We’ve waited nearly eight months and it’s finally time to begin another NFL season. Our Luke Jones joins Nestor to get ready for kickoff as the Ravens head to Buffalo to begin a Super Bowl march with the highest of expectations and the Bills ready the begin the closeout of their beloved stadium in Orchard Park.
Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discuss the upcoming Ravens game against the Buffalo Bills, highlighting the importance of the matchup for both teams. They reflect on the Ravens’ recent history, including past performances against Buffalo and the challenges of maintaining momentum. Jones notes the reduced role of preseason games and the cautious approach to player health. Both agree that the game will be crucial for playoff seeding and discuss key players and strategies. They also touch on the broader context of NFL expectations, the pressure on quarterbacks like Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen, and the importance of handling adversity and maintaining focus throughout the season.
Maryland Crab Cake Tour and Anniversary Celebration
- Nestor Aparicio announces a Maryland crab cake tour on the 16th at Beaumont, part of their 27th anniversary celebration.
- Nestor mentions counting down his 27 favorite things to eat, including a pit beef sandwich and chaps.
- The event is sponsored by the Maryland lottery and curio wellness.
- Nestor reflects on the Orioles’ performance and introduces Luke Jones, noting his long journey in journalism.
Training Camp Reflections and Changes Over the Years
- Nestor and Luke discuss the differences in training camp experiences over the years, with Luke noting that he is now one of the older individuals on the beat.
- Luke reminisces about the physical demands of training camp in the past, including two-a-day practices and special teams sessions.
- Nestor shares a personal anecdote about the challenges of wearing black shirts in the heat.
- Both agree that training camp is less physically demanding now, with more emphasis on mental and strategic preparation.
Preseason and Injury Concerns
- Nestor and Luke discuss the reduced role of preseason games and the cautious approach teams take with their starters.
- Luke highlights the importance of managing injuries and the cautious approach the Ravens have taken with players like JK Dobbins.
- Nestor mentions the injury report and the need to rest players to avoid injuries.
- Both agree that the transition from preseason to regular season is crucial, with a focus on maintaining player health.
Upcoming Game Against Buffalo and Historical Context
- Nestor and Luke preview the upcoming game against Buffalo, noting the importance of the matchup for both teams.
- Luke discusses the historical context of the Ravens facing the Bills in week one on the road for the second year in a row.
- Nestor reflects on the challenges of playing in Buffalo and the importance of winning to set the tone for the season.
- Both agree that the game will be crucial for both teams’ playoff prospects and seeding.
Key Players and Strategies
- Luke highlights the importance of key players like Jair Alexander and Malachi Starks for the Ravens’ defense.
- Nestor and Luke discuss the dual-threat capabilities of Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen and the challenges of defending them.
- Luke emphasizes the need for the Ravens to play a clean game, avoiding pre-snap penalties and turnovers.
- Both agree that the game will be physical and fast-paced, with both teams looking to establish their running game.
Historical Performance and Expectations
- Nestor and Luke reflect on the Ravens’ performance against the Bills in previous games, including the playoff matchup last January.
- Luke notes the importance of avoiding self-inflicted mistakes and the need for the Ravens to play a clean game.
- Nestor discusses the pressure on Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen to win a Super Bowl and the expectations for both teams.
- Both agree that the game will be crucial for setting the tone for the season and determining playoff seeding.
Mental and Emotional Preparation
- Nestor and Luke discuss the mental and emotional preparation required for both teams, especially given the high stakes of the game.
- Luke emphasizes the importance of handling adversity and maintaining focus throughout the season.
- Nestor reflects on the challenges of managing expectations and the pressure to perform well in high-profile games.
- Both agree that the ability to handle pressure and maintain composure will be key to both teams’ success.
Final Thoughts and Predictions
- Nestor and Luke share their final thoughts on the upcoming game, with Luke predicting a close, physical contest.
- Nestor reflects on the importance of winning the game to set the tone for the season and maintain momentum.
- Both agree that the game will be crucial for both teams’ playoff prospects and seeding.
- Nestor concludes by emphasizing the importance of staying healthy and managing adversity throughout the season.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Ravens, Buffalo, Super Bowl, training camp, preseason, injury report, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, offensive line, defensive strategy, playoffs, roster, health, expectations.
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Luke Jones
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T AM, 1570 tasks of Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive, positively elated that on Monday morning, or might even be late Sunday night, we will have results, baby like Justin Tucker. You say, give me some results here. This week, we’re gonna be doing a Maryland crab cake tour for the first time in season on the 16th at Beaumont, kind of cooling it out here this week, I have a handful of the lucky sevens. It is our 27th anniversary. We are counting down. My 27 favorite things to eat. Tastiness is the way to find that out. I might have had a pit beef sandwich and chaps. Recently, you can go check that out to give you some cookie recommendations. And if you hang through it through the week, you’ll get my favorite things to eat, and they’re a sure winner. So don’t press your luck with me. It’s all brought to you by the Maryland lottery. Also our 27th anniversary, brought to you by curio wellness. The Orioles have not gotten us well, Luke Jones, but I know you have been spending hard time out noise. You know what? I don’t I used to really feel sorry for you when I knew you as a young man, and you quit your teaching gig to come do this wacky journalism thing, and we’d send you out to like, boggers at four in the morning, and you come home at midnight, and there were two a days and nighttime practices, and, like, all of a sudden now, like, I don’t training camp doesn’t wear you out the way maybe it once did 10 years ago. Am I right? Like you’re ready for football. You feel spry. You know, there was no point during training camp where you felt like you had to put the pads on right? Like, this is, this has been an easier August, with the Orioles sucking and them not really playing real preseason football, right? Like I usually look at Uranus time of year and say, Man, Luke’s worn out. We haven’t even started yet. You know?
Luke Jones 01:50
Well, other than not being 26 or 27 anymore, like I was in those early years, yeah, I mean training camps, not nearly what it was. It’s funny. Now I’m one of the older individuals, not old, but older individuals on the beat. And I, I tell these young kids just like, yeah, used to be two a days you you’d have 830 practice on the on the upper field of mcdan at McDaniel, and then there’d be a special teams practice at like, two in the afternoon, and it’d be hot. There’d be no shade all that I’d come home and I just be dead. Now, I mean, don’t get me wrong. I mean, the monotony of training camp can still be there when you go five or six days in a row without an off day. But hey, no one wants to hear anyone who gets to to watch football practice and ask questions and cover an NFL team. You know, it’s a good gig. It absolutely is, but it’s definitely different now. I mean, training camp is definitely a lot different than it was 15 years ago, let alone 40 years ago or 50 years ago, when guys had a six or seven week training camp at a six game preseason. I mean, we’ve come a long, long way from those days, that’s for sure. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 02:59
I’ll give you an aha moment for me, because you’re wearing that Baltimore positive shirt there that’s made of some fiber that Kevin Plank invented with, you know, in eastern Asia 30 years ago, whatever that kind of happened on our watch, my dude Hennessy, who helped me build the whole company 30 years ago, when we first the team came and it was time to, like, pick out logos and shirts. And we wanted to have Mike flags and look like, you know, as good as, like Jerry Coleman or like a professional outfit would look and the black shirts, I would always be like, dude, they’re gonna look better in black. Some of our guys are a little bigger. They’re gonna look better in black. The logo looks better on a black background, and then we made black shirts. And whoever had to wear the black shirts out in whether it was you, Casey, will it Glenn, whoever it was melted out there, just melted out there in August. So, I mean, I remember what that was all about. I remember the drinking from the hose. Guys throwing up. That was McCrary job. So I mean, I go back to all of that, but it does feel like, from a fan’s perspective, and that’s all I am at this point. I’m not a real media member, and I watching the outside, it does feel like they’ve rested every player enough to not be getting beaten up. I look at the injury report this week and see like, you know, the likely thing, and the ardarius, a couple here and there or whatever. But this was designed to get to Sunday night where they are good for them, even if it’s unrecognizable to Joe Flacco at this point, will be here next week, and I had to look up like, who the Browns play this week? Oh, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, footage, jets. All right, so I’m like, looking around at the other teams, and this is fun. I mean, this we have a lot to talk about on Monday morning, dude. So i What do you think we’ll be talking about on Sunday night? This is our real preview for the game itself. I’ve talked to half dozen buffalo people already. You can hear it all here. Wnsta and 15. 70 could find it at Baltimore positive about their side of the story in being the victor, and how Josh Allen’s the MVP, and how they voted for Lamar last year, but they voted for Josh Allen this past year. So I this is and everybody knows this is going to be sloppy. I mean, that’s the one thing when I talk to John McClane or Clark judge, or any Vic Carucci, these sage people are like, there have been no practice. There’s been no games. Nobody’s tackled, nobody’s hit anybody. I wouldn’t bet on it.
Luke Jones 05:32
Yeah, there’s always that. I mean, everything you just went through in terms of what training camp has become, what the preseason has become, how more and more teams, I mean, even the teams that play their starters, they’re playing so very little, right, right, a series maybe two, right? I mean, I mean, that’s what you see, even an institutional change, right, right? But you have so many, not just starters, but even established backups for the Ravens. I mean, even guys like tavius Robinson and Broderick Washington, who is a tech, technically a starter when you talk about their base defense, but by all intents and purposes, he he’s, you know, much more of a rotational guy behind Matt abika and Travis Jones, but even those guys sat out the bulk of the preseason. So I’m fine with that. I’m certainly not someone who has endorsed playing your starters in the preseason. Going back to what happened with JK Dobbins, hard to believe that was four years ago at this point in time, but here we are, four years later, and the Ravens don’t play those starters, so you keep them out of harm’s way. But there is a transition, a threshold, whatever you want to call it that, all right, it’s go time. I mean, there is no for as much ramping up as they do, starting really with OTAs, but certainly the first week or so a training camp, there is a ramp up where they don’t wear pads the first few days, and then they put on the pads they don’t tackle to the ground. And that’s kind of been the way it’s been for quite a long time. You know, even taken away the preseason game element as far as how teams have handled that. But you get to a point where, all right, it’s go time. You know, a perfect example right now for the Ravens. I mean, Jair Alexander, he didn’t practice the last three weeks of training camp in the preseason. Now, I’m not going to sit here and say that I don’t have any concerns whatsoever about his knee. I mean, it’s the reason why he was available in mid June for $4 million right? And I also would say yes, be absolutely as smart and as careful and as cautious as you can be. But there’s no ramp up when he gets out there on Sunday night. There’s no ramp up there. Now, there’s a ramp up, I guess, in the sense that he doesn’t need to play every single snap. You know, you can rotate a series off and on with him in a woozy, a or however they want to do it, but you have to get out there, and you’re going to be on turf and Orchard Park, and you’re going to be hitting guys, and they’re going to be hitting you, right? I mean, and that applies for everyone. So there is a little bit of that element of unknown. And I think I said this to you in a recent conversation, but it’s worth repeating when you have two football teams who want to run the football. I mean, obviously the Ravens want to do that. When you have Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson before you even get into Justice Hill or Keaton Mitchell, and then on the buffalo side, you have James Cook, who is a couple of weeks removed from getting a long term contract after his hold in early in training camp. And Josh Allen, right, so there is that element of, how do both of these defenses tackle? I mean, in general, if they were playing in week eight, or if they play again in January, we’re asking that question when you’re talking about this and
Nestor Aparicio 08:39
and by the way, that’s not once or twice or three times. That’s all night long, like Ray Lewis would say, right? Like you can tackle Derrick Henry nine times. It’s the 10th time you can corral Lamar three times in sack and twice. But if he gets loose and runs 74 yards on your ass, you know, on third and 14, because you stopped them on first. They blow whistle. You got a penalty. They put you in a bad D and D, and he gets loose. That’s the creepiest thing of this, playing from the other side, and that’s what’s given McDermott and the entire defensive staff there, the night sweats, which is we got 65 plays against Lamar when you get it right, at least 63 not 54 not 58 because it’s not going to be good enough. Not against this team, not against flower. They have too many speed guys that can beat you, and like the Bengals, that are going to go more over the top and beat, you know, pass rush and big plays. And, like all of that, the Ravens thing really does set out of the running game, which is, you know, run plays that are 28 yards, 30 gash run plays. Yeah.
Luke Jones 09:52
I mean, I think the Ravens can do anything, right? I mean, Bateman became a vertical threat last year. I mean, we’re going to see what DeAndre Hopkins look like. But, but again, the point. That I was talking about it, it applies for both these teams for 60 Minutes. Of course, when you have dynamic dual threat quarterbacks, your hall of fame caliber dual threat quarterbacks, right? But for me, like what I’m talking about is much more like the first quarter, right? You get out there and you’re playing truly authentic, real football for the first time since for the ravens, when they were at the very same place last January. For the bills, it was a week after that, right, when they lost in in Kansas City.
Nestor Aparicio 10:30
So it’s going to sound the same. It’s going to look the same. It’s going to be loud all if I were betting on anything in this game, when do the Ravens get their first offensive line penalty. Does that happen in the first quarter the first series? Does that not happen to the third quarter? Does it happen four times six? It’s like, that’s the kind of thing that gets them off schedule, right? That’s the kind of thing that sometimes it makes it more dangerous, but it certainly makes their journey a whole lot more difficult when they’re, you know, first and 20. It
Luke Jones 10:59
just does well. And look at how it’s funny, because I realized this, but it really started to settle in this week, as we’re really, you know, with cuts being over, and now it’s like, okay, looking at this Buffalo game, looking at the matchup, looking at what happened last January, looking at what happened back in week four last year, when the Ravens just blew the doors off the bills when they came into Baltimore. But it is wild when you think about the fact that this is the second straight year the ravens are facing the team on week one on the road, opening night, you know, not opening night for the NFL, but Sunday Night Football, the premier week one matchup. And it’s the same team that ended their previous season. I mean, it’s the second year in a row that’s happened. I mean, that’s it’s pretty I’d say that’s very unusual for it to play out that way, but it’s life in the AFC when you’re talking about having one of the best teams and one of the best, very best quarterbacks in the NFL. But I think you go back and look at that game, and again, this kind of lends itself to what I was just saying. Josh Allen wasn’t the one that hurt the Ravens in that January game, right? I mean, obviously the Ravens hurt themselves with three turnovers, so you can’t have that. I mean, that’s a non starter, right? If you’re going to win in Buffalo, you can’t have a minus three turnover ratio. But the thing that Buffalo was able to do against the Ravens defense is they were able to run the football now. They didn’t gash them. It wasn’t these long chunk plays like Derrick Henry’s apt to do, or Lamar Jackson breaks a tackle and gets out in the open field, but they were able to sustain drives, and that’s how they held on in the second half. I mean, if you go and look at that game, I mean as in terms of yards per play, total yards, I mean the Ravens average 7.3 yards per play. The bills average 4.6 right? I mean, everything about the game still boiled down to the three turnovers and Mark Andrews with a drop in the final minute there. I mean, that’s what the difference in the game was. So I think that’s where you take heart and you have some confidence as a Ravens fan, that the Ravens absolutely can go into Buffalo and win on Sunday night, but they’ve got to play a much cleaner version of football. And as you mentioned, pre snap penalties. I mean, it wasn’t necessarily false starts against Kansas City in week one last year, but remember, it was the Ronnie Stanley lining up in the backfield and like that, the weird, illegal formation point of emphasis that the league had, which, by the way, completely went away after week one. I mean, we see this every year. The league has some kind of week one point of emphasis, and then it just kind of baseball
Nestor Aparicio 13:29
has been the same way, too strange, where they want to enforce a bulk rule the first week or something, but, you know,
Luke Jones 13:35
you need to be clean. And that was, I mean, a major point of emphasis for this football team throughout the spring and summer. I mean, they talked about the fact that they have this kind of internal grading system that they use for every practice, every walk through, every Yeah, not meat, not to, I’m not trying to be facetious here, but they grade everything, right? I mean, they’re, they’re great. You know, at lunch, you know, you’re seeing the scores and the grades up on the on the screens. I mean, they’re doing all that, and it’s this deliberate attempt to really, truly be intentional with everything they do. Now that’s kind of a scientific approach of going about this problem that they’ve had, which is, what winning in January, right breaking through and being the same team on January 15 or January 22 or whatever it is, as they are for the regular season, which the regular season, they’ve been as good, if not the best, team in the NFL the last four to five years at various times. So there’s some of that, but I would also argue that some of that is also, there’s an artistic element to that. There’s a psychological there’s a mental element. There’s an emotional element to that. That week one’s not going to do anything for that, but you want to win. You want to get off on the right foot. You want to feel good about yourselves. And we’re going to see how that plays out. I mean, it’s a buffalo team that offensively. Looks very similar. You know, not a whole lot of roster turnover with their offense. I believe their entire offensive line is back. Defensively, there has been a little more turnover. But I would also say for as great as Josh Allen was, as great as that offense was, even without having Stefan Diggs, right? I mean, there was so much talk at this time a year ago what they were going to do at wide receiver, but you know, Shakir is a, you know, big play guy, you know, looks like he’s going to play after having a high ankle sprain during training camp. I think Keon Coleman is huge for them, as far as him taking the next step. But you know, Josh Allen, much like Lamar Jackson, has this way of dragging his team to the finish line, even if, even if, other facets of the roster aren’t up to the task, but that buffalo defense was vulnerable last year. I mean, we saw what happened in week four, and then we saw what happened in January. And it’s not as though the Ravens could not move the ball. They moved the ball very well, but they made mistakes. And buffalo made some big plays in terms of, you know, obviously Bernard with the the force fumble on Mark Andrews, which was an absolutely massive play that kind of gets forgotten about because of the drop, you know, later on in that fourth quarter. But, you know, I think if you’re the ravens, you know, I mean, it’s, you want to come out and do your thing. I don’t think you need to deviate from your identity, although it’s silly to say, you know, what’s the team’s identity going to be? I think it’s going to be similar to what we’ve seen here in recent years. But, you know, you have that. But then, you know, defense, it’s, you know, you’ve got a couple new toys in that defense. I think the secondary is going to have a lot of attention on it because of, as I mentioned, Jair Alexander, and the other one being Malachi Starks, right? I mean, rookie, first round pick, he checked every box they’re really happy with where he is, but he’s still unproven, but he’s a rookie safety and Kyle ham and maybe this is where we can transition into the big news of the Hamilton but with Malachi Starks, Kyle Hamilton just got $100.4 million contract extension, well deserved, right? Best player on this defense. I remember what he looked like his first four or five, six games of his rookie year, and it didn’t look great. So that doesn’t mean Starks is bound to repeat that, but likelihood is there’s going to be a hiccup or two at some point here in this first month, especially considering the opponents that the Ravens have. So what you what you need to have happen is for those hiccups not to be like the backbreaking play of the game. So, but, you know, this team is loaded, right? I mean, we’ve talked about this roster is as good as anyone in the league. You know, there might be one team that I put ahead of them in terms of just the town of the roster, maybe the Philadelphia Eagles. And I give the Eagles the tip of the cap, because the defending champions. But there is no lack, lacking, of a shortage of talent on either side of the ball. But how does, how does that secondary fair? You know, I love it. But how’s it look? You know, for the first time playing together, and, of course, you know the the obvious one, Tyler loop, and what that’s going to look like. But you know, I’m really high on this football team. I have been all spring and summer, to your point, couple injuries, but not, you know what I’m not expecting, Isaiah likely, you know, you know, we’ll, we’ll know very quickly. If he’s on the practice field this week, he’s got some semblance of a chance. If he’s not, then they’ll officially be ruled out at the end of the week. But you know, I’m not expecting, we’re going to see him. I’d be surprised. You know, even if he gets out there a day or two on a limited basis. But overall, they’re pretty healthy. Buffalo is not their first round pick, Hairston their corner. Hairston is on IR, so right off the bat, they’re a little bit healthier, but we’re going to see how it looks. And both these teams want to get off on the right foot, because, gosh, we just know how important this game could loom come December and January because of seating purposes.
Nestor Aparicio 18:59
Yeah. I mean, it’s almost like in the golf thing the playoffs, you know, you get more points for winning the game. This is certainly this, the Kansas City game become a backdrop for what October, November going to feel like. And as I’ve pointed out many times, many times and like, it’s my 27th year of doing this, I’ve been doing this. I’ve been doing this from the beginning every day. So I you know every after every game in the history of the franchise, I’ve spent hours and hours and hours either taking calls talking about their place in the world. And I can’t begin to tell you how many of the years it was catching up in the beginning, Jacksonville, then Tennessee, always, always, always, always, Pittsburgh. And then it wasn’t even about those teams. It was about New England forever. For a decade, decade and a half, it was like the matter what you do here. And then there’s Denver, and then there’s the Colts and that, you know, teams that were in the way Peyton Manning was. In the way, wherever he was, Tom Brady was in the way. Ben Roethlisberger was in the way. They’re all the way. And, you know, I John McLean on. He’s like, Nestor, I’m picking them to win the Super Bowl again, so third year in a row. And I’m like, oh, no, don’t you know, like, if there was a Sports Illustrated cover jinx, if there was a Lamar needs to break through, you know, you all get the Super Bowl. Believe that. Believe that. I mean, we’re going to hear that over and, like, for until it happens or doesn’t happen, whatever. But it’s like there’s an immense amount of pressure, in a general sense, on the expectation of what is or isn’t for this team, or what it can be. Because when we start to talk about weaknesses, we start talking about strengths and like where it is. They had Hall of Famers lining up to come to every year, a hall of different Hall of Famer comes to Baltimore to play football, to try to win. Because, like John McClane, they believe they’re going to come here and win this year. It’s Hopkins, right? You know, because he couldn’t do it in Houston with John McClane amongst other placard couldn’t do in Kansas City. We pat them Patrick Williams last year. So there is this mystique about the Ravens that this is a great place to be, and all these players want to be here, and they pat themselves on the back and give themselves awards and all of that, but you lose this game now we’re back into October again at two and two, wherever we are, road goes through buffalo. It’ll be cold in Buffalo in January and you know, and the buffalo thing will be way worse in January this year. You know, why? Closing the stadium beat the bills up there. You shut their stadium down in January, so you don’t but you don’t want to see him up there, and you don’t want to see Cincinnati and Cincinnati in the jungle on a Saturday night in January, something, because you lost this kind of game and got behind. What would John say if I were still a media member, off schedule, is what John would say. So dude, like and Flacco is coming in, and that’s cool in Detroit, whatever they are, and they might be the best team that nobody’s talking about, right? Like personnel, we like this. We like that. Smart people really like Detroit. And everybody likes the coach in Detroit, right? So, and they are the Darling, by the way, John, I’m picking the ravens to play the lions again. I picked it last year, and I’m like, oh, here we go. Everything was supposed to happen last year is now supposed to happen this year. And the year that didn’t happen last year, right? And the Ravens were as healthy as they’ve ever been last year. So there is a little bit of a point of it for me, for me, not media guy, not negative guy, man. I got called up at for being negative last week from Baltimore, positive that I’m not going to be the guy that sits here and says, Well, what’s going to go wrong? Something’s going to go wrong. I don’t know what it’s not going to be the kicker chasing women around. You know, might be the kicker missing a kick or two. It might be an injury, I don’t know, but things go wrong. I mean, you and I right now, it’s like, look at the sky here. It’s all purple, right? It’s kind of got that, that mo, mo, mo GABA, sort of purple, orange thing going on, right? And everything’s perfect. They’re undefeated. Someone’s going to get hurt on Sunday night, someone’s going to jump offsides, someone’s going to fumble. Someone might make a big interception in a pick six, someone might make three big kicks. I don’t know, but I do know this man, real football comes at you real fast on Sunday night, and the wins and losses and oh, and two last year, they were digging out of it last year with good health. It’s just things are going to go wrong, and how you manage that. Literally, it’s like real life. My wife had cancer. I had a pregnant girlfriend at 15. I bought a radio station. What’s a radio station? You know, things go wrong in life. It’s how they manage that in real time. And to your point, they’ve been a lot of bullets flying at them in the last eight months, nine months, and that’s at that speed, at this rate, the way it comes at you loud on Sunday night football,
Luke Jones 24:05
no question. And that’s And so much of what you just said applies to Buffalo too, right? I mean, the bills have been in the same spot both these teams. I mean, that’s why it’s still so funny to me, that when you consider what the narrative was going into that ravens bills. You know that ravens bills playoff matchup, you know, Allen and Jackson, I mean that the top two MVP candidates who’s going to be the MVP all that this is a legacy game. And I remember even saying it before that game took place. I was just like, wait a second, guys. I mean the winner, congratulations. You get to go to arrowhead and play Patrick mahomes and the chiefs. I mean, both these teams are, I mean, they’re, they’re not twin brothers, but the family resemblance is uncanny, right? I mean, it’s, you could tell that man, they’re so similar in that way. And you know, when it is week one, there’s just that unknown, that general. Uh, unknown that comes with not playing a whole lot in the preseason, and even if, even if you did, I mean, even for the teams, you know, Andy Reid does play as starters a little bit, but it’s so little, right? I mean, there’s so there’s such a an unknown about what that’s going to look like. But glad you said it, and I’ve written about it. I’ve talked about it at probably a half dozen times, you know, in our dozens of conversations we’ve had in between the end in Orchard Park last January and where we are now that, you know, there is that, that health piece, that, and they were so healthy last year, and okay, the one bat, the bad timing element was what zay flowers getting hurt in week 18, and it just happened to be a three or four week knee injury at the absolute worst possible time. But beyond that, and they still could have, should have, would have won that football game if they don’t have the self inflicted mistakes that they had. But, you know now it’s like you start over right now. And I think that’s the challenge for the bills, for the ravens, you know, for any of these teams that have been really good, you know, over time, you know, you think back to the bills in the 90s, right? I mean,
Nestor Aparicio 26:09
or even nouveau riche teams, like the one of the burgundy and the gold, that just feeling themselves, that feel like, hey, we were good last year. Well, last year was a long time ago. You know, everybody’s down on the chargers, everybody’s up on the Broncos. Like, how people feel last year was a long time ago, no matter who you are, and certainly the chiefs that were just getting by last year, nobody likes them. All of a sudden, it’s sort of like, well, they can’t do it anymore. I don’t know. They never not done it before. You know? Yeah, I
Luke Jones 26:34
mean, and I don’t know how many dislike them, I think it’s just we kind of get fatigue talking. It’s the it’s the RE it’s honestly, in my mind, the true reason why Lamar didn’t win MVP last year was the voters kind of got fatigued with Lamar Jackson, and they thought, all right, it’s Josh Allen’s time. We’ve seen that happen with Lebron James in the NBA, Michael Jordan back in the 90s. I mean, you kind of get tired of picking the same guy, so you pick someone else. But to go back to what you just said, I think the difference was with Washington or some of those teams, I think it’s, it’s very easy for those teams to kind of trick themselves, to say, Oh, hey, we’re on the come. Now, this is awesome, but when you’re the ravens, like the Orioles the last two years, sure, but when you’re the ravens and when you’re the bills, you’ve gone through this multi year where the regular season is great, and you think this is going to be the year, and either you’re healthy or, like the Ravens two years ago, they had home field advantage. Now, Buffalo has never had the number one seed. I think that’s kind of an interesting element as far as comparing these two teams. But I think once you’ve gone through that, and you’ve failed a few times in in terms of January failure, I think it is, it can be a little intimidating. It can be a little daunting. I think it can be a little bit of a mind, you know, a mind trick or or whatever, where it’s like week one and you just like, you look at the calendar and you say, Man, long way to go. We need to like our redemption story. You know, they hear guys like us talking, and it’s just like, wake me in January, right? The
Nestor Aparicio 28:08
guys like us talking, because we’re old guys here, by the way, Luke Jones is here. You can follow the Baltimore Luke, just listening in on the radio. We appreciate you. You can always throw us a note at Baltimore. Posit if you’re into the football train here, when you’ve been doing this this long, you realize just, let’s just say, modern era for anybody that’s not as old as me. Okay, that goes back to whether Dan pastorini never got it done, and Dan Fouts didn’t get it done, and Dan Marino never really got it done. But somehow, you know, Jim McMahon, did you know, like, or whatever, for whatever, or Trent dill, for whoever, you know, mean, Brad Johnson, right? You know? I mean, go through any of these the modern era, just in the modern era, in the last this century, everybody was chasing Brady, and now everybody’s chasing mahomes. So that being the standard, there was the next step down. That was Peyton Manning, and his brother beat him to the punch, right? Which was crazy, because his brother’s not thought of in that way, certainly not when Hall of Fame voting comes around. I think Eli was the year after Peyton won in oh six, and Eli one and oh seven, yeah, but, but they beat him by two titles. Eli was like, in and out. And Peyton was like, what? Well, when are they going to break their choke joke, choke holds, can’t, can’t beat Brady, my wife and I attended a couple of those in the snow up in Foxborough back in the day. So, you know, AFC Championship games, playoff games, rockless Burger Drew, Brees, Philip Rivers, you know, guys breaking records, doing some Michael Vick was a part of the game at that point, doing specialties. So there’s all of these other got Joe Flacco, obviously right, all of these other guys, Carson Palmer, that were doing the chasing, that were there, Matt Ryan, he should have won one with a four touchdown lead, but, but there were all of these quarterbacks there and the. Feeling now as well. At some point the salary cap, mahomes, Taylor Swift getting to the tight end. You know, things are going to break down Kansas City and who’s going to be next? Well, Philadelphia’s already sat in that seat. Here comes Green Bay, making a big trade, making their big thing for defense this week. So we’re going to see them Christmas time too. So I look at all of these quarterbacks, and it’s easy to say, Well, Josh Allen’s got to win one right. Lamar has got to win one right. Like, if it’s not him, who’s it going to be? And I already said everybody’s down on the chargers in here burrows, chasing things. And then there’s the fan bases, where the Cleveland’s ain’t never had it, and the buffaloes have always wanted it, and the Cincinnati’s don’t even know what it smells like. And places where there’s a pedigree to win, you know what I mean? Like here, it’s always like Harbaugh’s already won one. He knows how to do it. The Costa, they’ve drafted these guys. They got Hall of Famers on the team. There’s a perfect storyline that Derrick Henry would win, and Hopkins and these guys, and you know, the Stanley’s and the and the Marlin Humphreys that were at the locker after so many losses and disappointments, and Mark Andrews gets to kiss the trophy after dropping the ball like there’s a story book to be written here, around failure, Around failure. You know what I mean, and that’s for them to figure out. And that’s not going to happen on Sunday night. That happens over the Hall of watching, seeing the whites and Joe flaco’s eyes when he was accountable, and Billy Cundiff, who didn’t get to come back, and John Harbaugh who did. And a year later, and you were a part of this year later, you go up there in the same podium, in the same place, and say, We came back and we kicked their ass, which bum Phillips never did for my Allers, which the Eagles and Buddy Ryan never did with Randall Cunningham, which go through the Carson Palmer with Marvin Lewis, go through any number Matt Ryan And and our buddy Mike Smith, right like, so there is that point where there’s a belief that at some point Allen and Lamar are going to win, and burrow are going to win Super Bowls. Guess what? That’s three names, right there, two of those guys definitely aren’t winning. And then you got to throw mahomes in there, and anybody else you want in the AFC and the NSC to say, only one gets to win a year. And that’s what made it so freaking hard for Roethlisberger to get, you know, one and and for for you drew. Brees to get one to, you know, to get there and lose one and win one. Kurt Warner, whatever, it’s really, really hard to do, man, and like when you start to look at this journey of 17 weeks playoffs, everything having to go, perfect, perfect, perfect. Both of these guys think they’re going to win the Super Bowl this year. Only one of them can, and the likelihood of that really begins now, because you don’t want to be playing these games at Buffalo and Kansas City and Cincinnati and they, they also don’t want to come to Baltimore. Buffalo got their ass kicked here last year. They don’t want to come down here and play in
Luke Jones 33:07
January. Yeah. And I will say this, the Bengals need to show me they can stop some their defense stinks. We’ll see. But I’m kind of out on them being mentioned in the same breath as Kansas City Buffalo and the Ravens. But that aside, I just wanted to throw that out there, because I just, I It boggles my mind how they’ve handled Joe burrow and their roster building anyway. Look, it’s a journey. And, you know, I there’s this tendency to look at it in terms of, like thriving, right? And, you know, and I’ve even said it, you want to win week one, because of what that means for seeding purposes, right? But we also know things didn’t go perfectly for the Ravens in 2012 far from it. I mean, my goodness, the injuries they had. I mean, Ray Lewis tears his tricep in week six, and I wrote a book about it. I know it was a hell of a story, but my point with that is, I mean, it’s really about survival as much as anything, right? It really is about handling whatever is thrown your way. I mean, Kansas City was a great example of this two years ago, right? In terms of not that they had this crazy amount of adversity, but they were perceived as being a lesser, diminished version of what they had been in previous years, and everyone was writing them off. You know, the idea that you know whether it’s gonna be buffalo or okay, they come to Baltimore for the NFC or the AFC Championship Game and and they just, they survived, right? They they handled it. And I think that’s the lesson that the ravens and and the bills are trying to figure out right now in terms of when you get to those moments, and again, the ravens, the Ravens have handled everything, you know, other than maybe wanting to get off to a better start last year, or, you know, having some issues in previous years, in season, but nothing out of the ordinary, excluding the two Lamar injury, you know, back half of the season, injury. Years. But I think for them, it’s just, you know, how do you handle things when it goes a little sideways? And that’s, that’s what’s so disappointing, because you have all the way until January to get to that point. But you also know how much can go wrong, so you just have to take every week for what it is. And I think from a mental standpoint, as hard as it is to do, and you’ll hear team you’ll hear players and coaches say, Well, we’re focused on this game. We know that in reality, they’re they’re not entirely but it is how they have to approach it. And the teams that can do the best job doing that and just can compartmentalize, they’re the ones generally that are going to handle I mean, Kansas City just play. Just play so smart in those January moments. I mean, I go back to the two years ago against the ravens, touchdown drive, touchdown drive, and then what did Patrick mahomes that offense do the rest of the game? Basically nothing other than don’t screw up, because they kind of knew, all right, we’ve got the lead. We trust our defense. We don’t exactly trust the ravens to do everything right, because we know they’ve they’re still chasing. And, you know, the Ravens made their mistakes, and Kansas City just did enough, right? I mean, that’s it’s what they did again against buffalo.
Nestor Aparicio 36:16
These games always make one play, right? I mean, so And despite the blowout last year with these two teams here. You know, I don’t expect this to be a 17 point game in the fourth
Luke Jones 36:27
quarter. I wouldn’t think so Sunday night,
Nestor Aparicio 36:31
six point game. It really becomes about this. You know, we’re going to strip Mark Andrews, or we’re not, or he’s going to catch it and go in and beat us. You know what? I mean, like you’re going to make a play and,
Luke Jones 36:40
yeah, and, you know, I mean, so much of what you mentioned, I mean, and even going over the history of it, it’s why everyone loves the NFL. It’s so theatrical. I mean, it really is, you have fewer games, right? I mean, we’ve talked about this. You know, the difference between baseball, which is a nightly marathon, and basketball and hockey are not nightly, but multiple times a week.
Nestor Aparicio 37:03
And this is an overnight marathon if you’re an Oriole fan this week. Oh yeah,
Luke Jones 37:07
that Apple, that Apple TV Friday night game was a doozy. I was asleep in the third Yeah, I want to, I didn’t even watch it because
Nestor Aparicio 37:14
this is, I’m calling this the yacht rock week, you know, for the Orioles, you know, late nights and, you know,
Luke Jones 37:19
but, with the NFL, it’s life or death. No, it’s not right. If the Ravens lose on Sunday night, it’s not, it’s not the end of their season by any stretch. I mean, there’s one thing that I won’t even utter but it’s the same thing that could happen to Buffalo or Kansas City, right? Something happens to your quarterback. That’s the only thing where you say, my season’s over. There are other things that can happen where you say, that’s not ideal, but that’s the one thing where you say, it’s over, but we but, but it’s gonna feel like life or death on Sunday night. And I’ll feel the same way for Buffalo, because they’re gonna be saying, Oh no. What does this mean? I mean, we’re already, you know, kind of looking up at the number one seed and all of that. But, you know, but it’s, it is still a long journey ahead. And dude, if you
Nestor Aparicio 38:02
want to play the games in January, you have to win this kind of game. So go do it, you know, go win it.
Luke Jones 38:07
So go win it. And I mean, you want to try to optimize your chances. And that’s not to say the Ravens can’t win on the road in the in the postseason, because they make two plays that they didn’t make against buffalo in January. We’re having a totally different discussion right now, maybe, maybe we’re talking about the Ravens going to the Super Bowl and finally breaking through, but they didn’t, so it’s a moot point, but it starts on Sunday night. You know, I flip a coin. I mean, that’s how I feel about these two teams. I think very highly of both teams. You know, I think the Ravens have a better roster, one through 53 but Buffalo’s playing at home. And you know, we also know it’s week one, and weird things happen, in a general sense, in week one. So we’re going to see how this goes. But hey, I can’t wait, and I’m very much looking forward to having some real substance to talk about, instead of these big picture, pie in the sky conversations that we’ve been having for months now. It’s time to go play football.
Nestor Aparicio 39:06
Man, he gave me those 2013 reference. I mean, thinking about, like, Flacco and Jacoby Jones and like, you know, never giving up, and what happens when things go wrong. I mean, down to the last, last, last thing people say, Why is Flaco still playing? I’m like, Did you see that play? He just doesn’t quit. He’s just, he, he just doesn’t quit. That’s that, I mean, and, you know, so and the browns and the Browns are really bad. Yeah, we’ll see him next week too. So we’ll see how, we’ll see how bad the Browns are this week, and see how your bangles do you’re down on the Bengals. Maybe, you know, Flacco is one and, oh, coming in, you know, be differently. All right. We are doing a Maryland pick tour on the 16th. Lots and lots of buffalo conversation this week. Lots of conversations last week, from the Maryland crab cake tour among what we’re doing here, including our GBMC hotline, our new friends GBMC at Dr Emily waters on talking about bariatric and robotics this week. So big appreciation to them, and getting us out on the road for our tastiness too. Our friends at curio wellness and liberty pure send. Me out to eat my favorite foods. People always say, Where’s where’s best crab cake. Where do you you know where to get this. People ask me for all sorts of food recommendations on the road. I’m always happy to give them. So we now have a new term for is now tastiness, T, A, S, T, Y, like a tasty cake, tastiness NES. Follow along. It’s a Baltimore positive. And you too can have the best donut in the land. It’s actually not that far from where Luke lives too. I am Nestor. He is Luke. Football ahead. They’re going to play football on Sunday night for real in Buffalo, and we’ll be here to talk about it at Baltimore positive. Stay with us. You.
