Luke Jones and Nestor try to find reasons to be optimistic after a dreadful loss to the Browns on Saturday night. And here come the Atlanta Falcons on Christmas Eve.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
week, game, ravens, point, baltimore, lamar jackson, watched, football, ball, lamar, quarterback, football game, national football league, play, talking, year, yards, passing, nfl, robinson
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
What about w n s? T Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive Happy Holidays. Merry Christmas, wherever you’re celebrating here this week. Certainly celebrating some good health hopefully get some eggnog. Take care of our partners in the wise conversations that we have. We’ve been given some tips on shopping this week, we have recap the Maryland crabcake Tour presented by the Maryland lottery with our friends at Goodwill and window Nation. I’m wearing my window nation gear here. I am not a certified master installer if you’re watching out on the zoom but you can reach them 866 90 nation for the holiday stay nice and warm and toasty with the Christmas tree and all that but we had just such a great great afternoon Costas. I want to thank the constants family for 31 years and our anniversary and Gina shock who came over all the members of beyond words milkshake and my dear art teacher from Dundalk. Hi, Joyce buchi and John Allen my life for Powell some great great conversations about hammer Jack’s about the Go Go’s about the rock and roll in the 70s and 80s in the marble bar all up now at Baltimore positive and maybe it’ll salve the wounds of our purple souls here in town after just a a dreadful football game and a Christmas Eve game here with the Atlanta Falcons. Luke Jones will be out in Owings Mills all week long here not just eating the coat ambientes from Dennis Colossus over Coons, Baltimore, Ford and some delicious Greek desserts, but we might need a better food on Christmas to make this thing wash away a little better. I remember goes to the post back in 77 been a number of years now Luke butts up Christmassy football around here and what a what a turd in Cleveland. And just that doesn’t lead to good football team right now. And I know you’ve written about that out of Baltimore positive.
Luke Jones 01:44
It was awful. I mean, what’s funny is after watching the rest of the of the weekend, that was what week 15 I’m still getting used to having that week 18 At the end of the schedule kind of throws me off from the odd
Nestor Aparicio 01:56
numbers either. They finished 10 and seven, yes. Okay.
Luke Jones 02:00
Right. Right. But I mean, so many entertaining. I mean, you you had a historic comeback by the Minnesota Vikings that preceded what we saw in Cleveland. In fact, as you know me living in Southern New York County Pennsylvania I missed the first quarter of the Ravens game I couldn’t get it short of getting out the the antenna to try to get BHEL but
Nestor Aparicio 02:21
I wore my Houston Oilers blue today to exercise all the demons of the Oilers in the bills are back in the day and I can I can get a cig off my butt to after 30 years.
Luke Jones 02:31
Right. Right. But you just so many wild games, I mean, yeah, two overtime games. I mean, whatever the heck that patriots Raiders ending was so many fun, entertaining, memorable football games over the weekend. And then there was ravens browns, which was, I mean, it was just besides the fact that the Ravens lost and we’re going to talk about Greg Roman and his offense and not running the ball more and not being able to throw the ball and his Lamar gonna come back this week. And they sound hopeful. And we’ll see what the practice week looks like. But it’s just a bad football game to watch. It was one of those games where you keep checking your watch, you keep looking at the clock to say is this over yet? It really just was not an entertaining football game. And it was an incredibly frustrating football game and
Nestor Aparicio 03:18
I text you at halftime. I’m reading my phone. I never bother you during the game. You’re working. I’m working on an era. You know, we’re trying to get our interweb together. You’ve got your Tweet Deck up. You’re either at the game sometimes at home when they let you in. But it’s been weird. I never text you. But I text you at halftime I think I think I went down to warm up some pizza at halftime. And I text you at 558. I said such a horrible brand of football terrible.
Luke Jones 03:45
Yeah. And that’s what I joke with you at least I wasn’t subjected to that first quarter. And full disclosure, I went back and watched it just to be clear, because I always go back and re watch the game. But I mean, just incredibly frustrating. And let’s be fair, though. Two weeks ago now, a little over two weeks ago, Lamar Jackson goes down at the end of the first quarter against Denver. What did we say about these back to back AFC North Road games? If they got one of two, they were still in good shape. So as I wrote it at Baltimore positive.com. The ravens are fine, right? They did what we said they needed to do. Well, you watch that game, and it wasn’t all bad. JK Dobbins average 9.6 yards per carry Gus Edwards was just under eight yards per carry. The defense wasn’t phenomenal, but it was certainly good. I mean, they only gave up 13 points and the Browns did plenty to leave the Ravens in this football game and still give them a chance in the fourth quarter with missed field goals and mistakes and what have you but it was just, I mean, it’s not even just about Tyler Huntley. Tyler Huntley is not as good as Lamar Jackson Newsflash, right
Nestor Aparicio 04:54
8i mean big shock there. It’s just what I would say this he’s he’s not that quarterback like you know I’m not being mean to the kid he’s he’s got a nice smile like no credible National Football League team would put him behind center and say we’re going to win games because you’re not and that’s no look man I saw trace McSorely running around whatever this kid’s name in Atlanta is coming in here this week I gotta get my program at figure that out because I saw him playing the other day the Broncos but I mean all of these backups Cade McCown like like none of these guys are any good. And we’re back to the point where like, Matt, Ryan’s not any good anymore Cam Newton is gone. Right? Like they’re out there. Andrew Luck. There’s like a whole generation of those guys that aren’t here. Or they’re not going to make it like bake Baker Mayfield despite his heroics with the Rams. You know, last week I have had not situation right. And there are some people that aren’t sure that Lamar is a have if you have to stand in the pocket and throw the ball 38 times like a normal quarterback that he’s only gonna have when he’s at as you pointed out last week, full speed and willing to run 10 to 16 times a game not five times a game. Well, the 16 to 18 times a game if they’re going to be successful, or at least feign that he’s going to run that much and probably get sacked one or two times more than that. So this is they’re in really a weird spot right now because you look at their record. They look like a good team. I see Cranach your 90 some Bubba percent to make the play. I like all that. They might even play in Tennessee week one eight like they might have a puncher’s chance to avoid to have one of these other guys beat each other up, but I don’t do they’re not a Super Bowl team right now not me. I’ll sit here Christmas week and there’s no Purple Rain three coming. I have very little doubt that you need to come out to the desert do Super Bowl week with me. They don’t look like a Super Bowl team anywhere right now anywhere. I’m you could talk about their defense and they had a couple of injuries as well. I mean, Peters glass Campbell will go through that. But even with those guys, you know, maybe they’re a good enough defense, but they’re not an elite defense and all that. Ray Lewis giving them the stunt guy about six weeks ago, comes full circle right now but do the offense. I mean, I look at who’s in the huddle, forget Lamar, not Lamar, I look at who else is in that huddle, and everything you wrote once again, just like when you write about the quarterbacks five years ago, everything you’ve written about the wide receivers is true. I mean, like they have they have a talent problem on offense. They really do. They do and
Luke Jones 07:37
that’s where I come back to Tyler Huntley. And look he was very bad on Saturday, let’s be clear about that. And again, some of the talk about you know, whether he could be a starting quarterback elsewhere. I mean, I think clearly at the put it in the in a kindly way. You pump the brakes on that talk. However, Tyler Huntley played and played it an extended period of time last season, and they were able to have a much more functional passing game. It wasn’t a great passing game. Let’s be very clear about that. In terms of looking at yards per attempt, but they scored points they were able to move the ball, but what we saw on Saturday, they ran the ball, they should have run the ball more, but at the same time, you look at that mark Andrews dropped the pass to Marcus Robinson can’t hold on to the football to Sean Jackson had to drop and then another play where the quarterback out muscled him on a slant pass that was very suspect. I mean, I don’t like that call to a 36 year old Deshaun Jackson and that’s where we go back to Greg Roman here but I mean look, can we sit on the football too? And this is why to me it I felt like I was a crazy person that to hear people say that they thought they had enough at wide receiver over the summer. I mean, even before Rashad Bateman gets hurt and look
Nestor Aparicio 08:49
well this is because the caster and Harbaugh get up and say Devin DuVernay, James Brochet we really believe we believe in our guys like remember to cross the line about that before the draft last year, and they’re going on draft and Bateman like like they, they’ve never had enough at that position. I mean, we talked about this since Antoine pulled and it’s a decade now. Right?
Luke Jones 09:09
It really is. I mean for an organization that has been so good in so many ways. It continues to be such a blind spot, spot and look, I get it. We’ve championed this idea of the Ravens zigging while everyone else zags. And I understand that and I’m not saying the Ravens have to have the best pass wide receiver core in the NFL. I’m not saying the Ravens need to run or pass the football more than anyone in the NFL. It’s not about that. It’s never been about volume it. It’s an argument in bad faith. Whenever people come back and say, well, they’re not trying to throw the ball 45 or 50 times very few teams are in the National Football League. What they do need to be able to do though, is throw the football at an efficient rate. And this goes back to 2019. This has never been a high volume passing game. But go back and look at 2019 Lamar Jackson led the league and touchdown passes MVP Little League, football outsiders their DVOA efficiency metric, it’s just about efficiency. You know, it looks at every game situation down and distance score, adjusted for opponent all those different things. You know, context matters, right? You know, we know that not all five yard plays are created equally depending on the down and distance and the score and all that they were first in the league and passing efficiency that year. If you want to look at expected points added another nerd stat that that measures efficiency. They were first and EPA that year, they were a really good passing offense in terms of when they had to do it. They did it really, really well. Now, we know that it wasn’t an offense that went out of its way to try to throw 40 or 45 times, and no one is arguing that anyone has presented a good faith argument about the state of this passing game. And the state of this offense has never been someone to say, oh, Lamar needs to throw it 50 times a game. Oh, but it comes back to when you do throw. You have to throw it way better than what we’ve been seeing. And no, it’s not just a Tyler only thing as I wrote a Baltimore positive.com. And look, we’ll get to Greg Roman in a moment. There’s plenty to say about Greg Roman and just lacking a feel and a rhythm and running the ball more than they should have on Saturday. But it still comes back to you have to have a functioning know at least a fairly high level functioning passing game. And the Ravens haven’t had that. Since week three. Lamar threw 10 touchdowns over the first three weeks of the season. He was at 8.5 yards per pass attempt. That’s really good. Everyone was talking about Colin back to 2019. And he was an MVP candidate in the season. Yeah, no question about it since then. So we’re talking what they’ve they’re nine and five. And he’s played roughly 10 games since then, ever since he
Nestor Aparicio 11:47
held that sign up, it said Pay him in the in the tunnel, right, literally in the middle of the night.
Luke Jones 11:51
Yeah. But that aside, since those first three weeks of the season, Nestor, he’s averaged 6.3 yards per pass attempt, which I looked at it Sunday morning, before we got into the date, full day of NFL action, that would have ranked 31st in the NFL among qualified corner quarterbacks for the entire season. Now, let’s be very clear about that. That is not me saying that solely as an indictment of Lamar Jackson, far from it. It’s a reflection of this entire operation in the fact that this passing game has been broken since October. And they showed very few signs of looking like it wasn’t broken.
Nestor Aparicio 12:29
And to think that they’ve had more drop balls than any other team in the league, given their fit, they don’t pass as much, right? So they only they only throw the ball 20 times. And when there’s five drops, that’s a hell of a lot of drops. I mean, there’ll be weeks where there have been five, six drops, consistently off of 2026 passes. And I’m thinking to myself, the efficiency, if just guys would catch when it hits you between eight and nine, you catch it right when it hits you between the one and whatever vanity number you’re wearing these days. You catch the ball right there. I mean, the last six or eight weeks, especially in the even in the victories, I mean, they’ve won a lot of games. I mean, it feels like they’ve lost a lot they lost to the browns, they were winning games for a month before that. Not looking great doing it. But if you’re going to measure offense for drops, and I don’t mean like maybe could accorded I mean, Lamar is a little left a little right a little high, a little low, whatever. I’m just talking about flat out. If you’re a National Football League receiver, you should catch the ball. Everybody in the huddle is guilty of a handful this year. And I think to myself, what would that do to your indictment of Lamar? I mean, look, I’m not his protector, believe me. Not any of these guys protector at this point, you know that. But I banging on Lamar, when to your point, the opposite banging on Rome and you’re about to crush Roman, I don’t even I see the guys getting in the huddle, dude. And I’m thinking, bring it bring bring Mike marks and bring anybody you want in here. I mean, I’ve worked in the huddle Hill, Ricard to Sean Jackson, some guy named Robinson, Andrew some of the time some of the time it’s some kind of Josh Oliver. Like, I’m like, and then when it’s not that it’s Kenyan trickery, like, Who are these guys? And and out here the, you know, the fact that the running backs got the ability, and he’s trying his ass off because he’s in a contract here. We’re not talking about his money. We’re talking about Lamar is money. But these guys aren’t even healthy. Mark Andrews is not healthy. I’ll never buy that. He stands in his locker. He’s a bad liar as our boys. He’s not healthy.
Luke Jones 14:48
Well, and he’s also getting way more attention and coverage. I mean, he’s getting a Greg Roman acknowledgement this past week. He’s seeing more double teams and he did in the past and that’s saying something because it’s not as though teams just figured out that Mark Andrews Is is really important to what the Ravens do. But you have to go back to address a few things you said. Well, you said Robinson DeMarcus Robinson has actually been one of their few. Saturday aside, one of their few very modest, I’ll be it success stories as it relates to the wide receiver position this year. I mean, we have to
Nestor Aparicio 15:17
success I need to see failure. I’m not being mean, I’m just saying like, he is what he is, he was available because he’s available. He, you know, you’re gonna put him in one spot and thrown the ball five, six times in a game. He’s gonna catch two or three. God bless him. That’s exactly what this is right now.
Luke Jones 15:32
Right, exactly. I mean, he was he was Kansas City’s number three or number four option. I mean, he was cut by the Raiders midway through training camp. I mean, my point is not to say that he’s been great. My point is, for what that was, which was, I guess, Eric to castas best attempt to replace Marquis Brown, which you know, is again, another discussion for another day, but he is what he is he, as you just said he’s masquerading as a number one wide receiver right now by default. And he should be number three or number four to Sean Jackson. I mean, God bless him. He’s had a really good career. He made a big play in Jacksonville that should have won the game at the defense didn’t blow it at the end, but he’s 36 years old. What do you expect
Nestor Aparicio 16:17
nobody gives referees grief like that guy like i i always disliked it like that was a guy rooted against always to Sean Jackson always always amount the sky but and he still like a chihuahua out there yelling at the officials like it’s just catch the ball, get in and catch the ball. I mean, like literally.
Luke Jones 16:39
But, but I think you know, it’s not just the guys that I mentioned. But yeah, Devin DuVernay has really slowed down to a point where you know, even in the return game you’re seeing now he’s mfund upon he’s made some questionable decisions. I mean, he doesn’t look as explosive, you know, Is he hurt? Or is he just wearing down because he’s playing so much? I don’t know. But the point is, in a game like that, where I get it, and I want to be clear, we’re spending so much time talking about the passing game because it’s, it’s critically important in the big picture. But they shouldn’t run the ball more on Saturday. I fully subscribe to that. However, you look at them trying to make plays in the fourth quarter of a football game. And they’re targeting James crochet on fourth down plays James crochet. I mean, I’m not trying to be disrespectful. He works hard. He’s trying to make his make a name for himself in the NFL, but this is a guy who I’m not sure how many rosters he’d be on around the at the NFL at this point in time. So
Nestor Aparicio 17:35
I’m not sure these guys would be on I’d be I’m really I’m not being mean. I’m just like, they cut DeMarcus Robinson in the morning who’s picking them up? I mean, like, I same thing with the Sean Jackson, same thing with James crochet. Do for name it. You know, I mean, I’ll give you the punt returns and his Turkish shirt status. And I’ll give you all that. But I don’t know, man. I mean, they don’t have National Football League skill position players. And I’m watching the Bengals run around four o’clock in the afternoon. And I’m watching the Chiefs run around after toy him like cat and mouse with the Texans, right? Like, I watched these real operations real football players. I mean, I even see what this kid is doing for the Lions, right. And I see other skill position players in other places with limited quarterbacks, including Pittsburgh last week in Pittsburgh next week, right? Where you’d say, why don’t we have guys that good. And we’ve been saying that for a long, long, long since Michael Jackson and Derrick Alexander, dude.
Luke Jones 18:38
I mean, it just it really comes down to this. I am not at all saying once again, I’ll continue to say this too. I’m blue in the face, because people who want to continue to look at the bright side of things, as you mentioned, they’re nine and five, the seasons not over. Let’s be very clear about this. They’re gonna make the playoffs. They can clinch they can clinch this weekend. I mean, there are scenarios with a win and another wildcard contender loss. They’re gonna be in the playoffs. They’re making the playoffs. Anyone who’s sitting there gloom and doom, and I’ve seen some of it on Facebook a little bit. They might miss the point. No, they’re not going to miss the playoffs. Look at the rest of the field. Now, it’s not where you want to be in terms of being one of the top two or three teams. And I think I don’t think you’re gonna find anyone right now. Who would take the Ravens over buffalo or Kansas City or Cincinnati?
Nestor Aparicio 19:23
Hey, they better beat the Falcons. They I mean, sure, yeah. Because like Steelers are gonna give them hell next week period. And then Cincinnati. I mean, they’re not going to Cincinnati and winning. I mean, unless Cincinnati doesn’t want to win. I can’t imagine a scenario. I mean, they might be up for one seat at that point, if things if they’re the best team and the bills falter when the bills have a tougher skin like I I watched the Bengals play. They are they’re playing a different game and the Ravens are playing right now. And I tweeted as much.
Luke Jones 19:55
Yeah, although I’d say Cincinnati did not look good in that first half, though. I mean, I think that’s why All game right? I mean, Tampa Bay looks so good. I mean, maybe the best half of football the Bucks had played all year. And then that third quarter was a desert. I mean, that was a dumpster fire. How bad that was way worse than anything we saw from the Ravens on Saturday, which was just listless and weird and lacking energy. But, I mean, they just kick the ball around everything. But I’d say this, we’re getting ready to celebrate Christmas. And you know, it’s the holidays. And you know, everyone’s talking about what you’re what you love. You know what, what you appreciate. Think back to Thanksgiving, though. The Ravens should be thankful. And the bangles as well that they’ve gotten to play the NFC South this year because, boy, pee you what a terrible division that is. And you mentioned the Falcons. I mean, rookie quarterback, I watched the game. Doesn’t matter. He’s got a good arm. But, boy, it was lacking. It was an operation that they got running back. They have to run the football. And what did the Ravens what does the Ravens defense do best? They stopped the run. So I’m with you on that. I mean, I fully expect the ravens to win on Saturday. But do I expect a blowout? No, because the Ravens don’t blow anyone out at this point. Because they this operation is just it’s not good enough. And they can run the ball. Yes, they should run the ball more. Yes. But even last week in Pittsburgh, we were talking about the Ravens running for 200 plus yards. They scored 16 points, you have to be able to throw the football at a higher level. But is that going to happen is this team going to figure that out over these final three weeks of the regular season and get on a roll come January? Certainly a higher chance of it with Lamar Jackson back on the field. So certainly some more optimism there than if Tyler Huntley was playing out the string, as we saw last year, but it’s been broken for a long time. We haven’t seen his passing game operate at a very high level for more than a quarter or two or a game or two since early October, and it’s tough to envision that changing at this point. So nine and five they’re still in good shape. They’re still quote fine, as I wrote it, Baltimore positive.com. But anyone who watched Saturday’s game anyone who’s watched this passing game now for a couple months, it’s hard to feel that the ravens are fine at this point, but I hate the Atlanta Falcons coming to town could be a nice elixir for what ails them at least for one week.
Nestor Aparicio 22:18
Well, Justin Tucker and I don’t have a whole lot in common but we both drink royal farms coffee I’m drinking out of my coal roofing mug this morning. Luke Jones here we’re getting ready for Christmas weekend, get you ready for Christmas Eve action with the fact that you got the Baltimore positive.com going to have a lot of Greatest Hits coming your way in 1570 going to be resurrecting some old interviews during the New Year’s week as well. And the man who saved my wife’s life on the bone marrow registry is going to be visiting with us in Baltimore for the holidays. We’re blessed about all that. So you’ll be hearing lots and lots of stuff this week including our crabcake tour stop at cost this witchiness shock John Allen a whole bunch of friends from Amberjacks and beyond words and my old high school art teacher just great great stories available for you out of Baltimore positive outcome you also be hearing them here at AM 1570 All week long all presented by our friends at the Maryland lottery conjunction with goodwill and window nation. I got my window nation gear on right now. I promise you one of the great things I did this year was invest in Windows 866 90 nation but 39 years it’s I have windows in the house and I made it all happen. And you can do that you buy two you get to free 0% financing. All month long. Happy holidays, everybody after Luke’s gonna be in Owings Mills all week long, making sure that it happens for you and on social media. And there’s any breaking news you get that first on that WNS D tech service. It’s all brought to you by Coons, Baltimore, Ford and Dennis will be here on Thursday getting you ready for the weekend. And of course, Christmas morning we might have a reading of Tony Sarah gooses was the night before Christmas at some point here before the week’s over as well. I am Nestor. We are WNST and 1570, Towson Baltimore. And we never stop talking Baltimore positive
