Luke Jones and Nestor get prepped for Lamar and Mahomes to kickoff NFL season in Kansas City
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
offensive line, ravens, game, year, lamar jackson, chiefs, thursday night, play, ronnie stanley, baltimore, win, season, lamar, big, talking, football, kansas city, team, january, luke
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Luke Jones
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S T, tassel. Baltimore. Am 1570 still there. Set a place on your dial. We are going into I’ve been doing this a long time, 33 years. I Luke will tell you I’ve been looking forward to labor day more than most years because we haven’t had this sort of promise. Of two parades. I wrote a huge Labor Day, Independence Day, sort of working screed out of Baltimore. Positive. Lots of letters are on the way, columnists and a whole bunch of dear letters. Dear Eric the Costa comes this week, so you want to check that out. Luke is working hard as well, doing double duty with the Orioles and the Ravens all week long. The Ravens of Kansas City on Thursday night, the Orioles trying to get that one seed, win that division and make that thing happen, and the Ravens get their thing going, Dude, Friday, we’re actually going to have a real game to talk about. Imagine that all this fake football, all these practices that you’ve seen, that I haven’t seen, and all of the draft, and all of the off season, and all the everything. This one’s big on Thursday night, Luke, this is, this is an exciting game to be a part of. I don’t know that I’ve ever looked forward to a regular season game, you know, in a way, or a kickoff game for the ravens, as much as I’m looking forward to this
Luke Jones 01:14
one, yeah. I mean, I think for a kickoff game, I don’t know if I’d say a regular season game in general, because it’s just too early, right? I mean, they’ve played big games in December. They played big games in early January at this point, with the schedule being what it is, with 17 games, but I just think everyone is beyond ready. And when I say everyone, I mean coaches, players, front office, the organization, fans, media, anyone that has any connection to the Baltimore Ravens is ready for this. This has been an excruciating off season in the aftermath of losing the AFC title game at home, knowing you’re playing the Chiefs right off the bat, and I think that would apply whoever they’d be playing in week one. But it’s just magnified when it is the chiefs, and you’re going to arrowhead, and you’re going to see them raise their championship banner and all of that. You know, it’s the big celebration, the big showcase, you know, for the NFL to kick off the season, but it’s time to play a game. I mean, it really is, especially with what the preseason has become, where you’re not even getting a cameo from most of your starters, it’s time to have something tangible to talk about. You know, we’ve talked so much about what happened in January and the attrition and the coaches lost, and the players lost, and all of that that you just you want something to talk about, something concrete to talk about. And to your point, with it being the chiefs, yeah, it is bigger. It is magnified. You know, you and I argued about this a couple weeks ago in terms of trying to size up the significance of this game. And the thing I’ll say right off the bat is the Buffalo Bills have beat the Chiefs multiple times in the regular seasons, and we’ve seen how that’s turned out in January. So there’s nothing. Isn’t a revenge game. This isn’t exercising demons. This isn’t getting the monkey off your back. But winning sure beats the alternative of losing on Thursday night and then all of those same story lines are still there and oh yeah, you’re Oh. And one also doesn’t mean always lost. Doesn’t mean the season’s going down the drain or anything like that, obviously. But don’t
Nestor Aparicio 03:22
tell me that on Friday you’ll feel that way. On Friday, it really will. It’ll feel that way, but, but it won’t be
Luke Jones 03:27
true. It won’t be true. But I think for this team, with the turnover that they’ve had with, you know, bringing in Derek Henry, offensive line questions galore, you know, obviously, with the human element, with Joe Dallas Andrews, making that even more difficult on the field. But it’s time to to get a data point, right. It’s time to size this up. I mean, week one, there’s, there’s so much unknown, right? And Kansas City, same thing, right? I mean, luxurious need gone, right? I mean, other players from that group have aren’t returning, you know, still, hey, it’s Patrick mahomes, it’s Andy Reid, right? It’s the chiefs. You know, they’re, they’re inevitable, right? They’re the team to beat. I think everyone agrees with that, but, you know, each team has undergone changes, and you want to kind of see what it looks like. And just because something looked a certain way last year doesn’t mean that’s how it’s going to look this year. So I think there’s just, there’s always so much week one curiosity. And I mean, John Harbaugh even talks about it every year, until you go out and see it with the bullets flying for real, you don’t really know. You can have an idea. You can be confident, or you can be not so confident, and then you’re pleasantly surprised, right? I mean, maybe the offensive line comes out and controls things at the line of scrimmage. Who knows? I’m not expecting that. But you know, anything could happen. So
Nestor Aparicio 04:51
what are you expect? There’s just let me, let me, let me interrupt you, because we’ve talked about, what are your expectations for where strength. Thanks. And weaknesses will lie. And if they win this game on Thursday night, why do they win this game? I mean, I think we all look at it and say, Derek Henry, Derek Henry, they’ll run the ball better. They’ll what are they going to do better than they did in January? Be different game, different team, the different everything. But what are they going to do to play better on Thursday night than they did last January? And how are they a diminished team combat Zach or Mike McDonald the defense and, you know, whatever Patrick queens that aren’t around anymore, and whatever jadavyan clowneys that aren’t around anymore, as well as Zeitler and Moses and some other guys. But what do you expect this team? How they gonna win on Thursday night?
Luke Jones 05:39
Because they’re the Baltimore Ravens, and they have Lamar Jackson at quarterback. I mean, they do what they did for 18 games last year, until they got to the AFC Championship game. I mean, this isn’t some I mean, this is, this is part of my pushback on the Derrick Henry narrative. I mean, steam was number one in rushing last year, right? It’s not like they didn’t run the ball all year. It’s not like that was their fatal flaw throughout the season. Like, I get it. Gus Edwards was a diminished version of what he had been in previous years, and JK Dobbins went down in week one and everything, you know, there’s not some magic fix that that they had to fundamentally transform themselves. They’ve got to play better on the biggest stage. I mean, it’s that, and that’s why this is so excruciating. Because, you know, I’ve heard people break down the schedule and all these different things that could go differently, and might be the difference of the Ravens getting over the hump. It’s like, what are we talking about here? They’re the best team in football last year. They just weren’t for three hours on that Sunday because the Chiefs handled them. And give the Chiefs all the credit in the world. And the Ravens lost, and they played poorly, and they deserve to lose that day. But you know, as it pertains to how the Ravens go out and play, yeah, they’re going to need to run the ball, and that’s something that they want to do, but it’s more than that. You’ve got to score inside the red zone. You got to score touchdowns inside the red zone, right? We’ve talked about this for years with the chiefs, and yes, even though they played a, what a 17 to 10 game in the AFC title game, doesn’t mean it’s going to be 17 to 10 again. In fact, I absolutely am expecting more scoring than that from both sides, so, but you’ve got to run the ball the offensive line, you better be ready for the Blitz. They blitzed Lamar Jackson heavily last year, and that was with Kevin Zeitler and Morgan Moses and John Simpson, so they better be on their p’s and q’s. I mean, Tyler Linder bombs back healthy practicing. He’s not even on the injury report. That neck issue that he had in August, as we said all along, was precautionary, but, boy, they bet. They better handle the crowd noise. They better be on point pre snap. Lamar has got to get them in the right protections. Blender bombs got to get them in. The right protections. Balls got to come out quickly. You know, you got to use play action. And obviously that ties in with the running game. But, you know, it’s not, let me be clear, the chiefs are the team to beat, but even the Ravens losing. It’s not like the Chiefs beat them by four touchdowns in that game, right? I mean, self inflicted mistakes were so huge in that game, whether we’re talking about Lamar throwing in the triple coverage mark or Marquis Brown, Marquis Brown, who’s on the other side and not playing on Thursday night, zay flowers fumbled the ball going across the goal line. They had some ill time penalties at the end of the first half defensively, that that gave Kansas City another field goal, that that proved to be pretty big in terms of that game. So, you know, it’s not this, you know, this magic formula that they need that go out there and play good football this team, other than the offensive line, which is a complete unknown right now, and that’s a legitimate concern. That’s a legitimate major question. Yeah, there are other questions. Do
Nestor Aparicio 08:46
you think there’s any chance the offensive line could be really good? I mean, as much as we’ve talked about it as being a question mark, or whatever, could could it be really good? I mean, could Voorhees be really good? Could? I mean, I don’t think so. As much as I’m looking at it, I’m thinking like, I don’t think there’s any chance this is going to look like Larry Allen and the cowboys from 30, you know, like, like, there’s, this is going to look like the 19 Marshall yonder, Orlando, brown, Ronnie Stanley, you know, greater machine. I don’t think there’s any way it can look that good. Um, but I am wondering how good it can look. Yeah.
Luke Jones 09:22
I mean, I, I was actually talking about this for someone in the building last week. I think if you have an offensive line in week one, and we’re working under the assumption that it’s going to be Voorhees at left guard, going to be Foley lay at right guard, I think at the very least, we’re going to see McCary out there. What now, if that rotate, if he’s rotating with Rosengarten, a little bit something like that, but I think we’re going to start off the year seeing McCary out there. You know, it might be a timeshare. I think Rosengarten will be the right tackle at some point, not too deep into the season. I think that’s the plan. I. Think it’s always easier. And you know, this Nestor how they’ve generally operated whenever they have competitions like that, it’s always easier to start with the veteran guy and then go to the youngster rather than the other way around. You’d much rather go that route.
Nestor Aparicio 10:13
And by the way, had Matt Scurr on this week after his words on Joe delis. He talked in length about McCary and about Ronnie. And he played with these guys, you know, a lot of these guys. And so he, you know, he talked about what that’s like with this offensive line trying to mesh. And he even talked about his first game, by the way, and all these individual players, I don’t remember this, but I got into the conversation music, you know, my first game was the game in Wembley, and I’m like, Oh my God, you know. Like, wow, you know. But that was a week three assignment for a very young offensive lineman who was on to, you know, didn’t go well. I don’t know what his role in The loss was, but I know the game didn’t go well. Um, I don’t have his, you know, his pro football focus breakdowns from 2017 but just in a general sense. And I thought it was interesting to talk to Matt scar or Mike Flynn, who I called this week, who’s teaching. He’s got, like, a real job these days, so he couldn’t come on this week. He’s gonna come on over the weekend, after the game, but just talk to offensive lineman about what, what this feels like, what’s for he’s going through what’s big, solid these guys, that and McCarry too, who he thinks he’s a starter. You know, he doesn’t think he’s a swing sixth offensive lineman. He
Luke Jones 11:21
thinks he wants to play 15 games this year. Yeah, he wants to play, well, it’s a contract year for him, I mean, and I think that’s part that, that’s part of this. I’m not saying that’s the driving force, but that’s part of this, and it’s one reason why, I think I probably, I know I mentioned this at some point in some of my, you know, 12 ravens thoughts at Baltimore, positive.com that I wondered if there was an extension to reach with him before the season, where what we’re talking about, what you just talked about, isn’t quite as much of an issue, where it’s like, Hey, you’re signed for the next two years. We love you. We gave you some really good money that’s would make you one of the highest paid sixth lineman in the league, because you deserve to be that at the very least. And yeah, you’re gonna get a shot at this. But you also know, we drafted a kid in the second round that we really like so but
Nestor Aparicio 12:09
look at how headstrong Orlando Brown was about being a left tackle. Yeah, that he just willed himself out of an organization that could win. He had his own, you know, he’s got his own, you know, dalliances with rings and whatnot, but, but it is. It’s an individual game. And we think of Pat mccarry’s Being around here, and I had a conversation, but, you know, he’d like to go get a 40, $50 million contract too. Yeah? Well,
Luke Jones 12:30
I mean, he’s not going to get that, but he wants to get real money, sure, yeah. I mean, any player, it’s, at the end of the day, it’s a business, right? And that’s, that’s part of this. But to go back to what I was saying. Was talking to someone last week about what this could look like early on, and I just laid out with you what I think it’s going to look like on Thursday night. And look that could change by the second quarter on Thursday night. I mean, none of this, this is all in pencil right now. I mean, it really is, other than linderbomb at center right and Ronnie Stanley, I think if he’s healthy, left tackle, right? I mean, even that is still
Nestor Aparicio 13:04
and he has a nice practice, right? I saw that reported, yeah,
Luke Jones 13:07
yeah. Hey, I give him full credit. As much as I might be skeptical about Ronnie Stanley’s play at this point in his career, $50 million in the bank. He didn’t have to come do this play if he didn’t want to. He’s answered the belt. He has recognized the moment, right? He’s recognized that this is a crossroads for his career. I mean, it is. You know, whether he’s going to be in Baltimore beyond this year, whether it’s gonna be somewhere else, any championship here this year, the Falcons. That’s not of course, of course, but he’s planned for his NFL future, and I don’t mean that’ll be out of the league, but if he has a so so year, his next team probably isn’t going to be solid, ironclad, that he’s going to start. It might be that he has to compete for a job even, I mean, you know, you don’t know, but he has been out there every day. So what I think for the baseline, for what this offensive line, what I think it needs to be, and if it’s better than this, then great, right? I mean, if they come out there and play great football on Thursday night and they look, they push the Chiefs around, and I’ll be surprised by that, but that’s a pleasant surprise. But I think what you want to see win or lose on Thursday night. Can this be a group that looks and look, this is such a subjective way of describing it. You know, I’m not an offensive line guru, right? I’m not going to sit there and break down film like I’m a offensive line expert or Sivan or anything like that. But can this group look average? Can it look close to average at the very least? Can that be your baseline for week one? If that’s your baseline for week one, Nestor, then I like their chances of getting better as the year goes on, because you’re talking about young guys, because you’re talking about guys who have some upside. You’re talking about guys like Voorhees, for example, who might have been a third or fourth round pick before he tore his ACL at the Combine last year, right? So you’re talking about these young guys, if they can come out and look like a. League average starting offensive line, right off the bat, then, to me, that bodes well for them by the year, but as the year goes on and come November and December, that they might be a top 10 or top 12 offensive line, which I think that’s more than good enough when you talk about the boost you get from Lamar Jackson being under center or more, more so in the shotgun, in the pistol, and also Derek Henry. Now as you’re running back where you know you’re talking about a quarterback with his mobility, and a running back who assuming he fights off Father Time for another year. I mean, he’s 30 years old. I’ll continue to point that out. He has 2000 career carries. You have to acknowledge that, but assuming those guys are themselves, and you know what kind of presence they are and how defenses have to account, especially for Lamar Jackson, knowing his threat to run, or his threat as a scrambler, how that impacts your pass rush, then if this group come November and December, can be, you know, a top 10 kind of caliber offensive line, then I think that’s more than good enough for the ravens to be in the in position to get where they want to go in January, what you can’t have. And this is where, again, it’s an unknown right now. If this group comes out and looks like a bottom five in the league offensive line, or, you know, not much better than a bottom seven, bottom eight, you know, bottom you know, bottom quartile of the league offensive line. Then you’re wondering, okay, what is the upside? Can you be average by the end of the year? You know? So you know, there’s some unknown. And look, you know, the bravado that John Harbaugh and Eric taka, DaCosta have in the same way that any head coach and general manager has around the league. It’s one of the most competitive environments you’re going to find in any career field, obviously. But for John Harbaugh to acknowledge, you know, questions are fair. I get the questions about it. For Eric DaCosta last week to acknowledge, yeah, there could be some hiccups. That tells you right there they have some concern and some questions about this. Now that doesn’t mean it’s going to be catastrophic, but it’s just a lot of unknown right now. And complicating that was the fact that linderbaum missed most of the training camp, and not that he won’t be fine physically, but he just wasn’t out there right your center so important to that process. So these guys just haven’t stacked a ton of practice time together in the way that you’d like. So that’s not an excuse, but it’s, it’s part of the it’s one of the variables at work here, in addition to just how much inexperience Voorhees and file Lele and Rosengarten have, right? I mean, it’s just, it’s where they are. So, you know, we’re gonna see, but I think to come out of it feeling good about where they’re going as an offensive line collectively, you want to see, you know, be solid, right? Be look like an average offensive line at the very least. And if you can do that week one, week two, week three, I feel way better about projecting their upside as the year goes on. But if it’s Lamar running for his life, and carloftus and Chris Jones is in the are in the backfield every other play, and Derek Henry’s getting stuffed and has 16 carries for 33 yards of late in the third quarter. Then, then, yeah, we’re going to be talking even more about the offensive line. So for me, it’s still the, it is the biggest question by far out here, Zach Gore, I’ll hear the pass rush out here, just the the the turnover on the defensive side of the ball. I’ll hear the wide receiver depth. I mean all those things. Those, to me, fall within the normal range of questions that any team has right any roster, any team questions that the Chiefs even have right now, you know, like, for example, replacing luxurious need and what that’s going to look like, and the fact that Trent mcduffy is probably going to play on the outside more for them, rather than just being at the nickel, and what does that look like? So every team has those questions, but for me, it’s overwhelming. If you’re concerned about the fatal flaw for this team, you know something that could derail their season. And when I say derail, that doesn’t mean I you know four and 13, but you know where they are struggling to make the playoffs, then it’s their offensive line not being up to par, not being ready for the moment, going too much with the youth movement, rather than maybe, you know, revisionist history, maybe suggesting, oh, you should have kept at least one of Morgan Moses or Kevin Zeitler. So we’re going to see starting Thursday night, and it’s not going to be the complete picture, but boy, if they can go out there and give Lamar Jackson time and give Derek Henry sufficient running room, where I’m not saying he has to run for a buck 75 but you know, at least he’s averaging four and a half yards per carry, you know, or something like that. Then then I think you’re feeling really good about this offensive line after that win. Or lose. But if it’s Lamar running for his life, and they’re getting stuffed at the line of scrimmage over and over, I mean, then, yeah, we’re going to be talking about this, and we’re going to be wondering, okay, this is the starting lineup this week. What’s it going to look like in week two? What’s it going to look like in week three? So you know, you just, you want to start off with a good baseline here. And for me, if the baseline is kind of sort of average, then I’ll take that with the idea that you have some young guys here that are getting their feet way wet and getting acclimated to the NFL, and I’ll feel way more optimistic, but I don’t know if we’re going to see that. I really, truly don’t know how this offensive line is going to look. Because even the preseason, where it didn’t look very good, you didn’t have Linder bomb out there, he didn’t have Ronnie didn’t have Lamar Jackson out there. You didn’t have Patrick Ricard out there. You didn’t have Derek Henry out there. So I don’t know how much value there was even looking at those guys on an individual basis, how much value there really was there. That’s why this is, you know, this is the great experiment right now, as it pertains to the ravens, 2024 Super Bowl aspirations.
Nestor Aparicio 21:03
Here’s Luke Jones. We’re getting ready for Thursday night football kicking off the season. Who’s the band that’s playing? Did they who they bring? Are they bringing Fergie? Do they have a band yet? Did they get the
Luke Jones 21:15
wrong guy on that? I mean, I can tell you trying
Nestor Aparicio 21:17
to get fired up before the game, because it’s in my calendar on Thursday, and, like, I’m an idiot. It’s a game day. I don’t have anything planned because, like, I feel like I’m gonna be sitting here all day waiting, which is pretty much what the football players do, which is pretty much what you and I would be doing if you’re eating barbecue in Kansas City. It’s just sitting around all day and waiting and waiting and waiting. But it’s not that kind of day, because the programming starts at like, three in the afternoon, and they have concerts, and Kansas City will be on fire and all that. Um, how’s my old buddy, Eric da Costa, the guy that helped ban me from doing my job that I wrote about this week. Um, how’s he doing? Because he he’s kind of like Loch Ness Monster, right? Like the head only comes out of the water only a couple times a year, right? Like he showed up last week. Um, we won’t see him again until, I guess the elimination or the Super Bowl parade, I guess he goes, he becomes like a bear in a cave, like, what’s going on with him? Because you haven’t asked him a whole lot of questions. No one does, yeah, well, I
Luke Jones 22:14
mean, he spoke last week, you know, it’s part of the NFL media policy for GMs. Oh, he has to speak after final cuts. Okay, I didn’t know that, you know, and we talked about this late last week. I mean, final cuts about as chalk as it gets me. Tyler huntley’s Back on the practice squad, you know, I wasn’t shocked to see that, because he was the number four in Cleveland. I mean, he never had a great shot of making the roster there. So, you know. But there were, I mean, demarian Williams, their fourth round corner from two years ago was their most, biggest surprise cut. And that’s not really a surprise. So, you know, I think they’re hell. I think he’s pleased with the fact that they’re healthy. I think a lot of what I just said about the offensive line, you know, he acknowledged that they made a concerted effort at the beginning of the off season, that they they were going to go young, you know, that they were going to rip the band aid off, so to speak. And you know, we’re going to see if Ronnie Stanley is after the year, if that’s a continuation of pulling that band aid, or maybe Ronnie Stanley as a second act, who knows? But clearly they made a concerted effort here. He acknowledged there are probably going to be some hiccups with the O line. And I think again, I even if they go out there and they win on Thursday night. To me, there’s going to be something about the offensive line that we’re still asking about one someone will struggle, or someone will get hurt, or something like that. They’ll just be questions, because it’s one game, right? I mean, you don’t decide everything with over one game, but, you know, he acknowledged probably will be some hiccups along the way. But he, ought. You know, he made the comment that this offensive line a year from now will be, in a way, better place, perception wise, than what it is right now. And you know, any GM, any head coach, is going to express confidence and conviction in what they do. You know, they should or they wouldn’t be in that position to begin with. But, you know, I think there’s, it’s this simple. And this goes back to what I talked about at the beginning of our conversation. If you have a healthy and upright Lamar Jackson, the Ravens have been royalty in the regular season for five years now. They’ve been one of the very best teams in the NFL for five years now, in the regular season whenever Lamar Jackson’s healthy, because nobody can figure that out, even when they want to figure that out, right? That’s even with the injuries they had back in 21 remember that team was still in position to be a playoff team before Lamar Jackson got hurt. That was the case in 20 after Ronnie Stanley went down for the season. That was the case in 22 before Lamar got hurt then and part of
Nestor Aparicio 24:37
his a steamroll these NFC teams, because nobody’s ready to play him. No no, nobody. Nobody has personnel to play this package. And you know, the Eddie George thing, or I keep calling him Eddie George Derek Henry thing, continues to be the great unknown, you know, I mean, like, I’d like to think that they’re going to win the football game Thursday night because of Derrick Henry. I’d like to think that. And. And because of his existence, because in the fourth quarter, maybe you can’t tackle him, and maybe you can’t get the ball back, and the Ravens have a nine point lead, or whatever, like, I’d like to see that difference being made in the way the GUS bus did back in various points when they would get that lead and they would play, as coach, hardball would say ravens football, you know, and ravens football is second and two, first and 10, second and three, first and 10. Oh, over, over your head. Flowers. Touchdown. Six plays. 78 yards. We’re up seven nothing. Let you know, let’s go towel off and send roquan out there like that’s how it is when it’s going well, I don’t expect it to go that well. Against Kansas City. They’re playing a real team. They’re playing a lot of real teams early, dude, you start to look at the schedule and you’re like, at Dallas, Cincinnati, in the Raiders thing next week, That better be like, beating the White Sox this week. These four out of these five games are, I mean, I could look up seeing two and three. Hey, it might be four if they’re four and one, everything you’ve said about Lamar, everything, Eric’s a genius. John’s a genius. Here we go again. They’re the best team. Let’s go January, right? But I don’t know that it’s going to be that easy for them. I really I look at the schedule, look at their offensive line, I look at the atrophy, I look at what their profile was last year, and last year’s never this year, we learned that they won’t be as good as they were last year. They won’t be. They don’t have the personnel to be as good as last year, unless some magical things happen. Which the running back would be the one key part that they’ve imported, and how much better Kyle Hamilton can be and all that. But I don’t expect them to win on Thursday. You give me your pick. Are you going to be that guy? You’re going to wait till Thursday? You’re going to be that guy. You got to check
Luke Jones 26:39
you got to check it out at Baltimore positive.com
Nestor Aparicio 26:41
I hate when you do that to me, your friends. Look,
Luke Jones 26:46
can they win on Thursday night? Of course, they can. I mean, we’re talking about 17 to 10 game last year where Lamar Jackson played poor football. Their offensive line couldn’t block anyone. Their defense gave up two touchdowns on the on the first two drives. The coaching was not good. They had some ill time penalties. They fumbled the ball going across, and they lost by seven, right? I mean, again, we need to keep and that’s what you made mention to Derek Henry, it’s got to be more than that. They need Lamar Jackson to play like MVP. Lamar, not January, not very good. Lamar, right? I mean, they they need their defense to like, like, here’s something that I haven’t mentioned yet, but I’ll throw this out there. Um, Zach Gore better be ready to adjust if Kansas City really tries to isolate Trenton Simpson in pass coverage, for example, because that’s what they did to Patrick Queen three years ago when they came to Baltimore for that covid Monday night game. And if you recall, Patrick Queen actually finished that game on the sideline because he actually got benched, you know, I I’m not down on Trenton Simpson, let me be clear. But this is a tough matchup for him, right? I mean, this is a tough matchup in general for Zach or in his first game as the as defensive coordinator, you know, Andy Reid and Patrick mahomes, they’re gonna have some stuff cooked up for them. I mean, there’s no doubt. So again, can you expect to hold them to 17 points like they did last January? Probably not. But I also expect the offense to do way better than 10 points, so
Nestor Aparicio 28:11
they can win. If they score 10 points again, they’re going to
Luke Jones 28:15
lose, of course, yeah. I mean, definitely if, if they scored 10 points again, then they’re probably getting blown out, right? Because I don’t, I don’t think you can expect your defense to play at that level if they’re not getting any backup from their offense, right? I mean, you know, the defense was more than good enough to win in January. But, yeah, you know, they they gave up some conversions on third down early in the game. They got things tightened up, but gave up that cheap field goal at the end of the half. And then even when the Ravens made it a one score game, they couldn’t get off the field at the end of the game. And by the
Nestor Aparicio 28:51
way, broke down, uh, that halftime series where they threw the ball sort of inexplicably, and didn’t burn any time and gave the ball back to Kansas City with two minutes. It was, you know me. I’m not Bob Haney. I’m not back watching the night game three of the 1971 ALCS. And try like I just don’t do the revisionist thing. I know the game’s been on a bunch I haven’t broken it down in that way, but this week, it’s all come back as that was a game I didn’t want to watch again and again, and again, honestly, like I watched it once, it was enough. But when you go back to those decisions, it really is about play calling and coaching in a way that I know why they did what they did. In retrospect, it was a rundown. We’re going to throw, we’re going to, we’re going to, we’re going to do what you don’t expect us to do, and that’s horrible, hardballing himself and paranoid himself into that Andy Reid’s got my number thing. Andy Reid has his number, by the way, and that’s another reason Andy Reid has lots of people’s numbers. Yeah, big game, Andy Reid, let’s just call it John Harbaugh in Kansas City with Patrick mahomes. Yeah. Yeah. I wouldn’t bet on the Ravens Thursday night. And that goes back to a closet full of purple stuff I’ll never wear again. But I don’t expect them to win on Thursday night. I keep saying that outlet like shocked if they went on Friday, but I will think they’re a really good football team if they went on there, if they went on Thursday night, I’ll think you’re really in for something. They lose. I don’t think, I don’t think it’s that indicative. You go on the road week one against the world champion, you’re supposed to lose with a diminished team from last you’re supposed to lose. But it, it would, it would impress me if they, if they find any way to win, whatever way it is, they find a win. And if they can find ways to have mahomes make mistakes, that’s really kind of a key right, like as much as people see me as anti Lamar, which is hilarious. The issue I thought that the Ravens would have with Lamar would be that ball, that the ball would hit the ground a lot because of that, that mesh point thing and communication and all that the Ravens don’t turn the ball over much. Lamar is really takes care of the football over the history. It’s one of the reasons he’s great. He takes care of the football. The football so his mahomes and I would love to see turnovers be a part of this thing, and finding a way for this defense to be that kind of defense, because that will turn the season. You know that a defense that can get take the ball away a little bit will that that’s a different kind of defense, and I think this defense has that capability.
Luke Jones 31:24
Well, I mean, they led the league in takeaways last year. What they were tied for first? I think they were, yeah, I think, but not
Nestor Aparicio 31:32
against mahomes. I guess is my point. Beat them on the road. That’s part of the theory. For me, is you’re not just going to go down the field and Beat them. Beat them. You’re gonna have to. There could be some things around the edges here that are gonna have to go right for them to win on Thursday night. And part of that would be taking the ball away,
Luke Jones 31:47
I think, or might be a play on special teams, whatever it might be. I mean, you know, I mean, look, it’s, don’t
Nestor Aparicio 31:51
even understand the special teams anymore. These kickoffs are, although,
Luke Jones 31:55
you know what? Check back with me in three or four weeks. I think this kickoff is going to be a total bust. I think you’re going to see teams are just going to end up kicking in the end zone. Now the difference will be, we’ll have a starting field position of the 30 yard line, as opposed to the 25 which that should lead to more scoring. And I think that’s part of what the league wants here. But the data suggested in the preseason, you’re better off just kicking, kicking into the end zone, because the average return was right around the 30 yard line. And if you punted it, if you booted into the end zone for a touchback, they get it at the 30 yard line. So you do the zero risk, yeah. So, so I think you’re going to end up seeing that, and even the general sentiment I’ve gotten talking to some people out knowings, Mills, I think that’s what we’re going to see now, who knows? Maybe it’ll be different, especially if you have a kicker, they can kick it. But one thing I want to go back to that you mentioned about Lamar Jackson and this ravens offense, taking care of the football, having not played in the preseason whatsoever, no live game snaps, no snaps whatsoever that Lamar has played where he hasn’t had the proverbial red jersey on, right? Keep in mind, Lamar had issues fumbling the ball early last year. Now, how much of that was no preseason, how much of that was the new offense with Todd monkin? I think those were very real variables, but, but you just said it. It’s not just that you want your defense to take it away, but if you’re going to have any chance against mahomes On the road, ravens can’t turn it over the way they did in January, right? I mean, again, we can talk about the coaching, and the coaching was part of it. I’m not at all giving anyone a pre pass, but that was a break. They broke down across the board, right? I mean, their stars didn’t play like stars, other than maybe Kyle Hamilton, but even he gave up a touchdown, even though it was a great catch by Kelsey. But you know, you need your MVP quarterback to play like an MVP. You know, you need your your stars at every level of the defense to be stars, whether we’re talking about Kyle Hamilton, roquan Smith, or the newly renamed namdi matabike, you know, going by his his birth name, I thought kind of a cool thing is a out of respect and reverence for his parents. But you know, you need your stars to come up big. And a game like this and fundamentally simplistically, and we’ll put this to bed, kind of, sort of, but not really, because we’re going to be talking about the chiefs. But my biggest takeaway from last January was at the biggest moment, at the biggest moments in that game, who were the best players on the field, Nestor Patrick mahomes and Travis Kelsey. They were better than any players at the Ravens had on the field too often at in crunch time in that game. And I think that was the difference. We can talk about running the ball and all these other different things that happened. And look those that was part of it, but their biggest stars were the biggest stars on the field that day, and the Ravens biggest stars, starting with Lamar and but also others. Yeah, they didn’t come up as big. You know, they came up small in some really big situations. So and same goes for coaching. I agree. And you read out coach John. Harbaugh and his staff. No, no question about it. Steve Spagnola out coached the ravens, so, you know, you we’ll see if it’s different on Thursday night. You know, I, I think the Ravens absolutely can win. I’m not going to be surprised or shocked if they do win, I’ll be impressed. You know, I, I already have high expectations for this football team as the year goes on, but it’s a new year, and it’s a lot of unknown, and for me, again, it begins. How does that offensive line look? If that looks like something that has promise, even if it’s choppy, then, boy, the trajectory for this team remains very, very high. But if it comes out and it looks ugly, and Lamar is running for his life, and Derek Henry’s getting hit a yard and a half behind the line of scrimmage. Then, yeah, that early season schedule that you you just mentioned, boy, that becomes a bigger talking point. Then if you have an offensive line that that’s not controlling anyone at the line of scrimmage, then that Dallas game becomes even more daunting. That Buffalo game becomes trickier, even at home, and certainly going to Cincinnati and week five becomes a much taller order. So you know, our curiosity is going to be satisfied here. As you and I talk, we’re counting down, and you know, we’ll find out come what eight, 820 on Thursday night. You know, we’ll, we’ll start to get our first look at what this 2024 ravens team is going to look like. But, you know, win or lose on Thursday night. I still have very high expectations for this team, but, yeah, there’s a lot of unknown, and there could be some growing pains. You know, I think it’d be naive not to expect at least some growing pains here and there, considering just how much turnover they endured this off season.
Nestor Aparicio 36:38
He’s Luke Jones. He’ll be watching football we’ll all be watching on Thursday night. I might even find some Kansas City Barbecue before it’s all over with. Maybe I should ship some in. I always for all my sponsors, the Cocos and Costas and faith, all my sponsors ship crab cakes out there. Do they ship barbecue here? Maybe I, maybe I just go down the road find some good barbecue here. Somebody find me some Kansas City Barbecue in Baltimore, we got to fire this thing up here. Really strange. Sunday we’re because we’re not going to have like the ravens are gonna be playing on Sunday. Everything’s Thursday night, Luke and I’ll be here first thing Friday morning, and all throughout the game on Thursday night, opining out on Elon Musk’s fascist website. If you, if you can wade through all of the the Trump ads that I get on my timeline, you can, you can actually experience a football add on X, remember, that was a WWE thing right now? That was sorry the other way. He’s Luke. He’s Baltimore, Luke. I’m Nestor. We got football, we got baseball. Everything I’ve ever dreamed of 33 years into this, well, except a media pass. But I’m writing about that at Baltimore positive. I.
