They are the most talented team in the NFL by most measurements and that was on display for three quarters in Buffalo where the Baltimore Ravens were manhandling the Bills – until it all unraveled. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss their mutual disgust with all facets of the Orchard Park meltdown against Josh Allen to begin another promising purple season right where they left the last one.
Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Baltimore Ravens’ disappointing loss to the Buffalo Bills, highlighting the team’s defensive struggles, particularly in the fourth quarter. They noted the Ravens’ inability to stop Josh Allen, who threw for 251 yards in the final quarter alone, and the team’s failure to capitalize on a 41-25 lead. They also mentioned the importance of the upcoming games against Cleveland and Kansas City, emphasizing the need for the Ravens to avoid a similar collapse. The conversation included reflections on the team’s history of late-game failures and the need for accountability from the organization.
Ravens’ Loss in Buffalo and Maryland Crab Cake Tour
- Nestor Aparicio introduces the show, mentioning the Maryland crab cake tour starting next Tuesday at the Beaumont in Catonsville.
- Nestor promotes Curio Wellness and discusses the Maryland crab cake tour, highlighting various delicious items available.
- Nestor mentions upcoming guests, including Pat Young, Councilman running for Baltimore County Executive, and Chad Cause.
- Nestor reflects on the Ravens’ loss in Buffalo, comparing it to a previous loss with Kyle Boller and mentioning the Maryland crab cake tour.
Peach Cake and Ravens’ Defense
- Nestor promotes Curio Wellness and asks Luke Jones about his experience with peach cake.
- Nestor and Luke discuss their love for sports and their fathers, mentioning old memorabilia and antique shops.
- Nestor emphasizes the importance of eating and mentions his favorite places to eat.
- Nestor and Luke discuss the Ravens’ defense, highlighting the team’s performance and the importance of tackling.
Josh Allen’s Performance and Ravens’ Offense
- Nestor and Luke discuss Josh Allen’s performance, comparing him to John Elway and Joe Montana.
- Nestor reflects on the Ravens’ offense, mentioning Lamar Jackson’s experience and the team’s tendency to win games early.
- Nestor and Luke discuss the importance of tackling and the impact of defensive performance on game outcomes.
- Nestor mentions the Ravens’ history of winning games early and the challenges of making late-game comebacks.
Gambling Statistics and Ravens’ DNA
- Nestor and Luke discuss gambling statistics, mentioning the Ravens’ history of beating the spread and their tendency to win games early.
- Nestor reflects on the Ravens’ DNA and their tendency to lose games in specific ways.
- Nestor and Luke discuss the importance of accountability and the impact of the Ravens’ leadership on the team’s performance.
- Nestor mentions the importance of winning games in January and the challenges of playing in Buffalo again.
Accountability and Media Access
- Nestor reflects on the lack of accountability within the Ravens’ organization, mentioning the team’s history of avoiding press conferences.
- Nestor discusses the importance of media access and the impact of the team’s actions on public perception.
- Nestor mentions the importance of addressing issues within the organization and the need for transparency.
- Nestor and Luke discuss the importance of winning games and the impact of the team’s performance on public opinion.
Upcoming Games and Predictions
- Nestor and Luke discuss the importance of the upcoming games against Cleveland and Kansas City.
- Nestor reflects on the Ravens’ history of winning games against division opponents and the challenges of playing in Kansas City.
- Nestor and Luke discuss the importance of taking care of business and the need to avoid losing games early in the season.
- Nestor mentions the importance of winning games and the impact of the team’s performance on public perception.
Final Thoughts and Reflections
- Nestor and Luke reflect on the Ravens’ performance and the importance of learning from past mistakes.
- Nestor discusses the importance of accountability and the need for the team to address issues within the organization.
- Nestor mentions the importance of winning games and the impact of the team’s performance on public perception.
- Nestor and Luke discuss the importance of taking care of business and the need to avoid losing games early in the season.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Ravens meltdown, Buffalo loss, defense performance, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, fourth quarter collapse, accountability, special teams, Justin Tucker, Mark Andrews, coaching, Super Bowl potential, NFL playoffs, fan reaction, team chemistry.
SPEAKERS
Speaker 1, Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T am 1570 task of Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. We are 27 years into doing this purple therapy thing that we do on mornings after when things go wrong in places like buffalo. Remember when things went wrong in Buffalo, when Kyle bowler was there and I was displeased about it. But of course, I had a 6am flight out of western New York to get home. Luke Jones is going to join me in this one. Just want to remind everybody, we’re doing the Maryland crab cake tour beginning next Tuesday at the Beaumont in Catonsville. They have a delicious crab cake. They have an unbelievable fried lobster tail. My wife’s all about the lamb chops there. So I will get the lamb chops. We’re going to be joined by Pat young Councilman running for Baltimore County Executive. Also gonna be joined by my pal, Chad cause and I don’t know what else we’re doing, because I’m doing more crab cake tours. I worked more in August than I think I’ve worked in any other month since my wife was ill 11 years ago. We made the switch just with with political pieces, with local pieces, with people I love and people on both sides of the political fence with what’s going on in this country, getting ready for football, going to Buffalo, having legends on like John McClane last week, still talking about the Orioles, still talking about the Orioles, because Alan McCallum and I did an hour on Sunday morning after Saturday night, and Luke and I are worn out from this fiasco in Buffalo so much that we haven’t even discussed something magic happens Jackson, holiday celebrate. So anyway, um, they pitball game on Sunday night. This is my nice way of banding about and promoting curio wellness. And here’s what I’m going to promote for you, because I got to ask you this most important, because we’re going to get into the defense, and we’re going to talk about them losing we’re talking about Joe Flacco coming to town and all that. Have you ever had a proper piece of peach cake? Can I ask you? I’m just, I need to know, on behalf of curio wellness and my tastiness tour, this we’re winding down the, not, you know, the Maryland crab cake, toys be got all the oyster the beer, all that. This has been my favorite one. And even said to my wife this week, she’s like, Hey, you’re home. We’re gonna make dinner. What are we gonna do? And I’m like, anything you want. I’ve eaten everything. If I die this week, I’ve had peach cake, I’ve had amicis meatballs, I’ve had broccoli tempura from ekiben. You know all of my favorite things, then you know how much I like to eat. For skinny guy, you’ve spent a lot of time with me in a lot of places. Tell everybody the first thing we do when we go anywhere, we eat. Man, yeah, we eat and and to answer your question, I don’t think I have, because I would remember if I’ve had peach cake. I don’t remember it so clearly, man, it clearly wasn’t proper then, right? So, you know, it’s weird, your love affair with your father, and my love affair with my father, and our mutual love affairs with sports and each other and the Ravens and the Colts and, you know, just all of this. I found old skip Jack stuff the other day rummaging through the antique shot the Bowery anti Bowers Bowery antique shop that went out of business Saturday, and actually held a card of Earl the big cat Williams on the day that Davey Johnson died. Like crazy stuff happened to me over the weekend, but like, the fact that you haven’t had peach cake and the fact that we are, we are very, very late in the peach cake game, my dude. So like, You better hurry up and get you self over there to wherever it is. You get peach cake. I would tell you that I’m a little partial, partial to Alan, my friends at Fenwick bakery. So I just want to give some love to them. This is the peach cake I’m going to eat this to in the old days when we would do purple therapy here with Swami and Spiro. And, I mean, you drew Glenn, whoever did morning radio here. What? After a loss like this, we’d have to do something. And Nick the Greek off times back in the day, would bring by donuts. And there’d be a lot of donuts here, you know, like there’s old John Belushi bit, Saturday live, ate a lot of donuts that day, so I ate a lot of those. So I’m gonna eat peach cake, and I’m gonna have you explain to us and them and me and everyone, what the hell went wrong. And I know we don’t want to talk about the CEO needs to get you laughing, man. I mean, because, like, there was nothing to laugh about Sunday night, dude. It was this we’re gonna be this one for a long time.
Luke Jones 04:23
There was plenty to laugh about until the final five minutes of the game, right? I mean, yeah, it’s amazing. I and I just saw this, you know, as you and I are breaking this down hours later, and, you know, over peach cake, if you’re lucky, we’ll continue to talk about this, because this narrative is going to continue, right? A win over the Browns is not going to do it. I mean, I suppose if they go to Kansas City and win in a couple of weeks, maybe that’ll feel different. But, man, it’s tough. And I just saw this. I mean, this is directly from the NFL plus Twitter account, so. Is the ravens are the first team in NFL history to score 40 plus points and rush for 235 plus yards in a loss. Teams were previously 277 and Oh, including the playoffs. I mean,
Nestor Aparicio 05:19
that’s right there. Stank. Stunk,
Luke Jones 05:21
that right there will tell you your defense had a bad night. I mean, the captain obvious statement, and it’s funny because, and I’ve alluded to this in some of our other segments that I’m sure some of our listeners have heard as they’re trying to stomach the therapy of a 41
Nestor Aparicio 05:38
beach cake. It’ll make you feel better, please. Yeah, yeah,
Luke Jones 05:42
yeah, peach cake, or, you know, some pizza John’s on Tuesday or Wednesday, whatever.
Nestor Aparicio 05:46
But so delicious, dude. I can’t begin to tell you how, but it’s,
Luke Jones 05:50
I think it’s funny how I felt about the defensive performance when you were when, when it was 40 to 25 don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t about to sit here and say that the defense played well and there wasn’t anything to clean up, there wasn’t anything to worry about, but I was being realistic, right? I mean, the idea that you didn’t tackle anyone all summer, right? And we know that, that that’s part of the reality of the NFL. In 2025 very few teams play their starters, so you didn’t tackle anyone to the ground and when you’re going up against Josh Allen and James Cook, who, you know didn’t have a great night on Sunday night, but is still a very capable back that buffalo just paid a couple weeks ago. I wasn’t expecting it to be a perfect performance. I certainly expected them to give up some points and give up some drives. Josh Allen’s the reigning MVP for a reason, right? You’re not expecting the ravens to hold them to three points or 10 points or 13 points or 17 points, you know, I expected, I expected a lower scoring game in general. I think I picked 23 to 20 ravens because I thought these offenses would look a little bit more like what you saw around the league, which was not very good overall, because teams are just choppy and out of sync, and they’re not timed up the way that these operations are. Come week six, week seven, and so on. But man, you talk about the fourth quarter, you give up 22 points. Josh Allen threw for what was it? 251 yards in the fourth quarter alone. That can’t happen. I mean that that is so far below the bar of what a Ravens defense is supposed to be. You know, Ray Lewis crashed the football night in America pregame show. I don’t know how many people were watching it, but you know, it was in the middle of Jack Collinsworth, and I guess it was Rodney Harrison and Ray Lewis just crashed the set and talking about, let’s talk about the Ravens in general, but certainly talking about the defense. And I think back to the spring when Marlon Humphrey made the comments about this defense not being feared the way that it used to in recent years, which I think is completely true, even though true, even though, you know, they had some really good defenses with Mike McDonald and wink Martindale certainly had its moments. Not like the defense has been all bad by any stretch of the imagination, far from it. But to finish that game the way they did, and I think, you know, you look at the secondary, Buffalo didn’t. The running numbers weren’t great. I mean, they popped a couple runs on the outside with some lateral misdirection, things like that, but between the tackles they didn’t do a whole lot. So I can’t sit here and say that the run defense was terrible, because it wasn’t. But I mean, when you’re that bad in the fourth quarter. And I’ll hear that. You know, they were on the field a lot. You know, the Ravens went the Ravens last couple touchdown like they scored quick, right? I mean, they were scoring quickly. You look at the time of possession in the second half, it was very heavily slanted in Buffalo’s favor. So I’ll hear the fatigue factor. I’ll hear some of that, but, I mean, couldn’t stop them those last few drives. I mean, that’s pathetic. You need your defense to be better than that. I mean, especially all the hype right five first round picks in the secondary, and, you know, all pro Pro Bowl talent at every level. You know, they didn’t get a lot of pressure on. Josh Allen, and I get it some of that is by design, that you’re doing some of the caged in rushing, where you’re trying to keep them in the pocket. You’re trying to get him from prevent him from getting out and scrambling. So I’ll hear that. I understand that’s not going to be a game where you’re going to register seven sacks and 15 quarterback hits, most likely, but you look at the final results, and what one sack, you know, he was hit a few times. I mean, it just wasn’t good enough. It was so far below the bar, and it kind of it felt very, very much
Nestor Aparicio 09:55
that was an MVP effort, by the way, just as much as we talked about that. Lamar getting screwed and this and that. And I talked to all the buffalo guys last week. You go find it at Baltimore positive about who voted which way and why and how and what weapons he has versus the weapons that Lamar has, and the potentiality of the offense and the overall presentation of how important Josh Allen it, I said to my wife, when I summoned her back in and said, they’re gonna lose, like, I’m like, you better wake back. You better wake up and get back in here. I mean literally, she came running back in. She’s, I wasn’t asleep anyway. And then she sat here and watching, I’m watching him sling and I said to her, they’re going to lose. I said he looks like John F ing. And I use the real freaking word. I said he looks like John Elway. He looks like Joe Montana. You know, it just looks like he’s got all the confidence in the world at the end of one of these games. And, you know, who doesn’t have that so much of that experience is Lamar. Lamar doesn’t have that. Lamar has won a couple of games from behind Cleveland. We remember these exciting wins where, where we embarrass them at the end of the game, but the way this thing’s been structured for a decade, they’re so good, I have a lot more experience of them winning 41 to three in Los Angeles late night and just dancing around and wearing sunglasses and pulling starters and seeing Snoop Huntley than I do with them having to make a kind of comeback and having to run a tempo late and having to make play after play after play in order to win a game, because they’ve f the game up so badly. And buffalo kind of was on the edge of that right like buffalo, like they quit the third quarter on offense. I mean, the wide receivers standing there watching, you know, watching defenders catch balls in front of them. I’m watching, and I’m like, oh my god, they look, they look like they want to get on the bus and they live there, and that was in the third quarter, and how much it changed, and how much defense and tackling can be right, right, right all day till it’s not right, and one play will get you beat. You know, like I, I was watching the Steelers go down the field early in the game on Sunday. And excuse not Steelers, the Bengals, and there was and they were doing a pretty good job. The Browns were doing a pretty good job against Joe burrow, like sacked in miles Garrett, things were happening, you know, they were like, standing up fighting Flacco would, you know, punch back with a drive. And it was early in the game, and I saw a ball go over the head, and it was just sort of like, how do you let that happen against Joe? Like there was a play. And I’m like, Man, the Browns defensive coordinator must be pissed about. And I’m like, oh, Jim Schwartz, I looked, and next thing I knew, I I saw Schwartz. And I’m like, that it can be perfect on every play, until it’s not perfect, or until you start to leak and you start to and you’re tired and it’s late and you’re on your heels and the crowd’s down on you. And Josh Allen is six, five and 250, pounds, and will try to run you over. Um, he’s, he’s unbelievable, man. I mean, like I watched that, and I’m talking about John Elway, and I’m talking about the greatest quarterbacks that I’ve ever seen do it late in the game that just sort of dissected and went down the field a little bit. That was impressive. I mean, and again, Elway used to do it with Steve Watson. And, you know, Randy, Mr. Randy Watson, you know, didn’t, it didn’t matter who Elway had with him. He would same thing with Bret farm. Didn’t matter kind of who it was that you could go do it, you know, I won’t know that the Buffalo Bills are exercised until they’re exercised. And now, if the Ravens go back out up there on a cold, icy night, or wherever they’re going to go in January, and what they’re going to have to do witnessing that on Sunday night is its own poison. It was like watching Elway do the drive early in his career and saying he’s he’s got that capability, not that Lamar doesn’t, but Josh Allen should
Luke Jones 14:00
scare everyone he really should. And I honestly, I really don’t even want to make it about Allen versus Lamar. I mean, this is about the Ravens defense being lousy, terrible in the fourth quarter. I mean, that was Josh Allen being very good, and he’s great. No question, no question, in the same way that Lamar has made a lot of defenses look really lousy over the years too. I mean, really look, let me be clear, mahomes is the standard of this current era, right? The Super Bowl rings support that he’s done it for a longer period of time being at the top, right? I mean, he was putting up MVP numbers before, you know, when Lamar and Josh Allen were still rookies, right? I mean, that’s, you know, when mahomes took over for Alex Smith in year two of his career, he’s been at that level since then. But the last couple years, when we’re taking into account the regular season and the full body of work, Alan and Lamar, in whichever order you want to put them, they’ve been one too. I mean, the last the last two years, they’ve been one two. I mean, they’ve been that special. Mahomes has risen to the occasion in January. Kansas City has risen to the occasion in January. But no one would look at what they’ve looked like in the regular season and not put Allen and Lamar over mahomes the last couple years in the regular season. Okay, so that being said, when you look at what happened in that game? I mean, this Raven secondary, it was very soft, you know, in terms of the coverage, I I’ve already mentioned it. I’ll mention it again. I mean, they that last drive, they absolutely Dave zeroed in on Jair Alexander and said, We’re going after this guy. You know, give them credit. I mean, Keon Coleman made some plays, right? I mean, Cook had the 51 yard, you know, the long catch and run, right? I mean, where the tackling was poor. So it wasn’t just the secondary. I mean, they had breakdowns there. But, you know, and you made mention of this out how it can just be one play. And obviously the defense didn’t have a great night from start to finish. It wasn’t great by any means, but the first 50 minutes of that game, it was good enough. Acknowledging exactly what you said, that Josh Allen’s great, and he’s the reigning MVP, and they’re going to get their plays and they’re going to score points, right? You’re not going to shut them down. This isn’t 2000 with the 2000 ravens going up against some sickly offense with a corpse of a quarterback or anything like that. You’re going up against the very vibrant, dangerous, high scoring offense. You’re going to give up points. I mean, it’s the reality in the same way that 15 years ago we were talking about, you know, you would talk about the Patriots, and you’d say, well, the goal here is hold them to 23 you know, they get to 30, they get to 28 it’s probably not going to go up. And once you get to 40, and they’re 25 and there’s four minutes left here, like the game, you like to think your chances, yeah, but because you’d like to think that at the very least, you know, okay, that’s not to say that they’re not going to score again, but would you see that
Nestor Aparicio 17:05
gambling stat? I mean, and I can’t follow all the gamble. I mean, the gambling thing is, like, it just, it’s like, following your fantasy team, like, it’s just not where I am. I’m not reaching into my pocket or onto my app. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. I was like, Fred Flintstone, right? And I’m a lottery guy, and I’m fine with betting, and I’m like, but it is a little over the top, but the numbers become interesting to me when they say that the bills had a 1.1% chance to win with eight minute whatever these things are, and the Ravens have had more beats when they’ve been a 99 percentile winner than any team in the history of this or that, or whatever, the last seven years. Like that’s how weird this thing is. I even think, from a gambling perspective, that this double digit comeback beat thing, Luke, it’s almost as uncanny as their preseason record.
Luke Jones 18:02
I don’t know what to do with that, because I wasn’t expecting you to mention the preseason. But look, and I’m not a gambling guy either, but if you bet on the Ravens every week, you’re way more ahead than you’re behind, right? Because of all these boat race wins and how good they are against the spread overall and all that. But I
Nestor Aparicio 18:23
think part of the gambling Jones for the people who do it poorly is probably when you look at a game like this and say, Can they come back? And I can get 80 to one right now, I’ll put 10 bucks on it right now, over the next 10 minutes, that they can come back. That all of that inducement, the wager is there, and that’s why those numbers are there, and saying that currently, the bills have a 1.3% chance to win this football game. You know what I mean? With eight minutes left to go in a game? I mean that that’s where we’re and you’re the math. Learn about baseball. You’re the saber guy, you know, doing all that the breakdowns on How uncanny these beats are. It is, you know, if, if my old gambling guy was around here with the beard, uh, he’d be telling you, you know, you got pocket aces and your probabilities to win. And you know what it’s going to take the royal flush to beat you, you know, on the on the river, you know what, what card can be in the deck to beat you, man, when you’re up two touchdowns with a couple of minutes left to go, I and you keep losing these games, it brings the question coaching, and it brings the question like, Who do you have on the field? Who are you employing here? What are you doing?
Luke Jones 19:37
I mean, it just, it brings to into question, just the DN, the DNA of it all. And it’s tough to, you know, you don’t want to tear it down entirely, because it is incredibly talented and very good, and you see what they do for 50 minutes. But like, goodness, you got to finish. And, you know, just to finish my thought about, you know, if you’re someone who bets on the Ravens every week, you’re way more ahead than by. Mind, but man, when it’s a bad beat, it is, you know, and it’s funny, you mentioned poker, because I was thinking the same thing. It’s like, these are the kind of beats where there’s literally one card that can come on the river that that can beat you, and it just happens and it happens and it happens and and look, I I don’t want to say that to
Nestor Aparicio 20:18
and you leave the casino when that happened.
Luke Jones 20:21
I don’t want to say, I don’t want to say that to imply that the Ravens have just been unlucky, but that touchdown catch, that that they did have off the deflection on fourth down, that there was an unlucky element to that,
Nestor Aparicio 20:34
but, well, the kicker, doinked, you know? I mean, like the ball could have gone through. I mean, it’s just, I
Luke Jones 20:40
Gosh, it’s so I’m someone that tries to be as analytical as I can be. Tries, you know, I love numbers. I’m a nerd. I’m a baseball nerd. I look at when probability and different things like that. I mean, I try to always contextualize things. And some of what I would say here was, you know, the ravens, like I said, when they do lose games, it’s like this. It’s not like they go out there and they lay an egg and, you know, they lose by two touchdowns or three touchdowns. I mean, they don’t have games like that. And and not to say that Buffalo has a ton either or Kansas City has a ton either, but the Ravens did it to Buffalo in week four last year, right? I mean, so, but it’s just, how does this keep happening? And that’s where you just look at everything it’s and the Ravens, you know, they made such a point this this summer, talking about this internal grading system that they did with their practices, and trying to be more intentional and more deliberate and and right off the bat. I mean, it’s just the same old story. Right off the bat. It’s the same old Well, you got
Nestor Aparicio 21:47
it’s ugly the building this week, right? Like, I mean, I like, like, what has to be, I mean, I saw the look shocking all in Harbaugh’s face. And I do want to apologize to everyone in my audience that Chad Steele has disallowed people like for me from going and asking questions, because that’s really what happened. I took on a former intern of mine around here in the aftermath of the game about like, I’m here getting insulted by you after being disallowed to ask questions on behalf of a sleazy, sleazy franchise that had a sleazy kicker doing sleazy things. And by the way, the words Justin and Tucker were never mentioned in the broadcast on Sunday night either. I don’t know where Mike Green was, you know, I don’t know where Ben Cleveland was, but, but, you know, I’m going to go on and on, I’m going to write a column this about that this week, just in a general sense, but like, accountability for all of this, and what’s going to be done about it, and how it gets buckled up. This is really where it’s hard, dude, because you and I have gone eight months now since the last meltdown, since Mark Andrews dropped the ball twice and then couldn’t even show up at the podium to answer questions, but has plenty of commercial time here in the like it’s just an accountability issue through that begins with Chad Steele and Steve Bisciotti, who is not accountable anymore. Sashi Brown, who’s never had a real press conference, never met anyone, is a silent man in all of this that it leads down to the head coach is on the line for all this. He’s unfireable. They just gave him three more years, right? Like they were crowing about that back in May, right? So, like, it is what it is, and the expectation is the expectation. And I know one thing, they can’t beat buffalo next week, and they can’t beat buffalo the next week, and but they can’t be Kansas City and they can’t be Cleveland, but they can’t do anything until January comes and they stack three of these. And I don’t mean three of what Sunday night, I mean three of these. Like, you go win, and when you lose in Buffalo, generally, you have to go to Buffalo, like, and that’s why, even early in the game, Chris Collinsworth had a couple of moments early where he’s just like, Oh man, it’s a big game. Oh man. He’s thinking like a wide receiver again, you know, playing week one against the most important team in the in the conference, and knowing, like, it’s a big game, it’s a big game, it’s a big game, and when you lose it, oh my god, it’s a much bigger game. And you and I spent eight months now, four months since the schedule came out, talking about like, what it would feel like if somehow they lost by a point because their kicker Doink an extra point, and their defense blew a 15 point lead and running for 300 yards wasn’t enough for Derrick Henry. I mean, like, I feel like Rob Sterling’s going to show up here in some sort of Twilight Zone thing, because there is no accountability. There aren’t real press conferences. There aren’t real reasons, and no matter what they can’t do or prove anything until they now have to go back to Buffalo in January and and do it all over again, and relive this all again, and have it all play again on the NFL Network and do all the press conferences. And have Lamar say, I’m pissed. I’m pissed. And have Josh Allen say, Well, you know, we got him last time, but I still can’t beat my homes. And you. Know, we haven’t won the Super Bowl around here. And dude, that place is going to be. You thought it was messy on Sunday night, where you see it when it’s icy and it’s January 23 or whatever it’s going to be, and you have to go back up there because of what happened between 1110 and 1140 on Sunday night.
Luke Jones 25:20
I mean, there I
Nestor Aparicio 25:22
finally got angry. Okay, you and I been at this three hours on a Monday morning, and I finally, but my column is going to be angry all the way around, just all of it, all of it, all of it,
Luke Jones 25:33
I can tell and look, I’m not, I’m not going to sit here and argue with those points because, I mean, it’s a very frustrating outcome. I mean, to state the obvious, there’s such a sense of why in the world, does this keep happening to this degree? Because, you know, a lot of what you just met and look, I hear you about Mark Andrews not talking like I don’t think fans care that. I just I care
Nestor Aparicio 26:00
about accountability, because I’m a journalist, and it’s our job to ask them questions, not to be locked out, not to be intimidated, not to be told. There’s no press box room after you break stories that embarrass them, not to be told. If you continue to break stories that are truthful, that embarrass us, that are about literally stalking women in our community, serially, a 10 game suspension when a guy that was was assaulting people got a six game suspension, like they should have to answer for this, whether they win or lose, but when they lose, I damn well make sure when I’m locked out, I don’t want To be in Buffalo this morning catching a flight, but all that being said, Somebody should be there asking, I mean, their stream went out on their post game press conference. That’s how unaccountable they are. Like I just, I just keep going back to, do they have character? Do they have integrity? Do they have all of that? And when it shows up and it’s time to perform, whether that is acts of accountability or making a spectacular play, or not making a spectacular play, or failing on a very unspectacular play, the ability to show up and say, I’m here. I’ll stand in front of it. I’ll stand behind it. They’re not an organization that does that, and that begins with the owner and and and the coach and the lies and the the the thuggery of of how we’re the ravens and you’re not, and all that, all that’s great when you’re winning Super Bowls. They’re not winning Super Bowls right now. They’re not winning big games. Their leadership is being questioned. Their coach went and played footsie with the guy who the next day went met with Putin, good good work. John, good work. Dictator, good work. And then doesn’t want to have questions about it, and then media that asked questions about it get intimidated by them for asking questions. So you’re a part of it. You’re on the inside. You get to ask the questions, and they I don’t like the answers they give you most of the time, or the tone of which they give it. And I’ll say that. So when they get their ass beat, like they did on Sunday night, they got a lot of splainin to do, as Ricky and Lucy would say, and they’re not going to be here to explain it. But, I mean, look, I watched the post game at two in the morning with Jerry Sandusky, and Jerry Sandusky so on the field. And he said, even the podcasters and the pundits and the bar stools and the the things and they’ll all be taught, yeah, everybody in the country watched them melt down in a football game after melting down in a football game in the same place at the same time. They have all the Super Bowl potential. They have their head coaches going to the hall with this and his brother and like, and Henry’s going to the Hall of Fame, dude. When Hopkins caught that ball, I said to my wife, I’m like, Oh my God, he’s a Hall of Famer. I mean, just like, unbelievable skill that they have on the field, and yet they lost again, and the kicker going to kick, and the defense backed up, and the offense couldn’t get it done. And there’s their Hall of Fame. Running back fumbled the ball. I mean, it wasn’t good. And what would make this worse is the day after it happens in January, whether it happens in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Buffalo LA, pick your poison. Can’t city. It can be anywhere, right? They have to go and win these games in January. And you know what, Luke, there’s nothing I saw on Sunday night late that gives me the confidence that choke isn’t a way of life for them at this point, because it’s getting to be there for them. And if that’s me being a jerk Monday morning, fine. I’m a jerk that spent millions of dollars chasing them around the world, supporting their franchise, supporting their brand, defending their brand, and Ray Lewis, defending their brand, and Ray Rice till I saw the glass elevator and saw what frauds they all were in the aftermath and have been that you and I weren’t there to ask questions after a loss like this. On Sunday night. So all of that being said, Stephen A Smith can have his piece today, and all of that my piece is this better not happen in January, and it better be a dry dress rehearsal for what, as a Led Zeppelin song would say, what is and what should never be.
Luke Jones 30:21
I mean, it’s the same old Ravens. I mean that if, if I’m watching that game as a fan of any of the 30 other teams. Now, let me also be very clear about this, and this is where I’ll push back a little bit at some of what you’re saying, just from the standpoint of, if it was truly so fundamentally flawed, they wouldn’t be in the position to win as much as they do, right? But for whatever reason, something in their DNA, something that lost in the details, players on the field, coaches on the sideline, whatever, right? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, right, yeah. You know what are gonna end in history is be the best team to ever play. They never won, and ask Dan, but that’s the thing, you know. Like I just said, anyone who’s not a Ravens fan well, and let me not even say that, because Ravens fans are saying the same thing. They’re all looking at this and they’re saying, Gosh, they did it again. It’s the same old Ravens. They’re like themselves now. Now, granted, fans of a lot of teams, they’ll say that, and then they’ll look at their roster and say, We don’t have any shot against those guys, though, because we’re talking about a very, you know, and I’m not talking about like the Raiders beating them in week two last year, right? Because Raiders haven’t won jack in a long time, right? But in in terms of talking like Kansas City, buffalo, reflecting on what happened Sunday night. You know, even go as far as the NFC Philadelphia, right? I mean, the the Eagles came in the Baltimore in early December last year. And you know, was, wasn’t like a collapse by the Ravens. I mean, and I would even say this, I mean, the game that they lost in Buffalo last year, it’s not like they blew a 15 point lead in that game, but it’s still just critical mistakes at the end when you’ve got a chance to win, those those win probability plays, you know, those big swings when you’ve got a chance, those are the plays where the Ravens shoot themselves in the foot, or give up a big play, or just, they come up smaller than the other team, and that’s just, you know, some of what you mentioned, with the accountability and asking questions, they don’t know if they knew this wouldn’t keep happening, right? I mean, they don’t know why this keep happening. Keeps happening. It’s kind of like talking about like the Red Sox, right? With the the curse for 86 years? Well, it’s not any
Nestor Aparicio 32:42
one thing. It’s a series of things that we talk about that begin with Trenton Simpson hitting the line, kicker missing the Extra Point, Derrick Henry fumbling, just, you know, and that’s just at the end of the game, if you’re going to judge each one of those things, not things that happened earlier in the game when you drop interceptions and stuff, you know?
Luke Jones 33:02
And again, there were 30 plays that you could point to over the course of that game for either side that were something where you say, Hey, I’m putting a star on that. That was, that seems kind of a big deal, right? I mean, buffalo, think about it. I mean, they miss multiple two point conversions where you can, you know, you can go, step out of bounds and caught the ball, right? But you can do the hindsight thing and say, Well, if you just kick the regular extra point all along, right, if we had not done the analytics thing so, and obviously you can always do those things. And I think there’s, I think there’s a place for some of that discussion, but I think a lot of times it ends up being noise, but when this just keeps happening like this.
Nestor Aparicio 33:41
Well, think about the kicker who misses the extra point they lose by a point. Like, that’s not good on his side psyche. It’s not I mean this. If that were the only thing that went wrong, we’d be like, we’d be talking more about Justin Tucker, which we probably should be doing. We should have been talking a lot more about Justin Tucker all along, in regard to the integrity of this franchise, which I will continue to bring up, just in a general sense, because I know the sleeves of the franchise and and how they like to bury it all. But we will be talking about the kicker in some major way here today, if we weren’t talking about, how did Derek Henry fumble after looking like a Hall of Famer all night, or we can’t really pick on Lamar, because Lamar was kind of almost perfect in the game, right? Like so I, I don’t, but the defense, and it’s not any one person, not a one Kylie, not any one ball that went over anybody’s head. It was an ensemble effort of Where’s Chuck Pagano and Zach or answering you. I mean, we’ve talked for hours now, you and I, and I’ve just said Pagano and oars names for the first time in a while, and roquan Smith and as much as I talked for weeks here about are we feeling older or younger? Ronnie Stanley felt a little spry and getting out his game a little bit, I don’t know. Marlon Humphrey and roquan Smith and the defense in general met a BK, met a player too. Uh, you know, the big money guys I’m talking about showing off. I thought Hamilton played really well, but, and, but there was more Wiggins, there was more Starks, dropping the the interception. There’s more young, you know, more of the younger players involved your first round picks, guys that were waiting and saying, Hey, you’re going to be another Hamilton, or you’re going to be an Ed Reed. Are you going to be? You know, I don’t know. Pick the role guy. I mean, I, you know, pick, pick the wrong guy.
Luke Jones 35:29
Yeah, just to go back to Luke for a second. Let’s also point out he hit a 52 yard field goal on their first drive where they had a third and two play from the 14 yard line. So yeah, he missed an extra point, but he converted a long field goal when their offense self destructed on back to back plays to turn what would have been a chip shot into a long field goal. It was more tuckery, right? But I just in the interest of fairness, and this is why I said, like, it’s tough to just put it on one thing, because you can go back and look at, okay, that didn’t go well, but, well, look what he did there. You know, Luke made another long field goal late in the first half when a similar situation right where he ended up hitting from what 49 yards they they had the ball at the 17 yard line before the Justice Hill fumble that cost them, what 15 yards, or whatever, or what eight yards, 10 yards, whatever it was. So, so, so you can point to lots of different things. I mean, the special teams up until loop, missing the Extra Point. And, you know, he had the the kickoff play, which I think you’re going to see a lot of that around the league, you know, with the touchback now, moving to the 35 on kicking to the end zone, I think you’re going to, you know, a lot of these teams are trying to figure out, you know, how do I pooch it inside the landing zone, all that. So you’re going to see some of that. But, I mean, look at the opening, the opening kickoff of the game. I mean, they, they let buffalo start the game at midfield. You can’t do that, you know? There’s a situation where the defense gave up a touchdown, but it’s like they started on the 50 yard line. You can’t have that, you know? So it was a bad night for the special teams, beyond just talking about loop with the missed extra point, right? And Trenton Simpson, it was bad beyond those couple plays that really were magnified. But yeah, I mean, it’s again I look at the defense, and if you had asked me, with 10 minutes to go, how the defense played, I’d say they certainly have a lot they need to clean up. And certainly would not sit here and say that was a great performance by any stretch of the imagination. But you know, you’re, you’re kind of looking at it, and you’re on the road against Josh Allen, okay, exactly. I understand, like 25 like 40 to 25 like, if the score, let’s say the score ended there, I would have said, yeah, the defense, they did get some stops, and they did, you know, they settled in after the choppy start. I would have said, at that point, need to see a little more pass rush. Sure, yeah. I mean, the pass rush wasn’t great, you know, coverage was, you know, not terrible, but not elite. You know, they’re high expectations, right? Everyone? All everyone wanted to do was hype up the second area in the summer. And I’m guilty of some of that, although I pointed out a lot about Jair Alexander, saying, Look, this guy’s missed a heck of a lot of football the last few years, and the fact that he sat out the last three weeks of the preseason, managing that knee. I get it. I understand it from a physical standpoint, but at some point, you know what, you got to go out there and play football too, and that’s where you look at that and say you’re hoping that was more the product of him just missing three weeks of practice, and not the fear that that’s what he is now, right? Because, man, they went right after him on that last drive and and you know what? I don’t know if we’ve even mentioned, I may have mentioned it in one of our other segments, just in passing, but how? How about how it worked out, how he tripped up the receiver there, rather than if he goes in the end zone and scores that touchdown there, the Ravens get the ball back, and they’ve got all their time outs. It’s a great chance that they’re going to win that football game if they let buffalo score there. Now maybe he goes down at the one yard line right. Teams that have the greatest awareness go over those scenarios, but we also know that when you’re in the thick of it and bullets are flying and you see the end zone and something unexpected happens, it’s a little bit different. Sometimes guys can’t I
Nestor Aparicio 39:20
wonder if that was mentioned in the huddle, if you get a chance to go because, I mean, at that point, it’s, let’s just freaking score. We’re losing Sure.
Luke Jones 39:27
Well, and look, you look, and keep in mind that was a 25 yard play. I mean, they were at the 34 yard line, 34 yard line on that play. You know that, that pass to Coleman, but I
Nestor Aparicio 39:37
wonder if Alan says in that they don’t go in the end zone. You don’t score. We can’t score here. If you get close, go down, go down. That’s from I wonder if that’s was coached in or not. Well, I bet it wasn’t. I bet it wasn’t.
Luke Jones 39:48
It may not have been, but it’s certainly the fact that that Alexander tripped him up there that ended up actually working the bunt to Buffalo. Oh my god, it bled the clock. So, yeah, so again. Is another example of, like, who knows what was the situation? You know, it’s easier said than done, right? I mean, you’re, you’re at the 34 you’re not thinking, you know, if you’re at the 10 yard line, the 15 yard line, I think those conversations in the huddle and the the coordinator talking to the quarterback, or the quarter coordinator talking to the to the inside linebacker, making the calls in the huddle. Maybe that comes up a little bit or not. Maybe it definitely comes up in those scenarios. But, you know, that was the third a 25 yard completion. But you there’s just another play. I mean, we tend to focus on the biggest, the absolute biggest plays. And obviously for the ravens, I think the Henry fumble really stands out above it all, I think, you know, and certainly there are others, but, man, there were just, like 30 plays in this game, one side or the other, that were just, you know, kind of felt like you started at the time. But then you look back and it’s like, holy cow. That was was massive to how this game finished. But the defense. I mean, just that that was so far below the bar of what Raven’s defense is. We know that, and they’ve got to get a lot better. I think they will. I think they will get better. Like, I don’t think this defense is bad just because of one performance, but they’ve got work to do and and you certainly hope they make the adjustments more quickly than they did last year, right? Where, you know, okay, they found their stride post by last year, but that cost them the number one seed, right? And you already talked about it. I mean, let’s be clear. I don’t want to sit here and say that the number one seed is over, because it’s not. But, and I’ll get a little nerdy here
Nestor Aparicio 41:39
these next five or six weeks now, become a little more off plate,
Luke Jones 41:43
it does. But Aaron shots, you know, a friend of the program we’ve had all
Nestor Aparicio 41:47
but my point is, you don’t be three and three thinking you’re going to be a one seat. Oh, of course, you know what I’m saying. Like, that’s,
Luke Jones 41:53
that’s so, yeah, well, and I touched on this. You know, we talked about this in a previous conversation, but buffalo scheduled now until they’re by in week seven, at the Jets, all right, hey, the Jets, they the Jets offense actually looked representative, right? I mean, but at the Jets home against Miami, who might have been the worst team of anyone in week one, Miami looked awful. Home against New Orleans Saints. The one way that you could point to the saints is having a redeeming quality. Was what, hey, they’ve got good uniforms. And then you see what they wore on Sunday, on top of just being a bad team home against New England at Atlanta. I mean, that’s their next five games. You tell me what? What games are lost there? Now it’s the NFL, and who knows division opponents?
Nestor Aparicio 42:43
You never know, but if they’re six and oh, and you’re three and three, then, well, even if you got
Luke Jones 42:47
three and three, even if you’re even if you go, even if you win for the next five and you’re and you’re four and
Nestor Aparicio 42:53
two, that’s your the next five. It means you beat in Kansas City. It means you beat in Houston. It means, you know, it means you’ve won conference games, right?
Luke Jones 43:02
But if buffalo six and oh, you’re two down with a tiebreaker in the bills pocket. So it speaks. But I just wanted to share this. This is where the math is. And look, I know a lot of people will call phooey on this, and I hear that right, and it’s in a vacuum, but it’s math. It’s you’re running predictive model.
Nestor Aparicio 43:17
Hey, the predictive model was the Ravens were 99% to win with eight minutes left to go into game Sunday
Luke Jones 43:22
night. This going into Sunday night’s game, this is how important that game was regarded in terms of Super Bowl probability, in terms of the number one seed, all of that, FTN, which is Aaron shots, you know, it’s not football outsiders anymore. Their simulations had the bills winning the Super Bowl, 18.6% of the time with a win on Sunday night, 12% with a loss. Simulations had the Ravens winning the Super Bowl 24.5% of the time with a win on Sunday night, 16.8% with a loss. That just shows you. And look, I’d still you asked me right now, can I have the ravens and the bills to win the Super Bowl or the field? I’m still going to take the field, because it’s the NFL, and things are nuts, and injuries are a real thing, right? But that right there, that math there, which I know, again, it’s in a vacuum, but it’s just an exercise, just to show how important the number one seed is and how pivotal Sunday night’s game was in terms of talking about that. Now, Josh Allen goes out there and someone breaks his leg in week five, Bill season’s over. Same thing happens to the Ravens. If something happens to Lamar, season’s over in terms of Super Bowl and anything meaningful. So we know that, but in terms of just all the information you have right now, that’s how critical Week One was in terms of the number one seed and home field advantage, and when you had a 15 point lead late in the fourth quarter. And that happens to you again, again and again and again and again. And you know that’s not even getting into the psychological. Logical scarring, right? The scar tissue that this team has going back to 2019
Nestor Aparicio 45:05
you know, when they did, I stood at Marlon Humphrey’s locker, and he looked like he was in The Mod Squad with his sunglasses on and his and his fro out, and he said, we choked. We choked. And that was when they lost. Yeah, I mean, you know, like they haven’t stood there and won a game like that in a long time, they have won games on Thanksgiving night. They’ve won games at home. They finally beat Kansas City. You know, they they’ve marched up and down. They boat race teams from the NFC specifically, they’ve done some ass kicking of NFC teams over the course of time. But, you know, I also you mentioned that Eagles game last year. I thought the Eagles kind of outclassed them. That was the one team that I thought they’re better than them, and if they see them again, you know, they might not beat them straight up. I never thought that they couldn’t beat the chiefs, or they couldn’t beat the bills. I do think that they have some they have character flaws on this team and and, and I’ll, you know, like I just it is where it is. And I’ll continue to think there’s a reason this operation keeps losing games like this in some uncanny way. And it’s, um, it’s not what Peter angelos, uh, called that black cat out there. That black cat were bad luck. You know, you make your own luck, man, you make your kicks, make your make your plays, you know, alignment, assignment, technique, penalties, hold on to
Luke Jones 46:26
the ball. Yeah, I don’t know if I, I don’t finish the game. I don’t know if I personally would describe it as character, as much as it’s just there is a they have a quality that when things go sideways late and they’re in one of these games, gosh, it just, everyone goes down with the ship. I mean, it’s just, they just, it’s a meltdown. It’s, it’s, there’s this nervous energy that just, like, it just falls on everybody, right? And you just, they can’t, well, if you talk about choking, you might, yeah, I mean, so, I mean, it’s, and that’s the part that, look, let me be clear, Sunday night was not a revenge game a week one win is not revenge for losing in the divisional round. It’s just not, I’m sorry it’s not. And I would have absolutely rejected that notion. That said, Gosh, you were already carrying that January loss with you all off season, this was your first opportunity to wipe the slate clean as much as you can in the context of understanding you’re going into week two, there’s still four months to go until the playoffs, right? I mean, we all understand that, but now you’ve got this on top of that, and I’ll say this much, and we’ll get into Cleveland here over the next few days. You better not let this linger in the back of your mind. Look the browns, I think are going to be a pretty bad team. News flash. Wow. Big shock there. I’m predicting to make sure they’re bad. Beat him this week, but but their defense has shown an ability at times over the last few years, not every performance, because the Ravens have had some games where they’ve scored a lot against them, but they’ve had some games where they haven’t. And if you come into this one and you’re kind of sleepwalking and feeling sorry for taking goals and you know you miss you miss a kick, you turn the ball over early on, someone falls down in coverage. Joe Flacco still has a big arm, right? I mean, he’s not an elite quarterback at this stage of his career, far from it. But at the same time, if you bust the coverage, or you know you’re not, you’re not real fine on your P’s and Q’s with how you’re playing your defense, they could still score some points against you,
Nestor Aparicio 48:43
at least enough. I would encourage anybody that didn’t see the game go back and watch flaccos interceptions that weren’t really even
Luke Jones 48:48
interceptions, you know? I mean, I would just say it’s a simple I mean, the formula is very simple. Here, the Raiders came into Baltimore in week two last year, and the Ravens found a way to lose that game, coming off of a disappointing loss in Kansas City, where, Kansas City, they didn’t blow a big lead. You know, that was a back and forth game, and they had their chances, and Isaiah likely toe was on the line, right? It wasn’t, that wasn’t a choke, that wasn’t a choke loss. This was so man, you can’t, you can’t feel sorry for yourself, because you’ve got to play against the division opponent who is a big underdog. I saw the Ravens already seen the early lines for week two, as you would expect, are going to be the heaviest favorite of the week. And I think that’s fair. Even after Sunday night’s debacle, I would still say that’s fair. But, man, you need to go out and take care of business, because, to your point, a few minutes ago, you got Detroit The following week, and I get it, the lions, man, the lions look bad. On Sunday, Green Bay talk about eating their lunch. I mean, Green Bay stole their lunch money. They punked them. But you’ve got Detroit coming in, and then you go to Kansas City. You know, you do not want to be in a position where you’re one and two heading to Kansas City. Yeah. I mean, you just don’t so you. But you got to take care of like, it’s Cleveland. It’s Cleveland all week. It’s clear that’d be two and one going to Kansas City row here. Yeah, there’s nothing now that we’re talking about it, I’m glad we’re talking about it, and you’ve got to compartmentalize, right this narrative. Sunday night was your chance to at least chip away at the narrative just a little bit. Right? Again, it wasn’t going to end it, because September 7 is not the same as January 20. It’s just not. We all know that don’t get caught up in the the euphoria of what we thought the win was going to be, right? I mean, I think everyone was thinking that, and then you saw what happened. But man, it’s just more baggage to carry with you. And I don’t think it’s, you know, I don’t think this is going to cause him to spiral or anything like that.
Speaker 1 50:42
But you just, I don’t trust them. I don’t trust this football team in these big three and out on the first set of downs on Sunday, they’ll get booed around here, which is crazy, but I mean, the fans, you know what? You’re probably not wrong. I mean, I mean, if fans are pissed, all right, Luke is here. Let me. Let me just this would be my last thing. I would say, maybe not going three and out, but let’s say they give up a touchdown on the opening drive. Like say, the defense does it, boy, yeah, that’ll that’ll be ugly, because Lamar, Derek, Henry, the love will be there for those guys as it should be. But that defense, pu at the end of the game that was, that was not remotely acceptable.
Nestor Aparicio 51:22
Lot of things are not remotely acceptable. Um, Luke Jones is here. He covers the Baltimore Ravens as well as the Baltimore Orioles. For us, you can follow him at Baltimore. Luke uh. GBMC is presenting our hotline around here, as well as some injury reports. We’re very appreciative to them, as well as our Maryland crab cake tour, presented by the Maryland lottery. Conjunction with Liberty pure solutions, we’re going to be at the we’re gonna be at the Beaumont in Catonsville next Tuesday. We’re gonna be joined by Councilman Pat young. I love going to Catonsville. I love the Beaumont. My wife’s man that I didn’t feature the lamb chops, I’m going to feature the lamb chops next week because I was remiss. As well as that corn dish, which is also delicious as well. There is a rumor, Luke Jones, that you almost attended, almost attended, a no hitter on Saturday night at Camden Yards. It’s a factual almost,
52:10
almost
Nestor Aparicio 52:11
all the weekend. It was me, like you and I just done three hours of football. And are we going to talk baseball? You and I? Are you going to leave it to me and Alan, we can, we can talk you were at the game Saturday night, right? It was,
Luke Jones 52:21
I was there for all of it. I thought I was seeing history in a different way. And then I don’t want to say history, but my goodness, one of the all time games that I have covered in my career, absolutely. I called
Nestor Aparicio 52:33
it a top five Camden Yards game, and we haven’t said a word about it. You and I, so you and I are going to do that as well. Alan and I have spoken a lot of words about that. On Sunday morning, I am back and in the cockpit all week long. Here I’ll be writing a column mess off of the mess, nesting mess. It rhymes. Also, our friends at Curia wellness have put me out for tastiness. Winding it down, this is what happens, Luke, you and I get going. 54 minutes later, and half my peach cake is still here, and it’s stone cold, and I’m going to have to go heat it up again. Make sure you’re checking out tastiness out there. On behalf of our friends at curio wellness and all of our sponsors who have fed us so well in August that I might fast like Mahatma Gandhi in September. Stay with us. It’s Baltimore. Positive. You.
