When you’re 32nd in the league at defending the pass, opponents are likely to run much. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the Ravens’ defensive issues and the extra prep for an inspired first-place Steelers team led by Russell Wilson in Pittsburgh. A big game at The Confuence on Sunday.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Ravens defense, Steelers rivalry, Russell Wilson, Lamar Jackson, first place game, new players, offensive struggles, defensive breakdowns, prime time game, playoff contention, defensive improvements, offensive firepower, game analysis, defensive challenges, Super Bowl contender
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Luke Jones 05:00
Having a chance to advance Scout Pittsburgh a little more than normal, that you can hopefully come up with partial solutions, at the very least, to make this thing look better. So we’re gonna see. It’s a big game, too. On top of that, for as much as Raven Steelers, is always a big game, this is the biggest one we’ve seen in quite a while, quite
Nestor Aparicio 05:18
a first place game, right? And and I think part of that is that they have a couple of new players. We have a couple of new players in skill position places, and more than that, with Russell Wilson, when and I, you know, I didn’t really talk to Charlie batch about this. We had a really long chat about being a backup. And you know what fields has gone through, and what Mike Tomlin has gone through, and what the other players on the team are going through and what it means to be a backup and what your role is. But also, for Russell Wilson, there’s not a lot of tape on him in this offense, right? Or, I mean, he’s played a couple of weeks. I’m sure there’s still some wrinkles. There’s nothing he hasn’t seen. Talk about whatever Lamar is good at at this point, Russell Wilson’s been doing it twice as long as far as identifying things, and they have a defense there, and that’s the one thing that Lamar will have to contend with and getting ready for this game is they’ve seen Lamar before, not as much. And your point, Lamar hasn’t always played in this game, and to make it even like a Lamar versus Steelers rivalry kind of thing, and the Russell Wilson thing is so new. It’s so fresh, but that defense has been fantastic and the offense has been good enough. I mean, even with the awful quarterbacking situation they’ve had the last couple years, they’ve been a competitive outfit. I don’t know why we fall asleep on the Steelers every year and think all the games in November and they play all their division games at the end. Boy, it’s almost played right into their hands a little bit if they’re coming on, and this is a weekend for them to measure that, because they’re an underdog at home. Nobody respects the Steelers. It’s that’s an easy sell for Mike Tomlin this week, well
Luke Jones 06:54
and but, but the reality is, they haven’t been very good over the last five or six years, and I get it, they’ve made it into the playoffs last wild card, right? They’ve been that team that’s been good enough, and certainly, when you look at just the word that I would use more than any to describe Raven Steelers in recent years, is just weird, right? Lamar hasn’t played a whole lot. Kenny Pickett has beaten them a couple times, doing little more than making one or two plays over the course of a game, right? So we’ve seen just this weirdness to it. We’ve seen games where Lamar, I mean, the first COVID outbreak in 2020, that cost, cost the game, you know, forced the game to be postponed. What? Three different times, and they play on a Wednesday afternoon.
07:35
We’ve seen Lamar. They’ll forget him. He was there too.
Luke Jones 07:38
Yep, we’ve seen Lamar get hurt. We’ve seen Lamar sit out because the Ravens have clinched right and on the Pittsburgh side. I mean this, you know this Lamar Jackson era began with the end of the Ben Roethlisberger era, but we’ve seen Pittsburgh kind of be in this football purgatory, for lack of a better term, in terms of, well, Lamar
Nestor Aparicio 07:58
doesn’t see Pittsburgh as the rival he had played in a game that feels like that. This is the week for that.
Luke Jones 08:04
Yeah, exactly. And again, this game’s been weird. I mean, think about it. Think how big this game is, and it’s one o’clock now. I think if Pittsburgh weren’t playing a Thursday night game in Cleveland immediately following this, there’s a good chance this would be the Sunday night game, rather than, what, Cincinnati chargers, well, Raven
Nestor Aparicio 08:23
Steelers, how many times do we get off that bus, you and me, and it’s dark out and right? I mean, it was a prime time game for two decades, like literally.
Luke Jones 08:32
I mean, maybe not two decades. But there was a when you look at beginning of the horrible era, the first five, six years of that, for seven years of that, let’s say, I mean, some of those years, both games would be in prime time, but it was a guarantee slam dunk that one was going to be. I remember the
Nestor Aparicio 08:51
McNair debacle up there. I watched that game, oh Tokyo back and was it oh seven, right? Oh my god. Terrible 60607. Yeah, whatever gear that was. But
Luke Jones 09:01
again, it’s just been these weird circumstances, beginning with the fact that, again, Pittsburgh hasn’t been, they haven’t really been a serious contender in the AFC for seven years. What go back to maybe 2017 was the last time I know 20. They got off to the great start, but remember, they completely fell apart over the final five, six weeks of the season, where I think everyone kind of knew they were Doa in the playoffs. I mean, that’s how bad they had looked at the end of the year. But I think for the Steelers, and to your point, they’re a home underdog, if we’re looking at this objectively, the fact that they went into Landover beat Washington, and we don’t know how real the commanders are, but I think we we think they’re good, and I think that was a game that was a win for them to kind of say, hey, maybe, you know they’ve had an early season schedule pretty favorable, but knowing their schedule gets way tougher down the stretch, that was a sign of maybe they are more formidable this year. So. Yeah. I mean, certainly, regardless of records, regardless of statistics, it’s Raven Steelers, right? It’s weird. It’s been weird going all the way back to the beginning, right? I mean, it’s, we know that, but there’s so much on the line here where you’re talking about first place, you’re talking about what Russell Wilson has done, albeit still a small sample, and I think I still want to see what it looks like multiple weeks. But this is also his what third, third straight year, I guess, fourth straight year, different head coach, different offensive coordinator, you know, trying to, trying to show that, hey, he could still be the guy that he was in Seattle, at least close to it. I made the comparison with you, and I’ve seen some other people draw this comparison that you know that a year ago, at this time we talked, or two years ago even, we’re talking about Russell Wilson, in terms of that it was really looking bad for him. I mean, Denver was awful for him, but could this be his Kurt Warner going to Arizona, kind of moment? So I think there’s a lot to prove on that side. And if you’re the ravens, you have this fantastic offense, you have this team that is widely regarded as a Super Bowl contender. They’re very much in that top tier, wherever you want to put them, fine, but they’re a top five team in the league, even with this defense being what it’s been. So you need to go on the road and you need to be Pittsburgh again. We can point to the games Lamar hasn’t played, and obviously there’s so much noise in trying to assess what’s happened in these Raven Steelers games over the last four or five years, there’s no question about that. But that said it’s not just Lamar. It’s the defense still having some late game breakdowns, as they did in the first game last year, as they did against Kenny Pickett on Sunday night football two years ago, where even without Lamar, you’re playing at home, you had a lead in the last couple minutes of the game. It’s Kenny Pickett. You got to protect the lead there. You got to close out a game. And they haven’t done that. So there’s a lot to prove on both sides here. And, oh yeah, it’s for first place in the AFC north. So, I mean, as Ray Lewis would say back in the day, buckle up the chin straps. I mean, this is, you know, even if it’s not going to be old school in the way that you think of two great defenses going at it in the way that Raven Steelers was for so many years, you know, still a very good Pittsburgh defense, albeit not going to have Alex Highsmith, which will hurt, but they still have TJ watt. They still have cam Hayward up front, so not as though that pass rush and and that front is Toothless by any stretch of the imagination, but they’re going up against the Ravens offense that they’re not going to stop. The question is, can they slow it down and they get some stops, much in the same way that we were talking about this with the Cleveland game a few, a few weeks back. And you know, if you’re the Ravens defense, it’s, Hey, you’ve had some extra time here to lick your wounds a little bit from you know, what happened in Cleveland a few weeks ago? What happened statistically against the Bengals, albeit in a victory. Have you made some change? Have you made some improvements here? Have you made any hay here in trying to make this thing better? Or are you going to let Russell Wilson throw the ball over your head to George Pickens and and Mike Williams? You know, two guys who can certainly do that for you. So hey, this game sells itself, whether it’s at one o’clock or in prime time. I mean, it’s a lot of excitement here, and I’m just looking forward to having a legitimate, very serious match up here where we’re not talking about, well, well, Lamar is not playing, or Pittsburgh doesn’t have a quarterback. Or, you know what’s going on? You know, these are two teams that you know, especially in the Ravens case, and Pittsburgh coming off of the Washington win. No serious, you
Nestor Aparicio 13:44
know. Well, they both expect to be playing in January now. But whereas we only expected one of them to be playing in January prior to a month ago, uh, you know, I don’t know, they were three and Oh, then they were three, and two were like, okay, they are, you know, and then they started winning again. And now this is where the measurements begins, and also the fact that, you know, six of their last eight game, whatever it is, are division games. At this point, they haven’t played the division games, and it feels like them getting a player that made a difference last week at the training deadline, and then me, Russell Wilson’s almost a player they got. He wasn’t there the first month and a half, right? So it feels like they’ve made this movement to be fortified for this moment. And, you know, I don’t say it’s their Super Bowl, but they got a lot of young guys that haven’t played in playoff games or one playoff games, or weren’t around with Roethlisberger, other than Hayward. Couple guys Fitzpatrick came in sort of at the end of that, a couple of the guys that have been around, other than Tomlin himself, he’s been through all the wars. You know, this is um, this is a buckle your chin strap game for that franchise, more so than for Marlon Humphrey or or Ronnie Stanley or roquan Smith or Lamar Jackson, who blew the FC championship game.
Luke Jones 25:00
Know, I’ve talked about this, you and I talked about this. I’ve opined about this, and other people have as well. It’s not a unique idea. You know, do you try to get Nate Wiggins on the field a little more consistently? Does that cut into Brandon Stevens time in any way? That’s one thing you could do at corner, right safety. I I just, I look at it, and obviously Hamilton isn’t really a true safety, right? He moves around you. The last thing I want to do is start playing Kyle Hamilton at a at a too high safety spot, which might clean up the overall operation, but really dings you in terms of upside and ceiling and maximizing what he can do for you as a player, right? So you know it’d be, it’s like asking Ed Reed to just stay back there and not do anything special, just play assignment football and not not do your your calculated risks in the way that he would bait quarterbacks and do the things that made Ed Reed a Hall of Famer, right? So that’s where it’s tough for me, because, okay, what about our Darius Washington? We’ve seen our Darius Washington play more more so as a third safety, we haven’t seen him just stepping through the starting lineup in the little bit that they run base. I mean, they run a lot of three safety looks as it is. So you know, when you look at the numbers that you kind of say, Okay, well, that’s Marcus Williams or Eddie Jackson. To your point, they’ve already benched Marcus Williams. They benched Eddie Jackson the following week he was deactivated. So I don’t know if there’s a personnel move to be made there, really? Roquan Smith, look, we’ve talked about this. Has roquan looked like a $20 million linebacker in coverage this year? No. But does that mean that I have the confidence that suddenly you’re just gonna send Trenton Simpson out there more and expose him more in coverage and ask him to do a lot of things that, frankly, you didn’t even ask Patrick queen to do over the last couple years. I don’t think that’s the solution, either. So again, Smith, is
Nestor Aparicio 27:00
he slow or is he, is he, is he ill assigned or ill aligned?
Luke Jones 27:05
I mean, maybe it’s, yes, maybe it’s, maybe it’s a combination of both. And, you know, this Nestor, and I’m not, I’m not suggesting that you’re implying this. It’s never just one thing. I mean, it’s not, I think there is a combination of ideas at work here. And we’ve talked about this in passing. And as much as we just talk about scheme in a very general sense, let’s also remember, look at the fact that, okay, Mike McDonald leaves and goes to Seattle, but Dennard Wilson, who was really credited for getting that secondary plan at a very high level, he departs, and he’s the coordinator in Tennessee. Now you have Anthony Weaver down in Miami, which the dolphins got off to a really rough start. They played better defense the last few weeks. So it’s not just that Zach or is in his first year as a defensive coordinator. It’s those assistants on top of that. And then you look at the assistance you brought in, and I say this with no disrespect, and I’m not even going to name their names, because it’s not as though I’ve identified like, oh well, Doug Mallory, or, you know, whoever they brought in to replace those guys. But they weren’t these extensive, you know, expansively impressive NFL resume position coaches. There are guys that coached at the collegiate level, some guys that you know, not saying that they were completely straight, you know, complete strangers to the NFL. But the point was, they weren’t these long standing position coaches in the NFL in the way that you know when you brought in Anthony Weaver, he had already coached in Houston, or Joe Cullen, you know, when he was their defensive line coach. You know, you look at some of these coaches that are more experienced. That’s why I kind of said all along, in hindsight, you probably should have just brought Dean peas in in training camp, if he would have been willing to do it at the time, right and and you could have done that then, then or or someone like that, you know, someone that still has something to offer, but maybe isn’t looking to be a defensive coordinator at this stage. So I do think the the amount of movement. And again, this is not absolving Zach or or any one individual. It’s all of all encompassing, looking at all that, that when you bust some pipes then, and you’re leaking in multiple places, and you’re having these issues, that it can be tough, and it kind of piles up, it kind of builds up and you know well,
Nestor Aparicio 29:23
and also, your weaknesses get exploited. They did a studied every single week, and Joe burrow says, you know, I can f up a couple times today or whatever, but when, you know, when it comes time, you can’t stop Jamar and we’re going to have a play, there’s going to be one play, and we’re going to burn you, and that’s when we’re going to get our 6.6 points. Don’t need to be every play, doesn’t need to be on first down, doesn’t need to be on this drive, but we’re going to figure it out, and that’s what studying these defenses does. And I think that that’s what worries me a little bit more about this game specifically, is that this familiarity has tended. To breed a little better. Look at the Ravens. That’s all, yeah, and
Luke Jones 30:03
that’s fair. I will say this if you’re looking for a silver lining, and this isn’t a scheme fix, because, again, I don’t really know what they’re going to do. And I’m not going to sit here like I’m Rex Ryan or someone that’s going to tell you, Oh, how, here’s how you fix the Ravens defense right now. Because again, I don’t think it’s ever that simple, especially for someone who’s watching from the outside and isn’t going to have the best picture as far as what exactly is going on behind closed doors. But I’ll say this, where is the Ravens biggest weakness been? It’s been over the middle of the field, right over the linebackers, in front of the safeties. Now they’ve been beat, beaten deep as well, and I’m not saying that their outside coverage has been perfect Brandon Stevens specifically. Although, if you kind of look at passing charts, every week, teams are trying to avoid Marlon Humphrey because Marlon Humphreys played high level football when he’s been out on the field. So So you do have that however, I mentioned the weakness of the middle of the field. Go look at Russell Wilson over the last few weeks, when he’s made plays, it generally has not been over the middle of the field. It’s been on the outside. So I am going to be fascinated more so on the Pittsburgh side, if Russell Wilson and the Steelers try to exploit that a little bit more, it’s easier said than done. Ask any quarterback, you have some guys who are better thrown to the outside, and you have other guys like Lamar Jackson almost from day one, and it’s why Lamar loves throwing the tight ends, who has been fantastic as a passer, between the numbers. The question for Lamar earlier in his career was always what throwing outside the numbers and throwing outside, which is still is something he’s gotten so much better at, but you would still say he’s better thrown over the middle of the field, right? And that’s fine, because if you can do that, it’s really tough for a defense to stop it. So I think that’s where I think one of the big, biggest keys for this game is one had the Ravens come up with some answers for that and improving that area of the field, because that’s been a sieve all year long for them, whether we’re talking about tight ends or or crossers or or whatever. By the way, that’s a good game for Russell Wilson to play too, that that part of the game, to exploit that part of the field. But again, he hasn’t done that, though, is what I’m saying, like those first few games. Go look at the passing charts. He hasn’t really thrown over the middle a whole lot. Now I’ll say this. I certainly think Pat fryer moves more than capable of and he did catch a touchdown this past week. But I’ll be interested to see if they really try to exploit that, if they really try to attack what the Ravens weaknesses are, or do they say, Hey, this is still something that Russ does better than being over the middle of the field, and they’ve had their issues stopping guys on the outside anyway, so I do think that’s an interesting dynamic to that matchup, specifically. So, you know, we’re going to see I think, you know, treadmills White has practiced this week. Obviously we, you and I talked about him briefly as he came in right before the Cincinnati game, too early for him to be in the mix there. Do I expect to see him on the field? I think that’s TBD, right? I mean, let’s face it, the Rams didn’t exactly have the best pass defense, and he was a healthy scratch for them multiple weeks. So tredavius White’s got to prove that he still has something left, and he’s just been decimated by injuries. Do we see him? See him on the field a little bit here or there. Maybe. Do I expect to see him starting or anything like that? No, and not at this point so. But again, you had the mini buy coming out of the Thursday night game. You had the entire weekend to not just get ready for the Steelers, but survey where you are as a defense. I am interested to see if there’s a wrinkle that we haven’t seen yet. You know, again, they’ve, they’ve been throwing ish against the wall. We’ve talked about that. I mean, they waved yanikin gakue Last week, who had been their number three outside linebacker at one point. So, you know, I think I just, you want to see progress again. I do. I expect them to hold them to seven points or 10 points? No, of course not. But if you let Russell Wilson hang 33 on you, and you lose 33 to 30. I mean, again, you’re looking at this thing and saying your offense is championship caliber, but your defense feels capable of getting beat by just about anyone, but I guess a rookie quarterback or Josh Allen back in week four, right? I mean, that’s so we’re kind of talking about right now. So you want to see progress, and again, what that looks like. You know, do you try to play? I’ve seen some people on social media kind of look at some of the splits with zone versus man, I think that’s overly simplistic. But, you know, do you see some wrinkles there? You know, do you see a few more man looks? Do you see different type of zone? I don’t know, but it’s got to be better. I
Nestor Aparicio 34:54
mean, it just happened, man’s dangerous for this defense, right for me, because it just feels like it could be too easy. Could be but, but I don’t know if
Luke Jones 35:04
the lousy I hear what you’re standing you know, fundamentally, I would agree with you, but coverage has been all I mean, the problem is, they’ve been both, right? I mean, that’s kind of the overly simplistic way of viewing it. But, you know, we kind of just man verse zone. I mean, that’s, that’s like saying running the ball versus passing the ball, right? I mean, there are so many different concepts and locking schemes and everything that goes into offense, rather than just run versus pass. It’s the same thing with man verse zone. So I don’t know. I mean, I’m intrigued to see what it looks like. I’m intrigued. Russell
Nestor Aparicio 35:41
Wilson, would love to have man on the outside with with Pickens, six to eight times, Brandon, and say, and say, I’ll make two or three of those work and I’ll beat you because of it. I
Luke Jones 35:53
think that’s fair. Yeah. I mean, especially if the safety help doesn’t come in the way that
Nestor Aparicio 35:56
you expect it to. But in man, if there’s any confusion at all. You’re in trouble, at least in zone. Somebody can catch you and tackle you, yeah,
Luke Jones 36:04
although we’ve seen them play such bad Moon zone coverage on the back end,
Nestor Aparicio 36:09
oh, in the middle, especially because once you exactly Marcus jackets, hips go the wrong way, it’s over. Yeah?
Luke Jones 36:14
I mean, again, that’s where I really look at this. I’m really quarterbacks will kill you, yeah? But, but that’s where I am curious. I mean, we know Russ even going back to Denver. If there was a saving grace to his game, it was still that he still threw those Moon ball deep balls that still had great accuracy. I mean, that was the only thing he had going for him in Denver at the end. But I am curious, because of how obvious the Ravens have had that weakness on those over routes, you know, over the linebackers in front of the safeties. Again, not that they haven’t had issues on the outside at times, too. But do we see them try to exploit that with more crossers and getting Friar moose involved? A little bit more? I’ll be intrigued. Or again, you know, because we’re only talking about a few starts here that Russell Wilson’s made. You know, do we see them still try to stick with what they do best, and we’ll see how that works out. But I mean, again, the ravens, you need to see progress defensively for as much as we’re talking about Russ and tipping, tipping your cap and Pickens can make plays. And Mike Williams made a play even though he didn’t even know the offense, right? I mean, Russell, Russell Wilson had to tell him what to do on the play where he catches the touchdown. But, I mean, this is, this is not a juggernaut. This is not peak Ben Roethlisberger throwing to Antonio Brown. Let’s be clear about that too. Let’s not give the opposition too much credit here, in the same way that if Jamar Chase got to play the ravens, he’d be a 3000 yard receiver if he played the Ravens every week, the way he’s going this year. So give your opponent credit, but not too much credit here. This is not a great Pittsburgh offense, but this is not even a an average pass defense for the Ravens right now. So they’ve got a lot to prove. And again, I I have all the confidence that Lamar and the offense will score points, not saying they’re going to score 40, because it is a very good Pittsburgh defense, but those score points, they’re not going to get shut down. But boy, if you can’t get stops, and if Russell Wilson’s throwing all over you, and, I mean, I fear, you know what happened against Cleveland a few weeks ago. Why? Why wouldn’t you think that couldn’t happen on Sunday, if your past defense isn’t going to be much better than it’s been?
Nestor Aparicio 38:30
You’ve called it weird a little bit. I mean, it is also Wilson running the Steelers. And, you know, this sort of, this juggernaut offense that the Ravens have. And this imbalanced team, like this wildly imbalanced team, and I’m surprised you and I didn’t take more grief over the weekend from the sycophants, just in the fact that we were a little less than bullying about the victory against the Bengals and saying how many times or is the defense going to let down in the fourth quarter? And knowing that January, that’s unacceptable, and we’re getting into late November at this point, I would just like to see the defense improve, not just the victory. I don’t say style points. I think it needs to be a victory, some semblance of style points to start showing us that this defense could win a championship. Because I don’t think as it’s comprised right now, as our confidence level is right now, the way the pass rush is right now, even as all world as the offense is, I think we have concerns, because defense wins championships. Luke Jones, well,
Luke Jones 39:43
defense does alone, doesn’t win championships. On the flip side, you still need your defense to play well with, even with an elite offense, right? Dude, it
Nestor Aparicio 39:51
would be something crazy if they finished 27th ranked defense and still win 12 games somehow and win the Super Bowl with that like. So like, that’s. That’s a it’s be a very big outlier. It is.
Luke Jones 40:03
But, and I’ve seen people use this example. I mean, look at the oh six Colts. Painful to think about that, because the Ravens were in the middle of that run. But you remember what the narrative was about? Defense was good enough at one night, their run deep, their run defense at the end of that year was horrendous. They had the worst run defense in football. They get Bob Sanders back, and their defense played well. It played well enough in the same you know, you look at these runs, I mean, Joe Flacco in the 2012 postseason, go look at Joe’s regular season numbers that year. That was far from Joe’s best season. I mean, he wasn’t all that great. Wasn’t all that good in that 2012 regular season backup quarterback at the Indianapolis coast, right, right? But, but he went on that run. So, you know, look, Lamar Jackson is playing at such a high level. This offense is playing at such a high level. It has so much talent. You’ve added Keaton Mitchell back into the picture. Now we’ll see what that looks like. You have Deontay Johnson, who’s still not involved yet as a receiver, in addition to everything else you have, by the way, Isaiah, likely back on the practice field. We’ll see if he goes with the hamstring. But you have this abundant, you know, this embarrassment of riches with their offense, that look, they got to do it in January. We know that everyone knows that, but everything they’ve done to this point gives me the utmost confidence, with the way Lamar Jackson’s playing, that there’s nothing else he could do right now in mid, mid November, to give me any more confidence than what I do in him and that offense right now. So it’s not that far that the defense has to go, but it does need to be better, right? But because everything is judged on January, right? We know this. We’ve talked about this. This has been the case for a few years now. It’s a compliment to this organization that we’re saying that this organization isn’t about regular season awards and who makes it to the Pro Bowl and what your statistical profile is or being Player of the Week again, right? Which is great. Those are all great things, but they’re not what ultimately people remember in terms of legacy, right? And I’ve heard people say this, and I think it tends to be younger people, so I’m gonna pick on younger people here for a second. I’ve heard some people say, Well, Dan Marino never won a Super Bowl? Yeah, it’s everything we whenever someone mentions Dan Marino, yes, we know Hall of Famer, what’s the next thing they bring up? Never won a Super Bowl, right? So I don’t want that for Lamar Jackson. Lamar Jackson is going to be a Hall of Fame player one one day, and everything about him is incredible when you talk about the fact that he’s on the verge of being a three time MVP in the same way Johnny Unitas was, right? I mean, think about that for a moment here in Baltimore, that that’s what we’re talking about here. But the first thing he would tell you, the first thing he wants to accomplish is win a Super Bowl. So everything that’s going right with the offense, awesome, right? I and look, it may still come down to it, if the offense plays at such a high level, maybe they can outscore everyone. I mean, it’s happened in some, you know, rare instances, but it has happened. But boy, you just look at it, and you say, if you lost to the Raiders, knowing how awful that team is, if you lost to the browns, knowing how awful that team is, and largely because of your defense, right? Not that the offense was perfect in those games, but certainly the defense, you know, and especially late in the game,
Nestor Aparicio 43:34
when you force your offense to be a lot more perfect, when your defense is just
Luke Jones 43:37
right, you’ve just your margin for error. I mean, the thing I’d say about this, I mean, this offense is absolutely better than last year’s offense, but last year’s team was so good offensively, defensively, and, yeah, I’ll even throw special teams in there as well, because we know the special teams haven’t been as good for this football team when you’re having a defense that’s having the issues that it has. And even throw in the special teams, and especially the Justin Tucker thing, which we both agree is a thing. I don’t know how big of thing, but it’s a thing, and that’s problematic to some degree, until it’s not that you just look at this and say you do have, even with your offense playing historic franchise, historic kind of football, you do have a smaller margin for error. Then, because if that offense is just off a little bit here or there, then, boy, you don’t feel nearly as confident. Whereas last year, you could say, well, the defense could be off a little bit or here or there, and the offense will pick it up, or vice versa. So you just, you want to get better, because it’s all about January. It is. This isn’t about finishing 13 and four or, you know, you want to be in position to play boom playoff games, even if the number one seed looks like a more of a long shot at this point in time. But who knows? I mean, Buffalo plays Kansas City this week. Depending on that outcome, we could be having a different story at that point. But this is all about January, so that’s where we look at this defense. And. You keep saying, What is this? I mean, and it’s just so start, you know, it’s so striking, because it’s just so out of character as I as I wrote it, Baltimore positive, and I think I said this to you in our conversations. I mean, it’s bizarro the bizarro ravens, right? I mean, bizarro Superman, you know, go look it up. I know you’re not a comic book guy, but,
Nestor Aparicio 45:19
well, I got the Spider Man thing going on with the lyric this week. Yes, I’m trying to do, yeah,
Luke Jones 45:23
but, but, but it’s just one of those deals where, I mean, the history of this franchise, until Lamar came along, was great defense and always questioning the offense. And now it’s the exact opposite. It’s, it’s 1996 all over again. It’s up. You know, Vinnie Testaverde not what Lamar Jackson is right now, but it’s the same principle, and Schwartz
Nestor Aparicio 45:41
isn’t buying me sandwiches and talking about, you know, Ike booth and Donnie Brady,
Luke Jones 45:47
yeah, and how good that rookie, that kid, Ray Lewis is, that 52
Nestor Aparicio 45:51
flying around at there will never, not much else. Johnson around here. Luke Jones is Baltimore, Luke, He is on his way out to Owings Mills, on his way to Pittsburgh and back again here this weekend, you can follow him at Baltimore, Luke. You can follow our Maryland crab cake tour all the way to green mount station. Next Thursday, we’ll be there with Raven scratch, also the Maryland lottery, also our friends at Jiffy Lube multi care, powering us up for that. We have a whole litany of dates together. We’re going to be at Cooper’s north in December, where Coco’s in December 4. We’re Acosta’s. We’re going to be down at fadelies for Christmas, we’re shipping crab cakes everywhere as we get through Thanksgiving. Anything you want to do before you drop the mic here before game time. It’s Sunday at one o’clock.
Luke Jones 46:29
I mean, I’m just looking forward to this. I really am. I think, you know, I’ve, we’ve talked about this a lot Raven Steelers. Has not been Raven Steelers for a long time, beyond just the legacy. You know that it’s just like Washington, Dallas or bears packers, just one of these legacy rivalries. You know that that will persist, but the last four or five years, beginning with Lamar, is just frequent absences for a variety of reasons, right? Some of them coach’s decision, and some of them being, you know, COVID or injury. So that excites me, right off the bat. And look, I mean, the ravens, this is a big game. You want to win the division. You don’t want to be in a position where you’re a game and a half back and you’re in a position where you don’t want to be losing the tie breaker in the return bout. Then, right? So it’s big on that front for Pittsburgh, okay, beating Washington, good job. But that’s not the same as if you beat Lamar Jackson and the Ravens and and you hold their offense in relative check, let’s say yeah. And you know, you don’t give up 40 or 35 as the ravens are able to do. And if your offense with Russell Wilson at the helm, exploits the Ravens away, you know, maybe not to the degree of Cincinnati, but not far off. If that something like that happens, then, boy, it’s game on the rest of the year for this A, F, C, north. And again, nothing’s decided Sunday, one way or the other, but Pittsburgh has a chance to make a statement, and for the ravens, it’s a chance to go beat the Steelers, right? We know all these games have been weird. We know a lot, some of them haven’t meant anything and just beat this. Come on. You’re one in seven in the last four years against the Steelers. It’s time to end that Lamar is playing. Go take care of business on Sunday. So I’m looking forward to it a big game, and certainly the return bout mid December will be big as well. But just feels good, even if it’s not in prime time. Feels good to have a raven Steelers game this late in the season. Carry this kind of juice. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 48:30
we got the juice around here at Baltimore positive and am 1570 all week long, we’re going to be doing a special Music Week next week as we get ready for the chargers, get ready for Turkey Day, get ready for our Maryland crab cake tour to get back out on the road. I’m looking forward to that. You know, much I love that Green Mountain station. Grab cake up there because it tastes like Angelina’s, which is old school for me. We’ll have the lottery tickets to give away. And don’t forget, our oyster tour is also underway. Brought to you by curio wellness, far and daughter, as well as one 800 I keep going to the water liberty, pure solutions. One 800 clean water my pal Doug doing that, as well as doing all the plumbing stuff that we do around here. Big weeks ahead. I mean football on the mind, football and the spirit. And an extra day next week, a couple extra days this week. They don’t play three out of four Sundays in a row. It’s this is the only Sunday they play the next couple of weeks at one o’clock on a Sunday. After that, it’s Monday and bye, and then all the weird Christmas stuff that’s going on later on, it’s Saturday nights and Wednesdays and all that stuff. So I enjoy a normal, and I say normal Sunday at one o’clock Steelers and ravens in Pittsburgh. I’m Nestor. He’s Luke. We’ll be covering the game in progress on our x and our blue sky and all the threads and all the place all the cool kids are going. We’re fascist. Hopefully don’t live anymore. I am Nestor. We are W, N, S T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and we never stop talking Baltimore positive. I.
