The best version of the Ravens’ offense re-emerged again on Monday night against the Chargers in Los Angeles. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the offensive line and runs of Derrick Henry and the balanced attack Lamar Jackson now brings against overwhelmed defenses in a record-setting season.
Luke Jones and Nestor Aparicio discussed the Baltimore Ravens’ recent victory over the Los Angeles Chargers, highlighting their ability to overcome a 10-0 deficit and their 4-1 record in such situations. They praised the offensive line, noting its contributions to the team’s success, despite penalties. They also discussed the importance of Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson in the run game and the potential impact of Saquon Barkley on the upcoming game against the Philadelphia Eagles. The conversation emphasized the Ravens’ playoff potential and the need for continued defensive improvements.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Ravens offensive line, Derrick Henry, Lamar Jackson, slow starts, playoff potential, defensive improvements, quick strike ability, offensive line penalties, salary cap, young players, running game, Super Bowl contenders, Eagles matchup, Thanksgiving plans, Maryland crab cake tour
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:02
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, A M, 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. Please check us out at Baltimore positive.com. Luke Jones doing great work out there at Baltimore. Luke this short week, as we get ready for the Philadelphia Eagles, beginning next week, we really get going with the Maryland crab cake tour, all of it presented by our friends at the Maryland lottery. I’ll have Raven scratch offs to give away next Tuesday at Coco’s lunchtime, one to four, we will be at gertrudes on Wednesday. Or Did I did I do that wrong? Did I mean Wednesday? Another that strike that reverse it. I, you know, I did this right in the commercials. Why am I not doing this right on the air? Um, we’re going to be at Cocos on Wednesday. We’re going to be at gertrudes on Thursday. I’m confusing the fourth and fifth all are brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery, in conjunction with our friends at Jiffy Lube MultiCare. I don’t know what day of the week it is. The ravens are playing on Monday, and then they’re playing on Sunday, and they’re not playing at one o’clock, they’re playing at four o’clock, and dogs and cats and roquan Smith didn’t even play, and they played well. And by the way, Luke, I know you’re going to point this out, they fell behind again, and I don’t know the slow starts. We could talk about that for the as a part of the profile of the 2024 Baltimore Ravens. But also the fact that a run first team, which is what they’ve been from the beginning, for better or worse, no matter how MVP up their quarterback is they want to run the football that falling behind is not a great thing when you want to run the football. This team has overcome at this point being eight and four. Yeah.
Luke Jones 01:33
I mean, they trailed by 10 in Kansas City and came up short and Isaiah likely tow away from having a chance to win it with a two point conversion. We know that. But since then, ravens are four and Oh, in games where they’ve trailed by 10 points, and they’ve done it in different ways. In Cincinnati, They trail by 10. Lamar Jackson does what he does through the air. Obviously, he and Joe burrow put up, you know, put on a show two different times, and the Ravens trail by 10 in each of those games against the Bengals. Think back though to that Monday night game in Tampa back in week seven, the Ravens got off to a similar slow start. This game was actually reminiscent of that in some ways. I mean, the Tampa Bay went up 10 points in that game. Lamar Jackson throws five touchdown passes on Monday night, ravens fall behind by 10. They didn’t panic, you know, they they were able to really start leaning into physicality and winning at the line of scrimmage. And as I mentioned, Derek Henry over 100 yards after contact. And they did it that way. Not that Lamar Jackson didn’t have a strong night, because he throws a couple touchdown passes, ran a touchdown in himself, but they did it much more with their run game. So I’ve said it over and over and over that, yeah, John Harbaugh, you know, his identity has been running the football, but this team can beat you in so many different ways. But more than that, we’ve talked about it. Everything about this football team still points towards January. And what are you going to do in January? What are you going to do in the playoffs? Are you going to get to a Super Bowl? Are you going to get back to the AFC title game? Where’s Kansas City going to be in that? Where’s buffalo going to be in that? But this team is really been tested in terms of trailing and not starting games as quickly as they would like to and look Todd monkin even talked about this last week, where he said even, even the Cincinnati game a couple weeks ago, he was lamenting the fact that they didn’t start very fast in that game offensively, even though the final score wouldn’t, wouldn’t make you think that. But, yeah, they’d like to start faster, but when you’re in a position where you’re down 10, and you’ve now come back four straight times when you’ve trailed 10 plus points to win games. Boy, that that’s nice to have under the hood. That’s nice to have in the back of your mind. If that happens to play out in January, and you don’t want it to, you know, you don’t want to be down by 10 points. But it’s very encouraging to see the Ravens be able to do this. And I saw this stat. It was from Action Network. So I can’t take credit for this. I didn’t do the research for this, so I can’t 100% say, but it, I’m going to give Jimmy Shapiro full credit on that. Look like, look like a reliable source, though, but the Ravens this year, four and one in games in which they’ve trailed by at least 10 points the rest of the NFL 18 and 130 so the ravens, there have been 22 games, 22 wins from from NFL teams this year in which they’ve trailed by 10 points. At least the Ravens have four of them. So again, it speaks to this offense and how versatile and how multiple it is, it speaks to having an MVP quarterback and an All Pro running back who’s on his way to the Hall of Fame. It speaks to the weapons they have in the passing game, but it also speaks to this team’s character, and when we’re trying to size up what it’s going to take for this team to break through. I. So that’s been a big part of the narrative. That’s been a big part of the storyline. As successful as this team has been for six years now, in the Lamar Jackson era, when he’s been healthy, they’ve been wildly successful in the regular season. But the narrative has been, how do you proceed when you do trail? Do you panic? Do you abandon the run? Are you able to do enough in the passing game? They’ve been able to do all those things where maybe it is their passing game taking over, or on the case, on Monday night, it was leaning into the run still and trying to and trusting the match up against the Chargers who like to play light boxes and too high safety. So very encouraging on that front, as I mentioned in our previous conversation, encouraged to see the defense take the steps forward that it’s taken the last couple weeks, especially with no roquan Smith on Monday night, lots of revamping and tweaking going on in that secondary. You know, we’ve talked about safety, about the fact that, you know, they they ran four different corners playing on Monday night. You know it was Marlon Humphrey, Nate Wiggins, Brandon Stevens, actually five, because they even had Jalen armor Davis on the field a little bit as well. So I don’t, you know, I don’t know what exactly went into that, but those guys did a nice job. They definitely did. But again, this team, I get it. It’s a 10 nothing lead in their deficit in the first quarter. It’s not the fourth quarter. So you don’t want to panic, but we’ve accused this team of panicking in those situations in the past, and so for me to see them continue to do this, it’s not ideal. You don’t want to test that theory too much, but it’s certainly nice that they have the ability to do that, understanding that you’re not going to play perfect football for 60 minutes every single week.
Nestor Aparicio 06:47
Well, I mean, and they’re also the kind of offense that one minutes on their 16 yard line and it’s fourth and inches, and they’re thinking about it. They’re thinking about it. They’re baiting it the two minute warning, they come back out, run it up your butt, and 20 seconds later, they got six points like that. There is an explosiveness and a quick strike. And I don’t mean zay flowers or Bateman or even Deontay Johnson. I’m talking quick strike like 40 yards from scrimmage on a run called Lamar or Derek Henry, you know, or even say flowers on sort they have three guys that can run it and gash you with the football, if
Luke Jones 07:26
you’re not forget Justice Hill, 50 yard touchdown. Who
Nestor Aparicio 07:30
did it? Right? So the point that where there is comeback ability, really, is there quick strike ability? Right? Do you have quick strike ability? That’s how you come back. Quick strike ability is Two Minute Warning. 16 yard line should be punting every team in the history of the National Football League and the history of football. You said High School. Okay, maybe, maybe you go for it on the 16 yard line there. But either way, nobody else does that, and they don’t just do that, they then wind up taking a lead. Yeah,
Luke Jones 08:04
they did that. And they even wound a minute off the clock after that on their next two plays, because again, at that point in time, it was about possession. But I mean, it’s this is such a dangerous offense, that’s why we’ve talked so much about getting the defense up to a higher level. Again, it doesn’t have to be great, just be good enough. Just be decent. Just don’t give up to play touchdown drives. You know, don’t, don’t let the ball be thrown over your head for 60 yards. And they’ve done a better job of that the last couple weeks. So, but this offense is just so dangerous. It’s so multiple, so many different factors. I mean, Nestor, they haven’t even gotten Keaton Mitchell involved yet, right? And that’s fine. Bring the kid back slowly, you know, I mean, he’s got scar tissue and all that with the knee. Get him back. You know, he’s involved in as a kick for Turner. All of that there’s, there’s meat on the bone there. We know that. I mean, if he’s right physically, and every indication I’ve gotten is that he is, and they’ve been really excited about, you know, his tracking data and practice and how fast he looks and all of that. But it truly is a case of, there’s only one football, and they still haven’t gotten Deontay Johnson integrated into this offense. And look, it might not happen. In all honesty, it hasn’t looked great when Lamar Jackson has tried to get him the football. That doesn’t mean that’s going to be the case come a month from now, or two months from now, in the playoffs. Me, maybe he’ll make a big play, but that’s that’s what we’re talking about here for so many years. You know whether we’re going back to the very beginning, not not the very beginning, meaning not 1996 and 97 with Michael Jackson and Derek Alexander and Vinnie Testaverde. But from 1998 into the present, on a seemingly annual basis, we’ve talked about wide receivers and having enough weapons for whoever the quarterback is, Lamar Jackson, Joe Flacco, whoever and all of that years were. They’ve been later at running back because of injuries. I mean, go back to the post Super Bowl year with Jamal Lewis and what that meant when he went down. I mean, you just this offensive roster is really, really impressive, and it’s, you know, it’s shaping up to be not just the greatest offense in the history of the franchise, but one of the great offenses of the last 25 years. However, to truly solidify that kind of a legacy that has to play in January, you have to do those things in January. I mean, even in the telecast on Monday night, some of the numbers that they were comparing the ravens to, they were comparing it to the Rams of 2002 1001 now the 2001 rams got to the Super Bowl and lost to the Patriots, but that 2000 rams team, they their defense stunk, and it’s why they took a step back after winning the Super Bowl the year before that. So all of this is all about January, and when you continue to see how multiple they are, how deep they are, how many different guys can be involved. You have a quarterback with 30 touchdown passes and only three interceptions. He entered the night leading the league in yards per carry. You have Derek Henry, you know, second in the league in rushing, behind saquon Barkley, and has led the league in rushing for most of the year. You have Justice Hill. You have Keith Mitchell, potentially. I mean, you just go down the list. I mean, the offensive line. Let’s give the offensive line their flowers. I mean, they I thought they protected quite well on Monday night. And as I mentioned, that after the initial 10 minutes where I thought the Ravens kind of were losing at the line of scrimmage, I thought they wanted the line of scrimmage very consistently. And that’s part of what makes a fourth and inches from your own 17 yard line, even, even, even a consideration.
Nestor Aparicio 11:44
Well, let’s talk about the line for a minute, because I saw FAU le lay they they spotlighted him, pulling off the right side to the left side, setting a block, springing a big hole, might have been the justice. So I’m not sure what play it was. They’re all kind of run together in the morning after right after a late night, but, and by the way, over the weekend, I was watching the lions run around and watching other teams, watching Zeitler run around and like and I’m thinking to myself, all right, salary cap, they bring in Derrick, Henry. They’ve changed the offense. They changed the age profile, certainly of their offensive line, going from older veteran to Ronnie Stanley and a bunch of young guys, pretty much, right? I don’t know we spent so much oxygen dude, like April, May, June, July, August, September. You know, talking about the offensive line and the penalties, we’re still, we’re way into November. I’m eating pumpkin pie this week, eating turkey. They’re still in first 25 you know, they’re still having problems with holding penalties. And that’s, I don’t know if, holdings up around the league. It sort of feels that way. There’s like, a lot of laundry going on, a lot of like, just grabbing and when you watch it in slow mo, you’re like, Dude, you can’t do that, right? You can get away with that underneath the pile, if you get away with it. But once the camera’s on, it’s like, it’s obviously holding. They don’t get that call wrong much right, or unless there’s really good acting, you know, taking a nice little dive. But nobody wants to dive. You want to make a play of effort, especially on defense, because you might not get the call, you know, you want to make the play. That being said, this gigantic experiment at right guard, right like, literally, like, you’re like, he’s too big. He can’t, you know. And everybody, Troy Aikman is like, look at him. And it’s working, and it’s working to a point where we’re bragging on it at Thanksgiving, which is to Eric, the cost is credit. And I don’t have a whole lot of respect for his integrity, but I was respect for his football acumen. I would have said back in August, and I said this to you, you probably go back and find the tapes, dude, to cost and horrible. Think this is okay, this they think this is their best. They’ve all had the whole off season to think about this in money and what they were going to do. They believe this offensive line was going to gel, as we’d like to say, or come together, or that they had enough components. Patrick McCarry being another part of that. We talked a lot about him as a swing man versus a starter, and where that would need to be, and rose and garden, and how quick he would get up to speed. They’ve had a lot of problems with penalties. The offensive line is really cost this operation possessions because of down a distance, right? And also cost Derek Henry a chance to get established in a couple of these games lately. But that being said, it’s not a weakness of their team, their top 10 all time offense at Aaron Schatz on this week. Um, talking DVO way. They were right. I don’t want to say we were wrong. I mean, we questioned them. I didn’t say it wasn’t going to work. I just said, what’s the plan here on the offensive line? Well, the plan is, I mean, they’re only eight and four, and again, I would say a lot of that as to what penalties in their defense not being very good, right? Um. Uh, but, and not great fortune. I mean, Isaiah foot, likelies foot on the line and little those one plays, but those one plays have added up for four losses. That’s a lot of losses for them. And but the offensive line, we’re not sitting here saying, can they win a playoff game on the road in January as comprised would what are they good enough? Are they staff? We’re not talking about them the way we talked about the Chiefs offensive line when everybody get hurt and they’re losing to Tom Brady or the Bengals offensive line when they went into the Super Bowl half assed against the Rams, where it just wasn’t any good, the offensive line wasn’t any good. I don’t know if this offensive line the greatest offensive line they’ve ever had, no far from it, but it’s been very capable to do what they needed to do. And they’ve had six years to design this. They know what their offense is. They looked at monk and and said, What do you want? What do you need? What does Lamar need? What is Mark Andrew? What do we need here? And they settled on this, and it’s been good enough.
Luke Jones 15:59
It’s been good enough. I mean, it’s, it’s very similar terms to what we’ve talked about with what the defense needs to be. You know, when, when you have an MVP quarterback, and you have the skill players that they have, you know, it’s, it’s not, it’s not an elite offensive line. It certainly helps that you have Tyler linderbaum, who is an Elite Center. It helps that you have a Ronnie Stanley, who I don’t think has been elite this year, but certainly has been much closer to that than he has been at any point over the last five years. I think we would all agree with that.
Nestor Aparicio 16:29
And he also has an elite mind. Ronnie, sure. I mean, he’s, you know, he knows where he’s supposed to be. I mean, sure. No, no question. He when He goes up to the line of scrimmage, he knows his assignment, everybody else’s assignment. He knows what’s supposed to happen now, when Chris Jones has beaten him, or when you know Max Crosby’s just better than him on that play for that four seconds, then that’s what it is. But Ronnie Stanley’s not going to
Luke Jones 16:51
get he’s been above average. He’s been above average, right? And that’s coming off of a season where he was maybe average at best, at his best last year, you know, and not 100% health, I
Nestor Aparicio 17:03
would say adequate. Is what I would have said for him last year, right, yeah.
Luke Jones 17:07
But at times, not so good though. I mean, and his health
Nestor Aparicio 17:10
was, take his name and his jersey off, he’s just a guy. He would have said he was a guy, right, exactly.
Luke Jones 17:15
But he was being paid not to be just a guy. So, yeah, I think you look at this offensive line, again, like I said, with the defense, can it be good enough? It’s not the best offensive line they’ve had, far from it. But for what it’s worth, and it’s one source, you know, all of this is still subjective, but pro football focus does offensive line rankings every week, and it’s kind of based off of their grading system, which, again, is not perfect. I’m not, I’m not but, but they put in the effort, you know, they lay the groundwork for it. They had the Ravens 11th, we kind of said before the season, right, that if they could be in that neighborhood of average to slightly above average, and they’ve been that, you know, they’ve been that the right side of the line is still the relative weakness.
Nestor Aparicio 18:00
Well, if they were the 36 rank offensive line, like the defense has been on the secondary side, they they wouldn’t be eight and four. I mean, they sure this wouldn’t be and I think we were concerned that they wouldn’t be the 32nd ranked offensive but it might be bottom five. Yeah, yeah. And more than that, with the penalties added in, whatever they are, it’s worse than it looks. You know what I mean, for sacks allowed and pressures and Lamar and this and that the penalties are egregious.
Luke Jones 18:30
Yeah. I mean, they make things hard on them well. And you know what? It’s a big reason why, when you look at their record and look, I mean eight and four, that’s, that’s an 11 and six season kind of pace, you know, it’s not okay. It’s not what they were last year, but it’s still really good, you know. So, so, so I don’t want to make too much of that, but when you look at them from a point differential standpoint, when you look at the fact that they don’t have six blowout wins in the way that, you know, they did. They did, and I don’t know how many they had at this point last year, but we know they blew out a lot of teams, 2019 they blew out a lot of teams they don’t have. They’re not on that kind of a pace from a point differential standpoint, this year, and the penalties are a big part of that on both sides of the ball. I not both sides of the ball, all three phases. You know, they’ve had penalties on special teams that have continued to hurt them, and that hurts them in the field position department. So now this is not a perfect football team. It’s not a perfect offensive line again, and not in an ideal world. Yeah, you’d still have Kevin Zeitler at right guard, but he’s making up more money than Daniel Fauci is right now, and he’s considerably older, and the Ravens wanted to bring in Derrick Henry, and they used that money that would have gone to Kevin Zeitler to bring in Derrick Henry. And you know, it’s certainly difficult to argue with that choice at this point in time. FAU le Lay’s been good enough. Roger Rosengarten has been good enough. And were you like hearing the word good enough? Is when you’re talking about young players, when you’re talking about inexperienced players, when it’s a good enough veteran, that’s a stop gap, right?
Nestor Aparicio 20:08
You know? Well, John Harrison’s good enough, right? Like, good enough?
Luke Jones 20:11
Well, good enough to fill in for row Quan Smith for one game. You know, if, if roquan Smith were out for the season, then that’s a different story. But you know, the point I was trying to make John Simpson last year good enough at left guard. He was below average as a starter, but he was a stop gap in the case of FAU le laying Rosengarten, and especially Rosengarten, considering he’s a second round pick, there’s upside there, you know, there, there’s long term growth that you’re projecting out and that that doesn’t mean that they’re going to become pro bowl caliber offensive lineman. But when you’re looking at it and you decide to go young, really, it comes down to this, you’ve got to be on point with what you think your baseline is. And that’s where I give John Harbaugh and Eric da Costa and George warhop, their offensive line coach who replaced Joe Dallas Andrews. I mean, that’s that’s still the part of this that not a chapter in the book, if they want to super question, in a general sense, that’s the part of this that we have not made nearly enough about. And part of it is wanting to have sensitivity, to not talk about something that’s a real life. You know, this is someone who lost his life, but there are very serious football ramifications for that happening, you know, for this O line in this offense. So for them to overcome that is has been wildly impressive, and it’s good enough in games where the Ravens have to drop back in a more traditional pass set standpoint, where they become a little more predictable. Yeah, this offensive line gets exposed a little bit more, and when they go up against elite pass rushers. Yeah, it’s been exposed a little bit more, by the way, that’s the case for anyone, right? I mean, whether you have a revamped offensive line or even a bunch of veterans, when you’re going up against a tough pass rush like Pittsburgh or, you know, someone like Max Crosby or miles Garrett or Trey Hendrickson. I mean, yeah, Chris Jones, you’re gonna have issues with them, you know? I mean, this offense isn’t perfect, but it’s incredible. And the reason, a big reason why it’s been able to be incredible has been that their offensive line has been good enough. On Monday night, you know, I saw next gen stats, Lamar Jackson had an average time of throw at 3.43 seconds. That’s that’s a long time. Now, how much of that is Lamar his style. He holds the ball longer than typical quarterbacks because he can scramble, and it allows them to, you know, beat teams and scramble drills, he can get out of the pocket all those different things. However, even with the Lamar factor, you still have to pass protect well enough to allow him to hold the ball and move around and do those things. So Lamar those the O lineman may be the first to tell you, Lamar Jackson helps them immensely, way more than those times where maybe Lamar does something that makes an offensive lineman not look
Nestor Aparicio 23:00
as good. But also him screwing around costs them ineligible receiver downfield, which happened a couple times last week. And him screw around gives them more of a chance to hold right, so that, you know, you give five seconds, six second plays. That’s, you know, one bump, two bump. You’re around the edge. I got an elbow on you. Grab you, you know, and that’s happened, you know,
Luke Jones 23:23
that’s part of it. Yeah. So look, this offense is unconventional. But guess what? Unconventional is good. In this case, it’s very good, because, again, you can’t prepare for the Ravens in one certain way. And this goes back to the beginning of our conversation, how they’ve become so multiple, and they’ve become so diverse. And what they can do that even when you jump out to a 10 nothing lead on them, where five years ago, you kind of said, Oh no, that’s that’s not good. That’s not what they want. No one wants to fall behind. But they’ve shown an ability that they don’t panic, and they can continue to play their game even on Monday night, still running the ball. You know, they didn’t abandon it. Other games where they’ve fallen behind by 10, Lamar has gone in, you know, gone into more of a pass mode, and it’s worked out for them beautifully in those instances. So, but the offensive line, they deserve credit. They absolutely do. This group has been good enough. It’s not perfect, but like we’ve talked about with the defense, if the standard is, can you win an all win a Super Bowl with the way this offensive line is played, I would emphatically say yes. Can you win a Super Bowl with this defense the way it’s played over the course of the year? I still have questions. I still want to see them continue to make strides, but that’s where it’s been more encouraging the last couple weeks. But you know, again, four and one this season in games in which they’ve fallen behind by 10 plus points. I get it. It’s not the same as if you’re on the road in Buffalo or on the road in Kansas City, as you know, playing Tampa Bay or or any of those. But it’s still it’s all you have to go off of right now. So I’d rather see them be able to do it than not. And. Again, it’s been encouraging. But hats off to that offensive line, because that group has been almost from the beginning of the season. You know, they had their couple hiccups early on, but from about late September on, that offensive line is more often than not, it has absolutely been good enough for this team. And big reason why they’re eight and four.
Nestor Aparicio 25:20
Lou Jones can be found at Baltimore. Luke anywhere the the internet travels this week, he’ll be found over turkey dinner with his family up south central Pennsylvania on Thursday. Hope everybody has a great Thanksgiving. We’re gonna have the Maryland crab cake tour back out on the road next week. Oh, brought to you by the Marilyn lottery, in conjunction with our friends at Jiffy Lube MultiCare, sort of a weird week, put things together, by the way. Um, what was your, um, your degree, and I don’t even know. I probably should know that I, at one point, I took your resume 17 years ago. Mine was corporate communication. Was yours? Like, English or something, elementary education. Elementary Education. Okay, so English was a part. I use the word egregious earlier, and I had to, like, look it up. I wanted to see what you know Merriam Webster and Michelle rose, a would have to say about it, because I used it in regard to egregious defense and defensive and whether the offensive line would egregious, outstandingly bad. I thought that’s what outstandingly bad. Shocking. That’s 32nd ranked defense. I would say that the offensive line, when we were talking about it, we thought that that was going to be a liability, not a part of their charm. And I would say, and I would have said this in August, and I think I’ve always been very much more fair to Eric Decosta, John Harbaugh, than they’ve been with me. But I was fair in saying they believe in it. Give it a chance. Let’s see how it works. And they believed in it, and has stayed and seen it through, right? Because it was not very good the first month, right? You would, we would admit, and certainly, the penalties all along have been egregious, outstandingly bad. They’ve been outstandingly bad at penalties, yeah,
Luke Jones 26:56
and look, I mean, that’s still, that’s still something they need to clean up. And I almost want to say at this point, and you know me, Nestor, I really, I don’t like living in the world of complaining about officiating, because I still think in the long run, it tends to even out. But that said, when you are a team that has built a well earned reputation for committing penalties, I’m guessing crews are probably going to be looking at you a little more carefully with a little more scrutiny. So are there some times where maybe they’re drawing a few more ticky tack calls then your average team from a penalty standpoint, probably, but that’s kind of it’s one of those deals where you kind of have to, you know, you make your bed and you sleep in it, right? You know? So I think that’s obviously where they still need to improve. I mean, for as much as Patrick McCarry at left guard has been a good story, because keep in mind, I mean, Andrew Voorhees started the year as the starting left guard, and they pivoted with with him struggling, and he had the ankle, and then McCary doing a good enough job where they said, Hey, we’re going to go with it. The penalties for him, specifically, he’s got to knock that out. Especially him being a veteran player, he’s got to knock that out. But look, no team’s going to be perfect, and part of this whole offensive line conversation still goes back to the idea that you have a salary cap and you have so many, only have so many resources. It’s finite. It’s not like the Mets or the Dodgers, where you go spend $300 million right? You have a fixed number of CAP dollars. And yeah, you can do things to create space, but there’s always a cost. There’s always a hidden cost, an opportunity cost, with whatever you do. And that’s where the Ravens do deserve credit, where they looked at this and said, You know what, we’re going to get younger on the offensive line. It’s probably going to have some hiccups, but we think it over the course of the year, it will be good enough. And lo and behold, it’s been good enough. You know it’s it’s still the relative weakness of their offense. But relative weakness being average is a heck of a lot better than being a bottom five or bottom 10 offensive line, which I think is where a lot of people were concerned. So give them credit. Yeah, the penalties are, it’s an issue. It’s an issue in every phase of the game for the Ravens right now. I mean, it just is. They have way too many penalties on special teams, you know, let alone talking about your offense or your defense, so they’ve got to, they’ve got to figure that out, and at times it’s cost them this year, including the Pittsburgh game last week. But by and large, this offensive line has absolutely exceeded expectations for the outside world, and if you’re John Harbaugh and Eric Acosta, it seemingly has met expectations. Because I don’t think they, I don’t think they went into the season thinking that their offensive line was going to stink. I think they, they they figured that was going to be more of an unknown, and they had some questions there, but they clearly had some conviction that Daniel Fauci could be an acceptable right guard, and he’s been acceptable, you know. Whether he’s going to be long term, you know, he’s not going to be the next Marshall yonda, I don’t think, but he’s playing well enough rosengarden, I think is going to end up being a pretty good player. I still think that, even though he’s had his growing pains as a rookie, so, you know, again, it’s
Nestor Aparicio 30:16
not enough to get him off the field. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, the more they play, the better they’re getting. I guess that would be the other part for me, and that’s every offensive line, right in the history of offensive lines. It’s yeah, that we’re sitting here talking about an eight and 14 that we wish were a 10 and two team, but we’re happy that they’re not a seven and five team. Um, especially losing 10 nothing early in the game, and things look like it could have gotten away. Um, it’s your brother on brother and all that going on on Monday night. Now, short rest on the Eagles, anything on this with saquon Barkley and stopping the run, we’ll be talking about this a little bit short week, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, all of that going on. Paul tasked this women. It was just going to be a big week either way. Then the rest and the awfulness of the giants, and then that, bang, bang, bang, of three big games at the end of the month. I mean, they’re in a position, as Brian Billick would have said 24 years ago. Now, wow, we’re all getting old. It’s all sitting there, right? It’s all sitting there for you, division, sitting there. Home Game, sitting there for you. The chief started to back up a little bit. Who knows if mahomes turns an ankle, that would change it? You know, things that change everything is Lamar getting hurt, or some other quarterback getting hurt, or the bills getting out of the way. All that being said, still a four or five team race, and the Ravens are one of them. Steelers, still one of them, and you’re going to have to see them later in the month, but we start to whittle away at eight and four, you start to look at January as being there and not the fight to get there so much and say, where are they going to be in January? Where where’s their health going to be? But to your point, offensive line playing well enough. Skill position players coming on. Running game, still there? Defense, well, it was awful. It can’t be. Hopefully, by the time you get to Christmas, it’s only the 28th ranked pasty, you know, hopefully it’s making strides that once January gets here, you get the best version of roquan Smith, the best version of our Darius. What you know, like once they get their sea legs under them and start playing. And the good news is, they got back on a plane, flew home again without more injuries, right? They’ve been very fortunate in that way. I
Luke Jones 32:26
mean, we think so, right? I mean, you never know. I mean, you can always have something pop up, but,
Nestor Aparicio 32:30
but Lamar is going to play on Sunday, sure, sure.
Luke Jones 32:33
Hey, you have Lamar Jackson, you have a chance, right? I mean, it’s that simple. You have a healthy Lamar Jackson, you have a chance against anybody. And I think this is going to be an interesting football game on Sunday. I mean, the Eagles are playing that at a very high level on both sides of the ball. Their defense has really come on after what their you know, when you look at their collapse last year and how bad their defense was down the stretch, you know, Vic Fangio has done a nice job with them. You know, rocky start first four weeks or so, their defense not as good. It’s been very good since then. And, I mean, saquon Barkley has been phenomenal. You know, we’ve talked a lot about Derek Henry here in Baltimore, understandably. So saquon Barkley has been incredible. I mean, he’s been so dynamic that he’s in the MVP conversation.
Nestor Aparicio 33:20
And how about this? A year and a half ago, I got together with Chad weaseling and Chris pica. We did it over in West Baltimore, and we and Josh Jacobs was trying to get paid, right? Yeah, JK Dobbins was trying to get paid, right? Like everybody’s trying to get paid. And as we sit here on Thanksgiving Day, and you know, we’ll have to duck in on behalf of John Madden and the big uglies and, oh, boom, in there, and it run the ball. And Derek Henry’s changed this program. Sa plan Barclays changed the Eagles program. Josh Jacobs has changed the Packers program. And all of a sudden, running the ball is cool, if you can do it really well. It
Luke Jones 34:00
is. It is. But also, keep in mind, those guys are with good teams too. And Derek Henry would tell you he’s having the season he’s having because of Lamar Jackson and saquon Barkley has been dynamic. He he’s been that. That’s where I think he probably should belong in the MVP conversation. Well, we
Nestor Aparicio 34:18
were discussing as an industry that these guys have no value, no staying power. Don’t pay them a lot of money. Even to your point, it’s like, well, the ravens are going Young. Everybody’s going Young. They’re going to draft options. Are going to get Mitchell in the field in the early going to spend 10 million bucks on a real running back and a man who clearly on Monday night with Derek Henry, by the way, um, the Oilers jersey. I found it again on sale for like, it’s like 60 bucks, and I’m thinking maybe I might need it January. But the running back position, and the value of that position, to me, has been elevated in the minds of everybody this year in watching what that kind of running back can do for your program. And I agree, you have to have a quarterback. You have to have all of. That. But let’s not pretend that it’s a plug and play position. You can just put anybody back there with Tom Brady and let him run around. And that’ll be good enough, maybe good enough, but not what is ideal, which is second and one and second and two in your running game. Well, but, but
Luke Jones 35:15
keep in mind, the offensive line is also a huge factor with this. I mean, it absolutely is. Derek Henry, we’ve talked about it. That’s why Monday night, for me, was maybe his best performance of the season, because of how much of it was yards after contact. Derrick Henry’s had some games where he hasn’t been touched because of Lamar Jackson and their scheme and everything that a defense has to account for. But look, are we going to go back to the days where suddenly running backs are valued like they were 20 years ago. No, because that was wrong too, because there are always exceptions to the rule. But that doesn’t mean that you should pay your guy. And I’ll say this saquon Barkley has been incredible this year, but it is also year one of a multi year contract, right? Let’s see how that ages. But what, we’re seeing and what we’ve seen over the last 10 years, let’s say, is we think back to a time where running backs were viewed almost in the same way we talked about quarterbacks, right? And running backs were valued, and running backs would win MVPs and all that. So analytics become more prevalent in the game. And when we kind of look at things and we say, okay, you know, how valuable is the running back, when you talk about the ground game, doesn’t mean he’s not important. But I think what analytics illuminated for many people was it was much more about the offensive line than having a quote name at running back that said it swings so far in that direction, to the point now where the truly elite running backs are undervalued. I don’t think. I think the worst lesson that teams could take from this, and I’m going to pick on this Carolina Panthers here for a moment, who just paid trouble Hubbard big money, even though they just drafted a running back in the second round, and they have all kinds of other needs, I think that’s probably not going to be end up being a very good deal, and they have an ownership need, sure. Well, yeah, yeah, of course. But, but the whole point with this is, you know, we got to a point where teams became, quote, smarter when it came to running backs, but it overcorrected to the point where running backs then became undervalued. And again, we’re talking about elite ones here. I can still go out there and find you running backs that are paid too much in the same way you could do that with any position, mind you, so but there are always exceptions, and saquon Barkley, doing what he’s done for the Eagles, and understanding the Eagles have had a really good offense and have had a good offensive line, so that’s helped him as well. And Derek Henry coming in here, who has had a Hall of Fame career, but Derrick Henry will be the first to tell you, the reason he’s have had this much success to this degree has very much been because of the presence of number eight and what that means and and that’s a give take. So the truth was always somewhere in the middle. You know, there was a time where running backs absolutely were overrated and overvalued across the board, but then we swung so much in the opposite direction, where you start to say, oh, there are still some running backs that are that valuable to their team. You just need to
Nestor Aparicio 38:27
be I haven’t looked back in the last 15 years, but how many running backs are drafted in the first round? One, two. Most years you go back into the 80s, maybe four or five, right? Like so the different feeling about what it means to win the Heisman being running back when you know, like, it’s, it’s the game has changed the way salary structures have changed, but it still hasn’t changed the game that if you have Derek Henry, and you’re in second and two and second and three, and you’re running game, can do that, whether it’s because of Lamar, or whether it’s because you have Emmitt Smith, I don’t you know, whatever it is, or OJ Simpson, right? Like
Luke Jones 39:01
offensive line, offensive line, offensive line, I’m going to keep saying it. Running game is, generally speaking, is more about the offensive line than anything else that’s proven out over and over. Now, that doesn’t mean Derrick Henry isn’t great. That doesn’t mean saquon Barkley isn’t great, but Derek Henry ran behind a lousy offensive line in Tennessee last year. He averaged, I think, 4.1 or 4.2 yards per carry, pretty ordinary, and a lot of Monday morning pain from the hits, sure, sure. But, but the point, it’s the entire operation. But when you have that operation, that doesn’t mean that you can’t still bring in a dynamic running back that won’t make your offense better overall. That’s the point. Well, the Eagles just did it, right? And so did the Ravens. They did. And look, the Eagles and the Ravens also had cheap running backs do really impressive things for them as well. So the truth is, in the middle, right? Do I think this is going to mean this massive renaissance and running backs are going to start to be valued in the way they were 25 years ago? Absolutely not. But I do think. Think it should help the elite of the elite running backs get a little bit more bread, right? Because of what saquon Barkley is doing this year, because of what Derek Henry is doing this year. And, you know, Derek Henry’s, yeah, that was essentially a one year deal with the team option, right? I mean, it’s not like that was a long term commitment whereas Barkley it was. But even still, look at how much Barkley is being paid relative to what Adrian Peterson got a decade ago, decade plus ago. It’s still, you know, a far cry from where it was at one point in time. So, yeah, there was a market correction, and then the market over corrected, and now I think you’re going to see it bounce back a little bit. That does not mean, however, that every team should pay their running back and quarterback is a great example, as we’ll be seeing the New York Giants in a few weeks as the Ravens go up there in mid December. Daniel Jones is not a quarterback you pay, for example, and we see quarterbacks across the league that need to be paid. The same applies for every position, including running back. Saquon Barkley, yeah, he looks like the kind of running back that you should pay that but again, I will also stress, let’s see what that looks like in year two, year three, year four. Again, it’s it is a brutal position as it pertains to injuries and wear and tear. So but yeah, I think this, this has been a good year for the running back position in general, and certainly Derek Henry and saquon Barkley. How often do you have this the two leading rushers in the NFL going to go head to head in week 13? That’s pretty special reason
Nestor Aparicio 41:31
to get Chad Wheatley back after the crab cake tour next month, so he can tell me just how valuable running backs are as a football guy. Baltimore, Luke is Luke Jones. You can find him anywhere the the internet travels. Jersey, you’re an Apple Pie Guy, right? Or you Pumpkin Pie Guy. What
Luke Jones 41:45
are you more of an apple? I like both, but Apple’s my favorite, yeah. Well, I
Nestor Aparicio 41:49
hope you have a beautiful Thanksgiving, and I hope you don’t work too hard. I hope that the Ravens have practiced at some decent kind of weird week, right? I mean getting off a plane at eight in the morning on Tuesday morning for the team, and sleeping in and then getting back, and then having to play at four o’clock on Sunday, and really some nice downtime. If we’re going to talk about this game this week and what it represents, and Philadelphia, Baltimore, all that stuff, they’re going to get to sleep in a little bit after this game. And boy, would it smell a lot nicer at nine and four than eight and five. No
Luke Jones 42:19
question about and, hey, who knows? Could be talking about a Super Bowl preview here? I mean, the Detroit Lions will have something to say about that Kansas City baseball in 83
Nestor Aparicio 42:28
I don’t know that I could. I don’t know that I could ever do a Baltimore, Philadelphia Super Bowl or a Baltimore Washington Super Bowl. I That would, you know, yeah, we’ve done Baltimore, Pittsburgh AFC Championship games. You know what I mean? Couple times. I mean, like, that’s
Luke Jones 42:43
different though. I mean, that’s a division rival. You know, there’s such a familiarity there. I mean, yeah, there would be a novelty to ravens, eagles or rape. I mean, commanders, not this year. I mean, they’re they’re going the wrong way right now. They’re still a year away, a couple years away, probably, if it ever happens, and I’m not rooting for it to happen, but you know, Baltimore, Philadelphia, I mean two really, really impressive teams going head to head on Sunday. And as you mentioned, a short week probably mitigated a little bit, but the fact that the the Eagles played Sunday night in LA, so they had a long flight as well. So not the short week in the same way, but shorter than than, you know if they played at home or something like that. But be interesting to see how this plays out. And like I said, that that Eagles defense has played very well over the last five, six weeks, but they haven’t played an offense like Lamar Jackson in this ravens offense right now, and we know the whole NFC history thing. So we’ll see if this Eagles defense can make any kind of a dent in that narrative, because we know how that has typically gone for even the elite teams in the NFC going up against Lamar Jackson. But can’t ask for much better the first Sunday in December, than than ravens, eagles and to your point, will be a good test and then a much needed bye week for this team that isn’t injured a whole lot, but certainly has their share of guys that are banged up and could really use some time to get off their feet before they make the final stretch run.
Nestor Aparicio 44:14
They could use rocon Smith on the field on Sunday, four o’clock ravens, two and a half point favorites to start the thing over under 50 and a half. He is Luke. He is Baltimore, Luke. You can find him. Luke Jones anywhere the internet travels. I hope everyone has a beautiful Thanksgiving. We’re going to get the Maryland crab cake tour back out on the road. We’re giving you the entire list of how you can get Raven scratch offs to come out, beginning at Cocos on Wednesday, not Tuesday. I’m screwing dates on Wednesday next week, and then Thursday, we’re going to be at the BMA at gertrudes with my cousin John shields, cousin by marriage. Thank you to my son for marrying into the shields family. So I get delicious crab cakes and oysters. And we’re also gonna be visiting with family by friendship. And Dan Rodricks, who’s been my great, great uncle or cousin, no other. He thinks of himself as paternal, brotherly uncle. I don’t know what he was doing. He’s teaching me how to fly fish. Next Thursday, we’re going to talk about his acting and his writing skills. We’ll be doing that at Gertrude. All that brought to you by friends at Jiffy Lube, multi care as well. I am Nestor. He is Luke. The Ravens win another one short week. Happy Thanksgiving. We’re wnst. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and we never stop talking Baltimore. Positive. You.
