Luke Jones and Nestor discuss improving and healing Ravens defense shutting down Tua and Dolphins attack

Luke Jones and Nestor discuss improving and healing Ravens defense shutting down Tua and Dolphins attack

Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Baltimore Ravens’ defensive improvements, highlighting the return of Roquan Smith and the impact of Kyle Hamilton’s shift to a three-safety defense. They noted the Ravens’ better performance in the red zone and on third down, despite Miami’s early lead. The conversation emphasized the need for a pass rush, with potential trade acquisitions like Quinn Williams and Carl Lawson mentioned. They also praised the young players’ progress, including Malachi Starks and Mike Green, and stressed the importance of maintaining health and consistency. The trade deadline is crucial for adding impactful defensive players to bolster their playoff prospects.

Action Items

• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Monitor the development and progress of young defensive players like Starks and Green.
• [ ] Evaluate potential trade options to improve the pass rush.
• [ ] Assess the team’s performance and playoff chances as they navigate a challenging late-season schedule.

Outline

Improving Ravens Defense and Offense

• Nestor Aparicio introduces the topic of the Ravens’ victory in Miami and the importance of Lamar Jackson’s return.
• Luke Jones discusses the improvements in the defense, particularly the return of Roquan Smith and the impact of Kyle Hamilton.
• The conversation highlights the defensive improvements over the last three games, including better performance against the Rams and Bears.
• Luke Jones mentions the challenges faced by the defense, such as the injury to Namdi Mata BK and the need for a pass rush.

Defensive Performance and Key Plays

• Luke Jones emphasizes the importance of the defense’s performance in the red zone and on third down.
• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the impact of turnovers and penalties on the game’s outcome.
• The conversation touches on the offensive side, noting Lamar Jackson’s return and the potential of the offense despite concerns about the offensive line.
• Luke Jones highlights the need for a trade deadline acquisition to bolster the pass rush and defensive line.

Young Players and Veteran Contributions

• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the contributions of young players like Malachi Starks and Mike Green.
• The conversation includes the importance of veteran players like Marlon Humphrey and Roquan Smith in the defense’s success.
• Luke Jones mentions the potential impact of Carl Lawson and the need for more consistent pressure from the defensive line.
• The discussion covers the importance of situational football and the defense’s ability to raise its floor.

Trade Deadline and Future Plans

• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones speculate about potential trade deadline acquisitions, including edge rushers and defensive tackles.
• The conversation includes the possibility of trading for players like Quinn Williams and the challenges of salary cap management.
• Luke Jones emphasizes the need for a meaningful addition to the defense to improve their chances in January.
• The discussion touches on the importance of maintaining health and consistency among the young players.

Impact of Key Defensive Players

• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the impact of Kyle Hamilton’s return to the box and his role in disrupting opposing offenses.
• The conversation highlights the importance of Roquan Smith’s return to the defense and his impact on the second level.
• Luke Jones mentions the need for more consistent pressure from the pass rush and the potential for trade deadline acquisitions to help.
• The discussion includes the importance of situational football and the defense’s ability to perform well in high-leverage situations.

Overall Team Performance and Future Outlook

• Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the Ravens’ overall performance, noting the improvements in the defense and the potential of the offense.
• The conversation includes the importance of maintaining health and consistency among the young players.
• Luke Jones emphasizes the need for a meaningful trade deadline acquisition to bolster the pass rush and defensive line.
• The discussion touches on the importance of situational football and the defense’s ability to perform well in high-leverage situations.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Ravens defense, Lamar Jackson, Roquan Smith, Kyle Hamilton, pass rush, Miami game, third down, red zone, offensive line, trade deadline, defensive line, Namdi Mata BK, Malachi Starks, Mike Green, Nate Wiggins.

SPEAKERS

Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, am 1570 to Baltimore. We are Baltimore, positive, positively. Break it down. A victorious Thursday evening in Miami Gardens down in Florida, in the home of Lamar Jackson. We’ve talked at length about Lamar Jackson getting back on the field, the benefits of that and the offensive line and scoring 28 points. Luke Jones joins us. Joins us now, as he will hopefully next Friday at Pizza John’s, we do the Maryland crab cake tour. We’re also going to be at Cocos on Wednesday, we’ll have lottery tickets to give away. Also, big thanks to our friends at GBMC and curio wellness for sponsoring all of our work here in the fall season, so we can talk about a three and five football team with a returning offense, but still Luke, when it comes down to it, the defense is what’s going to get him beat, right? Not not having a pass rush. Some things have certainly gotten better about the defense, including roquan Smith’s hamstring, as much as we talk about lamar’s hamstring having roquan running at full speed. He doesn’t look like a fat old man right now. That’s good.

Luke Jones  01:05

He’s playing very well. I mean, it was great against the bears. He was very good on Thursday night. And you know, you have a defense that is certainly playing much better over these last three games, even going back to that rams game, and I get it. You go back and look at that game, I mean, LA, they left some opportunities on the field. There was no doubt about it. But you’ve seen this dramatic shift from the moment that they traded for a low he Gilman, you know, getting back to a three safety defense, three safety, nickel Kyle Hamilton, playing close to the line of scrimmage. We talked about it most of the spring, from the moment that ardarius Washington got hurt, and that derailed their plan from when they drafted Malachi Starks. They wanted to play a style that was similar to this, that injury happens, they kind of pivoted to, okay, well, we’ve got these corners. We’re going to add Jair Alexander, we’re going to play with more corners on the field. Well, that didn’t work out so well, right? And obviously the injury to namdi matabike still looms so large for this football team in a big picture sense, not just for the rest of this year, but not knowing what his future is going to look like. But bringing it back to the present, we’re seeing a much higher floor for this defense. It there’s still plenty that you can look at. You know, it beyond just the pass rush. I mean, look at that first half. If I had told you before the game started, Nestor that Miami would have the ball for 19 minutes in the first half, they would punt once they would out gain the Ravens by over 100 yards, you’d probably be thinking, Oh, they I hope they kick some field goals. You know, you’d be what? You’d certainly be thinking the Ravens would be losing that game, and it was 14 to six. Now, what? What made a big difference here, obviously, Miami turns the ball over, but a great play by a low E Gilman on the second drive after the dolphins kicked a field goal on that opening drive to get an early lead, but they were great on third down. They were great inside the red zone. They did not commit, handle back breaking penalties in the way that Miami did, right? So,

Nestor Aparicio  03:13

well, the red zone things kind of, that’s, that’s a good sign, even against the bad, Oh,

Luke Jones  03:18

absolutely, absolutely. I mean, look, we’ve talked about it and we saw this. I mean, Lamar Jackson comes back for the first time in over a month and throws four touchdowns. Right this offense for as much as we’ll continue to talk about the offensive line and their running game still needing to be better than it’s been, collectively, you have a lot to work with there when you have a healthy two time MVP quarterback leading the way on the offensive side of the ball. So even with those issues, even with those concerns about the offensive line, you still feel much better about the offense than not the defense. They’ve been able to raise the floor. You know, they are at a point now where you’re saying, okay, they’re still bending, and they’re bending quite a bit, but they’re not breaking like they had been. And that’s where you look at as this team is constructed. When you have Lamar Jackson, when you have an offense that even on a night when they didn’t run the ball worth a darn in the first half, and you still have the questions about the offensive line, they still hung 28 points on a team on the road on a short week, right? That’s still saying something, even if it was against the bad team that what I’m saying by that is this defense doesn’t need to be a top three defense in the NFL or a top five defense in the NFL for this team to make a deep run. Now the pass rush still, they’re going to have to find that, I still think at the trade deadline, an edge player would be enormous for them, right? Not saying it’s going to be, you know, Max Crosby, or someone you know where it’s a pie in the sky idea, but someone that can help you there, and maybe Carl Austin, who you know now has will have a couple practice weeks under his belt. I. I would expect we’re going to see him in the mix there, you know, right now, it’s Kyle van Noy. It’s David ajabo not doing a whole lot. It’s, you know, Mike Green, cutting his teeth and getting more experience. And you’re hoping, you know Malachi Starks, you know, another rookie on the back end gets an interception. You want to see more from those young guys, but it’s still a lot of, is that going to be enough? You know, are they going to get enough pressure consistently? But, you know, if they can, you know the formula of you can give up some yards. And I mean, the end of the night Miami, from a yardage standpoint, it was very similar. I mean, these teams almost had the same amount of yardage, which speaks to that’s clearly not the best barometer of assessing how a

Nestor Aparicio  05:44

football game. Yeah, well, when it scores 14, is the idea realized two plays on third down for actually three because they missed the field goal. Sure you know that that was the prescription. If the dolphins were a winning team, they would have been winning 21 to 14 at halftime instead of losing 14 to six, because they squandered all sorts of opportunities. And I’ll give the Ravens defense credit, but only so much, only so much. I mean, I’ll give them credit from

Luke Jones  06:11

the standpoint of, they were really good inside the red zone, and they were really good on third down. You know, look, it’s the NFL, right? And especially when you don’t have, you know, a great pass rush. I mean, they don’t even have a good pass rush right now. They’ve, you know, they’ve certainly cleaned up their run defense. I mean, early, you know, early in the game, Miami popped a couple runs, but didn’t do a whole lot. The bears same way. The bears ran the ball very early in that game last, you know, I say last week, it was five days ago, right? But, you kind of look at that, they’ve gotten better in that they stopped the run against the Rams as well, so they’ve started to clean that up. And that was something that was a big concern when they lost Matt abigay Travis Jones was banged up at the time. That didn’t help either. But you’re seeing elements for this defense to be better. I keep saying they’ve, they’ve been able to raise the floor of this defense, right, right? I I no longer feel like they’re going to get gouged, right, that they’re going to give up 30 plus or 40 plus the way they were earlier in the season. Now, granted, Miami’s really struggling, and they’ve been terrible. Last Sunday in Atlanta, aside, they’ve been very poor, but we’re seeing better situational football from this defense. And again, I can’t help but continue to point to Kyle Hamilton being in the box, and to your point, roquan Smith being healthy and looking more like the roquan Smith we saw a couple

Nestor Aparicio  07:34

years ago. Marlon homes out there playing right now is playing

Luke Jones  07:37

better, right we’ve seen a better version of Marlon Humphrey here. Marlon Humphrey was really bad the first month of the season. Now, how much of that was health, I don’t know, but when he was out there, he wasn’t playing

Nestor Aparicio  07:47

well. So we spent a whole month of April talking about who the number one draft pick is going to be, at least here in October as we move into November, Starks doesn’t look like a bust. Yeah.

Luke Jones  07:57

And look, it’s always, I mean, the first month of the season, for six weeks of the season, especially all the injuries they had, all the the angst over just how they were playing as a unit. You know, yeah, it’s easy to kind of look at the young guys and say, well, they need more from them. Well, of course, but you need more from your veterans too. You You need the Ravens weren’t getting good play from their veteran players, let alone you’re talking

Nestor Aparicio  08:19

about and Starks is about to play games he’s never played before. They don’t, they don’t play more eight or nine or 10 games in college these days, right? So, you know, this is where this thing’s about to extend out a little bit well.

Luke Jones  08:30

But he played at Georgia, so they did play SEC

Nestor Aparicio  08:33

championships and pre championships, and you have

Luke Jones  08:36

the College College Football Playoff now. So I’m not as concerned about that as much as it’s just, it’s getting experience, you know, you’re, you’re playing at the absolute highest level, right? I mean, as look, I love college, college football as much as anyone. It’s not the NFL, you know, it’s kind of like baseball we talk about, you know, we’ve talked about this a lot with the Orioles over the years, these triple A prospects, of triple A, you know, why haven’t they been caught up? Why isn’t this guy in Baltimore and well. And then you see them even after it’s two months past due, when fans wanted them to be called up, and they still struggle, because the jump is quite traumatic. So, and then when you take into account all the other issues that was going on with this defense, yeah, you’re going to see someone like Malachi Starks probably struggle a little bit more and and by the way, just because he had an interception doesn’t mean that he’s not going to have some more. Going to have some more growing pains. But you want to see progress. You know, Mike Green has a big set. He’s totally in the game,

Nestor Aparicio  09:28

yeah, and he got tripped at one point. I mean, when you’re noticing these guys making plays of effort, even mistakes of Effort, Right? Or when they’re not getting picked on, or when they are getting picked on, they pick they pick the ball off, so all the way around. I mean, Gilman is a plus. Starks has been a plus. Marlon Humphrey’s health has been a plus. Roquan being healthy a plus. Now, the defensive line in the past, Russia, yeah, and obviously, Kyle Hamilton being down and injured momentarily. You know, they can’t afford anything like that. Yeah.

Luke Jones  10:00

I mean, and that’s one thing we talked about when they were one in five, just, you know, if you’re talking about the path, obviously you you pop. It started with Lamar getting back on the field, and we saw that with him throwing four touchdowns on Thursday night. But, you know, obviously you want to make these improvements. But when you’re one in five, and even at three and five now there’s, there’s still not operating from a huge margin for error here, right? I mean, we talked about it from Sunday’s win going into the Thursday night game, if you know, it’s great to beat the bears, but if you lay an egg and you come out flat, and you play lousy on a short week, on a Thursday night road game, then you’re two and six and you’re kind of right back to square one in terms of the bad vibes, right? Even with Lamar being back, but they won, but they have to stay healthy. I mean, they are very healthy. This is the first time, and I don’t know how long Nestor where they had no one on their final injury report. They didn’t have anyone even listed as much as questionable. Now, granted, you’ve lost namdi Mata BK, you’ve lost Roderick Washington, who’s out indefinitely and having surgery, when we thought maybe he was going to come back in the near future. For me, I look at the defense, and more specifically, the defensive line and the edge rushers. You know, what’s Eric da Costa going to do at the trade deadline? It feels like they need, need at least one meaningful addition there. And that doesn’t mean you’re trading a first round pick for someone necessarily, but someone that can help you there, right? I mean, someone that can, you know, is it necessarily, an All Pro talent, but someone that can be part of the collab, not

Nestor Aparicio  11:36

someone we notice. How about somebody that’s going out there and taking snaps, and every week we look up and say they made a play or two, just a player, sure, sure, yeah.

Luke Jones  11:44

And some of that’s also, hey, can you set the edge? I mean, they, they had some, you know, they had some vulnerability early in that game with setting the edge. Now, it got better as the night went on, and obviously Miami falling behind multiple scores. You get out of a script where you’re going to be running the ball, you know, for anything other than just to show it here and there, but yeah, that’s, that’s part of this as well. So I’m still looking at that until the trade deadline passes. That has to be part of a big part of the conversation in terms of, what can you do, personnel wise, to make that better. As I said, Carl Lawson, I think can be part of that as well, and I think he can help them. But you know, can you make a massive move? If you can make a massive, massive trade, you know, if you can bring in a real highlight player, you know, whether it’s an edge guy or, well,

Nestor Aparicio  12:31

they don’t feel like a three and five team. From that standpoint, they they feel like an acquisition here could be a game changer for them, and they don’t sure it the season. I think you’re not tiptoeing through this anymore. They’re in a real season. And if they can really get max Crosby for a one time, whatever, I’m making that up, if they can make a splash in some way. And again, roquam was splash. I mean, that was a big that’s a lottery pick. That was the kind of player they couldn’t get in the draft, and they paid him more than you wanted them to pay him at that point, and the jury’s still at he had won a championship, had won playoff games here. But that being said, that kind of acquisition is not out of the realm of possibility in regard to the Costa, I don’t think, and I know, look, they’re never going to give draft picks. They got to give a draft pick away for the shenanigans last week. Bad enough, literally. But you know, go read about that. I’m not going to beat them up after they won. I beat them up plenty last week. But that being said, they’re not going to tiptoe into this as a three and they’re going to be on board to make a big deal. Because I think they see what you and I see, they need real help if they can really get someone on the defensive line, some clayus Campbell, I’m making that up, but somebody who could be much more of an impact for them than the outside of someone’s roster, or someone that’s on the street right now, and they’re not going to sell me on that. Sure, sure. Matt apeca, you know, one of those kinds of guys, right? Yeah.

Luke Jones  14:03

I mean, I think, I mean, the Raiders have been very adamant. And I saw Ian Rappaport, who was part of Prime’s free game show. You know, it sounds like the Raiders. I mean, it sounds totally legitimate. They’re not trading Max Crosby, the name that’s out there that, I think, is the big name. It’s not an edge guy, but Quinn Williams of the Jets defensive tackle. I mean, let’s face it, I think the ravens, even if they are not saying anything and they’re letting Matta BK speak when, whenever he’s going to speak about his health,

Nestor Aparicio  14:32

he’s not in their plans any longer. He’s in their salary cap. I mean,

Luke Jones  14:35

he plans. I mean, he might not be right. I mean, we don’t know. But point is, they probably, they internally have a better idea of what that is. So let’s say, just for the argument, for the argument that there is very severe doubt about his ability to play in the future. Well, Quinn Williams would be a very comparable replacement. Now he’s also making a ton of money, just like Matt abigay. So there is the question of how. You make that work from a salary cap standpoint, not just for the rest of 2020, dude, if the

Nestor Aparicio  15:05

Packers can pick up Micah Parsons five minutes before the season begins, right? Like, that’s a huge impact. And there are a lot of dumb teams, and the Jets are a dumb team, right? So are the Raiders, quite frankly, you know? And so are the bears for giving us roquan Smith period, right? Good teams don’t do that. We’re not dealing Kyle Hamilton off, you know? I mean, we’re just not.

Luke Jones  15:28

And that’s also part of who exactly is going to be available, right? It’s very easy for me to sit here, you know, at home, saying, Oh, well, the Jets will trade trade the ravens, Quinn and Williams. Well, the Jets

Nestor Aparicio  15:39

are also thinking, Okay, this year might be some they got to play next year, but we, we want him on our team next year. And, you know, bad we had to beat a draft candidate. Yeah, exactly so. But he’s

Luke Jones  15:50

one name that’s been thrown out there that could be available. I mean, you want to talk about something that would help your pass rush. It’s basically getting a namdi Mata BK back in the mix, right? I mean, that’s what you’re talking about there. So Well,

Nestor Aparicio  16:01

when they had him, we thought of them as a Super Bowl contender. I don’t think of them as a Super Bowl contender right now. I don’t think they’re capable one in four games in January and February, the way they’re comprised right this minute. I don’t, I don’t, I don’t, I don’t see that sign, even though we’re all bullish about him beating Miami and beating Chicago, they got their ass kicked pretty good the first month of the year by good teams, seeing where that’s going to be in January and knowing it’s going to be on the road, if it’s anywhere at all. I can’t talk about them as a Super Bowl contender. I’m going to talk about them as a potential division champion, because I believe that. I don’t say anything. I don’t believe here, but I believe that they can win the division 10 and seven, nine and eight, whatever it is, sloppy wins split with Pittsburgh sweep Cincinnati. You know, I don’t know what what that’ll look like. I know those teams aren’t very good, but you can start talking to me about them going to Kansas City and going to Buffalo to win in January. They need to do better than a rudimentary addition to their defense, because they are playing without Matt abiqui, and they’re going to play without him, and they’re going to play without a pass rush, and Kyle van, no, he’s not going to get younger or better, and adalfe always not coming back, right? So all of that being said, I am bullish that they think they can win a Super Bowl. They’re in the business of not punting on a season at this point. So if they’re not punting on the season, it means they’re all in. And if they’re all in when you’ve dealt for roquan Smith, right, and when you’ve dealt for Eugene Monroe, I look at it and say they’ll identify somebody else’s maybe not Micah Parsons, but whatever the whatever the best player that’s available out there who’s going to get dealt, you got to pony up your second round pick. To pony up, you have to pony up. And they’re already gonna lose a draft pick for the shenanigans next week or last week.

Luke Jones  17:48

Next they are. They are. I’m still skeptical how early the draft pick will be. We’ll see, right? But yeah, I mean, I would think that that’s going to be in the cards. But again, it comes back to who Realistically speaking, is going to be available. What is the cost going to be in terms of salary and contract structure moving forward and in terms of draft compensation? I mean, there have been years where they’ve wanted to make a bigger splash than they have, and the players aren’t available, right? I mean, you’re you can’t lose your mind and trade two first round picks for someone, if it’s not worth two first round picks at the same time, they traded a second round pick for roquan Smith, right? I mean, so you know, we’re going to see how this plays out, but I’m with you. First of all, you know, January so far out, and when you’re three and five, you still have so much work to do, albeit against a soft schedule, especially the next month, but, you know, at the same time, yeah, if you’re thinking in terms of getting into that position, whether you’re 10 and seven or, you know, you really get on a roll, and you somehow finish 11 and six right, which everyone would, but if you’re talking in terms of What that looks like in January, you still come back to the pass rush. You still come back to the defensive line. You know, just, just the

Nestor Aparicio  19:06

depth of line to we’ve already beat

Luke Jones  19:09

them, no doubt. I’ll continue to say, go rescue Kevin Zeitler from the Titans. I mean, I can’t imagine it would cost that much in terms of draft compensation unless the Titans say we have a number one overall pick, rookie quarterback, we need to keep Kevin Zeitler to keep him as upright as possible. And I’ll hear that. But in terms of, there’s a guy that I think could help your offensive line, but to bring it to stay focused on the defense. I mean, yeah, if we’re going to really look far ahead and really, and look, even before that, they still need to go on the kind of role and finish the month of December, which is not the easiest slate of games when you’re looking at, you know, when you get to Pittsburgh, December 7, at Cincinnati, the 14th, and then New England at home, which that game looks way different right now than it did in May. Let’s put it that. Way, at the very least, regardless of the Patriots, you know how for real they are, they’re good. You know, I’m not sure they’re great, but they’re good. And then you’re at Green Bay, at Pittsburgh. So just to go through, to navigate that slate, man, I look at this defense, and boy, if you could add an edge of some impact, or a defensive tackle or some of some impact. I mean, sure, both in a perfect world, I’m gonna, I’m trying to be realistic here, but if you could add one impact piece at one of those two spots, it would really help, because they’re just, they’re light there right now. I mean, it’s not just the quality. There’s also the quantity issue. I mean, they’ve had three outside linebackers active the last two weeks. And, okay, I’ll throw loss into the mix. I’ll give you that. So you’ll have four then. But you know, there’s the quantity and the quality question for their defensive line and their defensive front and their pass rush collectively. And yeah, you know, Kyle Hamilton blitzing and roquan Smith from the a gap. And you can do different. You know, they blitz their you know, they, they’ll blitz a corner. I mean, you can do different things like that, and that’s going to be part of what they do. This team’s blitzed a lot, you know, if you go look at their blitz rate, I mean, it’s, it ranks pretty high, but it hasn’t gotten home a whole lot, right? So it’s clearly something that they’re aware of.

Nestor Aparicio  21:18

Well, for The Simpsons and the Starks and the Wiggins, the younger players, to step up and we notice them as much as we notice Hamilton and Marlon Humphrey and roquan Smith. I mean, I still think they have good young talent that is, you want to see it emerge in the next four to six weeks. You want to notice Starks the way I did on Thursday night. You want to notice Mike green a little bit more than we did the first month of the season, because those are the guys that are going to be playing. I mean, no matter who you whatever, pie in the sky dream trade you have for Matt Crosby, whomever, these other guys have to be good because they’re and healthy, because they’re real,

Luke Jones  21:57

yeah, and I’m glad you mentioned Mike green again. I mean, yeah. I mean, I, I think you’ve, we’ve absolutely seen flashes, but you need to see more, right?

Nestor Aparicio  22:06

For four years too, sure, sure,

Luke Jones  22:09

sure, and, but, but that’s what you’re counting on, right? I mean, look at Nate Wiggins right now. I mean, I know we had a PI right, but we’ve seen Nate Wiggins more and more these last few weeks. I mean, he’s matching up with the the opposition’s number one wide receiver. I mean, not necessarily doing it exclusively, but he’s done some shadowing, right? I mean, we saw him do that against Devonte Adams in that rams game. So you know, you’re seeing Nate Wiggins. He’s their number one corner at this point. I mean, Humphrey, you know. And obviously Humphrey was playing the nickel early in the season, before they shifted and went to Hamilton at the nickel spot. But you know, Nate Wiggins is emerging. I’m not saying he’s an All Pro just yet. Let’s be clear. He still needs to find more consistency, but you’re seeing an ascending player right there, and that’s what you want to see from Starks the rest of the year. I mean, I’d be remiss. We didn’t, we haven’t even mentioned, I mean, how about to play Teddy Buchanan made on the same day he was named AFC defensive Rookie of the month, which, I’m not sure if he really was that guy in October, but you’re seeing someone that’s playing a lot. He’s, you know, he flashed. I mean, whether, whether whether he was the one who actually poked the ball out there or not. He made the tackle. You know, that was a end around play with the receiver carrying the ball and wrapped him up and the ball gets poked out in the process. That was good to see. You know, you need more of that. I

Nestor Aparicio  23:33

mean, well, they’re getting turnovers. We haven’t talked about that at all 25 minutes, they got a couple of turnovers in that. Yeah, makes a big, big difference the other team. You get off the field a couple times on third down, you make they miss a field goal. I mean, they, they played pretty clean defensively. I thought, you know, against a bad team, bad to I’ll give you that. But there were, it was a few. It’s a feel good night. It’s a feel good 10 days after playing that way for especially for young players on a one in five team with no confidence, right? I mean, you can’t have that. I saw that with Miami. You know, they’re playing with no confidence.

Luke Jones  24:07

They were a good high leverage defense on Thursday night. You know, they gave up a bunch of yardage in between the 20s. No doubt, Miami absolutely stubbed their toe multiple times and shot themselves in the foot multiple times, but this defense rose to the occasion. I mean, when you look at the final numbers and the fact that Miami was two of 12 on third down, you know, they were over three inside the red zone. I mean, go no further than that. And then three takeaways, right? And especially the Gilman force fumble, right? I mean, on the second drive there. I mean, look at how different that first half is, if that doesn’t happen. I mean, the ravens, that was their first touchdown, and they needed four plays just to get that. You know, they had goal to go, and they had fourth and goal before Lamar throws the touchdown to Andrews. I mean, that offense scuffled in the first half, except for one drive. So, I mean, that was a. Massive play by Gilman there. And you know, we’ve seen Gilman. If I have one nitpick about Gilman, he misses a few too many tackles. You know, that’s one. His tackling hasn’t been great. That’s something I’d like to see him clean up, get cleaned up a little bit, but he made an impact, right? And that’s what you’re looking for. I mean, they it. Their defense looks so much different now, with Hamilton in the box and playing at the line of scrimmage, and you’re blitzing them off the edge and doing the things that he we saw him do his first couple years, and last year, they had to go away from that because Marcus Williams and Eddie Jackson couldn’t cover anyone on the

Nestor Aparicio  25:35

back. And let’s be honest, you got a defender who can be disruptive, like Ray Lewis was disruptive like Terrell Suggs. Mean, he’s like Ed reboos, the disruptive player. Kyle Hamilton, is it? He’s a football player.

Luke Jones  25:46

He’s not a safety. He’s a football player. I mean, and you know that I sound like a little like old school football guy saying that. You know what I mean by that is, he’s a positionless player. I mean, you can line him up and do just about anything. I mean, I don’t know if you saw the clip of the Bears game where he actually picked a guard, you know, as they ran a, you know, whatever their stun or the Blitz they were running, he picked off a guard on that play, and still got to the still got to Caleb Williams before anyone else. I mean, freakish stuff right there.

Nestor Aparicio  26:16

Freak his size about him too.

Luke Jones  26:19

I mean, he’s just, he’s such a great player. And you know, we haven’t necessarily seen him, you know, like a big interception or something like that. You know, since, since he’s been back in the box. But, man, you just see his impact. You see more. You know, what was it was the change of direction play where the the Miami ball carrier ended up turning directions, ran the other side of the field and ended up getting six or seven yards, Hamilton blew that play up seven yards behind the line of scrimmage, though, you know it was more his teammates problem of not rallying to the ball and making a tackle there, but you just see what he does, and it’s why guys like me who don’t know a whole lot about football, but know enough to really maximize Kyle Hamilton’s value. And look, this is not a knock on his ability away from the line of scrimmage. He can cover. He can cover and play center field. We’ve seen that he did that last year at a time where the Ravens needed that from him, because they didn’t have anyone else who could do it. But he is his full potential and his full value is unlocked when you can use him as that guy that’s just moving all over the place. I mean, it’s just it. I think back to Tom Brady, who, if you remember, famously, you know, one of the NFL films documentaries talked about the fact that he had on his wristband when he played the Ravens find 20 on every play. I’m not saying Kyle Hamilton is Ed Reed. Let me be clear about that, but he is that dynamic in terms of pre snap, the opposing quarterback, the opposing, you know, the offense that’s on the field, they have to know where Hamilton is, because he’s going to wreck the game if you don’t have a handle on what he’s about to do, and if you don’t have a plan for it. And you know, we’re seeing that difference, and we’re seeing the defense be better with that alone. Before you start talking about some of the other guys getting healthy, you know, roquan Smith being back is huge. There’s no doubt about that. You know, regardless of how anyone feels about what you know is roquan Truly a $20 million Lineback. Well, he’s their best linebacker, whether, whether you think he’s a 20 million guy or not, he’s their best guy, and they need him out there, right? So he’s back out there. It’s made the second level of their defense that much better, and you’re seeing a defense that’s improved. It’s not where it needs to be, in a big picture sense, I share your concerns in terms of, when you get into January and you’re thinking about, you know, the vision for this team making a run, yeah, their pass rush, they’ve got to, they’ve got to find something. That’s why the trade deadline is, in my mind, so big. You know, they need something. There something to come away from the trade deadline with to make you better, whether it’s a D tackle, whether it’s an edge guy, you know, they already added a safety. So it’s not like Eric to Costa hasn’t done any work, but keep in mind, they did have to trade away to do that. And saying, Oh, it was great. They took a weakness and made it weaker. Yeah, right, exactly. So, you know, that’s where you still look at this thing, and, man, you really feel like they need at least one more meaningful piece there to come away with. If you do that, then I can envision a path for their pass rush. Collectively, at least getting better to the point where it’s not this liability that it’s been because, you know, there’s still far too many times and you know, they Hey, Brent urban had a sack on that first defensive drive of the second half. That was good to see, right? I mean, they collapsed the pocket a few times, here and there. But are we seeing that consistently enough, especially when you’re thinking about potential matchups against better teams late, later in the season, or getting into January. Yeah, that that’s that’s the big one still for this defense, even if they have cleaned up some of those other areas that were deficiencies early in the season.

Nestor Aparicio  29:56

Trade deadline is Tuesday afternoon. Luke will have. Have anything that happens on the wnst tech service. It’s all brought to you by our friends at Coal roofing and Gordian energy. And of course, we’re doing the Maryland crab cake Tour presented by the Maryland lottery. Will be at Cocos on Wednesday. We’ll be at Pizza John’s on Friday, putting some more things together in to November. He is Luke. You can find him at Baltimore Luke. Luke at W nst.net I can be found Nestor Baltimore positive or just about anywhere social media travels. Luke will be out, knowings, Mills Ravens have a long week, but it’ll feel a little shorter by the time we get here on Monday. Hope everybody enjoys the football games all weekend long, as well as whenever we get together. Luke, there will be a world series champion the next time too. So a little bit of baseball, little bit of college football this weekend. Oh, actually, really good local college basketball on Monday night down at CFG Bank Arena, as well as my Coppin State eagles are going to play the Terps. So things happening around here from a basketball, even hockey. I had dinner with Barry Trotz the other night. I’m not going to bore anybody on the air with that, but it is. It is the season, and it’s better to be three and five. Than one and five. I’m Nestor. He’s Luke. We r w, N, S, T, am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and we never stop talking Baltimore. Positive. You.