Despite a strong second and third quarter, the Ravens’ defense struggled early and late in what felt like a walkover 41-31 win in Tampa. Luke Jones and Nestor emphasize the need for the defense to be more consistent and dynamic, particularly in forcing (and catching) turnovers. They also address defensive vulnerabilities in the secondary with the loss of Marlon Humphrey, who grabbed two interceptions against the Bucs.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Ravens defense, Marlon Humphrey, Cleveland Browns, Baker Mayfield, Tampa Bay, injury concerns, offensive coordinator, defensive vulnerability, turnover opportunities, playoff aspirations, Lamar Jackson, Super Bowl, offensive consistency, defensive improvement, upcoming schedule
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Luke Jones
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, am 1570 Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive. It is a short business week around here as the Ravens take on the Cleveland Browns. This week, we got World Series action. Luke and I are talking all of these things out at the am 1570 as well as a Baltimore positive big crab cake tour set this Friday for mamas on the half shell in Owings Mills up at Foundry row. The old guys used to call that painters mill, or the sweetheart cup company, where my step brother worked many years ago. We’re going to be giving away the Ravens scratch offs from the Maryland lottery. We’re also going to have our friends at Liberty pure solutions, as well as Jiffy Lu put us out on the road for the 26th anniversary we have here of our Maryland oyster tour on a day by day basis. We’re going to be featuring Ray Bachman a little later on in the week. And Ray is battling cancer. If you’re an old school W NST listener, you want to help Ray out. He has a GoFundMe. You can also help him out with a little love. Send him an email or a note over his email, his old email still works, right? Wnst.net, so you can still find him there. Luke Jones is here. We have a short business week after what was a real bludgeoning of the defense of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And, you know, we sit here all day and talk about Lamar, the offense, the offense, the offense. I still feel like, if they don’t win the Super Bowl, the defense is going to be a big, big part of that, and it’s something that we’re not going to talk about when we’re playing Jameis Winston this week or whatever, but Baker Mayfield, if they had added another quarter to the game on Sunday night, you know, he was moving the ball, and they weren’t afraid of moving the ball until goblin got hurt at the end of the game, and that was a factor of them not giving up. But there is something about this defense that if you’re an offensive coordinator in the other room preparing, you feel like there’s some vulnerability here, especially if Marlin upper is not going to get back out on the field this
Luke Jones 01:57
week. Yeah, and obviously, if there’s one, I don’t want to say one bad spot, because obviously, the defense didn’t play very well at the beginning of the game. Certainly didn’t play well at the end of the game. But the injury to Marlon Humphrey, and, you know, John Harbaugh was kind of non committal about it, I know Marlon Humphrey did his Instagram Live post game plane thing, so he can’t be in that bad of shape. John Harbaugh said he was walking around he was in good spirits after the game. So, you know, I don’t get the sense that this is any concern, like an ACL or anything crazy like that. But when, when you’re talking about someone who leaves the game in the second quarter and then is ruled out early in the second half, you know, that’s generally a sign that it’s not nothing either. So, you know, we’ll see how this week looks. To your point. I mean, this is a Cleveland Browns team that they’re going to face, that who knows who’s going to be a quarterback. They’ve traded away Amari Cooper. I mean, I the Ravens better not lose the browns. I mean that, and I say that just out of a compliment to the Ravens. And as well, I’ll be talking
Nestor Aparicio 02:59
to Cleveland people all week about whether they’re trading miles Garrett. Miles Garrett or not. I, you know, giving cap numbers and all the things that go on that bake all this together. We traded for row Claude Smith a couple years ago. So anything’s possible. I guess, when you’re throwing the towel in and you’re going to have to redo your franchise, which is pretty much where they are, they’re gonna have to redo their franchise in Cleveland.
Luke Jones 03:18
Yeah, yeah. But you know? I mean, clearly the focus for the Ravens is how to get this defense playing at a more consistent level. I mean, they came out opening drive, Tampa Bay moves right down the field, scores a touchdown, second drive, field goal. So at least the defense was able to tighten up inside the red zone on that front and then, as we talked about in our previous segment, the real turning point was Tampa Bay’s third drive where Mike Evans drops a touchdown, hurts his hamstring in the process, and you could kind of tell, even on his first touchdown catch that he wasn’t right. That was an issue for him throughout the week. So can’t say I was shocked that the hamstring issue popped up during the game, but between that drop and then Mayfield throwing the pick to finish that drive, even though he had had Irving, the Bucky Irving, open for a touchdown at the beginning of that play, and he didn’t, didn’t see him, and then he tries to force one into the corner, and Marlon Humphrey gets that pick. I mean, it completely changed the game. The game really flipped from that point in time. But you know, you look at this defense and the mid the second and third quarter, they played pretty well. I mean, you look at how the drives just went for Tampa Bay, first two drives, touchdown, field goal, then after that, interception, interception, end of half. Don’t really count that. That was just a kneel down. But then they come out in the second half, Tampa moves the ball, but they hold him to a long field goal, try, 55 yarder, no good. And then punt, punt. I mean, I get it the fourth quarter. I’d like to see them not give up three touchdowns, but we also know that game was basically over, right? And, I mean, I hear what you’re saying. If, if. The game goes another quarter. But on the flip side of that, if the game goes another quarter, well, they’ve got to stop Lamar Jackson and this ravens offense multiple times, and they weren’t able to do that. So So yeah, I’d love, I’d love to see this defense find more consistency. I think there’s still the makings of a solid defense in there somewhere. I don’t think this can. This secondary is completely devoid of talent or a completely lost cause by any stretch of the imagination, but at some point in time, you got to start doing it. And yeah, they just they all year long, they have not been able to make a play a complete 60 minutes other than the Buffalo game, right? So one out of seven, the other six, they’ve had at least a bad quarter or two where it’s really impacted their numbers, the statistics, the flow of the game, whatever. So they’ve got to figure that out. They know that. I mean even hearing and reading some of Kyle Hamilton’s post game comments. He was asked about Humphrey coming away with those two picks and how important they were. He said, Well, heck, we could have five. You know, if you go look, we dropped a couple others, and we’ve talked about that so but, but to be positive, to look for a positive here, I said this to you going into Monday night’s game, if this defense can at least find a way to be more dynamic, be a little more variant in the way of forcing a couple more turnovers along the way, getting an extra possession for your offense, taking away a possession that is so incredibly valuable for the opposition when you’re trying to keep up with this ravens offense. If they can do a little more of that. I can live with this not being your typical top 10 or top five kind of ravens defense, if they can do more of that, and they were able to do that on Monday night,
Nestor Aparicio 06:52
in the back of the end zone like that, really changed things. From a from a was going to be seven. Turns out to be nothing. Should have at least been three, and it was a really sloppy interception. Mean, great play by Humphrey. We pointed that out. I mean, he he peeled back into the corner of the end zone. Mayfield didn’t see him, but, you know, they were on their heels again. You know, to make a big play in that circumstance really changed the game. Yeah.
Luke Jones 07:18
I mean, from that point on, it was all ravens until so late in the game where you knew practically speaking, let’s face it, even when they recovered the onside kick, were you worried that? I still wasn’t worried. It was looking at the defense and saying, Oh, you’d like, you need to finish better than this. But at no point in that fourth quarter did I think that this game was in jeopardy. So yeah, that completely turned the game. I mean, it really did. So if you can at least do more of that as a defense, as a pass defense, become a little more dynamic in that way, be a little more high variant, where you can force a few more takeaways, get a couple more sacks and some key spots, and make things a little bit better on that front, even if the passing yardage and the total yardage and the big plays are still too many, and you’re still chasing that and they still are. I mean, you could tell reading some of the comments and hearing some of the post game comments. I mean, that was a defense that was happy to win, but they knew that it was way more the offense doing what they did that resulted in that outcome. And these guys, that’s a prideful group. I mean, this is a group that was the best defense in football last year in terms of scoring defense, turnovers and sacks. I mean, that that triple crown defense that they had last year, we know it’s diminished in terms of some of the coaching and jadavion Clowney and Geno stone and some other depth pieces here and there, but by and large, this is still a really talented group, and that’s why I’m not giving up hope on that group. But you kind of figure this out. I mean, you do, because you don’t want to be in a position on a day where, let’s face it, at some point in time, and when I say this, it doesn’t mean they’re going to stink, but at some point in time between now and whenever the season ends, hopefully, you know, hopefully, for the Raven’s sake, in New Orleans in February, but they’re going to have a couple games where the offense isn’t clicking to this degree, to this magnitude. And when that happens, you’re going to need your your defense to pick it up some. And that’s where you look at this thing and say, okay, good second quarter, good third quarter, fourth quarter, stunk and was sloppy and had Ed Reed basically tell saying on the Manning cast that they still have to learn how to finish. They still have to learn it’s a 60 minute game. They they’re still not a championship team in that way. And that’s certainly much more on the defensive side. But even the offense, you know, like we talked about that, that lateral play that you just look at that it’s just like, one don’t really love the call in that spot, you know, throw in a backwards pass, knowing that a backwards pass, if it hits the ground, it’s a live football, you know, if it’s a forward pass, it hits the ground, no problem. No more. No foul. So they still are chasing those elements. But seven weeks into the season, if that’s the worst you can say about a football team, you’re doing a lot of things right, and you’re winning a lot of football games. And you know, this team went on the road against a team that fancied itself as a legitimate contender in the NFC I think, now, with the injuries to Mike Evans and and especially Chris Godwin being out for the year, that certainly throws a, you know, as a fly in their ointment as it pertains to that. But, I mean, give the Ravens credit across the board, but still work to do on this defense. And yeah, I’m not, really. I’m non plus, I’m unfazed by the fact that Tampa ran the ball on them more than what we’ve seen until I see teams start doing that consistently. Still think it’s a great it’s a great run defense, so they at least have that going for them, and that’s something that should help their past defense as the year goes on. In terms of your teams are going to be behind a lot. Teams can’t run the ball on you consistently. So you should have a good idea what they’re trying to do against you, right? You should know, hey, they’re probably going to throw it 40 plus times again. You got to defend it and but that’s my point. Yeah, you got to go out and do it so, so you might have the advantage of the the opposition being a little more predictable than your typical matchup, but you still have to go out there and make plays, and they’re still chasing that. I mean, they really are. So you know, again, there were good things from their defense over the course of that game, but it’s just not nearly complete enough at this point in time. And that’s where you look at and you hear the comments from Kyle Hamilton or roquan Smith on a weekly basis, and they’re still chasing that. So there’s that. And again, fingers crossed on Marlon Humphrey that you know certainly that you’re hoping that this isn’t a lengthy absence. You know, if he misses a game or two, that’s that’s not the end of the world. I mean, Arthur millets on the verge of coming back. Ardarius Washington, again, had another chance catch the football man. I mean, he’s there to make plays. You got to make them though. I mean,
Nestor Aparicio 12:08
he’s doing everything Geno Stone did last year, so catching the ball, yeah, right, exactly. So.
Luke Jones 12:13
So again, you can look at elements of this defense and look at it as half full in certain ways, right? I mean, it’s not,
Nestor Aparicio 12:22
well, you can let him throw the ball around 40 times. If you pick three or four of them, you win the game Exactly. Especially if you pick it in the end zone. Let him go 80 yards and pick it in the end zone, you frustrate the hell Adam, take points off the board and cut their hearts out. Um, but at some point you gotta, you gotta catch the ball and you gotta make the sack, and you’ve gotta get the punt team on the field, or bring them to their knees on fourth down and to your point when they’re behind. And what you’re going to be playing fourth downs, you’re going to be playing to your knees like so all of that’s going to be the case when you are winning by two or three touchdowns in the SEC. And they will be this week against Cleveland. They will be against Denver two weeks, you know, they have another structure. They have short resting in Cincinnati. They’re going to see Pittsburgh, and then they’re going to see the Chargers. So, you know, the November part of the schedule, after this next week or two, they’re going to have a couple of serious division games and games where maybe they’re in a little bit of peril. I felt like they were in peril losing 10 to nothing on Monday night. I felt like, well, at some point, 22 and one against the NFC and all that that goes on, um, I felt like I said this to my wife, like, literally, we’re making food before we had some leftover pizza John’s. We made some pizza before the game on Monday, because pizza Johns isn’t open on Monday. So if you want pizza John’s on Monday Night Football, you gotta go on Sunday. You know this, you’re wearing that. Um, but we I said to her, I’m like, you know, tonight’s a weird games, like 730 and I said, I don’t know that I’m in the mood even watch football tonight. Like I watched it all day Saturday, all day. Say, I’m like, hey, you know these Monday night games play these things on Sunday drive me crazy. But I said to her, I’m like, they’re a little bit apparel tonight. This is a weird game. They are real quarterback on the other side. There’s some championship pedigree there. It’s a road game, it’s, it’s sleepy, and then they went out and they’re losing early in the game. And I’m like, Hmm, well, they answered that. I mean that that that was the best part of Monday night for me, is watching everything not go right. And in the end, they’re winning by three touchdowns.
Luke Jones 14:20
Yeah. I mean, and again, I mean, the final score I get, it ends up being a 10 point game, even with the defense getting as sloppy as it got in the final quarter, I never felt like it was a two
Nestor Aparicio 14:30
quarter game. The second and third quarter was the only time they really played football.
Luke Jones 14:34
Yeah, yeah. I mean, sure, sure. And that’s what was amazing about this game. I mean, over 500 yards of offense and 41 points and go look at their first quarter. I mean, if not for the Charlie Kohler play, I mean, their yardage would have been nothing in that first quarter, just about.
Nestor Aparicio 14:52
So halftime was all about how Derek Henry had gotten touched the ball, right? Sure,
Luke Jones 14:55
yeah. I mean, before Derrick Henry had his 81 yarder, he had 34 rushing yards. I mean, that was with. What four or five minutes to go in the third quarter? I mean, Derrick Henry, he was a factor in finishing the football game, but he wasn’t a factor in how the Ravens built this lead. I mean, it was actually kind of amusing to hear the broadcast speculate about an injury for Derrick Henry. Well, they clearly didn’t do their homework, because justice hills on the field, when they go into two minute and they go into little more up tempo and a little more pass heavy. I mean, because he’s better in pass protection and he gives you more as a receiver out of the backfield. So yeah, the game flow dictated a lot of that. I mean, you fell behind 10 nothing, right? Not that you’re going to panic, but you’re also not going to show a lack of urgency, either. So, I mean, that was the thing. I mean, Tampa Bay was going to play a certain way. I mean, going into the game, I mentioned how they like to stack the box, and they like the Blitz, and they play a lot of zone defense, and you do those things. I I thought that that was a recipe for Lamar Jackson to have another big night. You know, he came up a little short on having, uh, his third straight 300 yard passing game, which would have been the first time he’s ever done that. But hey, five touchdown passes. I mean, speaks for itself. And how about the fact that he did it again on Monday Night Football, and his career high in passing yardage, which was against Indy back in 2021 Monday Night Football. I mean, we’ll talk about January legacy Super Bowl, all that, you know, we’ll talk about that plenty between now
Nestor Aparicio 16:22
prime time, reckless better than anybody in the history of the game, right? Yeah.
Luke Jones 16:25
I mean his money and his Monday night, specifically Monday night. I mean, he’s just put up some unbelievable games on Monday night. I mean, and look at the end of the day we get it. And Lamar be the first to tell you, he’s thinking about Super Bowl. He’s thinking about winning a championship. But this isn’t an entertainment driven business, at the end of the day, it’s entertainment, right? I mean, inherently, a bunch of grown men playing a playing a game is not valuable unless people are supremely entertained watching it. Lamar Jackson is supremely entertaining, and he was once again on Monday night. But you know, going back to the defense, they don’t have to do a whole lot. I mean, that’s just the truth. They don’t need this to be the 2000 Ravens. You know, they don’t need this to be the 2006 Ravens. Or take your pick of any number of great defenses they’ve had over the last quarter century. They don’t need that with this offense. But can you take the ball away a little more? Can you clean up the pass defense some? You know, you don’t have to be, you don’t have to be top five or even top 10. Just don’t be 31st right? You know, don’t be at the very bottom. You know, move. Can you move a little bit closer to the middle of the pack and get a few more takeaways in the process you do that, good luck trying to beat this team. I mean, you know, you mentioned what their upcoming schedule? I mean, let’s, I’m not saying this to even, you know, to boast or anything like that. Is there another game left on the schedule where the Ravens aren’t going to be favored? I mean, let’s just putting aside injuries, which can apply to any team, any at any point, right?
Nestor Aparicio 18:06
Well, Houston and the Chargers are the two games that you look at and say, you know, they’re troublesome, they’re road game, you know, whatever, but they’ll be favored on the road. There’s no issue with the
Luke Jones 18:16
Ravens. I mean, maybe Houston, maybe. I mean, and again, a lot of that, how healthy is each team? All of that, but the rest of these games, I mean, they’re gonna be favored. Now, that doesn’t mean anything, right? I mean, they were heavily favored against the Raiders, and it’s amazing that game was a little over a month ago. And it becomes more and more perplexing every week, how in the world, did they lose to the Raiders? I mean, it’s just what
Nestor Aparicio 18:42
was their defense? Because
Luke Jones 18:44
the well, their offense dropped the ball at, you know, the proverbial dropped the ball at a couple points in that game too. They they could have put the ball away or put the game away with their offense in that game, and they didn’t. But it’s inexplicable, because it’s not only that, you know, at the time, we thought, Oh, the Raiders, maybe they’re maybe they’re decent, maybe they’ll be a wild card contender. They’re awful. I mean, they’re one of the worst teams in football. And it’s just incredible to think that the Ravens lost that game, you know, five weeks later, because of how great the Ravens have been and how lousy the Raiders have been. But we’re
Nestor Aparicio 19:17
still talking about the offensive line, then we’re still talking about that gelling Max COVID. He was great.
Luke Jones 19:21
Yeah, he was great in that game. Hey, and you know what? If you’re John Harbaugh, you love the fact that you’ve won five games in a row, but you’re going to continue to point back to that game to for your team, not to be overconfident. If you’re John Harbaugh, you’re going to play that clip from Ed Reed. Of all people, John, they don’t care what media guys say? Right? They don’t even care what former plays players in other markets, or talking heads on ESPN say John Harbaugh is going to play that clip of Ed Reed on the Manning cast saying game’s over. In their minds, they don’t understand the other side of finishing and being a championship team right now. And look, who am I to? Sit here and say Ed Reed’s wrong or anything like that. I’m not, but that’s that’s the kind of ammunition that a coach loves having in the process of being five and two, that you’re not going to get overconfident. And of course, their defense. There’s no reason for their defense to be overconfident right now, although
Nestor Aparicio 20:15
they’ve lost to Kansas City enough to know like none of this matters. They can be 15 and two, you know, whatever the much they’re going to be. I mean, as I look at it now, thinking about the beginning of the year and the loss and where they are, the notion that they’re going to have to go out to Kansas City, that would be the one thing that much like when Flacco went to New England and won, because we’re always on the road during that period of time. That’s the one thing Lamar hasn’t done, is going on the road when playoff games, you know, like that would be the next thing you think, we can’t beat them. We can beat them there. They’re going to, I mean, they’re almost going to have to beat them there because of the early losses. Because it doesn’t feel like the chiefs are going to sub their toe a whole lot here along the way, either, and they’ve got a two game lead and the tie breaker. So the Chiefs have to lose three more games than the Ravens along the way. I don’t know I and I know that Utah playing the raiders and the division that they’re in. For me, the notion that they’re gonna have to go out to Kansas City and do it still looms kind of large, way, way down the line, three months, oh sure, from now, whatever, and all the things that have to go right and wrong, but that’s, that’s a shame part of it, but it’s also, uh, yeah, we didn’t beat him here. We’ll beat him there, you know. And I remember the Ravens mindset about the Billy condiff game. And there were 365, days that, you know, you covered the team that at that point, through that period of time where they had to own it. And every time I hear Joe Bucha talk about, well, we sat with Lamar last night, all he talks about is losing that game. And you know that three runs and they didn’t win and they couldn’t beat the chiefs, and yeah, Lamar feels like the kind of guy that’s going to be obsessed about that. And I don’t, I don’t mind that, but the fact that they lost the first game does bring me a little bit of they’re going to have to go out there. And that’s the part that worries me for the whole operation, is that it’s not level playing field because how they played the first two weeks. Well,
Luke Jones 22:15
look the Ravens. There are two Super Bowls. They were road warriors. I mean, you’re not wrong, and that’s why I said it to you know, when we had our first segment talking about this team, they had the best quarterback in football right now with an asterisk, knowing that it’s October and January and February is what matters. They have the best, and for my money, the best team in football right now in terms of not record, because Kansas City has that, but in terms of how it looks across the board. Now, the defense isn’t the best in the NFL. We know that, but the offense overwhelmingly the best. So even if we don’t want to say the best team, you know, if you want to push back on that, find they have the best offense in the NFL right now with an asterisk. I mean, it’s all pending January. And to your point about Lamar and the way that he’s talked, the way that he’s playing right now. I mean, he’s playing smart football. He’s playing spectacular football. You know, didn’t like the helmet. The helmet hit. He took that. I mean, that was terrifying for a moment there. I mean, that was a brutal hit, and it’s again, a reminder that this can all be so fragile for anyone from Kansas City on down, right? If you lose your quarterback or you lose a critical player at another spot, look
Nestor Aparicio 23:36
at what happened to Tampa goblin at the end of the game. Yeah, right. Look at the air and the energy of the whole operation, where they entered the game four and two feeling good about themselves, had a 10 point lead at home, you know, I lost a Lamar, but, you know, okay, and then, yeah, playing around last 45 seconds of the game, they they really have cost themselves, you know, a key, key player, a key player Like we wouldn’t want to lose Derek Henry like that. Sure, sure,
Luke Jones 24:03
it’s unfortunate, but, I mean, go back and look at the Ravens. Three years ago, they lost Marcus, Peters and Gus Edwards within five minutes in a practice, right? It’s this brutal sport. I mean, it really is. That’s why you don’t take any of this for granted. That’s why for anyone you know, for any Ravens fans that have tried, and there aren’t many of them, but you’ll find a certain segment of it on social media that will try to brush off what happened in 2019 why? Because, well, they’re ahead of schedule. And Lamar is only at that point he was, what, 22 years old, 23 years old, whatever he was. And you know, even last year, it’s like, well, their windows still wide open. And I don’t disagree with that, but at the same time, none of this is guaranteed, right? I mean, we’re going to talk about this Cleveland game in a very different light than we’ve talked about the last few weeks, right? Because the Browns stink and they’re a team that’s going nowhere. Their central focus at this point is, what the heck are they going to do at the quarterback position? How? Heck are they going to finish out the season? What’s that going to mean for Kevin Stefanski, even though he just got a contract extension, but if that team completely quits on him, is Jimmy Haslam going to see the course or is he just going to blow everything up, including that quarterback contract that two more years still owed to Deshaun Watson? So it’s going to be a very different tone in how we talk about that, but you and I both know that anything could happen out there on the field on Sunday, and I don’t mean in terms of a win or a loss, anything can happen that can be catastrophic to your team, Super Bowl aspirations at any on any given play. So
Nestor Aparicio 25:33
Well, Joe burrows healthy, and Lamar is not in week 12.
Luke Jones 25:38
They’re a better team, period, right? Or in January, if Lamar is not healthy, or Patrick mahomes isn’t healthy, or, you know, whatever team Josh Allen, I mean, the same thing applies. So I don’t say that, that you play scared. You can’t do that either, and I’ll hear the Godwin thing at the same time. When do you take your foot off the gas? Right? I mean, at some point. I mean, they could have, they could have, they could have quit at the beginning of the fourth quarter, if they wanted to, I guess, but he could have got hurt at the end of the third quarter, right? I mean, so yeah, I hear the second guessing on that, and it’s not you specifically. I saw lots of people on social media with that, but it’s just it can happen on any given play, and that’s where you have to have the proper amount of humility and urgency to recognize what you have and to seize the opportunity. That’s why 2019 was so crushing. Go back to 2006 how crushing that was for the ravens and what opportunity they had that year, right? I mean, they could have hosted the A, F, C championship game that year, the following week after the the Patriots had beaten the Chargers. So when you have these teams that you can tell during the season that it’s a special team, right? I mean, you could tell 2012 you at this point, you couldn’t tell if that was a special team, and that that’s kind of what made that story so special, because of what happened in 2011 and the fact that they didn’t really look like a championship caliber team, really at any point, neither did the Chiefs last year. Sure Exactly, exactly so. So what I mean by that is not that you’re dismissive of anything, or that you play scared or but there is a certain amount of humility that you have to have knowing that on any given play that can all get wrecked, you know, on and why you have to seize the opportunity when it’s presented to you. That’s why it was so heartbreaking last January, because the Ravens absolutely had the better team than the Chiefs over the course of the 2023 season. Don’t think there’s any way to dispute that, but they weren’t better than them at the most important point in the season, in that AFC title game, and that’s why the Chiefs had another trophy, and why the Ravens were sitting at home watching them. So that same principle is still going to apply. And look how many more games are the ravens are the Chiefs going to lose? You know, are the Chiefs going to lose three more than the Ravens the rest of the way? I have no idea. I mean, who knows, right? It’s certainly not a Kansas City team that’s blowing people out on a weekly basis. So if you’re going to sit here right now and look into the crystal ball and tell me that the chiefs are going to have a stretch where they lose four out of five at some point, I probably would say, Well, the way their offense is playing that wouldn’t completely stun me. Now, their defense is playing at a high level. But again, it’s all about when you get to that stage. And this ravens team looks very well equipped offensively, but they still have some work to do with their defense. But again, it can all be so very fragile, and that’s just a reminder that’s in the back of your mind at any point to not get too high, because you just don’t know. And on the flip side, if you’re Kansas City, who, by the way, and I’ve made reference to this, even going back to the end of last year, the chiefs have still not lost a football game Nestor since that Christmas Day debacle they had against the Raiders, where, what the Raiders had two pick sixes. And remember the Ravens had their amazing performance in San Francisco that night. You think about where those two teams were at that point in time, and the perception at that point in time, and then realize the Chiefs have not lost a football game. I’m not, you know, preseason, whatever, they haven’t lost a real football game since then. And it just speaks to one, how great they’ve been, and two, how crazy this league is and how much things can flip. And we all remember Joe Flacco planking 12 years ago and mid December of that Super Bowl year, and then what happened five weeks later in Denver. So you know, it’s a it’s kind of a long winded, roundabout way of reminding ourselves that, still a little over a month ago, until Thanksgiving, this team looks fantastic, especially on offense. I mean, this team right now, I’m not sure who’s stopping them, right? I The ravens are the ones stopping the ravens, more than anything, to this point in the season. But look. Like, just because you’re playing a certain way now doesn’t mean that that’s going to continue into November and December and January, and on the flip side, even if you do hit a bump in the road. And that’s why I keep, you know, trying to point out the things about this defense that I still do. Like, you know, I I don’t think they’re devoid of talent, but they do need to put it together. They do need to be a more complete defense. Because, man, if you just get this, I got a message from one of my just Ravens fan friends that I follow on Twitter, Jamie. He said, Just imagine if Zach or can get this team to even just mediocre defensively, get this defense to play mediocre, average middle of the road football, you’re not able to beat them. And it’s very tough to disagree with that at this point in time, it’s it’s going to take a Herculean effort to beat this ravens team with the way that it’s playing offense at this point, not in week one and week two, what they’re playing now. And if you can put a little more productivity out of your defense, you know, force a couple more turnovers, get a couple more stops, play, even if it’s not 60 minutes, can you play 50 minutes of good football more consistently as a defense? You know, you do those things, good luck. I mean, really, it truly is, good luck trying to beat this team, unless they beat themselves and they turn the ball over and they commit penalties and they do silly things and they make bad play calls and all that. So I mean, that’s it’s a pretty good space to be in when five weeks ago, we were talking about this team being, oh and two. And even if I was far from thinking they were on the brink or panicking or anything like that. Certainly, when you’re owing to you’re not feeling great about things, and five weeks later, they’re they’re on top of the world in terms of how they’re feeling right now, even if, no, they don’t have the best record in the NFL, like Kansas City has right now.
Nestor Aparicio 31:53
He is Baltimore, Luke. He’s Luke Jones. You can find his work out on social media. We’re trying to make heads or tails of Cleveland week. It is a short week here. We’re talking World Series. Luke and I had a long chat about the Orioles offseason. Yes, there is such a thing. There’s a real off season for the Orioles this year. So we’re going to be monitoring that probably a lot more closely than we have given new ownership, and what we hope is a new philosophy in some way here for the off season for the Orioles. In the meantime, the Ravens have kept things very, very interesting. In the week before Halloween, all of our work is up at Baltimore positive.com, our Maryland crab cake tours back after it on Friday, we’re gonna be at mama’s on the half shell in Owings Mills. Say the kids call it foundry row. It’s like Baltimore Peninsula. It’ll always be port Covington. To me, it’ll always be Tanner’s mill. To me, out there in Owings Mills will be there on Friday from one before we’ll have Raven scratch offs to get away from the Maryland lottery. Our friends at Jiffy Lube MultiCare putting Luke out on the road, as well as our friends at Royal farms. Real fresh, real fast, had some ROFO chicken over the weekend. I don’t put pictures up on social media every time I get get a two piece with, uh, Western fries. Sometimes I put the Western fries up just to piss off Max Weiss because she doesn’t like Western fries, because she doesn’t know what’s good. Gotta get the right catch up with those as well. But also our friends at Liberty, pure solutions, as well as curio wellness, putting us out on the road for the Maryland oyster torch, our 26th anniversary, 26 years of doing this, 26 oysters in 26 days in 26 ways. We’re up to about day seven or eight. Ray Bachman is going to be honored this week. He is battling cancer. Right now, down in Anne Arundel County, there’s a GoFundMe page set up if you were a fan of Ray, his trivia nights, if you love ray, ray is easy to find out on social media. It’s very easy to find the GoFundMe page to help him and his family. He and I have been texting. He has a throat issue where he can’t speak, but he can text, and he’s giving me good text. So Ray’s hanging in there. Ray’s battle. In the battle, people are asking me about Ray. I want to make sure that we are keeping people up to date on what’s going on there. Meantime, we’re having oysters. I had some oysters with Ray down at Mike’s and and Reva, Maryland a couple of weeks ago. The oyster tour brought to you by curio wellness and foreign daughter and liberty pure solutions. They keep my well water clean. They can keep your well water clean as well as take care of all of your plumbing needs. One 800 clean water. Luke and are going to continue on with NFL conversation World Series, Dodgers and Yankees. You know, it’s crazy. Luke’s been on the planet like 4142 years. Has never seen the Yankees and the Dodgers in the World Series, and it feels like they play every year, but they don’t, and they haven’t since 1981 so I’ll be watching Chavez Ravine and the Bronx all weekend long, because I like baseball. So does Luke. So do you we are wnst am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, we never stop talking the magic of Lamar Jackson and Baltimore. Positive. You.
