game, right? Especially when that crew committed a lot of penalties. So I am concerned about the Zayflowers thing, just to make sure that okay, hopefully this is way more precautionary. If he has to miss a game, maybe two. It’s not that’s unfortunate, but that’s no big thing to the big picture, right? The last thing you want to do though is get put him back on the field before he’s ready, and then it does become something that’s a longer absence and something that lingers. So, and the reason why I cite that is because I just think Zay Flowers is that important now, right? Lamar Jackson’s number one by it’s Lamar and then everyone else in terms of the offense, in terms of value and how important they are. But as I said to you yesterday, and I think this started last year, I think you’re really starting to see that Zay Flowers has slotted in between Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry in terms of the hierarchy as far as importance in terms of offensive players you can least afford to lose. So, so I, you know, I I don’t want to make this seem like I’m not optimistic. I really am. You just asked me, am I putting them number one in my power rankings? And I’m not. I’m not there yet, but I already had them pretty high when it starts, right? I’m like, I’m, I’m happy with what I saw. I’m really encouraged by what I saw. I’m also not going to sit here and act like this team was the bad news Bears under John Harbaugh over the last, you know, last year they were really hurt, right? And last year, they they got off to a bad start. They had a heck of a lot more difficult schedule last year in the first six weeks than they do this year. So on paper, that right there lends itself to a better start. And yeah, I think it was time to move on. And I do like the new vibe that Jesse Minter and Declan Doyle and Anthony Weaver and this new coaching staff provides. At the same time, I’m also not going to attribute all of the Ravens’ woes in crunch time to one person. John Harbaugh’s not the one who fumbled the ball in critical situations, or committed other turnovers, or committed dumb penalties. Right? We’ve seen all of that kind of stuff. So for me, the onus is on the players now. Where you say, “All right, you’ve got a new head coach, new energy, brings a different perspective, brings an expertise to one side of the ball that the previous head coach did not have. Cool with all that. I acknowledge all that. At the same time, all right, the excuses are gone now. It’s time for you guys to break through, right? And week one doesn’t prove anything in that regard, right? We still have no idea how a Jesse Minter team is going to function when we get to October, let alone January, right? And and that’s what I’m just saying. Just let it breathe a little bit. That’s all. That’s all. I’m really encouraged. Can I throw

8

Nestor Aparicio 28:59
John Harbaugh under the bus one little way here, of course, and just one more. If I said no,

Luke Jones 29:03
you would do it anyway. So go ahead. Well, it’s more like a Partridge Family

Nestor Aparicio 29:06
bus at this point. It’s kind of got some fun colors on the side. John Harbaugh would sit in these press conferences on Monday specifically in the afternoon with you guys, and say yeah, and he would acknowledge 12 penalties and 98 yards, and a key third down, 15 yards. Stupid damn thing that cost them the game that moved them back 15 yards, or they missed the field goal, or the other team up 50. Whatever it was, something egregious. Whatever those egregious things were, and however anybody would feel about Harbaugh, the record is what it is. He would say we got to clean that up. Whatever the issue was, right? You how many times did he say that? A million, right? We got to clean that up. How many times did it get cleaned up from the things that I talked about to the penalties? So all I’m saying on the case of Jesse Minter is his job. Is to take everything that needs to get cleaned up. Mark Andrews is still dropping a ball a week in week nine. That’s not good. If they still have a penalty ahead across the offensive line, even if they’re winning by three touchdowns, because they certainly, dude, there were times back in the freight train era where they effed up on first down and they’d start Lamar in first and 25, and Lamar would just get 22 on first down, and they’d be-they wouldn’t even see third down. I mean, they-they really-they could erase their mistakes back in the in the fly era. I’m talking Yonda 19. I’m talking the the boat races of 23 that began in Miami. This felt a little more boat racy to me. If they could tune it up, they can tune this up and get and can get boat racy against the Browns, against bad teams. They can boat race those teams because they have that ability. They have that sort of fly about them. But offensive line needs to get better. Need to clean up the operation. Need to get a pass rush when they’re going to need it. Tackling, tackling, tackling. You know that’s that’s going to be an issue for the whole league, week to week. But I, you know, I don’t know even know what else to on the report card like balance in the offense they had, defense big plays. Nothing went over their head. Like yeah, you know it didn’t go over their head five times in a drive. Minter’s going to be in charge of that, and he-if he’s not Weaver-is I don’t know, kicker kicked. I, I, dude, I got nothing to complain about. Like literally, a lot of Zay Flowers early, a lot of Dara can relate. Shut the door on the road, you win by three touchdowns.

Luke Jones 31:39
Yeah, bingo, right? Like, and again, like I, I, I echo your sentiments. I’m just not like one game is not a referendum for me for Jesse Minter compared to John Harvey. But all

Nestor Aparicio 31:49
for me is just where, where do you take things and improve them? If you are, this is a hell of an outfit in Week 10 if they get better every week.

Luke Jones 31:56
Sure, sure. I mean, no question about it. So yeah, I’m looking forward to that. One thing I I want to bring up Trey Hendrickson because I mentioned it a little bit earlier in the segment before we we wrap this up. I think you saw, you know, he didn’t have the sacks right, but I think you saw someone and I saw Next Gen Stats threw this out there, but they talked about it when Trey Hendrickson was on the field. The Ravens had a 58.6% pressure rate and two sacks. Without him, 20% pressure rate and zero sacks. Now, sometimes that’s down in distance, game situation, all that. How how how you you scheme up a specific play, right? So, but I think you saw pretty pretty glaringly that I mean I noticed him. There were a couple times he came very close to stripping Daniel Jones of the ball. A couple times, and close, I get it. The skeptics will say close doesn’t count, right? But but it does in a lot in many situations in football. In fact, I mean, how about that one sequence in the first half where Kyle Hamilton blitzed two or three times in a row? One time blitzed and that allowed Tavious Robinson, who, by the way, I thought Tavious Robinson played a really nice ball game as well. It was a factor for all the talk about Mike Green and needing him to take the next step. Tavious Robinson, he had the injury last year where he missed some time. He quietly had a pretty nice season last year and saw him have a sack on Sunday. I think he had four or five quarterback hits, so that was good to see. But I think you saw the Trey Hendrickson impact at work, even if it didn’t necessarily translate to a monster game on the stat sheet for him. But you saw, and and so you add him into the mix, you add Namdi Madibike into the mix for the defense here over the next couple weeks, and then we we already talked about what you saw from Marlon Humphrey and Nate Wiggins. They have the three safeties. Roquan Smith had an interception in coverage, right? So you kind of saw it at every level, at least what it can become, and still seeing that there’s a higher ceiling for that group. Yeah, there’s a lot of excitement, and I just there there isn’t enough that can be said about the Jesse Minter factor and the upgrade that can be right. I mean, last year, look, their defense-they had some good performances last year, but my goodness, week to week, quarter to quarter, drive to drive, it was just something that just was not dependable, right? For every time they, I mean, think about that group shut out Cincinnati in Cincinnati last December, but it’s also the same group that made Aaron Rodgers look like a younger version of Aaron Rodgers two times. Right, so there there was just no level of consistency that you could trust. I think this group one is going to have a higher floor on a week by week basis, and I think they’re going to have a much higher ceiling because I think the coaching acumen is going to get back to where it was when they had Mike McDonald as their defensive coordinator a few years ago, and you know we kind of said that in the simplest terms, and I don’t mean to. Break these guys down into this, but it’s a big part of their resume. In the simplest terms, anyone who saw the Jesse Minter hire kind of viewed it as, yeah, this kind of feels like the mulligan for Mike McDonald walking out the door, right? Not, not that I think anyone being realistic about it was going to say, as the Ravens were hosting an AFC title game against Kansas City, that that you were going to fire John Harbaugh at that moment in time and promote Mike McDonald, right? I think that’s something that’s easy to say on the couch or on the bar stool, but but not something practically speaking that Steve Bischotti was going to strongly consider at that moment in time. But that’s not to say that you didn’t realize that a really, really talented young coach was walking out the door.

Luke Jones 35:46
So a couple years later, when you said, “All right, it’s time to make a change, they saw that Jesse Minter was out there and looked like he was as close to being ready as he could be without just giving him an opportunity to do it. That they they went and they jumped. They jumped in. You know, right? They they took the dive with him, and you know, so far so good, right? I said I wrote about it at BaltimorePositive.com. The honeymoon officially ended the moment Tyler Loop kicked off the ball in Indy on Sunday afternoon. If what we witnessed over the following three hours was any indication, this feels like this could be something that is fun, and it feels like something that could have some staying power and really be what you hope will be the next long-term coach for the Baltimore Ravens. I mean, and that’s kind of all they’ve had for, I guess, other than the first three years with March Abrota. So you hope that, and you hope that that translates to this year, 2026. Knowing that you have a 32-year-old Derrick Henry and a Ronnie Stanley not getting any younger, and a Marlin Humphrey not getting any younger, and a Lamar that’s not past his prime or anything like that, but Lamar’s going to be 30 in January, right? He’s not 21 or 22 anymore. That you want to take advantage of this, and that’s you know that was the biggest reason why you move on from John, right? You just say it’s time to try something different, right? We’ve we’ve as much success as we’ve had in the regular season year after year, and all these expectations year after year, we’ve fallen woefully short in crunch time at the absolute biggest moments, and obviously 22,025, it was more than just that, right? But the long-term narrative, knowing what it was in January, it was time to try something different. And as I said to you all along, you know, this wasn’t meant to be something that completely transformed and completely changed the Ravens’ way of doing things. My goodness, they hired someone that worked for Harbaugh, right? At one point in time, but it was a refresh, right? It was you know the software update on on the system, right? So they they freshen things up. You get a new voice, new eyes, new coaches, and yeah, one weekend on the heels of a summer where it felt like the vibes and the optimism was different, as it should be. Quite frankly, with any new head coach, if it’s not, then that’s a major problem, right? If if you’re down in the dumps before you even play a game, but you know, I I think there was a lot to be encouraged by. I think there was just enough to keep the players’ attention of not puffing out their chest too much after only one game, especially when you talk about the O line and some other things that popped up. But yeah, there’s a lot to a whole lot to like about this football team on Sunday, and yeah, they’re they’re going to have to sustain that and stay healthy and and clean up the penalties and some things of that nature. But you know you put up 41 points, which, by the way, lots of points scored around the league. I thought that was interesting to see, but yeah, it’s tough to come away from a road win by 18 points against a team that doesn’t have huge expectations, but also is not expected to be a doormat of the league. How can you not come away from that really, really encouraged by what you saw?

8

Nestor Aparicio 39:02
You know what I wrote about is how many times I’ve gone out there when it hasn’t. I mean, Ravens don’t win out there a lot, right? Like a playoff game loss. I mean, I’m just thinking about like, have I left there feeling happy other than when I left after you two? Well, every time we leave the the combine, we’re happy. So I’ve left Indianapolis because it’s 20

Luke Jones 39:23
degrees. Yeah, yeah. I’ve left

Nestor Aparicio 39:24
Indianapolis happy in March a lot, but just not not usually in season. So it’s kind of a rare. I mean, Peyton kicked our ass there a lot. Chris Redman. I mean, I remember nights there. I mean, Vinny losing the Jim Harbaugh in the beginning, and Goose and Ted, and like I just remember a lot of losing games out there, playoffs. Ed Reed, I remember being in the locker room. Ed Reed was talking about retiring the first time, you know, after ’09. So

Luke Jones 39:48
I mean, it was painful against Peyton Manning, right? Until they beat him in Denver. That’s what

Nestor Aparicio 39:52
I’m saying. Like, yeah, having our fans chant down. I mean, we had parties in Indianapolis. Don’t get before to get. Before the game, not usually after the game.

Speaker 1 40:02
Yeah,

Nestor Aparicio 40:03
you know what I mean. We won games in Nashville. We won games in even New England. You know what I mean? Like, dude, look it up. I don’t remember a whole lot of like, woohoo! We kicked the Colts’ ass in Indianapolis and walking through the airport, getting a kolache and feeling good about myself, even before they rebuilt the airport. Luke Jones is here. We’re going to do football. We’re going to go around airport to airport, go around the league a little bit. I had a chance to watch a lot of football here this week, and Rams and the 40 Niners in Melbourne, Melbourne, Melbourne, Melbourne, Melbourne. They get playing Rio, Rio, Rio next week, so we have a good time around here. We’re going to put a 99 on the baseball season. Even though I’m going to do a lot of baseball, we’re going to be doing the Maryland Crab Cake Tour next Thursday at State Fair in Catonsville. It’s all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland Lottery. I will have the Kiss Face Bird, my favorite. Kiss is number 28 on the 28th countdown. John Mayer’s 27. I’m not going to give too much away. I’m going to see AC/DC two weeks from now, up in Philly, they’re on the countdown as well, and I’m going to be counting them down with a lot of friends. We had some friends at Costas last week, some other pals. I tried to explain to Luke. I feel like such an old guy. What camping out for concert tickets was, and after telling stories with Ace on on Friday, and Richard Abrahams is going to join me at some point soon. We, I didn’t even do any drugs in the ’80s. I mean, you couldn’t even get good drugs in the ’80s, and we were camping out on cement at malls to get within 10 feet of Bono or Steve Perry or Neil Shone, the old days. All of our friends at B, excuse me, GBMC are trying to keep me healthy. I did not eat a fried crab cake on Friday at Costas, but I did have some fried shrimp. I’m gonna have some fried eggs. I’m now actually I’m gonna have fried chicken and waffles. I think, at State Fair on the 24th. But we’re doing the Maryland Crab Cake tour on the 24th Breakfast Edition. All brought to you by our friends at GBMC, our friends at the Maryland Lottery, and Farnum and Durham. We put Luke out Noig’s Mills this week. New Orleans Saints are coming marching in. We’re going to be marching into some music a lot this week, talking about memories and talking about concerts and ticket stubs and camping out and the Hammer Jack Show and the Capitol Center ticket stubs and all the fun stuff that we’ve been talking about here, as well as plenty of football, less baseball. Just for a minute, let me exhale. Let me just get through this Mets thing. He’s Luke. I’m Nestor. Back for more football. We are Baltimore positive, and the good guys are one and zero. You can exhale now.