The rivalry is real. The stakes are high. Luke Jones and Nestor get Ravens fans ready for (another) Pittsburgh Week and a real Steelers’ threat to the purple kingdom and a first-place AFC North showdown at the Confluence.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Pittsburgh Week, Ravens threat, Steelers rivalry, Lamar Jackson, Russell Wilson, deep ball, defensive issues, trade deadline, Mike Williams, Tredavious White, Kyle Hamilton, pass defense, offensive balance, playoff position, legacy rivalry
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Luke Jones
Nestor Aparicio 00:02
Wait a mo, we are W N, S T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive. I’m gonna say we’re powered up by Royal farms coffee this morning, because I do feel a little caffeinated this morning. But we have the oyster tour, and I keep presenting these oyster tour dates out with our friends at Liberty. Pure solutions. I’m wearing my liberty shirt. I have my half drinking, drunken, drank, drink, Liberty pure one 800 clean waters. The way to make it happen. Also our friends a curio wellness, and foreign daughter doing 26 oyster. 26 days. Now that we’re into another month with ours of November, we also have the Maryland crab cakes were presented by our friends at the Maryland lottery. I have Raven scratch also be giving those away through the holidays. I have a whole litany of dates beginning really, Cocos on December 4, but we’re gonna be hitting it hot and hard, lots of crab cakes around here. Fadelies, we’re doing that on the 12th. We’re going to be down to Costas. I think Gina shocks going to come out. It’s going to be a rock and roll Christmas, just like Bruce Springsteen parading through Canada, and I’m trying to avoid the post election stuff, but at some point I’m going to come up for some air and be talking about that here this week. But we got football. It is old fashioned. It’s Pittsburgh week here. At some point I’m going to break out. I do have a Terrible Towel that I use regularly, and maybe I should feature all of the towels I’ve picked up at every sporting event of my lifetime in press boxes and all along life’s highway. I do have a pink, Terrible Towel. So I may bust it out this week, because it is Pittsburgh week, there in first place, we’re banging on the door, and Luke and I are trying to figure out football all weekend long as Luke spent a holiday away and had a great Sunday, I was on the couch watching, of all things, Pittsburgh versus Washington in a meaningful game. Was 300 bucks to get in down there. I’m watching from the comfort of my couch. My cat made her way up onto my lap. And I mean, I had some ROFO chicken. We went to Pizza John’s on Sunday, three out of four Sundays, Lucas, no ravens, football. What do we do? It’s almost like the Colts left town or something. But it’s not because Lamar still really the toast of the town. You and I are talking Tucker this, and Purple Helmets that, and goes, god awful Texans things they pee on Sunday night. I don’t said they were like radioactive candy apples, um, you know, I’m up for air. My wife even put college football on on Saturday. When I watched, I watched ole miss the whole thing storming the field Lane Kiffin, and memories of Sean McDonough. But it was a sports weekend around here in a way where it’s heating up, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the Ravens are and so are the commanders, as I talked to John Martin about how sports wagering in the state, and seeing the fervor for all of that, and watching the Cowboys circle the train and some of it was kind of delicious, wasn’t it? It was,
Luke Jones 02:57
and unfortunately, not the best results for the Ravens. I mean, I think obviously Pittsburgh wins down, down in Landover and a dramatic game there, although this does set up for easily the most proper Raven Steelers week we’ve had in a while, right? This isn’t Kenny Pickett against Tyler Huntley. This isn’t Lamar sitting out a meaningless game. This isn’t Lamar being injured against the Steelers, as we’ve seen on a couple occasions here in recent years. So exciting on that front. But yeah, Pittsburgh wins, Buffalo wins, Kansas City wins again in unbelievable fashion. I mean a blocked field goal on a chip shot. I mean that game, you could tell Kansas City was resigned to the fact that they were going to lose, and you’re thinking, Okay, well, maybe the Ravens pick up a game here. You know, the number one seed still alive, and then Kansas City is not going to go undefeated. Well, they’re nine and now so. But you look around the league and you see how other teams are faring. You see how other so called MVP candidates at the quarterback position or fairing, by the way, not nearly as well as Lamar Jackson. I’ll just throw that out there, but
Nestor Aparicio 04:06
you’re the original. Listen, I want to stop right now and just tell everybody you’re the original Lamar pimp. I mean, you’ve always loved really, not though. It’s just I’ve liked him more than you though. I
Luke Jones 04:18
mean, I’ll say that much, but that doesn’t mean that I’ve never thought he was
Nestor Aparicio 04:23
like him. I just don’t like that. He’s this good, and somebody’s going to trip him up and turn an ankle and got off things like that because he does things that Joe Flacco doesn’t, and including like Flacco in the first quarter. I mean, sitting it out for a weekend when you’re just red, zoning all day, watching from the universe and saying, this is interesting, a Washington, Pittsburgh, one o’clock game after the god awful Germany thing that I always find Germany interesting, as, you know, from a family reference. And then the four o’clock games that weren’t much. And, you know, like as you sit around and you watch it. And the ravens are still the toast of all of this. Still very, very much. In the middle of this mahomes struggle, they had to block a kick, I mean, and that was sort of the secondary one o’clock game, until it wasn’t anymore. It’s just no wonder people gamble on this is what I would be, you know. I mean, it is fun to just be on the outside, waving a towel. But, boy, this Raven Steelers thing starts to really become they’ll be breaking out the Roethlisberger, Ray Lewis, Jerome Bettis wars, right
Luke Jones 05:31
before, yeah, like, with, like I said it, it feels as legit as proper of a raven Steelers match up when you consider, and I understand. I mean, it’s not as though the Steelers haven’t made the playoffs, right? But while I think there’s still very much a sense of what exactly are they, are they a really serious contender with Russell Wilson or no, and I still lean towards No. But hey, you go down the Landover and you beat a commander’s team that’s played the way that it’s played. You got to give him some credit. And I mean Russell Wilson, I’ll say this The Mike Williams acquisition. Mike Williams is the perfect receiver for the kind of deep ball that Russell Wilson is still very apt at throwing for as much as he isn’t the guy that he was in Seattle five or six years ago. Overall, he can still do that. And we know the Ravens have had their major issues stopping the deep ball. So look, I would say they’re formidable enough.
Nestor Aparicio 06:26
They’re better Cleveland and, oh, by the way, you know I was paying attention two weeks ago, right? And the same thing with Cincinnati, how dangerous they were when you’re making mistakes and when your defense can’t stop a nosebleed. Is my my old partner, buddy, Ryan, would say, and you know, dangerous is what I would say. They’re dangerous. I mean, by the way, my wife found this in the drawer. You won’t see me ever hold a gold one, although I did one time at a Super Bowl, and I think I admitted to that. But this is the, this is the mine ring, hope, original, terrible tile from dot, dot, Pittsburgh. So that wasn’t a bad one, right? That’s a pretty good one, right? Okay. It was okay. I mean, it was, you know, I’d make some money in a Pittsburgh charity thing. But nonetheless, look, I’ve been to all of these, you and I’ve gotten in the car, been a part of all of this, you know, gone up, walked across the bridge, all of that, you know, I would say we got real used to it being really important, and that so did the cowboys and the Redskins 40 years ago, right? And all of these other sort of rivalries in sports. Tomlin has done it again. You know what I mean? He’s made them relevant again, and their defense is relevant again. Now the injury at the end of the game and Highsmith and what’s going on. But I look up and I see the 11 guys, and I tell my wife this, if the one thing, and I probably could remedy this in some way. But all of my adulthood, all of my childhood, I had a flip card, even at skip Jack’s games, I had a depth chart and lines and the way I see Anna and a scorecard at baseball games, and like all of that, I miss flip cards, you know, at games or watching games with a flip card, but the flip card of the Steelers on defense specifically, and It’s skill positions, if they have a quarterback who’s good enough, I mean, he’s a Super Bowl champion, he’s going to the Hall of pretty good, from what I can tell, right? And has a second act in him that’s starting to smell a little more Kurt warnery, or a little more ornery, or a little more Joe Flacco we and I know he’s short, and you look at him in the stature, and I think Kyler Murray, we overlook that. And then you watch him throw the football. You look at Lamar Jackson, who they wanted to make, a running back, a wide receiver, a punt returner, whatever they wanted to do with him. And you start to evaluate this thing and say, what’s good enough and what how important is defense? You and I go on and on and on about the lack of that with the ravens and throwing the ball over your head. I mean, I look at the Steelers defense and say, Man, if we had that, or, you know, we thought we had that, because we have roquan Smith, we have Matt abika, we have Humphrey. We gave all this money to Marcus Williams, who probably shouldn’t be on the field. And we’ll debate that all week. But this is a red hot game this week. This is, this is what we wish for as Raven Steelers fans, I think, and I think the ravens are vulnerable, yeah, I
Luke Jones 09:28
mean on defense certainly now. I mean as as good as the Pittsburgh defense is, are they going to stop the Ravens? No, I don’t think anyone’s stopping the Ravens offense. Are they good enough to slow it down, and then in concert, can Russell Wilson make plays in the passing game? That’s where you look at this and say, I think they can. And look, we can talk all we want. I’ve talked about this a lot with you the last few years. I think all things being equal, there’s been no debate that the Ravens have been better than the Steelers for the better part of the last five or six years. However, the. Head to head matchups have been weird. Lamar has missed plenty of them, so throw those out for a moment. But even the ones in which he’s played, they’ve been weird games. I mean, that game that no one paid attention to back in early October of last year because the Orioles were getting ready to lose a playoff game to the Rangers. Remember that that game was bizarre. Lamar played so well through the first like three and a half quarters, drop passes galore, Pittsburgh couldn’t really do anything other than just hang around in that game. It was really ugly. The Ravens had a lead, but could have been up by three touchdowns. And then what happens at the end of the game? Marlon Humphrey has the ball thrown over his head, and Lamar Jackson throws a really bad pick trying to force one to Odell Beckham in the end zone. I mean, a game that they lost where you look up and say, and I was sitting in the Orioles press in the Camden Yards press box at the time, and I said to myself, How in the world did they lose that football game? But that’s happened a couple different times here in recent years, a few different times in recent years against the Steelers. So look, they look better than they’ve been in recent years, where they’ve Okay, they’ve snuck in as the last wild card. No one for a second thought they were real. You have
Nestor Aparicio 11:14
to buy into the quarterback to think they’re real, and we never were bought into Tommy Maddox years ago. Right? Right, right. So
Luke Jones 11:24
in the case of Russell Wilson, look, let me be very clear, I’m still not buying into Russell Wilson in the way I would have five years ago, but he made the play at the end of the game. I mean, Mike Williams, who didn’t even know the the playbook, and they’re explaining to him what to do, catches a touchdown. And he’s the kind of guy off injures as he might be, who kind of fits what they want to do offensively, right? He’s not going to be a big part of what they do, and Pickens is their number one, clearly, but he can make a big play, and he can certainly catch one if, if you’re not going to cover on the back end of the defense. So this is definitely a very interesting test for the Ravens going on the road. Obviously a big game, when you consider what the standings look like right now, and you know, you alluded to it, look from a true talent level standpoint, do I like Joe burrow and Jamar Chase better than anything Pittsburgh has to offer offensively? Yeah, of course I do. But Cincinnati four and six. So you are what your record says you are at the end of the day. And and Pittsburgh, while they’ve had a pretty soft schedule to this point, you know, going into Sunday’s game, let’s say, but they’re seven and two mathematically. I mean, they’re right there. And this is a huge game for the Ravens. And as I alluded to, no matter what you want to say about the true talent level of these two teams over the last five or six years, the Steelers have had the Ravens number albeit in some games here where Lamar is rested or not played or whatever, but you still need to go out there and take care of business. So this is a big game, and again,
Nestor Aparicio 12:57
we look more like a layup weeks ago, though, right? I mean, yeah, sure. Into this, the fact that we’re having this conversation while we’re discussing, you know, our turkey dinner, and just the weirdness of the scheduling for the Ravens from here out. You know, we’re used to Baldinger would always say to me, we’re fruit fly seven day life cycle of fruit fly. We do the same every seven days, seven days, seven days, and we like to do it that way. Boy, they’re being tested in that way, as are the fans, Wednesday night football, at Christmas, Saturday night football. I went through this with my wife. I mean literally, and I’m like, when do they play? Well, they play on Monday night against the Chargers. And yet, this is, you know, this is the Sunday we’re around, and we could do a brunch this week and have a family obligation. And Deacon Jones can be Deacon Jones. And, you know, we can have a Saturday around here on Sunday with, you know, sitting around watching red zone, which I, I love, being a fan of the league. You know that Luke, you know, I become way more non denominational after the Chad Steele incident, being that you’re in a press box, and I’m not anymore. I wear my oiler gear and have a good time with it, but I’m not a gambler, so I don’t see it that way. And the oldness for me to witness all of that perception of all of it, and the way the players deal with it, where lamars, I don’t care about your parlays and all that, I see where you could get sucked into it because I’m sitting there watching college football or watching games, like I’m even saying to my wife at halftime, well, falcons are going to win this one. And, you know, looking at it and thinking like, if I was in a casino right now, I wonder if I put $1 on the chargers to actually win this game when they’re ahead or behind. How all that would even work, because that’s how my mind is working on a red zone when I’m sitting at home and I’m sober and I’m not really into what I guess the young kids are into, or into the celebrity part of it, or any of that stuff anymore, I’m more value to it of of thinking like Kirk Cousins win a Super Bowl. Can Can Russell Wilson lead the Steelers to 12 wins this. Here, you know, Kim, one guy on one team, Joe burrow with one connection. Can that get them to 10 wins? I think about it in that way, like a sports radio guy. But boy, when I sit here on Sunday and it’s like, Fred Flintstone, bad, but bad, bad, bad, bad, I think I start to do think about the financial part of like, I You can bet on anything, that’s the first thing I think about. But I also think about, like, how lucky we are to be in a position. And I I tweet these things out loud when, if you follow us at W, N, S, D, but like to not be a Jets fan, or some of these places where it’s like on perpetual fire Cleveland, even though they beat us two weeks ago, I did a week of that around here, but like Pittsburgh, Baltimore, the expectations of the fan bases, the fact that the coaches never change, the media never changes. By the way, cheap shot for you and for Charlie batch is like we talk about quarterbacks that Ken or can’t beat us. Charlie will be coming on this week. Talk about how he could beat us and but, but this rivalry is so rich, and all the things I dreamed about three decades ago about getting back in the league and thinking we were going to be playing Miami and Buffalo and the Jets and like the way it was with the Colts, this Raven Steelers thing is really unique in the league at this point, and really unique with the coaches and the history of all of it, because I don’t know the coaches are going to survive 16, 1518, years. Much you want Tom Landry versus Don Shula? This is it, right here. This is it, yeah, and
Luke Jones 16:37
I think, and we’ve talked about this in recent years, because the rivalry has cooled off to the to the degree that it has over the last you know, post post Ben Roethlisberger, let’s say post Suggs and Roethlisberger. I mean, they were the last members of the old guard, really. And obviously, Pittsburgh’s had their issues trying to figure out a quarterback. And you know, Russell Wilson’s a quarterback right now, not convinced he’s going to be their quarterback even next year, let alone a couple years from now, dude,
Nestor Aparicio 17:03
I saw him play in Denver two years ago. I’m like, Oh, my God, exactly, but he is. I mean, he used to be commended, you must say, right? Oh, sure. I
Luke Jones 17:10
mean, Russell Wilson was a great quarterback for a long time, but I think it’s clear what’s happened to him the last couple years. Now he’s here. I’ve even you made this comparison. I saw a couple people say this on social media. I mean, is this his Kurt Warner, arriving in Arizona. People forget Kurt Warner was a New York giant for five minutes, right? And how bad that went. You know, we kind of saw that up close and personal with the Giants coming into Baltimore. What was that? 2004 I guess it was. And Eli Manning, not having no idea what he was doing, and kind of thinking about where they were at that point, but, but, but you just look at this rivalry, yes, it’s cooled off in recent years. It hasn’t had the same juice. So much of that has to do with Lamar missing so many of these games because of injury, or they played in week 18 or week 17, and the Ravens haven’t had anything to play for him. Lamar sitting as as was the case in the the season finale last year. So but, but, but the thing that’s beautiful about Raven Steelers, and this alludes to what you were just talking about, is the fact that it was such a great rivalry for so long that it became a legacy rivalry, rivalry in the same way that you talk about not right now, but historically speaking, Washington, Dallas, or some of those different ones, where they’ll have their ebbs and flows, and they’ll have those times where one team isn’t as good, or in the case of Washington, Dallas, these are team very good many times over the last 30 years. But
Nestor Aparicio 18:37
this is an era. This isn’t like a decade. This is an A this is like, you know, I can’t think of anything in the league that rivals it in the modern vernacular. I really can’t, I mean, and I think things like cowboys 40 Niners during a period of time, right? And that was perception, because they weren’t the same division. And even Eli Manning and Tom Brady, right? You know, there was, but that that’s not the same as two times a year and some playoff disappointments and championship games and Flacco to palamalu and, you know, I mean, you have something intent in all of these. It’s just, it’s a, it’s a beautiful thing from the fan base and really well placed. And the fact that, you know, high Smith and, I mean, Naji Harris went just looking at health from from the Ravens perspective, this is going to be a great week, that this is going to be the center of the football universe this week. I believe that,
Luke Jones 19:37
well, you do have rate or you do have chief spills. I mean that that game as well right now, but, but no. The point I was trying to make is, when you have something that has become a legacy rivalry, which means, okay, it it hasn’t been the red hot Raven Steelers that both games would be in prime time every single year the way it was in the late you know, 2000 circa 2006 Rue 2014 let’s say, you know, and even you could go earlier than that, and it was blatantly nasty between the two teams. I mean, you know, the Lee flowers, Shannon, sharp, Plaxico, Burris, Chris McAllister. I mean, those guys hated each other. There was no respect at that. It morphed into a healthy respect, even if they didn’t like each other in recent years, it’s just been respect, and there really hasn’t been an edge to it at all. So, dude,
Nestor Aparicio 20:27
you sound like you’re talking about, you know, Georgia Championship Wrestling and Gordon soul, right?
Luke Jones 20:35
We’re media guys. We’re selling it, right? You know, this is gorilla monsoon and Vince McMahon or Jesse The Body, Ventura talking about it so but no, I think what’s great about this is now that you have a situation where, obviously the ravens are where they are right now, which from a true talent standpoint, on offense, best in the league. Defense, another story. And certainly we’ll see how that looks against Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh on Sunday afternoon, but you have a Steelers team that look, the defense has remained good. I mean, when you have someone like TJ watt leading the way and that defensive front, I mean, that is a tough defense, but now you throw Russell Wilson into the mix, who, again, is either Russell Wilson he was five years ago? No, I don’t think he is, but he’s still capable, and what he does best that those Moon ball, deep balls that he throws, ravens, I have to defend that, and they have to defend Pickens, and they have to defend Mike Williams, and they’ve got to be able to do that. Am I as concerned about Pittsburgh’s running game against the Ravens? No, I’m not. Because of the Ravens run defense has remained stout, but I think you look no further, and we talked about this a little bit in the aftermath of the Cincinnati game, but even having a couple conversations with some other media types, and even just a couple of my friends over the weekend having a chance to get away a little bit, but yeah, I look at what happened in Cleveland a Couple weeks ago, against a team with a good defense, at least on paper, hasn’t performed like it did a year ago, but still a good defense. Now subtract zadaria Smith, but at the time they had him, and you had a team that was able to get some stops against the Ravens offense. Some you know, the Ravens scored 24 which is still better than so many offenses around this league. And then you saw what happened with Javis Winston throwing the football Jameis Winston. So if Jameis Winston can do that against you, you look at these next couple weeks, at Pittsburgh, and then at the chargers for a Monday night game, another team with a really good defense. And then you come home playing against Philadelphia, who was playing much better than they were earlier in the year and defensively, has looked better, not great, but better than they looked early in the in the year. You look at these three games, beginning with your rival on Sunday, if we come out of these three games and the Ravens are sitting there in first place, they’ll have earned it, because this is a pretty difficult three week stretch. I mean, yeah, I don’t want to say make or break, but it could be make or break in terms of wanting to be positioned to win the division at the very least. So this is a big, big stretch, and it’s a challenging stretch, and it begins with your rival, and Pittsburgh should have all the confidence in the world, going into Landover and and beating a commander’s team, that’s been really good. So this is a major challenge. It’s a colossal, easily, the biggest challenge that Pittsburgh has faced all. I think that’s evident and as far as an opportunity for them to show that they’re legit, legit. But for the ravens, I mean, let’s face it again, say what you want about the talent level of these teams. The Ravens have had their issues, and weird things have happened, and they’ve lost a lot of games to the Steelers the last few years, even games where you sit there and scratch your head and say, How in the world did you lose it? Well, they lost it, so they’ve got to take care of business. But I mean, this is, this is fun, because these legacy rivalries, they can be a little more on the dormant side for a couple years, but as soon as both teams are relevant, there’s no heating up the highlight packages for all the you know, the espns of the world, they they’ve got those things in the can ready to go, right? They’ll be hyping it all week in the same way that Raven’s chiefs will be hyped all week, or Bill’s chiefs will be hyped all week. I mean, these are some big time games. And I’ll say this a couple weeks ago, I was really wondering if this game was going to get flexed. I think the only thing that saved it is Pittsburgh plays a Thursday night game at Cleveland, you know, to immediately following this game. Otherwise, I’m guessing Sunday Night Football would have wanted this game. So stays at one o’clock. I’m happy with that as someone making the trip out to Pittsburgh this weekend, but exciting, exciting and big challenge for both these teams. I saw the early line Vegas likes the ravens, which makes sense I would, too, if I’m being objective about it and looking at it on paper and I. How proven the Ravens might be, compared to maybe Pittsburgh not being quite as proven to this point, but
Nestor Aparicio 25:06
not hard to sell it inside your locker room when it’s not Jimmy the Greek having to talk about the numbers anymore, right? Like we disrespect dude. You know, they, they their favorites coming into our building that didn’t hard sell in Pittsburgh. Is it? No,
Luke Jones 25:19
shouldn’t be, shouldn’t be, and they they can say, hey, we’re seven and two, they’re seven and three. We’re ahead of them in the division. But I thought it was interesting. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention this, because my pastor, who I’ve talked about this, is a Pittsburgh fan. He even sent me the clip of Mike Tomlin post game being asked about Jaden Daniels and comparing Jaden Daniels to Lamar Jackson and Tomlin was just like, hey, let’s slow your roll a little bit. Comparing anyone to Mr. Jackson a multi time MVP and all that one, I thought that was appropriate admiration and respect for the Ravens quarterback two, Mike Tomlin is very deliberate in what he says. I also thought there could have been a little bit of buttering Lamar up a little bit there, hoping, hey, you know, maybe play into being a little overconfident and, you know, Lamar say what you want about Lamar, what he’s done against the Bengals when he’s been healthy, which is, you know, completely kind of owned that series when he’s been on the field in recent years, but Lamar, albeit not as many games, because he’s missed a lot of them, he’s had some issues against Pittsburgh relative to, compared to Cincinnati. So hearing Tomlin say what he said after the game one, I think, I think he was being genuine, but I also think there was a deliberate part to that of, you know, maybe lulling Lamar into, you know, a little bit of a sense of being overconfident. Maybe, who knows? Again, these teams will see what happens one o’clock on Sunday. But I’m all for a raven Steelers game that feels as big as it’s been in a while. I think that stating the obvious at this point, you
Nestor Aparicio 26:59
know, sitting around watching the four o’clock games, sort of half awake, half asleep. And I realized the charges are around the corner. I’m watching them play, and I’m watching Dobbins do this and that. And I said to my wife, I’m like, like, half the Ravens team out there. And she’s like, Yeah, I saw Edwards running. I’m like, I thought he was hurt. And like, I’m thinking about who’s healthy and who’s not, and who’s there and who the additions are. And, you know, I fell into the pregame shows on Sunday and trade editions, and then Williams goes and makes this huge play after Pickens. I’m tweeting about how good that play was, the Pickens made early in the game. And I’m thinking that’s really where the weakness or the Ravens. And it’s amazing to me to hear people chirp about much like in baseball the day after the trading deadline. Our buddy Jason lock and for who, hope you’re okay, Jay, I just want to say, hope you, hope you’re doing okay. There’s a lot of a lot of anger out on that timeline. Um, but like there, there is a lot of anger on the back end of these trading deadlines that we didn’t do enough. We didn’t do enough. Why didn’t we get, you know what? Why didn’t we go after the cornerback? We have to get three draft picks up for that, and he could even play this week for Washington. So I don’t, you know, I don’t know how to be critical, because I’m a responsible journalist. I’m not a hot take guy, and neither are you, which is probably why our audience here is relatively sane, and we lead relatively same lives around here, from not being that reactive to it in some really flippant way. But there is a point to say, How much could they have done last week? And it does feel like the Steelers added a little bit on both sides of the ball. To say we did a little bit more. And even in the Russell Wilson edition, I know like when all of that went down off season, we can scoff at that. And I don’t want to say they look. I mean, look, two weeks ago, they were firing Tomlin for the 20th time. I wonder why, in western Pennsylvania, and it was because he had the audacity to let the younger guy sit and let the other guy play, and that’s all they’ve done, is win, win, win, no matter what, what, what. So it’s not like Tomlin has to point and say, I’m the genius. He’s going to the Hall of Fame, right? And like, but there have been these moves that, if you’re on the radio in Pittsburgh, or a hot take guy or whatever, but the additions and the trade editions, at least for a week, smell good there. You know? I guess time will tell where the ravens are and where they’ll be at the end with tredavius and with in gock way, who got claimed, right? I mean, we didn’t think that was going to happen from a pass rush. You said he was the fourth or fifth guy? Well, he’s now not their guy. Yeah, you know, so things have happened here, including the Ravens having to play two games in a couple of days. And you know that, though Cleveland debacle and all you know, surviving all of that to get to this point, but the trading deadline in the league becomes a hot button amongst fans to some degree, and in Pittsburgh, it’s a, it’s a real. A genius situation this week, right? Well, I
Luke Jones 30:03
mean, the early return, sure. Now, now, if Mike Williams gets hurt on Sunday, as unfortunately, has been the story of his career and or does it make much of an impact? Or Preston Smith, who looms a little bit bigger with Alex Highsmith, who I assume is probably not going to play this week. I mean, the reports where he was on crutches after the game, I’m guessing it’s probably going to be a couple weeks. We’ll see about Kyle Hamilton on the flip side, the the tests and all that have looked good. That doesn’t mean he’s going to play this week, but the good news is Kyle Hamilton not anticipating a long term absence or anything like that. But again, is he healthy and available on Sunday, which is a massive game. I mean, it’s a massive game for both these teams. So, but, but, yeah, just to get back to the trade deadline, look, I think some criticism is fair, but I think it also has to be done appropriately, right? I think it has to be done in understanding what are the asking prices, who’s available. I mean, look, I said over and over, I would have loved to have seen Zaria Smith back as a raven. I don’t think Cleveland was even entertaining the idea of trading him to Baltimore or to Pittsburgh, right? I don’t think that that was a reality. You know, I haven’t gotten any indication that that was a reality. I don’t know that 100% but point is, we said all along, are they going to trade within the division? And, like I said, even, even if it’s dumb for teams to think that way, because why cut yourself off at the knees in terms of trying to get the best possible deal if the best possible deal was one of your division rivals, so be it. But, you know, I know. I mean, it’s been out there. I mean, there are reports out there. The Ravens were in on Lattimore, who went to Washington, didn’t play this week. But I think the other funny takeaway about that game is, you look at Washington, they could use someone like Marshawn Lattimore. So we’ll see how. You know, once he gets back on the field, we’ll see how he looks. There
Nestor Aparicio 31:52
real draft stock to do that. And then let’s short, seventh round draft picks, right? Someday down the line, right, exactly.
Luke Jones 31:58
And I know because I even having talked to some people as well. I mean, the clay s Campbell thing was real in terms of bringing him back. I don’t know if what happened exactly at the very end. Did Miami suddenly want more than they had originally been asking for? Did they just get cold feet, whatever, but class Campbell would have helped. But I’ll say this, Travis Jones being back, we saw the pass rush look much more legitimate, much more formidable, albeit against the Bengals offensive line that’s not very good at full strength and didn’t have Orlando brown. So I don’t want to sit here and say that the pass rush is fixed, but yeah, when you look at the trade deadline, we and we did this talking about the Orioles as well, right? I mean, and the Orioles made all kinds of trades at the deadline. And I made the point that, more often than not, most of these deals aren’t going to do a whole lot good or bad for you. So for the ravens, we’ll see. I mean, Deontay Johnson has been minimally involved to the point where I’m not so sure he was even I think he probably is frustrated right now. Can, if you’re him, you come in and you see Nelson Aguilar and tylen Wallace, two guys he’s supposed to be ahead of catching touchdowns on Thursday night. So you have that, and
Nestor Aparicio 33:17
you say, when? And this is one football. Get sideways, one football, one football. And more than that, this team really doesn’t want to throw the football. Really. They don’t want to throw it 50 times. They want to throw it 22 to 25 times. Kind of, sort of in a perfect world, if the clock’s right and they’re running right and they’re they’re the steam trains running the way it’s running, and shorter drives, and like all of that, I’m, you know, when you come in, you sort of sign up for the fact that Lamar is the greatest running back on Earth. Derek Henry’s going to the Hall of Fame. It is a run first sort of program, and then build from there, right? I mean, that that’s, that’s a that’s just factual. I mean, that’s not me being mean or anything like that. That’s what you tell. Deontay, Todd Johnson, John to anybody right like you to say this is where it’s going to be a flowers knew that when he got drafted into this, he wasn’t getting 15 targets. So you know what? I mean, that’s not what? This isn’t the AFL, this isn’t the whack, yeah. I
Luke Jones 34:20
mean, I disagree that it’s that they don’t want to throw the football, but they want to be balanced. That’s really what it is, and they’re not. They don’t go into a game saying, oh, zay flowers needs to catch 10 passes and have 130 yards. They don’t go into a game saying, Oh, Mark Andrews needs to be fed the football. They don’t go into the game saying, Derek Henry needs X number of carries. They don’t. They take what the defense gives them. So we’ve seen games where Lamar throws for 300 some yards and has a perfect passer rating and throws four touchdowns. We’ve seen that. We’ve seen. I mean, Lamar is second in the league in passing yards right now. Nestor so I disagree, and I reject the notion they don’t want to throw the football, but they don’t have this idea in mind that, oh. We must carry it X number of times, or we must throw it X number of times. Or Lamar needs to get this number of passing yards. Or we’ve got to feed zay flowers and Rashad Bateman X number of targets
Nestor Aparicio 35:09
when Lamar wasn’t going to play here anymore because of his close personal relationship with Hollywood Brown, who couldn’t get the ball enough right like and so I you know, this comes back to coach Ekman do a little of philosophizing here during a Pittsburgh Baltimore week. Is to say, when you sign up here and somebody asks you how the game went, you don’t say, I caught seven balls for 84 yards. You say, whether
Luke Jones 35:34
you win or lost, you won, right?
Nestor Aparicio 35:36
I mean, like, literally, that’s the way this program works. That’s not the way a lot of wide receivers and their agents would be thinking about things like, I, you know, I’m just saying like, sure to buy in on that, or to get dealt into this. When you come here, you from. Where did he come from?
Luke Jones 35:53
Luke came Carolina.
Nestor Aparicio 35:54
But before that, you come from Carolina, and you used to be in Pittsburgh, and you come to Baltimore, the first thing your age, he says is, I got good news for you, you might win the Super Bowl. I got bad news for you. A good day is going to be four catches for 84 yards in this offense that like, you know, that’s, that’s the bad news. So that’s literally right. I mean, I’m done. I’m trying to be as grown up as I can be here on this thing. Yeah, and again,
Luke Jones 36:22
I don’t, I’m not suggesting that he won’t fit in and make some plays from time to time, but I want to be as white we’ll see with him. I think I’m fascinated on and we’re not going to find out in practice this week. We don’t, I don’t get to watch enough of practice, right? We see special teams, but what work did they do on the defense over the weekend? Are we going to see changes, I think, an interesting wild card, and maybe tredavius White factors in at this in this equation at some point, they do have some players like Brandon Stevens, for example, with some positional versatility. Keep in mind, go back to last training camp, Brandon Stevens. They wanted him to be a safety. It was because Marlon Humphrey had foot surgery, and other guys, rock Yassine got hurt, and they had some other guys banged up in their secondary that Brandon Stevens was back at corner. And look, he ended up having a really good year, don’t get me wrong. But with things being where they are, you have a first round pick and Nate Wiggins, who is playing, but not still not playing a whole lot, and penalties aside, he’s actually done some, you know, had some good performances and everything. Do we perhaps see the Ravens pull the trigger on getting Nate Wiggins on the field, more opposite Marlin, Humphrey, and maybe, again, I’m throwing it out here. It’s spitballing, because why wouldn’t you spit ball when you’re 32nd and pass defense? Right now, maybe do you start to see Brandon Stevens start cross training a little bit and maybe playing a little more safety? What does that do for Marcus Williams? What does that do for how you use Kyle Hamilton? We’ll see right ardarius Washington, but you can’t maintain the status quo. And they and in fairness to them, they haven’t, they’ve they’ve benched guys. They’ve deactivated guys. In the case of unique and gauquet, they waved someone right to get David ajabo back on the field. They
Nestor Aparicio 38:12
brought in Dean peas. If I would do an All right, they were bringing Dean peas in. I
Luke Jones 38:16
told you at the time, my response to that was, now, I’m
Nestor Aparicio 38:19
really worried about the way you’re bringing buttered peas in for Thanksgiving, or what are you talking about here, for the right I mean, that was the
Luke Jones 38:27
signal, that was the tell that they were concerned about this. You know, again, you bring in Dean peas in early August. Everyone says, Hey, that’s a shrewd move. You bring in Dean peas after week five. Everyone says, Oh, wow. You’re really worried about your defense and your defensive coordinator and your personnel, and you’re trying to get another experienced mind in the room to try to sort this out, because your past defense is a mess. So we’ll see. You know, again, I’m fascinated to see what’s going to happen, specifically with the safety position you said it, and it’s tough for me to disagree. Nestor Marcus Williams, I mean, everyone has seen the clip. I mean, the Amazon broadcast showed it. You know, the, not the all 22 look, but the field cam look of seeing that deep ball to chase. I mean, what in the world was Marcus Williams doing there? I mean, he looked like he was lost. He looked like he was just he had no idea what he was doing back there. So, you know, do we see a change there? Do we see him? His role alter slightly? I don’t know, but boy, you’ve got to figure it out, because Pittsburgh isn’t a juggernaut offensively by any stretch, but Russ Wilson likes to throw the deep ball, and he’s got some guys who can catch the deep ball, and they play they have a good defense, and that’s a defense that might be able to get some stops against the Ravens offense here and there, he is that guy
Nestor Aparicio 39:42
that can get out of a pocket and just move enough just and is, you know, no offense. He might be the greatest that’s ever done it in that way, being the height that he is to get out of the pocket and see things that you know, Brian Billick would love. Looked at him 25 years ago and said he’s not tall enough to
Luke Jones 40:02
see after pocket. That’s why he’s a fourth round pick, right? Yeah, third or fourth round, whatever it was. And, you know,
Nestor Aparicio 40:06
whatever you think of Tom Brady, if you ever started up on Tom Brady, Tom Brady’s big man, you know, like, bigger than you think he, you know, just he stands among same thing with Joe Flacco. People think Joe Flacco. I mean, Joe Flacco is a really big, big man, and Russell Wilson is not and Kyler Murray’s not. Lamar is bigger than people think he is, you know, I mean, for sure. And you know, maybe built more like a wiry running back, if you put a 32 number on him, or 34 on him, and he looked like a running back. That’s my old guy when, you know guys are still running around. And I’m like, is that a linebacker? Is that a safety? That’s a corner? The hell are these guys doing wearing these numbers? Get off my lawn. It’s a Pittsburgh, Baltimore week. I’ve got my pink, Terrible Towel. I mean, don’t think that I wave this or anything. I mean, I literally just wash my dishes. Oh, they’re upside down. That’s nice. That’s really disrespectful to put, to put the flag upside down, the way that that would be disrespectful to Myron cope. And every so I have my little town. It’s Pittsburgh week. I hope we get together and yell more about it. Charlie batch is going to come in this week. We’re doing the Maryland tour all month long into the holidays. All brought to my friends at the Maryland lottery, also our friends at Jiffy Lube MultiCare. Powering up Luke, getting back and forth to training camp and beyond and up to Pittsburgh this weekend. Breeswood, I love yous guys. Alright. It’s a long week around here. Exhale. We got Sundays without football and Sundays with football. This is one with football around here. I’m Nestor. He’s Luke. Stay tuned and stay still. We’re W, N, S, D, A, N, 1570 tasks of Baltimore, and we never stop talking Baltimore. Positive. You.
