While all four teams in the AFC ended Week 3 with a 2-1 mark, we’re not so sure that the surge of the Browns and resolve of the Steelers will stand the test of time or the standings. But, for now, the Ravens certainly haven’t looked the part of the dominant outfit we expected a month ago. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the center of the purple concerns on the offensive line and prepare for Titans on Sunday in Baltimore.
Luke and Nestor assessed Week 3 NFL results and the Ravens’ outlook before their matchup with Tennessee.
Ravens Outlook
- The Ravens are 2–1 but have not looked dominant; their defense must improve tackling, third-down execution, run stopping, and pass-rush consistency.
- Tennessee appears overmatched, but Atlanta and Cleveland may be more challenging than initially expected. The Ravens could reach 5–1 before facing Cincinnati and Buffalo.
- Open question: Can the defense become an upper-echelon unit as injured players return and new contributors are integrated?
Offensive Line
- Injuries and positional changes have made the offensive line the largest concern, particularly at center and left tackle.
- Ronnie Stanley’s availability, the center replacement, and the resulting guard alignment remain unresolved. Pass protection has been weaker than run blocking.
- Open question: Can the Ravens stabilize the line without exposing Lamar Jackson to unnecessary pressure or reducing the offense’s rushing threat?
Action Items
- Host Kevin Benson at Pizza John’s in Essex on Friday for the Maryland Crab Cake Tour presented by Rosedale Bank and partners. (@Nestor Aparicio)
- Write and publish a Dear Michael Elias letter addressing the Orioles’ season and current standing. (@Nestor Aparicio)
- Cover the Orioles warehouse gathering with Mike Elias and Jesse Minter’s media availability regarding the Titans and Ravens.
Week 3 Around the NFL
- Luke highlighted Atlanta’s dominant win over Green Bay, Washington’s upset of Seattle with Marcus Mariota, and Las Vegas starting 3–0.
- Other discussion points included the Chargers, Texans, Patriots, Rams, and the uneven AFC landscape.
- Cincinnati’s defensive reputation was questioned after Pittsburgh scored 30 points.
Ravens Assessment
- The Ravens could plausibly be 3–0, but their narrow win over Dallas exposed defensive and situational weaknesses.
- Both speakers agreed that September does not require perfection, but the team must improve before facing stronger opponents.
- The Ravens remain the preferred AFC North team because of their upside, despite flaws shared by Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland.
Titans Matchup
- Tennessee was described as a favorable opponent, with the Ravens expected to win convincingly.
- Derrick Henry’s return to Tennessee and the Titans’ use of Houston Oilers-inspired uniforms were discussed.
- Atlanta’s upset of Green Bay prompted additional caution about the following road matchup.
Deshaun Watson and Cleveland
- Nestor argued that Deshaun Watson has looked functional and gives Cleveland a competitive chance.
- Luke credited Todd Monken’s influence while maintaining that Cleveland remains the division’s weakest team.
Offensive Line Concerns
- Center injuries have created uncertainty involving Yوانe Adebayo, Tyler Vrabel, and other possible combinations.
- The group must address pass protection, short-yardage blocking, communication, and Ronnie Stanley’s availability.
- Lamar Jackson’s designed running threat was discussed as a way to stress defenses and reduce pressure on the line.
Nestor Aparicio 0:02
Welcome home. We are WNST AM 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We call this thing Baltimore positive. Little 28 down here means we’re 28 years into doing this here at WNST, and we are celebrating our music memory bank with our newest sponsor, Rosedale Bank. I will have Kevin Benson out on Friday as we do the Maryland Crab Cake Tour presented by the Maryland Library. I don’t have the Ravens Kiss Face Bird. Kiss was number 28 on our music memory countdown, and number 27 is going to be John Mayer. I have to talk to my son about that because the only reason my son brought me on the John Mayer. Do you think I wanted to like John Mayer? I did not, which is the whole point. Number 26 is AC/DC. That is Tuesday night. They’re going to be playing where the Eagles flock, and apparently the weather’s going to be decent. So I may go up there and rock it with Angus one more time, get the horns going on here, and done dirt cheap. It is done dirt cheap on Friday. We’re going to be at Pizza Johns in Essex. I’m going to be doing the French fries and gravy. We got some, you know. I I brought home a pizza. I brought home some rigatoni and some meat sauce. I celebrated the Tyler Loop 56 yard. I I couldn’t find Brazilian food, but I knew where I could get a hell of a pizza. So I went down to Essex. I had some pizza. I’ll be back on Friday doing it again all afternoon on the Maryland Crab Cake Tour. It’s also presented by friends at GBMC and Farnin and Dermer. Zach Dermer joined me on on Thursday at State Fair in Catonsville. Luke, I I want to do football with you, but the baseball playoffs and it’s gonna I’m gonna lose you this week for a couple of days. I understand this. You’re gonna lose me. I’ll be sitting here Tuesday, Wednesday, my neck all cranked up. I’m trying to figure out what time I’m going to make a run to watch a game. But at least baseball makes these things so like you can watch them all here this week. You’re going to do all of that. We have Thursday night football in division now. Two and one, two and one, two and one, two and one. Everybody’s two and one, except the Chargers. They’re not two and one. I mean, and and some real disappointments and some weird stuff going on, but this is a really good sports time, right? Like the bunting song, you’re doing an Oriole press conference on Monday afternoon to do the record. By the way, I’m writing my, I was gonna say my fu to Michaelias, but just a dear Michaelias. It’s got some fus in it, but I’m writing it, and I realize like three paragraphs in, I’m like, I can’t call you last place team anymore because like it rained in New York on Sunday, and you’re a half ago, so they’re the fourth place team forever, not last place, just because it rained on them on Sunday in Yankee State. So you know, but the football, baseball thing sort of meanders here. But we are getting a sense of what these football teams are three games in. Not sure about the Ravens are pretty banged up team right now. But as we look at this, like I see some zero and threes here, and I see some three and O’s for Vikings, 40 Niners. How about the Rams? I went to bed. It was 16 nothing. Peyton was saw a 16 minute game come out. They lose. I don’t even know how they lost. I just know they lost. I went to bed early.
Luke Jones 3:08
Yeah, I think three weeks in is when you start start to get a feel for these teams. I mean, it’s still very early, right? And and even what what you think in week two, week three looks totally different, right? But I mean, for me, I look at week three. First of all, it started off right off the bat with the Falcons not just winning at Lambeau, but beating up the Packers. I mean, like they they clobbered them, and everyone thought it would be the opposite. So right off the bat, you get a reminder that it’s a week to week league. But you kind of look around, Chargers at 0 and 3, Texans at 0 and 3, Buccaneers. I’m not. I’m not as shocked about that one. I mean, the Buccaneers were bad the second half of last year too. So that one, I can’t say I’m stunned by. I am a little surprised that the Patriots not just lost on Sunday, but as bad as they looked. I mean, Drake May is not looking anything like the MVP candidate that he was a year ago. So you kind of look at that. You mentioned the Rams. The Rams at one and two. I mean, it’s not like the Rams have had a cupcake schedule, but you know, going to Denver, Australia’s weird. All that. Do we see
Nestor Aparicio 4:22
how Rio gets weird coming back for the Cowboys and the Ravens this week? We’ll see. Sure, we’ll see. I
Luke Jones 4:26
mean, it probably helps that the Ravens are playing the Titans. If we’re being honest, I mean, that’s a team that looks awful. I mean, dear
Nestor Aparicio 4:34
Amy Adams, your franchise is a disgrace, and I am embarrassed that I have ever, ever, ever worn Oilers blue, even though it looks good. Um, what a week here, right? So, like, yeah. I mean, you better not lose to these bums, right? No, no. I mean, I think right. Well, that’s weird. Sit here on. Who’s gonna play six? Who’s going to play left tackle? How’s A. Flowers? How are they holding up? How are the hours back from Rio that they have three extra hours to fly? And how are the Caprienes and but but the Titan the
Luke Jones 5:11
Titans are asking how how are we going to win a game? You know that’s what they’re asking at this point in time. And how are we going to
Nestor Aparicio 5:17
account for Lamar Jackson? Sure, sure. But by the way, maybe I will wear the Derrick Henry jersey this week. What do you think? Pretty good week. Derrick Henry would like to wear the Derrick Henry jersey. Derrick Henry versus the Titans. We have it. This is a good one, right? It is,
Luke Jones 5:33
but it’s also like you know different coaching staff. Like there’s only so. It’d be one thing if he would if they were going to Nashville. Like that would be a little bit different. They’re going to come
Nestor Aparicio 5:42
in here looking like Dan Pastorini and Blaine Bishop. It’s weird. It’s definitely, really weird.
Luke Jones 5:47
But, but just to go back to what we saw in Week Three around the league, probably the biggest surprise for me is how about the Commanders beating the Seahawks with Marcus Mariota at quarterback. I mean, that as good as the Seahawks look the first two weeks, I mean, I that was surprising to me. You know, there were some surprising results. There always are. The league’s crazy. We know all that stuff, but that really genuinely surprised me. I mean, other than citing the 1o’clock East Coast West Coast team flying all the way across the country, playing at 1o’clock feels like 10 a.m. Seattle time, that and that narrative’s always there for for that kind of a matchup. But beyond that, I was really surprised by that. I mean, I I don’t give the Washington Commanders much credit for anything, and haven’t for the bulk of my life. But I will give them credit for that one. I mean, they hats off to them for winning that game, but but yeah, just to finish up, I mean, the Las Vegas Raiders and Max Crosby are three and zero. How about that? You know, I mean, that’s crazy. Go figure on that one, right? And they beat the Saints, who you know we were all ready to say, okay. And the Saints still might be good, but man, the Raiders. I mean, give them some credit, right? So there’s, it’s the league, right? And even though I said yeah, things start to take shape three weeks in. There’s still a lot of football to be played. There’s still a lot of surprises around the corner. You know, keeping it to sticking to the AFC North. I mean, the fact that Cincinnati goes in to Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh’s offense had looked so bad the first two weeks, and everyone’s hyping up the Bengals’ defense. And there was a little bit of “you are who we thought we you were. Maybe your defense is better, but you give up a 3030 count to the Steelers. You know that’s that’s not a good look for your defense, whether you’re playing on the road or not, so you know I think that I sat at the
Nestor Aparicio 7:43
bar at Costas and Timonium. I’m wearing my Costas gear. I’m wearing my Dundalk gear, but I was at Timonium for that one. Went over, had a little salad for the afternoon. had the Had the red zone going on. The Orioles had the the tarp was out, and I saw poor Rob Long there. It’s raining sideways, and I thought we’re not gonna play baseball today. And you know, I I paid attention to that game because I’m like, what are these teams? And then I pay attention to the Ravens, and I don’t know. I mean, the Ravens are all this potential and all this star power and all this blah blah blah. I’m not. I’m only going to say it once, but they should be one and two. I mean, they other team had the ball on the one yard line and just like they cowboy’d, Brown’s gonna Brown, Bungles gonna Bungle, Cowboys go Cowboy. They could also
Luke Jones 8:26
be, but they also could be three and zero, right? I mean, think about how the Saints, how that game came down to a play or two, right? I mean,
Nestor Aparicio 8:32
it’s, but they don’t feel dominant to me in the way that we sort of. Yeah, I’m not giving them the power rankings of Week One or any. I mean, I make fun of all that. Really, I do. But I also there’s a point for me to think they’re going to win a Super Bowl where I need to feel some dominance, and that’s going to be even harder to do with this offensive line right now. Whatever they’re going to do with Yuan A, whatever the pass rush is or isn’t, and whatever Trey Hendrickson is or isn’t, and whatever all of their older players. By the way, I saw Marlin Humphrey just defined on my social media page as, and this reminds me the old Fred Flintstone when when they called the musician. Remember that when Fred the the hipsters slow. Someone called Marlon Humphrey slow on my my Facebook, and I thought that’s mean. And I don’t know, like they’re I’m I’m spent a whole summer 30. How many 30? How many for Trey Hendrickson, 30. How many for Roquan Smith? 30. How many for Ronnie Stanley? 30. How many for for for Mark Andrews? 30. How many for Kalaeus? 40. How many for Kalaeus Campbell? Right. So, like, I go through all of that and say, the war of attrition’s on, and this offensive line’s a problem for them with the run. Stanley Carson Vincent, whatever the center thing is, and we’re three weeks into this, and dude, it they better win the next two or three games here, right? Like they’re gonna be five or six and one as predicted from the beginning. They had their hiccup and their loss, but every time they have a 13 point lead in the fourth quarter starts, they’re going to put the thing up on a screen and say, you know, they they’re famous for getting wrecked here in these games. And until that goes away, and they start getting off the field on third down and exclaiming, pointing, and Lamar, you know, has his has his helmet off, and he’s on this on on the bench laughing with four minutes left to go in the game because it’s 38 to 13 and he’s out of the game. Like I’m not going to feel like that’s the team I need to see to feel like really good about them, especially against these bad teams. You know what I mean? And I don’t know that we’re going to feel that way because it doesn’t feel like all the engines are kicking for them right now. As much as we’re going to praise him at two and one, and I think around the league, everybody watched him play the other night, and like they love Lamar and love Derrick Henry, loves a five, love their stars when their stars are stars. But to your point, the defense was supposed to be the star, and they weren’t supposed to be on the one yard line staring at their Rio Grave only to snatch victory out of the jaws of defeat, which they did on Sunday, and kudos to them. But I still watch the game. So did you?
Luke Jones 11:25
Sure. Well, but but I would also say in defense of them, what teams around the league are you looking at right now and saying, “Oh my gosh, that’s an absolute unbeatable juggernaut” I mean, Buffalo the first two weeks was maybe kind of sort of, looking like that in the AFC. I mean, I mean, they won on Sunday, so you give them credit. But I mean, they lost the turnover battle five to one. I mean, that game said so much more about how pathetic the Chargers are right now than me thinking the Bills are necessarily this great unbeatable juggernaut, right? I mean, I give them credit; they found a way. But boy, Jim Harbaugh and and the Chargers, PU, especially on on the heels of losing that game after the way they played their first two games. So so you look at Buffalo. I mean Kansas City. I think rather not look
Nestor Aparicio 12:13
at Buffalo in those jerseys. I just want to say that terrible. Oh my God! You know
Luke Jones 12:17
what? You and I’ve talked. We’ve spent so much time talking about the Ravens’ new uniforms. I don’t want to belabor the point, and I didn’t mind the Ravens on Sunday. By the way, something about the helmet, whatever. I think the gold didn’t. It in this getup was their best getup of the new getup. So I just won’t say that. I will say, and as you know, I prefer the old uniforms to the new ones, but nothing about these new Ravens uniforms are remotely approach how terrible those Buffalo uniforms were on Sunday. I mean, just absolutely awful. So I’ll rest my case on that. But but you look at the AFC. I mean, Kansas City. I think everyone’s impressed with how Mahomes has looked early on. I think obviously Kenneth Walker’s given them a a dynamic. Frankly, they haven’t had for most of Mahomes’ time there in terms of a running game. But that said, they didn’t blow the doors off Miami on Sunday. I mean, that was kind of a a little more of a slog than people thought it would be. I mean, considering, I mean, what are the Dolphins right now? And and they lost eight Chan HCN their running back, one of their few stars that they have. So, so you know, you kind of look at this landscape of the AFC. I think the Ravens are a good team. I think the Ravens are right there with everyone else that’s kind of jockeying to be the team in the AFC. You know, I use that in quotes, but they all have warts. They all have to get better. I mean, that’s just and and that’s okay. Like I, I’m not. I don’t need a
Nestor Aparicio 13:45
perfect team in September. Sure, I need. I mean, but you don’t win the Super Bowl in September. Exactly. But as comprise right now, they they you know they’re they’re they’re a rocky boat right now. They they trend toward having more talent than other teams. Sure. But the deficiencies they have are apparent. Got to clean it
Luke Jones 14:02
up. Yeah, yeah. Clean it up. I mean, like I said, I’m, I’m still more bullish about their defense figuring it out to become, you know, whether it’s top three, top five, top seven, some something in the upper echelon, right? Not saying 2000 Ravens, but a a well above average group. I still think that’s there. Offensive line. We’re gonna find out, right? I mean, that’s that’s a little more. It’s a little more difficult for me to see the path for that group to become what it needs to be. And again, we talked about this the first couple weeks. The run blocking wasn’t as much of a concern, but man, short yardage was just woeful on Sunday. I mean, when you’re talking about having Derrick Henry and you need a yard, and not only are you not getting the yard, but in a couple cases they knocked you back three yards. Like you just got demolished. That’s man. That you’ve got to fix that. And some of the some of that is. Also, for me, like, where’s the tush push kind of play? You know what I mean? Like, the the league hasn’t barred it yet, so why aren’t you doing something like that? Mark Andrews did it the last couple years. Where’s that? Where has that been? Because they could have used that on a couple occasions on Sunday. So, but all that being said, Buffalo, you know, there’s questions about Buffalo’s defense. Kansas City questions about their defense, right? I mean, I Kansas City. By the way, have
Nestor Aparicio 15:25
you seen Deshaun Watson play yet? Have you like watched him a little bit? No,
Luke Jones 15:28
I. I mean, other than dude, I’ll
Nestor Aparicio 15:30
tell you what. Just hear me, and I’ll, I’ll get righter. I’ll find somebody that’s been chasing them around. They had a big thing with Nick Chubb this week that I, you know, said that was very nice that the they involved the media in a human way, and I thought that that was something that Chad Steele’s incapable of through the years. And I always thought the Peyton thing in New Orleans was cool, which made me sad that I didn’t get Cat Terrell and a couple people from New Orleans on to talk about that. But nonetheless, watching the Browns play and having good friends of mine that are Browns fans, people in my life that have denounced them, people like Munch and Bernard Bickeney, my longtime producer, and I are like still very close. And he sort of denounced them to shame. Watson is what Munch calls them, and I see the people excited there and and watching. I saw Monkin sort of go to bat for him, and I’m thinking to myself, Monkin’s a made guy. He just got a $40 million deal. Got to became a coach and great. And he’s going to go there, and the Browns going to Brown and all that. And he’s got Dion’s old man. That you know, well, Shador’s old man. But just all of it, plus just the weight of the Browns, just the weight of all of it. I mean, Schwartz wanted that job. Walked out the side door when they didn’t hire him. I haven’t talked to Jimmy. I don’t. I thought Iron Maiden would smoke Jimmy out, but it didn’t. I got to try. I got to get John to put Charm City Devils back together. The only way I’m going to smoke him out. Maybe Child’s Play Day after Christmas I can get Jimmy Schwartz out, but not even doing a show at Sorrento’s. Did I get Schwartz out? But the Monken thing in Cleveland, him taking the gig and just basically saying, I don’t care about the season ticket holders. I don’t care about the fans. I don’t care about the new stadium. I don’t care about the owners. I don’t care about the media. I don’t care about your your wife being upset that Deshaun Watson’s the quarterback. He’s out there and like whatever Deshaun Watson’s done to self soothe, heal himself, Frey, all the things you and I saw. Ryan Leaf went to jail and came back and felt like he was a cleaned up individual. He clearly still has some issues, like we all do. But in a general sense, whether Deshaun Watson can play football or not, whether he’s good at football and a NFL level quarterback-that something that they took away from Colin Kaepernick. By the way, Kaepernick snuck into town this week at Compensate. I didn’t even know about it. So if anybody has any four and one on that, I’m all about it. But the Deshaun Watson thing, I watched him run around. I watched him play and get to the sticks and move around. I’ll just say this: he won that job, right? It’s not just because he had the money and because they would have been very easy for the new coach, any of them to just jettison him and to have him running around and playing and they’re winning now. And I looked up three or four times on the red zone channel just when I was in Costas and Timonium because the games were on the big, and I looked up a couple of times. And by the way, they look great. The Browns look; those uniforms look exactly what the Browns should be like. I make fun of the Colts for wearing their pajamas. The Browns look good on Sunday, and they played good enough to win. And Deshaun Watson, to me, is a thing that when you’re going to play him now, you’re going to play them if he’s going to be healthy.
Nestor Aparicio 18:37
He looks like a top half NFL quarterback, and that, and that’s that’s high praise for me to say that he looks at because I don’t, I’m all against people that do harmful things to women not playing in the game or playing in our society or running our society. Another case, that’s for another day. I’ll take that up with Johnny O. But in a general sense, his reputation and the fans being pissed off and all of that. I watched him play and like Monk could put him out on the field because he’s the best player right now. And I just want to make that make that case for him. He’s probably a better player than Aaron Rodgers right now.
Luke Jones 19:14
I’m not ready to say that. Okay, but he might not
Nestor Aparicio 19:16
have the cast around him or whatever. But
Luke Jones 19:19
I I will say this to give me the
Nestor Aparicio 19:21
player without the reputation right now, based on what I see. I
Luke Jones 19:24
mean, I mean, it’s kind of hilarious because we’re talking about someone who’s in the final year of a $230 million fully guaranteed contract, right? Which speaks to how extraordinarily low the bar sank. You know how that’s fallen for him. Well, how easy it would have been to just
Nestor Aparicio 19:38
get rid of him too, and they didn’t. And it’s because he’s well. I don’t say he’s reformed, but he’s got his football-ish together. You know what I mean?
Luke Jones 19:46
I will say this, and this is probably the most I’m ready to compliment him at this point because he looked he looked horrendous in week one. Horrendous, right?
Luke Jones 19:54
I think he’s played functional quarterback the last couple weeks. He’s looked okay when. That was not the case, even going back a couple years ago when he was still playing for them. Well, that’s what I’m saying. I haven’t seen him look like this guy
Nestor Aparicio 20:07
since Houston. By the way, they’re zero and three. Yeah, right. I mean, they’re zero and three, and Deshaun Watson’s winning games in Cleveland. That’s my point. Because people are fighting Deshaun Watson, like it’s like saying Justin Tucker’s not going to kick because he’s too old and can’t do it anymore. I’ll make or or the Colin Kaepernick two years after Super Bowl wasn’t good enough. Wink, wink, wink, wink, wink. Neal, kneel, kneel, kneel, kneel. That he couldn’t play. Deshaun Watson wasn’t gifted this job. He’s out there running around because he’s their best candidate. Gives him the best chance to win, and I’m shocked by it. Like I’m shocked. I’m shocked that anybody that the ownership that the ownership’s wife wouldn’t have just gotten rid of him, right? Like just like let’s lose some more with the new coach, like we’ve always done, but instead they put him up and they might win seven or eight. I’m just saying, I I’m just saying they’re not a doormat because of him, and we have to play them twice. And I thought it was worth talking about. That’s all.
Luke Jones 21:02
Yeah, no, I. That’s fair. That’s fair. The one thing I will say, they’ve they’ve redone that contract enough where they have to keep him on the roster. If if they had jettisoned him, like his cap hit this year was like $86 million in addition to whatever his cap number is. Like that, you know, keeping them
Nestor Aparicio 21:20
around and letting them play two different things, I guess. Sure, sure. Yeah,
Luke Jones 21:23
I mean, I guess there’s a scenario where you just deactivate them and basically say, like, dude, like, go home. I suppose. Or you bring
Nestor Aparicio 21:30
in a competitive guy and you say, where’s your hardness? Is this the way you want to go out, or do you want to come play ball? You want to play ball, you’re gonna have to earn your spot on the team. And with Monken, it’s not on scholarship. Is my point, you know? And you know, Monkey to be a really serious mf’er, right? Like you really do.
Luke Jones 21:47
Well, like you heard him after the week two game, like he flat out said, same old Browns bleep that. I mean, except he didn’t say bleep, you know. He he flat out said it at his post game press conference. I’ll say this, and for me, it’s not even necessarily about Deshaun Watson as much as how Todd Monkin has that team playing through three games, they’re not looking like the worst version of the Browns that we’ve seen, where you literally can roll the ball out and you’re going to win, right? They’re looking like a team, and and let me be clear: if the Ravens played the Browns this week, the Ravens would be a heavy favorite and should be, but it would not be a scenario where you say, “Oh, the Ravens just have to show up. Doesn’t matter how they play, they’re going to win. No, you’ve got to go there and you got to play sound football against them. And and I think that’s where you look at them and they’ve beaten Tampa Bay in Tampa, as I said to you, the Buccaneers. I mean, Todd Bowles is rapidly becoming the guy that looks like he’s going to be the guy that’s going to get canned first. I mean that it’s kind of feeling that way, but doing that and then Carolina, which we had seen that Carolina offense do some pretty good things and they win that game. So you know I think Cleveland’s still in my mind still the last place team in this division. But to your point, no, it’s not looking like a team that’s just you’re automatically going to assume they’re going to go three and 14 or four and 13, you know, one of those type years. So it’s interesting, but you kind of look at the AFC North in general right now. All two and one teams all have, you know, I I still will say the Ravens and Cincinnati have the most upside, right? I I still like both of those teams over Pittsburgh in terms of upside, but they all they all have some warts and some flaws that they’re going to have to mitigate, right? I mean, Cincinnati, some of the hyping up of their defense like that came crashing back to earth on Sunday. I think that’s pretty evident because Pittsburgh, I mean Pittsburgh hadn’t done anything offensively the first couple games of the season, so you see that you do give Pittsburgh credit for winning that game again. You’re kind of wondering, okay, is this going to be the same Steelers teams that, as underwhelming as they could look, would bow up in those certain games under Mike Tomlin, well, they did it under Mike McCarthy on Sunday, so you give them credit there. You know, we’ve talked about the Ravens. Like the Ravens, I think you see plenty that you’re really excited about, but you still look at the O line. You know, again, I’m more bullish on the defense getting better. You feel like they will
Nestor Aparicio 24:20
tackle at some point.
Luke Jones 24:21
Yeah, I mean, if not, shame on them, right? Or they will
Nestor Aparicio 24:24
get after the quarterback at some point, or they will run stop there at some point.
Luke Jones 24:28
I mean, unlike the offensive line where you’re talking about a Ronnie Stanley who’s 32 years old and carries the injury history he has, Rosengarden, who should be at this point kind of reaching his full potential, you know I like Rosengarden at right tackle, but inside, I mean you’ve got John Simpson. We’ve talked about that. Center has been already. We’ve seen multiple guys at center going back to practice in the spring and summer, and now injuries have built have piled up there. And in the case of Yuane, as much as I love him, and I think he’s going to be really. Good, he’s still a rookie, and and now you’re wondering if he’s going to have to play center for them. You know, not just what he did in the fourth quarter on Sunday. So, so all these teams have something about them where you’re saying, yeah, but you know, the Ravens, you know, they were my pick to win the division. I’m not, I’m not wavering from that because they lost the game to New Orleans and maybe won a game. Maybe they shouldn’t have won Sunday against Dallas, but you know you could say, you know you could have said the same thing about the Cowboys. I mean, they both teams did things to lose the game, right? Both teams did things to win the game, and it’s just a reminder of how how important the margins are in the NFL, even if it comes down to some coaching strategy, which I think Jesse Minter outcoached Schottenheimer at the end of the game. Right? I mean, I think it’s just that simple. But you know, it’s it’s week four. We’re approaching the month of October. It’s still incredibly early, and attrition is going to be a big part of this, as it always is. Right? I mean, Sunday’s win felt so important for the Ravens in so many ways, but they’ve had big wins in the past where you thought that, and then you know they lose a game they shouldn’t lose. Well, this
Nestor Aparicio 26:14
would not be a time to go flat in this particular time.
Luke Jones 26:18
I wasn’t really talking about the Titans specifically, but just kind of where they are right now. Yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 26:22
I mean this month. I mean the next couple of weeks here. You know, I’m talking about like looking out and saying all the other teams in the division are two and one, but are they going to be five and one? Because we are.
Luke Jones 26:35
But I will say that’s the way you
Nestor Aparicio 26:36
want to look at it,
Luke Jones 26:37
right? I mean, the Tennessee game is one thing, right? I’m expecting the Ravens to handle Tennessee, you know, in some kind of blowout fashion. I’m expecting
Nestor Aparicio 26:48
them to handle Atlanta and cleanse. Even though I just did a dissertation on Deshaun Watson, I mean, they should be five and one when Cincinnati rolls in here on the top. You hope so, but that said,
Luke Jones 26:58
I’ll go back to what I said at the beginning of the segment. If I’m sizing up week three, I still think Atlanta not just winning at Lambeau Field, but dominating the Green Bay Packers. I mean, they embarrassed them to the point where Packers fans were booing their own team, and and like that. That was you know you never that’s unheard of. So you say beware
Nestor Aparicio 27:17
Falcons, okay?
Luke Jones 27:17
I’m I’m just I’m just saying, first of all, Bijan Robinson is an unbelievable force multiplier. He runs the ball, he catches the ball, makes people miss. I mean, he he’s the kind of guy that can line up in the slot and catch a touchdown. You know, like he can be a receiver. They have Drake London, who you know you talk about another receiver that that’s a problem. Drake London can be a problem, and you know they’ve got Penix back. I’m not saying the Ravens should fear Penix, but that matchup looks a little different after seeing what they did on the road on a short week. And let and it’s a road
Nestor Aparicio 27:50
game, and it’s a it’s it’s bright light. It’s the NBC game. Sure, Mike Tomlin’s been sitting down on the field watching the game with you, literally, right?
Luke Jones 27:57
Yeah, and don’t get me wrong. Like I’m not I’m not saying that meaning I’m expecting the Ravens to lose. I expect the Ravens to win that game too. I agree with your overall assessment, where you look at this and say, “Man, if you’re not five and one, then then you’re starting to enter the the meat the meatier part of the schedule. I
Nestor Aparicio 28:13
figure if they lose to to Cincinnati and Buffalo, they make them five and three, and then they move forward and say, “We well, we lost up in Buffalo. That was tough. Cincinnati, like win one
Luke Jones 28:21
of those, I you know I don’t
Nestor Aparicio 28:23
disagree with you, but now you’re making them six and two, you know, like so all of a sudden six and two means oh it’s 12 and four, and that’s like you know all of a sudden we’re talking about them being a better team than they looked on Sunday. That’s all, like yeah, they’re going to have to be a better team than they were on Sunday to be. I mean no
Luke Jones 28:40
doubt. I mean, again, the offensive line. I’m not shocked by what we’ve seen, especially when you throw in the injuries now. But defensively, they’ve got to be better. I mean, that they they know that. I mean, I you know in our previous segment, I read Kyle Hamilton’s you know his monolog on that, and you could tell, you know, he’s the captain. Him he he and Roquan Smith are the captains of that defense. You could tell he was happy they got a win, but he knew that boy, we didn’t do our part here. I mean, when you consider everything that happened in in this game, we didn’t do our part, and you know they’ve got to figure that out. There, there, there’s, you know, I don’t think the Tennessee Titans. I don’t think Cam Ward is going to be the the kind of offense that can exploit their deficiencies. I don’t think they anything about this Titans team suggests that there’s any. I can objectively sit here and be concerned about that game, but that said, in a big picture sense, they’ve got to tackle better. They’ve got to figure out you know their coverage, marrying it up to their pressure, right? They’ve got to figure out their sub packages and being able to stop the run better when you’re playing too high shell and in this nickel defense and everything. I mean, they’ve got to figure all that out. And look, every team in the league’s figuring those things out. Like it’s it’s rare. I mean, Mike McDonald in the C. Hawks, the defending Super Bowl champions, just lost on the road to a backup quarterback. Like, hello, like if they can have some imperfections, and and you look at that, then no team in the league is is immune from having some early season growing pains. But but yeah, they’ve got to figure that out. And I think to your point, you do look at the schedule on paper. Now again, we want to remind everyone: we thought New Orleans, we thought the Ravens were going to beat the Saints at home, right? And they didn’t do that, so you never really know in this league. But Tennessee, and then at Atlanta, at Cleveland, probably that Cleveland game. I mean, not probably, definitely worries me a little more than it did a couple weeks ago because of what you said, Deshaun Watson, at the very least, is looking functional, which was not really the case the last time we saw him play a couple years ago. But you know, and that being back-to-back, back-to-back road games, you know, like there’s that’s always a little tricky, right? And we’ve seen them have their issues in Cleveland in recent years. I mean, that’s just part of it. Yeah, you didn’t like
Nestor Aparicio 31:01
the grass in Rio. Where do you get to Cleveland?
Luke Jones 31:03
Yeah, I mean, you never know there. Get a couple. You don’t think the
Nestor Aparicio 31:06
Guardians are playing on it. Get a get a week or two
Luke Jones 31:09
of rain there, and yeah, I mean that’s a different story as you’re heading into the month of October. But but you know that it does feel like a little bit of a soft landing. No pun intended. As you’re coming home on a long flight from Rio, but this week you need to get hopefully get healthy on the O line. I mean, you need Ronnie Stanley back. What center going to look like until we have a better read on the prognosis and the timetable for these? I mean, it’s that’s not a not a good feeling because even if you say okay, Venga can handle center. Okay, who’s going to play guard? Is that Voorhees? Well, we saw how that looked last year, right? So, like, you go back and you just say, okay, you can rob Peter to pay Paul and and put Jowana at center, and maybe he does okay there and does fine there. But then right guard’s a problem. So you know, it’s kind of this shell game that they’re going to have to figure out with that O line, and so. But in the meantime, you play the Titans. Like I said, these two road games that follow after that. I don’t want to sit here and just make assumptions, but this does feel like a stretch where you’re hoping this team can start to find its stride a little bit more consistently. And really, for me, big time looking at those opponents, I want to see this defense start looking like the defense we thought it was going to be, right? Because between the tackling issues on third down, that you know they didn’t have as many issues on third down specifically on Sunday. I mean, some of those, I mean, the Cowboys didn’t need to get into third down at times. I mean, they were just moving the ball down the field at will, but you’d like to think you’ll see a much more formidable defensive effort against the Titans. Madabike’s back another week. You know, he he he his clock. He starts to get adjusted there. See what happens with Teddy Buchanan in terms of fitting him into the good old Zuzier, by the way. Some of the sort of little missing pieces here. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was an interesting thing to me because over the first two weeks, look, I get it that Olave made a ton of plays in week two, but anyone who has paid attention to the league, Chris Olave is he can play. His issues were concussions and injuries the last couple years as far as why he wasn’t on the field. So it’s not as though I looked at that as some kind of alarming indictment of their outside corner play, but Minter was asked last Monday about a Wuzzier specifically because I he only I don’t know if he played at all right I mean it was if he did it was a couple snaps and that’s it and he made the point in saying he he had talked with the defensive coaches and said we need to get we need to get Cheeto involved a little bit more. So we saw them do this, and we’ve seen. I remember Wink Martindale doing this several years back, where the Ravens had at the time. I want to make sure I get this right. I think they had Marlin, they had Marcus Peters, they still had Brandon Carr. They might have had another corner in the mix. Jimmy Smith might have still been on the team at that point in time, and we saw them actually rotate those guys a little bit, almost like in the way that you would approach your defensive line, right? You you think of outside linebackers and defensive linemen. You rotate, right, guys? Yeah, corners don’t sub, but corners generally don’t. But the idea is, if you feel like you’ve got a group that you can do that, and maybe you, maybe these guys have different strengths, and you can actually change up your sub packages a little bit and be a little less predictive in terms of how your opponents would approach. But they have
Nestor Aparicio 34:34
to communicate, man.
Luke Jones 34:35
Yeah, I mean, you that that that all sounds great in the meeting room until you get out on the field, and and you know, one guys aren’t making tackles. Two, you got guys that just aren’t covering the whip, and it’s an
Nestor Aparicio 34:45
ensemble effort from a communication standpoint. Yeah,
Luke Jones 34:47
yeah. I mean, there was a lot of that. So it’s the offensive
Nestor Aparicio 34:49
line, and we’re going to find that out. You know, piecemeal. It sounds great. Put just put you on a let them center. Yeah, okay. Well, now who’s going to play guard, and how they going to communicate? And they had never played next to each other, and that. They’re going to go out and do it against the Slappy Titans, and there’s going to be one play that gets them beaten, that gets Lamar brought. You know, like whatever, it can’t happen. It just can’t.
Luke Jones 35:08
Sure, and and but but that’s kind of where they are right now, right? And that’s why I saw
Nestor Aparicio 35:13
Minter gave a shadow at the Ledford saying, getting Yuani ready to play center, like that under fire in the middle of the flow, in the middle of the game,
Luke Jones 35:20
yeah. Because think about, I mean, this you, I mean, you and I talked about that for years after Matt Burke retired, right? How how much of an issue at times that could be, and you know, even even in the case of some guys that played well for them, generally it was like a year or two at a time, and then someone gets hurt, someone Ryan Jensen left, right? I mean, like you think about all the different growing pains they had there. I mean, that’s why it was not that I blame them for it per se, because I certainly would not have given Tyler Linderbaum $27 million a year. I think they could have done more to avoid it getting to that point. But either way, as I said to you back in March and April and May and June, fiscal responsibility can’t play center for you. So you thought Danny Pinter was going to be the guy. You thought Ethan Posick was going to be the guy. Javon Gwynn has been the guy the first couple games until he got hurt on Sunday. We’ll see about that. I mean, everything
Nestor Aparicio 36:12
we talked about all summer is just down the toilet now. Yeah, I
Luke Jones 36:15
mean now you’re in a position, and we were
Nestor Aparicio 36:16
questioning that then. It wasn’t. It was never going to be the strength of the team, exactly
Luke Jones 36:22
right. No, I mean even Posick. It just can’t
Nestor Aparicio 36:24
be the thing that blows you up.
Luke Jones 36:25
Even Posick, when when he was signed in mid July, and we assumed at that point, okay, he’s going to be their starting center. No one was sitting here saying, oh well, they’ve got a top five center, or even that they have a top 10 center, right? It was more, can this guy be middle of the pack in terms of starting centers, right? Just so he’s not a bottom five or a bottom seven center, probably can make that work, right? I mean, I don’t think Lamar Jackson needs to have the best offensive line in football. To be very clear, to be brutally honest, that said, you don’t want him to be behind one of the one of the worst ones, certainly. So you got to find some middle ground here, and yeah, you look at this picture right now. Okay, it’s the Titans. They’ll probably be okay Sunday in that regard. But to your point, sometimes it could be one play that could wreck your season if you don’t block and Lamar Jackson gets hit in the wrong way, right? I mean, look at how we’ve seen this. I mean, look at some of the teams that have already lost their quarterback for the season or for long-term injuries, it completely changes the complexion of your season like that. I mean, it’s just it’s over, right? So I don’t say that to be like overly dramatic, but it speaks to the urgency of you’ve got to figure this picture out, and especially now, not well. Last week
Nestor Aparicio 37:38
it was let’s let Lamar run a little bit more. He ran a little bit in Rio, but let’s not get him hit. I mean, it’s not even about him running now and being effective. It’s who’s protecting him so we can catch the ball to save
Luke Jones 37:48
flowers. Yeah, and let’s face it. I mean, even the first couple games, their run blocking was good. Their pass protection has not been good, right? I mean, week one and week two, their pass protection. Dude, they’re
Nestor Aparicio 37:58
playing with a guy at left tackle they don’t want to play with their their star guard, who’s only three games into his career, had to snap the ball at the center position and play with what’s his name at guard on the left side and Simpsons with three penalties. I mean, whatever it was, yeah,
Luke Jones 38:14
and also some bad pressure he surrendered at a couple different times too, just all the way
Nestor Aparicio 38:18
around. And I know they praise Justice Hill, and obviously the running trio of putting Lamar into that. I don’t want to call him a running back, but he is when he has the ball. He’s the best one they have when he has the ball too. No offense to the Hall of Famer they have here. It’s number nine on the list of all of this stuff. But Lamar in space or Derrick Henry in space, I would take. It feels to me like you can tackle Derrick Henry because you can catch him before he gets going. Lamar’s a whole different animal, but to your point, Lamar doesn’t want to run right now, and oh, and you and you don’t want to have to lean on that too hard, right? And and and and keep in mind that you lean one too many times, your season’s over with Lamar. But but I’m talking more so in the pocket,
Luke Jones 39:00
you know, as far, you know, as far as injury risk with with this O line, but a lot of what I had mentioned last week, that was all working under the assumption that Zay Flowers potentially was going to be missing a second straight game, right? So, but you saw it, you saw what Lamar, and I think that’s part of that. That has to be part of the consideration too. It sounds a little backwards to say this, but when you really think about it, when Lamar Jackson is a bigger threat to run, tell me that doesn’t help the offensive line because everyone on the defense is playing that differently. When you’re worried about that zone read, I know that the zone read has not been featured nearly as prominently for them this year, obviously, but man, if Sunday wasn’t a perfect argument for why you don’t run that once once a quarter, you know, just you run it three or four times a game at a minimum, right? I mean, like not again, no one is arguing it and. Anyone who’s sane that’s talking about Lamar Jackson as a runner that still wants him to be a runner, no one is saying it like go back to 2018 when he’s running 23 times, right? That’s not what we’re saying here. But it needs to be more than just what it was last week, which was no design runs, three scrambles, and only one of them was outside of a two-minute drill. He had
Nestor Aparicio 40:21
three plays on Sunday that that really helped them give them a chance to win by running the football. His
Luke Jones 40:26
very first design run on that third drive. I mean, that was like, you know, that that was like the the the the CPR like the shock paddles. Like their offense came to life there, right? I mean, it was just like, oh, Lamar runs for 20 plus yards. We’re in we’re in Dallas territory. Here we go, we’re fine, right? At that point in time, it was 10 nothing, and they’re on the move, and they were in the end zone. What five plays later? I think it was five six plays later. So, but but I think that factor will also help the offensive line, especially on the edges. You know, defensive tackles maybe they’re not necessarily, you know, they don’t have a key on Lamar, you know, with mesh point and all that kind of like. They’re from an interior standpoint, that’s a little bit of less of a a thing. But especially those edge players, you know, defensive ends, linebackers, man, you want to talk about something that just completely stresses the defense, and in turn, that helps the offensive line do its job. We’ve talked about it with pass protection. Lamar’s ability to take off. How many times have we seen the pass protection look lousy, and Lamar Jackson escapes, and suddenly it’s a 30-yard gain? Whether he throws the ball on the run or he takes off, right? I mean, we we saw his unbelievable play in Indy in Week One, right? First few plays that he’s played live, you know, live bullets flying since January, and he makes an unbelievable play. Now, yeah, in an ideal world, I want them to be able to pass protect, and you want to be able to run block and do everything that you know, and you have above average starters at every position, but that’s not reality, and that’s not going to be reality for most teams. There aren’t. When you look at 32 teams, five offensive linemen starting for each team, you know there are not 160 truly high-quality starting offensive linemen in the NFL, right? The same way that there aren’t 32 high-quality starting quarterbacks, it’s just the way it is. But you can’t let that be the reason why you’re losing games, right? You’ve got to be able to have a certain level of making it work when you do have a position or two where, like, center, right? We’ve said it all along. You were never going to replace Tyler Linderbaum’s play when when you look at the fact of him leaving in free agency, what the alternatives were, who was available in the draft. Even if all that went perfectly, they weren’t going to find a center that was going to be as good or better than Tyler Linderbaum. That’s just not the reality. But they wanted to be better at the guard spots, and see about Simpson. He needs to pick it up because that was not good enough. One for from a veteran player who’s making real money. That wasn’t good enough on Sunday. Yuane, you know, he’s had some growing pains, but we’ve seen some really, really good things from him too that indicate, hey, not going to call him the next Marshall Yonda, but he can be an above average right guard and be a guy that maybe is in the Pro Bowl at some point in the not too distant future, but now with the center equation and what’s that look like this week? What’s that look like next week? I mean, how long are these guys out? What are the alternatives? Do you need to go make a trade? I mean, like it’s that’s that’s definitely easily for me the biggest concern when I’m trying to size up where this team is now, and where it wants to and needs to get to in terms of being a Super Bowl contender. I mean, far and away the offensive line is the biggest concern, and it was that case before, but even more so now. And oh yeah, you need to get Ronnie Stanley back and healthy, right? I mean, Vincent did a nice job on Sunday, but you know you need Ronnie back in the picture. You’d rather not be playing a second-year fifth-round pick at left tackle. Maybe you can survive against the Cowboys. Maybe it’s okay against the Titans. But when you start playing the the J.J.
Luke Jones 44:14
Watts and and guys of that, or not J.J. Watt, T.J. Watt, thinking of J.J. Watt doing the commentary on Sunday. But when you start playing those guys, you know that’s a little bit of a different animal as far as the left tackle. So they need to get Stanley right, and whatever this center picture is going to look like, and we’ll hear what Jesse Minter says or doesn’t say about these guys here over the next couple days. Yeah, that’s definitely something where even if you’re playing a team that isn’t doesn’t make you fearful on paper, and the Titans certainly don’t, all it takes is one or two plays, and suddenly the the complexion of your season can change if you don’t get that shored up.
Nestor Aparicio 44:53
You know they’re going to look like champions, the champions that the Houston Oilers never were, and I know we. Some laundry here this week with the Bills, and I even said the Ravens this week. I was not off-put by the upgrades of their flight next flight patterns or whatever it is. I don’t like the New Jerseys as much as the old jerseys, period. But can you just because I’m not going to ask you this later in a week, but because I’m going to write about it, why is what they’re doing so wrong to your eyes? I mean, to me, I’m an old Oiler fan. I when they used to throw it back once in a while, that time they put the jerseys on a Tom Brady, beat him 61 to three or whatever. I at least they looked good. This thing here is now just stolen. It’s not like a nostalgia throwback thing. It’s a stolen thing, and to me, they should never win wearing these jerseys. Based on, yeah, I don’t know. It kind of feels like the Colts in Indianapolis, but we’re used to that.
Luke Jones 45:50
I think for me, and this is where I initially gave them some credit, and I know they were the Tennessee Oilers for a couple years, you know, 97 and 98 before, but this is a team that changed its name, changed its uniforms. I mean, they’re the Titans’ uniforms did not look anything like the now they do, but before that looked very, very little. I mean, maybe you could say there was a little bit of the lighter blue mixed in there and all that, but they were they had a distinct identity that was different than the Houston Oilers, so for you want a navy
Nestor Aparicio 46:23
blue that looked good with like Frank Lycheck. Yeah, I mean, I mean,
Luke Jones 46:27
I mean, I never, I never really thought the uniforms were that. I, I didn’t think they looked good, but they were just different. It was their own. It was Tennessee and the Titans. It was their own. They had a, a distinct identity that had been carved out, and for me, it’s the same thing. And obviously, the Colts did not change their uniforms when they moved from Baltimore to Indianapolis. But when you consider the Peyton Manning era on, or even go back to Jim Harbaugh in the mid ’90s, you know the captain come back and their AFC Championship near win in Pittsburgh, all that. From that point on, I mean, they had carved out a distinct, different kind of identity than the Baltimore Colts, so that’s why I cringe to this day every time I see Indianapolis try to lean into something pertaining to Johnny Unitas or Raymond Barry or Lenny Moore, or if they wear Colts throwbacks from you know like what the the one year where they wore the horseshoe was actually at the back of the helmet on each side, right? Like whenever the Colts would, you know, in in the modern day when they do that, it’s just like why are you doing that? That’s Bal. That’s Baltimore’s thing, you know. Celebrate Peyton Manning. Celebrate Marshall Faulk. Celebrate you know Marvin Harrison, right? I mean, you’ve carved you’ve won you’ve won a Super Bowl. You’ve been to Super Bowls at the Indianapolis Colts. So, so that for me is where it just bothers me. It just philosophically speaking that you know you were the Houston Oilers. I get it. You were technically the Oilers for two years in Tennessee, but you change your name. You change your uniforms. All of that. Like you very. You made it. You took a deliberate step to separate and create a different identity, and to me, at that point, that history should have been returned to Houston at that moment in time. Quite frankly, and now you’re just leaning into that. It’s
Speaker 1 48:14
tacky. It’s
Luke Jones 48:15
it’s it’s icky to me. Like it’s gross. Like it. I just and and not to mention like, you know, what they’ve done with it, like that logo compared to the oil rig, like you know, like just doesn’t look as good anyway. But yeah, I just, I, I think that’s something that most people don’t care about. Like you’ll see, most people on social media love it, but I think for anyone that’s lost, any city that’s lost a team and seen their colors, name, history be celebrated elsewhere when it’s not when that wasn’t that didn’t belong to that city. I think that’s where it just you know that’s one of the few wounds that I think is still not fresh, but I think it’s relatable where I look at that and I’m just like, I wish them nothing but ill will when they’re gonna try to do this knockoff Houston Oiler thing. When, when frankly, the Titans, I mean, they were a a Dyson reach away from winning a Super Bowl once upon a time. Like, you know, the Houston Oilers never got to a Super Bowl, right? So, why do you feel the need to lean back into that? That’s that’s what’s kind of lost on me.
Nestor Aparicio 49:25
Ravens are 11 and a half point favorite, 11 and a half to make you laugh. So beat them like an 11 and a half point dog in those powder blue pansy outfits that they wore that stole from Houston. That’s all in my closet. We’re going to be on Friday at Pizza John’s in Essex doing the Maryland crab cake tour with our newest partners Rosedale Bank. Big shout out to Jill and Amy and everybody there. I mean Ed, Mark, I know tons of people. Kevin Benson’s going to be coming over to Peter Johns in Essex and you’d say Essex and and Rosedale like right next to each other in Dundalk. We’re all kind of all Bermuda Triangle of the East Side. We’ll be together at Pizza John’s on Friday. I am definitely getting French fries and gravy because I’m feeling a little skinny lately, and my Planet Fitness thing’s been working out. I look too good. I need to have some French fries and gravy to fatten up for the winter, and I’m gonna have pizza and I’m gonna have stuff. Probably not like a milkshake though. But we’re gonna Pizza Johns on Friday. It’s the Maryland Crab Cake Tour. It’s all presented by the Maryland Lottery. I’ll have the Ravens scratch offs with the Kiss Face Bird. It is our 28th anniversary. Rosedale Bank is sponsoring our Music Memory Bank at Baltimore Positive. The Kiss story is up for those of you, even Luke and maybe Luke’s mom, sister, learn a little bit about my rock and roll background and why my hair is so damn long, and you know why I got to rock and roll all night and party every day. Number 27 is going to be John Mayer. Number 26 is AC/DC. That’s its own thing. I’ll be in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, rocking out with Angus and and Brian, and probably all the same goons that were there at the Rush concerts back in the ’80s in Philadelphia, when I camped out for concert tickets with my buddy Richard Abrams, he joined me at State Fair last week. Zach Dermer from Farnham Dermer, they also sponsor the Maryland Crab Cake Tour, was with us last week. And Casper Wells, it is a huge baseball week around here. Do not bother Luke Jones between the hours of noon and one a.m. He’ll be watching baseball on Tuesday and Wednesday, and if necessary on Thursday, I’m sure it’ll be necessary in one of the four places at the very least. As four teams sit around and try to do what we did a few years ago and say, “The hell are we going to do with five days off, six days off? We’re baseball players. We got to play baseball. Baseball’s a mess. I don’t know. They’re going to be laboring and all of that. I am writing a dear Michaelias letter. You can only imagine how well that’s going to get, how salty that’ll be this week. Also, some residue from all things Rio and the Ravens’ big win. We will celebrate on Friday at Pizza Johns with our partners at GBMC, Fernand and Dermer, and the Maryland Lottery and our newest sponsor Rosedale Bank. And we’re going to be at a Koco’s next month. We’re going to be at Costas and Timonium, where I watch the early games. I watched a bunch of the Pittsburgh Cincinnati game at Costas and Timonium. That was cool. I appreciate everybody around town being nice and saying hello. We’ve been out. Jen and I were at Costas and Dundalk last week, and I had longtime listers yelling at me before John Harbaugh lost, which was fun. The John Harbaugh win on one Sunday, Luke?
Luke Jones 52:24
They did, but lost Brian Burns for the season. So the injuries continue to pile up in New York. So yeah, not great for the G-men.
Nestor Aparicio 52:35
That same record as the Ravens right now, though. So what are we gonna say? It’s a it’s a big week. Titans are in town this week. It’s baseball week. Luke will be doing all residue of the warehouse gathering with Mike Elias, as well as the Jesse Minter gatherings as the Tennessee Titans come to town to play football this week. I am Nestor. He is Luke. We are WNSD AM 1570 Towson Baltimore. We never stop talking. Baltimore positive and rock and roll, go check it out at Baltimore Positive.
