After the fifth loss of the season to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the offensive struggles, defensive breakdowns and the withering special teams of the Baltimore Ravens as a much-needed bye week comes for The Men of John Harbaugh.
Luke Jones and Nestor Aparicio discussed the Ravens’ fifth loss of the season to the Philadelphia Eagles, highlighting offensive struggles and special teams issues. Despite a fast start with 9 points in the first quarter, the Ravens averaged only 3.6 yards per play in the second quarter. Jones criticized the offensive line’s performance and questioned the decision-making of Lamar Jackson. The special teams, particularly Justin Tucker’s missed kicks, were also a point of concern. Despite the setbacks, Jones emphasized the need for the Ravens to find answers during the bye week, noting their 8-5 record and the importance of playoff positioning.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Ravens loss, Eagles game, bye week, offensive struggles, special teams, Justin Tucker, Lamar Jackson, playoff hopes, defensive performance, injury concerns, Marcus Williams, Deontay Johnson, Philadelphia Eagles, NFC matchup, Ravens future
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Luke Jones
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S T, am 1570 Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore, positive. It doesn’t feel like bi week. It feels like turkey leftover week. We’re going to be leaving over the crab cakes all week long. We’re going to be over Cocos on Wednesday. On Thursday, we’re going to be at the BMA at Gertrude. I didn’t really do this on purpose that all of these tour stops are actually in the city. We’re going to be at Faith Lee’s next Wednesday as well. And then for the holidays, we’re going to be cheese of Little Italy, right over my shoulder here, they will not have crab cakes, but they will have that Pawnee rotundo. We’re having the crab cake tour there anyway, because I’m breaking rank. It’s all brought to you by friends at the Maryland lottery. Will be a cost this later on in the month as well. I’m wearing my costume shirt. That is our final stop before the holidays. I’m hoping to gather some friends in Dundalk, my only non city related Maryland crab cake Tour presented by the Maryland lottery. Whoever Raven scratch offs to give away. Hopefully they are luckier this week than the Ravens were on Sunday afternoon with Philadelphia Eagles in town. Luke Jones joins us now. He’s powered up by our friends at Jiffy. Luke MultiCare, I would say, back and forth, but John gave you the week off, I guess. Look, man, five losses at this point. I mean, this thing has stacked up. We’re going to go back and forth through this game, a game that you called a sloppy game, a game I called sort of a fair fight. I mean, it really felt like, hey, the ravens are in a game here where this team might be as good as they are. That doesn’t happen most weeks.
Luke Jones 01:30
Yeah. But at the same time, as we were talking about a couple weeks ago, the Ravens go out to Pittsburgh, and their offense did not play very well. And look, we’ll get into Justin Tucker. We’ll get into the special teams, which continue to be a mess, unacceptable, the Justin Tucker thing is not easy at this point, as far as how you proceed, way more difficult than the emotional charge to the struggles would dictate.
Nestor Aparicio 01:58
But it’s not one week, one kick. It’s a season, right? I
Luke Jones 02:02
mean, but it’s a complete body of sure that week, that if his name were Tucker, it would be a different discussion. It really sure, well, but, but his name is Tucker, and so it is a, you know, it’s much more complicated, but we’ll get to that, because there’s plenty of meat on the bone there. But this is supposed to be the best offense in the league. Lamar Jackson is an MVP favorite and has played phenomenal football, but you look at this offense, and to their credit, they started faster on offense than we’ve seen the last five, six weeks, and that was something we talked about even some of these games where they end up scoring 30 points, as they did against the Chargers last Monday night, they had scoreless first quarters and some empty drives to start the game. This was the opposite. They started really fast. They averaged 7.8 yards per play in the opening quarter. They scored nine points. Would have been 10, if not for Tucker missing the extra point on their first two drives and then putting aside the final drive, the Garbage Time touchdown. I mean, Lamar even said, like, you know, the game was over at that point, that from the the second, the beginning of the second quarter on until that last drive, they averaged 3.6 yards per play. I mean, they just, they didn’t move the ball when they did. It was an absolute grind, and I get it. Tucker missed a couple field goals. I’m not saying that. I’m ignoring that from an offensive standpoint, but this offense needs to be better in those spots. I mean, you can say, Yes, Philadelphia has a really good defense, and they do right? I mean, to your point, this was, this is one of those meetings, but this is a playoff caliber kind of matchup, in the same way that Pittsburgh a couple weeks ago, playoff caliber matchup. I mean, the way it’s looking, it’s increasingly likely they might be going out to Pittsburgh again for a game in January. But, well, we haven’t talked about defenses that match up well against Lamar. Like, in a general sense, they’re an NFC team. He’s
Nestor Aparicio 03:54
going to kick their ass. That’s happened 23 out of 24 times, right? Like, so then we talk about division teams, Cincinnati, Cleveland, even with Jim Schwartz and having players like miles Garrett or a couple of players like TJ watt to create mismatches, the Raiders did that earlier, but a body of work of players at three levels, the Eagles defense and, to your point, the Steelers defense. It’s big boy football, and it’s a little different than rolling the ball out there. And just saying, are we going to score 35 or 40 This week
Luke Jones 04:23
well? And I think this is where, as much as we were giving the flowers to the offensive line A week ago, this was a game where the offensive line didn’t play as well, and a lot of what you just mentioned, and look, it’s not just the offensive line, it’s not just Lamar Jackson, it’s not just the wide receivers. It’s not just whoever you want to throw into as far as the offensive conversation, but yeah, the offensive line struggled more. Lamar even admitted, even said his mom cussed him out after the game and saying, Hey, you passed on some opportunities to take off and run where you should have done that. And he agreed with that. But just the entire. Operation. It’s got to be better than that in a game like that. And I’m not saying I expect you to hang 40 on the Eagles, but even with the Garbage Time touchdown, even with Justin Tucker making the two field goals, it wasn’t a great offensive performance. And on the flip side, where you know, you talk about the defense holding saquon Barkley in check until the fourth quarter in the dam starts to break a little bit. We know it’s not the 2000 ravens, right? We know this isn’t an elite defense, but it is supposed to be an elite offense, and it has been for most of the season. That’s where I look at this thing and say this, this was not an encouraging sign as it pertains to what you’re going to have to do in January. Now, knowing that the buy is all but mathematically done, even though we’ve known that the first you know, the number one seat and all that’s been out of play for a while, practically speaking, knowing that the division is not out of reach. But became more difficult on Sunday with Pittsburgh having one in Cincinnati, and the Ravens dropping another game. So you’re looking at this and you’re saying, Well, how’s this going to translate if you need to win not just one, not two, potentially three road games to get to the Super Bowl? And you know, forget about what would happen if you go to New Orleans, and whoever you’re facing there is this team showing enough consistency on that front to feel all that confident. I think you look at it in all three phases, there are things that disappointed and let down and but for me, the special teams in the offense especially, and I’m not believe me, I’m not patting the defense on the back that the defense was great, but for the most part, that felt mostly fine relative to what you expect out of this offense and what they need to get out of this special teams, which is more. I mean, not just Justin Tucker, but tylen Wallace is a punt returner. We’ve seen the penalties, even though the penalties weren’t an issue as much Sunday, that’s been an issue all year. Just that has not been a nearly good enough operation, considering, not not just the John Harbaugh special teams thing, but just in general, how the Ravens have approached that special teams and the effort they’ve put in the special teams. I mean, Jordan stout, who has actually been one of the brighter spots over the course of the season on the special teams front, didn’t have the best day punting the ball. So you look at this kind of game, which to your point, this was a playoff kind of game, right? I mean, before the day, and last week, we were talking about maybe these teams meeting each other in New Orleans, and that can still happen. There’s a long way to go. I’m not at all burying the Baltimore Ravens at this point. That would be foolish to do that. We’ve seen we’re much worse teams, or teams that looked much worse than the Ravens do at this point in terms of issues and things of that nature. But they’ve got to find some answers, and they’ve got to figure some things out. And I think there’s some soul searching that needs to go on over the course of this by week. And you know, eight and five is fine. You know, eight and fives in the playoffs, but eight and fives nowhere close to where you need to be in terms of when you’re really talking about the NFL is best, and, you know, talking about fancying yourself as a Super Bowl contender and all that, it’s just hasn’t been nearly consistent enough. So really disappointing day. And let’s face it, as much as we can point to things, okay, if Justin Tucker makes a couple field goals, they fumbled the ball three times and recovered all three. I mean, this game could have been worse in some other ways as well. So I’m not all about that. Well, they only lost by five points. And if Tucker does this, and this happens there, there were more plays that needed to be made period, across the board, by this football team on Sunday, and the Eagles made them. The Ravens did not.
Nestor Aparicio 08:49
Luke Jones is here. He is Baltimore. Luke, He sits in the the little house, the Kevin Byrne press box up in the corner, and watches football. I watch on TV these days. The ravens are taking the week off this week. I so many notes just on your initial diatribe there. I think I could do two hours of radio just on that. But you mentioned disappointing. And where they are, they look like a fatigue team to me, to some degree, coming off the west coast, coming off short rest. Just in a general sense, the Eagles felt like they lunch. Paled this, especially from a tackling standpoint, defensive standpoint, but you mentioned the special teams and the problems of special teams, and I heard you in the post game trying to ask John Harbaugh question. I don’t know if he’s blowing you off because you know you’re related to me, or whether he’s just pissed off after the game or didn’t want to answer the question. I thought you had a decent question about their operation, and sort of left it open for him to answer it.
Luke Jones 09:41
He didn’t want to, yeah. And look, I think it was much more the latter. And that was a little, you know, that was halfway through, or two thirds of the way through, the post game press conference. And look, most head coaches 20 minutes after a loss aren’t very good, right? Really, the telltale. Real. You know, the telltale sign of not so much changes, but just reaction, reflection really happens the day after. It’ll be the Monday afternoon press conference. But I just, I think, when you’re talking about a team that has an MVP quarterback, that has this offense that has been terrific for the most part, although two of the last three weeks now against playoff caliber teams not so good, although the Chargers are currently in the playoff field, and they did much better against them. So I don’t want to discredit that either. But you know, you made mention of the fatigue factor, and look, they haven’t had their buy yet. They have a week 14 by which as much as that could potentially be advantageous for this football team when they come out and they’re playing the Giants and then gearing up for that very tumultuous stretch of three games in 11 days, or whatever it is. So you like that, and then they’ll have another mini buy following that game in Houston on Christmas Day. So So you like it, you like those stretches knowing that they’re not going to have the week, the first round of the playoff by this year. But, you know, I think what was frustrating looking at it from my vantage point is we talked a lot about the Monday night road game, the cross country flight yet they started out pretty well, right? I mean, you would think more, so that would be an issue, that you’d start slowly, but maybe not. Maybe it’s you’ve got that rush of adrenaline, and you’re playing at home, and, you know, it’s a big game, and you’ve got this opportunity, and you start fast, but then you run out of gas, so they absolutely need the buy. And the good thing about this team that will continue to be important is they are still mostly healthy. You know, we’ll see about Rashad Bateman with the knee. I mean, John Harbaugh said it was more of a soreness thing, and it’s something that he’s missed some practice time as well with some soreness. You know, I don’t get the sense it was catastrophic injury that he suffered. You know, we didn’t see him go down in a non contact form and cart it off, or anything crazy like that. But, you know, Kyle Hamilton was dealing with, I would assume, a shoulder stinger. He came back in the game, but they’ve got a lot of guys that are just going through a lot right now, physically. I mean, it’s December, right? It’s December, and you haven’t had your buy yet. So I think that that’s part of it, and I don’t want to make that that’s not the primary excuse, or that you just forgive lack of execution or other mistakes or anything like that, but, but it’s part of the equation here. How is it not so? Yeah, I mean, they’ve got to figure that out. But, yeah, there’s a there’s a lot to to answer for here. I mean, you know, where was Deontay Johnson when Rashad Bateman left the game? You know, John Harbaugh was asked about that, and kind of gave a weird non answer. Sandy basically wasn’t ready to talk about that. I don’t, I didn’t think a lot
Nestor Aparicio 12:48
to me, knows the playbook, right? And that’s why he was targeted a few times, right? Yeah, a couple years, let’s
Luke Jones 12:54
but Dante Johnson should be up to speed enough that he can contribute at this point. You know, he didn’t. He didn’t join the team Thursday.
Nestor Aparicio 13:01
You know what? I mean, like, they got him for a bag of footballs. I mean, I don’t know what value we expect out of him, but
Luke Jones 13:08
wait, wait a second, though, but he’s a real player, though, this isn’t when they acquired Chris Givens at the trade deadline, a wide receiver no one had ever heard of. I mean, Deontay Johnson say what you want. Okay, maybe he’s not the guy he was in Pittsburgh a couple years ago, but he’s not 35 years this isn’t Deshaun Jackson,
Nestor Aparicio 13:25
Jeremy Maclin, right? This is, this
Luke Jones 13:29
is a guy that to me, if the whole purpose was, he’s an insurance policy, if something happens as a flowers and Rashad Bateman, and then something happens to Rashad Bateman, and not only look, I’m not saying that I expected Deontay Johnson to come in and catch a touchdown and spark the comeback, but he didn’t play. He didn’t step foot on the field. And I mean, the right after he was traded, he played more than he did on Sunday. So
Nestor Aparicio 13:55
Coach Harbaugh has a dog house. I know I’m in it. That’s why I watch the games on TV. So like, whatever the dog house is with hardball, in regard to Marcus Williams making more money than anybody on the team, and he’s not even on a fee. So I mean, when John throws somebody into the doghouse, as he pointed out to you two weeks ago, we we don’t talk about that. That’s in house, in house, in house. Well, in houses. John doesn’t think he’s good enough to catch the game winning touchdown. That’s really the truth. And maybe you can track him down on Monday afternoon and ask him about that and say, Is he not good enough to be on the field? Because these guys that they’re not dressing that are making a lot of money or have reputation, or they traded a bag of footballs for him four weeks ago. I’m with you, but I don’t know that we ever really get straight answers out of John Harbaugh, which is one of the reasons I’m glad I stopped asking him, because I’m tired of you know that we sit here on the air and say, Well, what happened to him? I don’t know that we’ll ever know the truth. But the truth is, he was expendable, and the guys that are expendable in trades in the middle of the season, to some degree, when they’re given away. I don’t know, Carolina played okay without him, though, I guess.
Luke Jones 14:58
Well, but again. It’s a question. It’s, I don’t want to make this loss about that, but it’s just one of the many tentacles. I mean, Marcus Williams is a healthy scratch at this point. You know, Keith Keaton Mitchell was a healthy scratch, which was surprising, just because he was returning kicks. But look, you’ve got Derek Henry and Justice Hill, and they’re both playing. Well, where’s the path to playing time for Keaton Mitchell? Maybe they’ll figure something out during the bye week, but the kids come. You know, he’s less than 12 months removed from a torn ACL. I’m not stunned by the fact that he doesn’t have an offensive role. I was a mildly surprised that he was inactive just because he’d return kicks. But hey, Rasheed Ali had a nice return. So, so there you go. So, but, but you just, you look at those situations, I looked at the snap count, and this wasn’t brought up in post game, because look, I mean it even for reporters, there’s only so much prep we can do without going back and re watching the game, examining the stats a little more closely. Adafeo a barely played. Now how much of that was the Eagles running the ball, and maybe they decided tavius Robinson and Malik Harrison at the edges were a little bit better, but that’s a question, especially considering Kyle van Noy was inactive. Trenton Simpson continues to lose playing time to Chris board so and let me be very clear, I’m not saying all these decisions, or even the wrong ones, are bad or anything like that. I mean benching Marcus Williams, their defense has been better since they benched him. So I’m fine with that, but it speaks to this set of questions, and in a general sense, some of the soul searching that I think this football team has to go through here, in addition to resting up over the course of the bye week in terms of what do you want to be as a team right now? You’re that team that a lot of the, the statisticians and the the analytics, people like Aaron Schatz, and I’m not picking on Aaron shots, you know, I’m a big Aaron shots fan at DVOA. DVOA loves the ravens, three and five, right? This offense has been unbelievable for the most part this year. Lamar Jackson has been better than ever for the most part this year and help now, but right but now, two of the last three weeks, you’ve seen that offense really let down in games that remind you of January football games, and we know that everything about this team points towards January and how you’re going to do there. So again, always not lost. Let’s be very clear, I’m not down on them to the point where they can’t win a Super Bowl or anything like that. I think all those pieces are still here. And you know, the silver lining is that the defense has cleaned up its operation the last two to three weeks where you’re not seeing them give up the massive plays. I mean, take one. Barkley is in the MVP conversation right now. There’s one, there’s one running back in the league who’s been better than Derek Henry this year. It’s this year. It’s saquon Barkley, right? So at and he better be for all the money that they paid. And he’s better on Sunday, by the way, he was, he was, but, but my point with that is, I still look at this defense the last two to three weeks and say that effort in isolation relative to what I think I’m going to have with my offense at its best. And you know, the Justin Tucker special teams thing is another conversation. But my point is, what I’m seeing from the defense the last two to three weeks, I feel better about where it is compared to where it had been for the first seven or eight weeks of the season. But they’ve got to put all this together, and not just that. You’ve got to put it all together for three or four games in a row if you want to get where you want to get, or we’re going to be having the the same disappointing talk at the end of the season and the off season, and trying to figure out how they get over the hump again. So they, I still think most of the pieces are there, but you’ve got to put it together in a much more cohesive way. And again, that’s what’s disappointing. You know, you go into the game and you tell me they’re going to hold Philadelphia the 24 points. I’m not saying it’s a guaranteed win for the ravens, but I’m probably feeling pretty darn good about that. I picked the ravens to win 27 to 23 on Sunday. Right? So it kind of tells you where my head space is in terms of expectations for the defense and where I think the offense should be, which needs to be way better than it was on Sunday. By the way, I
Nestor Aparicio 19:14
picked him to win 26 to 24 that would have been the score if he made the kicks.
Luke Jones 19:22
I the same time, the fourth quarter plays out way differently, one way or the other, if he makes those kicks. I mean, there’s no question about it. But look, I mean, let me be clear. I keep, I keep putting aside the Justin Tucker talk. That doesn’t mean it’s not,
Nestor Aparicio 19:38
well, we’ll do that, but, but while we’re on this, and while we’re on the Eagles coming down, I want to spend a minute on the Eagles, because you’re in an Eagles family, you’re married into that and, um, the Eagles have been this team we don’t see very often. The Ravens have owned them. It, you know, and it’s in his in in the 30 years we’ve been here. I remember the Ray Lewis Terrell Owens game up there. Oh, and I went up with my wife, and my wife was called all sorts of names that day. And I think about the Eagles as being moving toward being pretty good. We don’t see him very often. We see him play DC twice a year or whatever, and they’re on TV a lot, and they’re right up the road. And I used to be a season ticket holder 40 years ago, but this Eagles operation that came in here, you had the coach going into the stand six weeks ago, you know, yelling at fans. You have just the fact that they’re in Philadelphia, and that’s a sort of a heavier thing all the way around, I think. And Jason Kelsey is moving on to his his flowers and post retirement, after being a winner there, but this is mostly a lot of these guys played in the Super Bowl a couple years ago. Hertz, being one of them, got their feelings hurt. I mean, they are a much more, I don’t say, established, but they’ve been up and down the mountain in big games, playoff games, all that they were a formidable team, is what I would call them coming in here. So I don’t know if there’s any shame in losing to them of all the NFC teams, or why they were the one that could sort of pick the lock of Lamar defensively. And maybe Vic Fangio has something to do with that. Certainly, their personnel had something to do with that. I mean, they came and they tackled that. That was the best defense I’ve seen this year, for sure.
Luke Jones 21:17
Yeah. I mean, and you wrote about it at Baltimore positive.com you use the word mystique. And, you know, obviously Justin Tucker is a big part of that. But, yeah, you look at what the Ravens have been against the NFC. I mean, we’ve joked about it. I mean, they were 23 and one, and the one game that they lost was the the game up against the Giants and wink Martin Dale was the defensive coordinator, and some weird stuff happened in that game. Remember? I mean, this wasn’t, it’s not as though the Giants defense dominated, right? I mean, the Ravens had some turnovers and some sloppy play, and it was a very ravens s loss. You know, the kind of loss that we’ve seen them have multiple times over the last three years. They lost their team. They shouldn’t have lost to the Giants, right? That giants team was a team they shouldn’t have lost. Yeah, this, this is different. And look, I mean, this is an Eagles team that’s red hot, but they run one eight in a row there. There were some reports over the weekend about that they had an early buy, right? They had an uneven start. They were two and two, and it was kind of reminding people of how they ended last season, which they completely collapsed. I mean, we’ve kind of forget it this time last year, go look at what the record was, and then go see how it finished up, where they limped into the playoffs and got beat soundly. You know, got beat soundly in an early exit. So, but there was talk about the bye week in Sirianni and Jalen hertz getting back on the same page, and how things have been much more kumbaya on that front since then. I
Nestor Aparicio 22:41
mean, well, their defense wasn’t good the first month, right? I mean, yeah, yeah. I
Luke Jones 22:45
mean, it took some I mean, their defense was horrible at the end of last year, horrible, and it started off not great to start the year. So yeah, you give Vic Fangio credit, they do have really good personnel. Look at the fact. Look at what they drafted. Go look at what they drafted in the first couple rounds. I mean, they drafted a starting corner and Kenyon Mitchell, who has been outstanding, and they drafted it with their second round pick, Cooper de Jean, who’s look at the hit he laid on. Derek Henry, of all people. I mean, that was a highlight play that he’s going to have props in his locker room for a while after that one. But that is that highlight play aside, he’s been really good. So they’ve added a couple draft picks that right away injected some juice and some really strong play for that defense, in addition to talented players that they already had. So yeah, I want to be very clear in all the discussion about the things the Ravens didn’t do well on Sunday, yeah, they went up against a really good team. And I’ll continue to say, if the Ravens come out of the bye week and go on a run and do the things that we’ve all been wanting them to do the last few years, and suddenly they’re playing in New Orleans, there’s a pretty decent chance the Philadelphia Eagles are going to be the team that they’re playing, or Detroit, you know, I’ll throw the lions in there. But the Eagles over the last two months or so, I mean, playing as well as anyone. And I think, I think the one question, you know, some of the questions, if you looked at their schedule the last two months, I think there was a question as far as just how real is it? Just how Elite is the defense, just how good is their offense? Because, you know, you kind of look at some of the teams they went up against, not necessarily a murderer’s row, a list of juggernauts that they were facing. Well, the ravens, talent wise, right again, DVO, way wise, EPA and all these different efficiency metrics wise, would tell you they’ve been one of the very best teams in football. And the Eagles went on the road, albeit not a very long road trip, but they went on the road and they took care of their business. And, you know, they they weren’t dominant by any means, but they handled the Ravens. You know, I think that’d be a way to you. A kind way to put it. From the Ravens perspective, they kind of got handled after that first quarter. I mean, it was mostly Eagles from that point on, if
Nestor Aparicio 25:10
they had to play them again, I really wonder offensively, how they would do it differently. Because they did not win up front at all. Yeah, it did not allow Derrick Henry to win up front at all when Lamar would fade back a chance, they were vigilant in staying in their lanes. They stayed in their lanes. Lamar is mom mad at Lamar about not running. Lamar didn’t have a lot of room to run in the way that he has in other points. And also, you know, the notion that they’re going to throw the ball that you want him to stay back there and deliver the ball. That’s why you pay zay flowers and Mark Andrews do. And Andrews had some effectiveness earlier in the game. Aguilar didn’t. And I guess out of the backfield, once the running game gets smacked in the mouth, once it’s we’re going to try first and 10 and oh my god, it’s second and 12. What happened here? That is not normal in this operation. It’s not normal against other defenses. The Eagles stood up in the beginning and said, You’re not going to run. I mean, I and and made it work. And if a team can do that against the ravens, and this was, is where you and I get sideways about Lamar being a great passer and all that, well then make Lamar a great passer. And then, then we sit here Monday. You say, Well, you laugh at me and say, Well, you beat you passing the ball. Well, go do it. But then you have to have pressure, and you have to make him get rid of the ball, and you have to cut down the lanes for him to run in. That’s a lot to ask. I agree. That’s why He’s 23 and one against the NFC before this thing happened on Sunday, but the Eagles played really responsibly, and they kept showing Vic Fangio up there. And it was interesting that Romo and Nance didn’t get into the history of Vic Fangio and John Harbaugh, but there’s a little circus there. And if I was a Philadelphia writer, I’d play that up, especially with John Harbaugh being a Philadelphia skin and all that the Fangio har ball things a real thing, if you know Vic,
Luke Jones 27:00
yeah, it is at the same time Vic pangiers, Miami defense, late last year, got embarrassed. I mean, not not not lost. They got embarrassed, right? Detroit, or at Detroit, Denver a few years ago, when, when the Ravens went out there, you know, the Ravens didn’t hang 50 on them, but beat them, right? And Lamar had a big game there. I’ll
Nestor Aparicio 27:21
tell you this Jim Schwartz doesn’t like the Baltimore Ravens either. You know what I mean? Him getting those guys in Cleveland ready. There is a slobber knocker thing in this league when, when you own the room, and you get the room ready to play Lamar Jackson, and then you go out there and start making the first play, the second play, and you’re capable, and you’re capable. I you know, not everybody has a defense even capable of matching up against Lamar because they don’t have the pieces
Luke Jones 27:45
right, right? I mean, that’s a big part of it. We’ve talked about this a lot where, one, having the game plan, and two, having the players, you can execute it, and then three, there’s always the Lamar B and Lamar factor, where you can do something just about perfectly, and he just makes a play that rips your heart out anyway, right? I
Nestor Aparicio 28:02
mean, that’s covered, you know,
Luke Jones 28:05
exactly, exactly, but, yeah, but you look at this game and, I mean, look at the pressure rate I saw. I think it was true. Media had the Eagles pressure rate up, you know, up over 50% and they didn’t blitz a lot, right? This wasn’t, you know, what some teams have attempted to do, albeit less successfully, over the last year or two. But we go back to, you know, the narrative about Lamar Jackson a couple years ago, where it was the cover zero blitzes that gave him problems. Well, he has since adjusted to that. The Ravens have since adjusted to that. But Philadelphia, I mean, they they controlled the line of scrimmage, and they got after Lamar Jackson, and they didn’t have to do a whole lot of blitzing to do it. And I think what’s impressive for them, since we’re, you know, since we’re quick to point out ravens players being injured, like Kyle van Noy on Sunday, but they just lost Brandon Graham for the year, who has been one of those heart and soul kind of players for that defense for a long time. I mean, he was on their team that won the Super Bowl seven years ago, let alone talking about their team a couple years ago that made it to the Super Bowl and lost to Kansas City. So I thought that had the potential to be a major advantage. You know how a major X Factor, let’s say, because he had kind of graded out as it’s a really good run player sets a good edge at the defensive end spot and makes plays. So this was their first full game without him, and you didn’t really wouldn’t have known he was gone, right? So it’s a credit to the other guys they have. But again, I think you bringing it up, and I wholeheartedly agree you do need to give Philadelphia credit, because they might be the best team in the NFC. You know, everyone’s talked about Detroit all year and the lions, yeah, they won again on Thanksgiving thanks to a head coach on the Chicago side. Ever flus, who’s No? Longer there, and some brutal clock management. But you know this Philadelphia team the last two months as good as anyone, right? I mean, eight no over the last eight weeks, so
Nestor Aparicio 30:09
and a big win in Baltimore, yeah, you know exactly and beat a big boy, yeah,
Luke Jones 30:14
exactly. I But, but on the flip side again, that’s where this is disappointing, where you look at it, and two of the last three weeks, you’ve gone up against the big boy and another big boys bullied you. Another big boys made you look like the little boy, right? And look, it happens. You don’t expect a team to go undefeated, but it’s disappointing, especially knowing where they are now from a you know, the number one seed shot first round by shot that’s all gone. Yes,
Nestor Aparicio 30:43
a playoff team, if they lose two of these games, they might not make the Pops, right? I mean, how old they gotta play Houston and they gotta play Pittsburgh, and, you know,
Luke Jones 30:53
they also play the Giants and the browns. And look, Indianapolis is six and seven.
Nestor Aparicio 31:00
Nobody’s catching them, is the bad news, right? Yeah, Miami’s
Luke Jones 31:02
five and seven. I mean, the Bengals, we need to stop talking about the Bengals are four and eight, right? I mean, even, but
Nestor Aparicio 31:09
how many losses are you allowed to have? They
31:12
have five, you know. But that’s my point, right? And again, you know me, I’m
Luke Jones 31:16
a numbers guy, I’m a nerd, I’m a sports nerd. I’m fine with that. I like looking at DVOA. I look, I like looking at different advanced stats and baseball and football and everything, but at the same time, you can’t, you can’t get lost in the weeds. And look at the fact that three and five, you know, I mean, that translates out to what a 10 and a half win pace, you know, you’re, and that’s what I’m saying. If they’re 10 and seven,
Nestor Aparicio 31:41
are they a playoff team? I guess they are, because nobody else will be, yeah,
Luke Jones 31:45
because Indianapolis, right? Indianapolis is, you know, because you’re talking about Indianapolis or Miami would have to win out there, and they’re not doing that, because those teams aren’t good enough, right? So, so they’re going to be a playoff team. But that’s not the goal here, right? The goal is positioning yourself to do something in the playoffs. And look, that is TBD. And even if they were 10 and two right now, even if they were 11 and one like Kansas City right now, we would still be saying, well, January is not the same thing. They’ve been the stars of the regular season. And this is where I go back to my tongue in cheek comment of maybe the year that they break through. They’re the underdog, and they’re the team that doesn’t have as high of expectations, and others are starting to write them off, right? I
Nestor Aparicio 32:29
mean, I saw the weather in Buffalo Sunday night, and I think of myself Lamar getting off the bus in that Lamar and zay flowers. There was a point in the game on Sunday where they had a TV timeout, a 32nd timeout, and dudes are out there giving them jackets and put them on him for 12 seconds. And I’m thinking to myself, dude, if you’re that cold, that it’s just you need a jacket on for 12 seconds during a TV time, like, literally not, like, even anything that would even keep them warm. And I’m thinking, Lamar gets cold. You know, there’s no doubt about that. And then I saw the snow, and I thought, glad that’s the 40 Niners out there and not the Ravens. Because if the Ravens have to get off the bus in a snow game in Buffalo, five inches of snow, I don’t know, the passing game, kind of you feel like that would go away. You feel like, well, we’d have Derek Henry, we’d have a chance to win. Maybe that’s the reason you would feel good about the Ravens on a cold night in January. Say, Well, we get the running game running, and Lamar starts running, you know, and the other team gets cold. Maybe you can win, but doing that three times in a row in January feels far fetched to me right now with this team, it really does. And I wouldn’t have said that at any point, but watching them stumble, watching them lose, watching their operation be no good, watching their kicker be no good, watching their pass rush be no good, watching their secondary be no good for the bulk of the season, for three months. Everything I just said is true. I have a hard time thinking like they’re going to figure out how to put it together in Pittsburgh in week one, and they go up there, beat their ass, and they go up to Buffalo, and they go out to Kansas City. And I just think that’s a pipe dream to think that if they do that, I’ll crown Lamar Jack, I’ll be at the parade no matter what the weather is. If they go on the road and win in Pittsburgh, buffalo, Kansas City, and then go to the super bowl and beat the Eagles or the lions, I’d like I give me $1 to bet against that in the gambling world, because I don’t, I don’t envision that this team’s not that good. But objectively
Luke Jones 34:19
speaking, you would have said the same exact thing about the 2012 ravens at this point. You absolutely would have, unless you’re just looking through purple colored glasses, you would have said the same exact
Nestor Aparicio 34:28
I would have said that with Joe Flacco, got in the huddle with Jacoby Jones, and the game was over, and
Luke Jones 34:33
right? And that’s what I’m saying. And so, so maybe this is the year where, if it’s in the if it’s in the stars, you know, if it’s meant to be for them to win the Super Bowl this year, or to get to a Super Bowl this year. Maybe it is the path of going through much more adversity in the regular season and having struggles and having some people write you off and all that. Again, I still think elements are there for this team. To put it all together, because we’ve seen it. The Buffalo Bills look great right now, right? I mean, you weather aside, on Sunday night, they still kick the Niners, but right, and they got Matt Milano back. And, I mean, they’re on a roll. They beat Kansas City a couple weeks ago in Kansas City, go, Well, look at the tape of us against them eight weeks ago. Looks like a different team, right? Well, and that’s my point. So look what happens on December 1, and what you’re talking about on on the first week of December does not mean that that’s what’s going to be the truth and the reality in early January or mid January or late January or early February. But, yeah, where they are right now, they’ve got work to do. They absolutely do. They need the spy week. From a rest standpoint. They’re going to get a little bit of work in at the beginning of the week, Monday and Tuesday. And I think they’re, you know, those guys will be let go then, because they need to, you know, they need to physically rest. This isn’t a week to, quote, punish your players, right? Because he didn’t like how they played. You still have to look at the big picture. And the big picture is they’re still in good shape as it pertains to the playoffs. The Division is not lost, right? I mean, they’re a game and a half out. They need Pittsburgh to drop one more game at some point in time, and ravens need to win in Baltimore, which, hey, if they, if they can’t beat the Steelers in Baltimore, they don’t deserve them to win the division whatsoever. Then so, so that is still there. They need some help. It’s not as doesn’t look as good as it did say at 1230 on Sunday afternoon, but that is still there that you can get a home playoff game and you can better your position. But they’ve got to figure some things out. You know? They’ve gotta, they’ve gotta. I mean, the special teams are an absolute mess. They’ve gotta figure out a way to to find more consistency out of this offense. Do you look at the offensive line? Do you ponder changes there? I don’t know. You know, at times it looks really good. We were praising it a week ago, and then not so good on Sunday against a really good pride. So, you know, it’s, it’s disappointing, but you got to keep the proper perspective. You know, they’re eight and five, which is not elite, but it’s not bad either, right? It’s good, but they need to be better. And to your point, especially if you’re envisioning winning three in a row to get to New Orleans, with possibly all of those being on the road, Boy, you’ve got to get a lot better. You’ve got to find a much higher level of consistency. We’ve seen them put it together, but to do that three weeks in a row, four weeks in a row. I mean, that’s a that feels like a toll order right now, and that’s why John Harbaugh on this coaching staff, they need to go to work this week and try to find some answers for some of their deficiencies.
Nestor Aparicio 37:39
He’s Baltimore, Luke. He is Luke at W, N, S, t.net, you can follow him out anywhere the social medias go. I am now out on the blue sky thing. There was a little bit of action out there during the game on on Sunday afternoon as well. Long bye week here, but a short week around as we’ve had some great conversations, we’re taking the Maryland gate tour out on the road this week. We’re going to be at Cocos. We’re going to be at the BMA over Gertrude with my cousin John shields, also with my brother from another mother, Dan Rodricks on Thursday, talking about his play all the brought to you by our friends at the Marilla lottery. I have Raven scratch offs to give away. Also, next week, we’re going to be moving the show back downtown the faith leagues. We’re going to be a Costas and amicis the week before Christmas, all of that out on the road. Our friends at curio wellness also, with some cool things going on this month as well. And our 26 oysters in 26 days is alive and well. My buddy Brian Eater is up there from the Chaucer. So get over to Highland 10s, but get some of those delicious wings over the Chaucer as well. I am Nestor. He is Luke. I promise. We’re going to do a whole segment on special teams and Justin Tucker, we’re back for more W, N, S T AM, 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stopped talking Baltimore positive, even during a bye week.
