Luke Jones and Nestor make final prep and predictions for Ravens at Bucs on Monday Night Football
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Ravens at Bucs, Monday Night Football, Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry, Todd Bowles, Baker Mayfield, NFC opponents, offensive challenges, defensive concerns, playoff preparation, game prediction, offensive diversity, defensive improvements, takeaways, tackling issues
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, am 1570 we’re tasked with Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. I’m working on the new logo this week. We got it out on the front of the website. At some point we’ll get it up here. I’ve been too busy watching football all weekend long. And you know when you play on Monday night, it’s you wait. You wait. You wait some more. When you fly to Tampa, you wait all day. Tailgate. Would do all the things you do, but they’re going to kick the football off. Lou Jones, Joan is joining us now. On Friday, we’re going to get the Maryland crab Kate tour back out, as well as some oysters as well. We’re going to be with my man Finn McCusker up in Owings Mills. A lot of folks say, when you come back to Owings Mills, been a couple years. Yeah, it has been. But I’ll be at mama’s on the half shell on Friday. We’ll also have the Raven scratch offs to give away that I have near and dear to my heart. We have what? We have, a whole bunch of these. They’ve been very, very lucky batch. Our friends at Jiffy Lube have been getting Luke back and forth out to Owings Mills. We have a Yankees Dodgers World Series. It’s been quite a weekend. The Terps storm the field. The Steelers won. The Bengals won all Deshaun Watson got hurt. Lots of things happen, but we got a football game on Monday night. And I know you can’t wait, and these Monday night games, nobody likes them. I don’t let the coaches play it. You know, it’s tough, and there’s a turnaround this week as well. Yeah.
Luke Jones 01:24
I mean, it’s always the challenge of just waiting around. You’re out of your habit. I mean, a Sunday night game’s challenging enough, and then you had another 24 hours to that. And to your point, even though not necessarily facing the toughest of opponents, although we can certainly talk about that, because the landscape has changed with Deshaun Watson out and whether it’s going to be Dorian Thompson, Robinson, whether it’s going to be Jamis Winston, might be a better quarterback situation for the browns, quite frankly. But if you’re the ravens, obviously, I’ll focus on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And it is waiting around. It’s traveling. It’s a road game to follow that on a short week. So, yeah, it’s certainly a challenge. And it’s a Bucha nurse team that I think has a lot to to prove tonight. I think it’s a team that has a great opportunity to really show itself as a legitimate contender, at least in the NFC. You know, even if you’re not quite buying them as a serious Super Bowl contenders. So it’s going to be a it’s going to be a challenge. It’s a team that scores points. The Ravens score points. I think you and I talked about this late last week, that we’re expecting, if not a full blown shootout, certainly points to be scored on both sides. You know, I don’t know if Raven’s commanders went to full blown shoot out. But this kind of feels like that kind of game. And I think the big question for Tampa Bay is going to be, can they get a stop or two along the way? And for the ravens, it’s, Hey, you gotta stop Chris Codd Godwin and Mike Evans from picking up yak yards. I mean, that’s been the story for the bucks. They entered week seven leading the league in Yak so it’s been a lot of shorter passing for Baker Mayfield, but it’s been very effective in how they’ve done it. So I think this is an underrated challenge for the Ravens on the road. Not that anyone’s necessarily again, viewing the Buccaneers as this serious Super Bowl contender, but hey, they’ve got the same record as the Ravens going into week seven. And as I said, this is an opportunity for them to really, you know, as the kids would say, Show out and impress some people on a national spotlight, you know, national stage, and really show themselves as a viable team in the NFC. So I think it’ll be interesting in that regard. But at the same time, I’ll keep coming back to Lamar Jackson against an NFC opponent. We know how that has gone over the last five or six years. So Todd Bowles and the Buccaneers certainly have their hands full as it pertains to slowing down this offense that’s been playing at an extremely high level.
Nestor Aparicio 03:56
Rare is it the day that you and I do a preview segment, and your actual 12 Raven starts in a prediction are available. You you never make you never say out loud, you write out of Baltimore, positive what your predictions are. But it’s very rare. I would say this. I was going to pick this up where you left off, which is this NFC thing. Today’s a good day to discuss that. They’ll be discussing it on Monday Night Football tonight, they’ll show all the stats. They’ll do the lamarification. They’ll do the baker man Bayfield reclamation thing. They’re going to do the storm the NFC thing. Well, that’s a unique thing, even more unique than John Harbaugh’s preseason record.
Luke Jones 04:42
It is, I mean, I don’t think it’s that deep, though. I mean, I think it comes down to a few very basic factors, but important ones. One Lamar Jackson and the Ravens have been excellent in the regular season from, really, from the moment that he took over, right? I mean, we know this. I mean, going all the way back to halfway through the 2000 18 season. So the records really good against the AFC as well. So there’s that. But I think when you talk about the NFC, when you talk about the fact that these teams don’t play each other on any kind of a regular basis, I mean, this is obviously the teams that are most familiar, Steelers, Bengals, browns, and we know that they haven’t had a whole lot of success. You know, maybe the Steelers being the exception, but Lamar has missed so many of those Raven Steelers games. We’ve talked about that a lot, but when you have these teams that only see Lamar every four years, guaranteed, and I’ll get to the bucks here in a moment, because there’s a little bit of a different factor here that I think not necessarily looms large, but could certainly have an impact. But there’s just a novelty to it. I remember going back to 2019 you know, Lamar, first MVP season, and this started to really become a thing, knowing that, you know, you think back to that year, they destroyed the Rams on Monday Night Football. They beat the 40 Niners in that late season game that a lot of people thought was a Super Bowl preview at the time, and I just equated it to Lamar, is that you think about pre interleague play, he’s that pitcher who throws 100 miles per hour and has wicked breaking stuff, and he’s so difficult to handle, even if you have some familiarity with him, but if you’ve never seen them, or you only see them every, every several years, but you don’t have a shot. So I think that’s really the and I say that as a compliment to Lamar, and I say that as these teams being at a, you know, I don’t want to say a disadvantage, that anything’s unfair. I mean, it’s how the schedule plays out. But when you just don’t see it, you know it, it’s like playing Navy in college football or some team that runs something that’s, you know, not a novelty, because it’s not a novelty at this point. But Lamar is one of one. He’s so unique. So, so I think that’s the biggest factor at work, because even every four years, how often does your coaching staff change? Change over completely by then, certainly personnel now, I think what’s interesting about this game tonight is Todd Bowles and the Buccaneers saw the Ravens two years ago, albeit a Greg Roman offense that is not the same as what it is now on under Todd monkin, and it’s certainly evolved, but less personnel turnover from a player standpoint, you know that that defense isn’t exactly the same as it was two years ago, but it’s not totally different either, and in the case of Todd Bowles, you do have someone who’s a respected defensive minded coach who saw this two years ago. So your question is, does he take some of what happened two years ago and apply it and maybe throw in an extra wrinkle or two that might slow Lamar and this offense down a little bit more, or that might not matter at all, because this offense is just playing at such a high level, right? I mean, the ravens are scoring against NFC teams and AFC teams and scoring at a high clip. So so I don’t know if, like I said, I don’t think it’s necessarily anything that’s overly deep, other than Lamar is a great quarterback, and we’ve known that, and has done everything you can do in the regular season anyway. And when you don’t see him very often, again, there’s a lack of familiarity that I mean, it just it’s cold water in your face where you say, Look, we we have our speedy wide receiver or our mobile number three quarterback on the practice squad or whatever, and we might think that that guy gives us a decent scout team look. But then when the bullets are flying for real on a Sunday afternoon or a Sunday night or a Monday night, in this case, it’s totally different. It’s not the same. That wasn’t remotely what Lamar Jackson can do, because he is so unique. So it’s a real factor. I mean, to your point, this is a streak that actually means something in terms of, you know, compared to, you know, the preseason winning streak or anything quirky like that. This is certainly quirky in the in the fact that you don’t expect someone to be 22 and one against the conference. But again, the explanation, to me is just so clear cut. One, he’s he’s great. And two, he’s very unique. So when you don’t see him on any kind of a regular basis, I mean, good luck. I mean, that’s the case. I mean, the one team that’s beating the Ravens from the NFC was the wink Martindale led giants defense a couple years ago, and you remember that game, even that was a very fluky, weird kind of game that a critical bad snap late in the game that ended up proving to be the difference. So it’s not as though the Giants shut down the Ravens in that game. Go, look at how many yards the Ravens put up in that game. So
Nestor Aparicio 09:43
and Lamar still bad pick late in that game. Am I right in saying that? Yeah, yeah. Remember, yeah? And, well, I watched a game in Hollywood Casino. I remember that because one of the first games I was locked out of that I wasn’t like there, and it was kind of weird. And, you know, even that. It. They show up. They mean, they had that game one dead, the rights. I mean, that’s another one you could blame on horrible I think there was some weird clock management as well. At halftime, I listen, I would just say this, it’s weird, it’s curveball. It’s all of that. But it’s also, if I had talked to Marshall yonda about it now, especially that he’s lost weight and skinny and going to the Hall of Fame and all that stuff. But I remember the night we had him out, um, at at Green mount station, and he, you know, got real serious with us. It wasn’t slapping around. It was, it was real talk. And I love that about Marshall, that his enthusiasm as I stood at his locker after watching him do it for 15 years, right? The enthusiasm before Flacco and during Flacco and after Flacco and Marshall yonder case, right, um, before hardball and Marshall yonder case, right? But, but I would say the enthusiasm he had, I can’t imagine that if I met 25 year old Marcia yonda, and said, We’re going to have this young quarterback. He’s not going to be a number one pick, he’s going to be a number one of the second round pick, and they’re going to change everything, and you’re going to run the ball, and you’re going to have success that you can’t imagine until you actually see it, because every other quarterback you’ve seen that can run can’t throw or can’t throw enough, or can’t read defenses, or hasn’t needed to read defenses, because that’s the style of play that they’ve played. And they’re 21 years old when they get here. And what the hell could they know anyway? And even if they’re Superman, Michael Vick, Cam Newton, whatever, running in the linebackers is a bad idea, which is my original premise, and that’s where the 4048, nine year old version of me would have been six years ago, seven years ago. So I’m going to say this, you don’t know it until you’re in it. And I remember watching that film with Marvin Lewis the last time something really important happened in Tampa, it was in Tampa where I watched that film, and Marvin shuts the machine off, says, You have no idea how fast we are. Like Harry Collins and Tiki Barber, they’ve never seen anything like Ray Lewis and Rod Woodson and you know this Jamie sharper bearing down on them in their prime. You can practice it. You can practice it for an extra day, in the case of Todd Bowles. Or have a game plan that you had two years ago and said he’s gonna Zig, we’re gonna zag. We need to keep him in the pocket. We need to keep them in the pocket. All the things that Solomon Wilcox said to me two weeks ago that they’re learning seven years in keep him in the pocket, keep him in the pocket, make him throw Yeah, you, as you pointed out, he’s got two MVP trophies to say. That’s probably a bad idea, right? But the notion that you don’t see it, you can’t prepare for it. You don’t need to prepare for it when you’re game planning for kirk cousins, and when you’re Marshall yanden, you’ve been in the league 12 years, let’s say, at that point, and you’ve never envisioned what it would look like if Joe Flacco was, you know, had a what was the old game you played where you had hyperspace, you just hit the button and you’re off. You just beamed up. That’s what Lamar looked like in 1819, and 20. Didn’t have to look like that now, because he’s got this other running back. But to your point, the oddball part of it and the part that you don’t prepare for it even the people that are in the system, when he would Dart by them and say, Oh my God, that’s faster than I could have dreamed it up, that you can’t imagine it until you have to prepare for it, and then you realize you probably don’t have the personnel over 70 plays to stop it 65 times, which is what you need to do, because you you always stop at 55 times out of 70. It’s just a third and long that you don’t stop, that winds up to be the 38 yard touchdown run that he makes. And there’s a frustration level, I think that doesn’t go away when the speed doesn’t go away. And you have Derek Henry, and I know that was part of your prediction, was late in the game that you get winded, you get you know, just all the above, when you’re an NFC team that you can’t prepare for it
Luke Jones 14:05
Well, I mean, go back to what Cincinnati did a couple weeks ago, and go back to the play that’s been the play of the year to this point. And you know, the lasting image for that play wasn’t Lamar. Wasn’t the actual touchdown Isaiah, likely it was Sam Hubbard of the Bengals, just dropping to his knees in disbelief on the sideline, even when you play it by the book, as well as your coach, as your coordinator, as your position coach, would lay it out for you to play. Lamar could still rip your heart out. I mean, that’s really and that’s, I mean, that’s the mark of greatness. That’s the mark of, you know what? Patrick mahomes Even in a game where he didn’t throw the ball and they didn’t put up massive yardage, yardage and all that, you see him scramble and do what he did to the 40 Niners defense on Sunday. I mean, the great ones have that ability that even when you do it exactly right, even if you assignment, alignment, technique, all that’s perfect, they still make a play and just beat. Because they’re just
Nestor Aparicio 15:00
so Russell Wilson do that on Sunday night a couple of times, just a flash, like, Hey, dude, I’m a little different. You know, mahomes learned from me a little bit. I mean, there’s a little bit of that when you have the personnel around you, and Lamar has the personnel now, right? That would be dude. I’ll keep putting that tweet up from a year ago this week that said we’ll never know was after the trading deadline. We’ll never know because the Costa didn’t get Derrick Henry. Now we’re gonna know now, especially this time of year where, let’s be honest, dude, if this thing goes perfectly and the ball doesn’t go over, Marlon Humphries had, or there’s not breakdowns, and this thing isn’t 21 to six somehow, because the Ravens have failed in the red zone and the market sacked, and they have to get a field goal or something awful, right? Would happen if they’re up? If they’re up, 2113 2414 10 minutes left to go. Whatever it is, this is where it’s supposed to be different, that they should be able to close out games when they get a lead. That’s the perfect prescription here. Get ahead. Do whatever you need to do, move the sticks, run a little bit, zigzag flowers here, Andrew’s there, whatever you need to do, bomb throw, you know, make a big play, whatever it is. But if you have the lead, they have a lead at 10:40pm you you’d like to think that they can’t lose games, right? I mean, that that that’s how I’m feeling about them being able to close out games. Now, I know the defense has been different, but offensively, I’d like to think they could road great, and I want to see them start to do that as the leaves change.
Luke Jones 16:38
Oh, they’ve been doing that. I mean, and largely, they’ve done that for years. I mean, that was kind of always my argument. But when, yeah, you, when you have Derek Henry, it’s, it’s different, you know, to your point, and you did acknowledge it. But, you know, I have more concern in the defense than the offenses ability to close out games at this point. I mean, it’s just the reality, they’re scoring plenty of points. I mean, they scored, they scored enough points. You know, I’m not saying it was their best performance. They scored enough points against Kansas City and Vegas, right? I mean, it’s not as though they were held to 10 points in those games and lost in the way that they did in the AFC Championship game last January against the chiefs. So
Nestor Aparicio 17:16
one run in 18 innings. But I wouldn’t get into that, but, right, sure, but, but you just, you know, you
Luke Jones 17:21
look at it, and you look at how, just how well this offense is playing collectively, passing the ball, throwing the ball, play action, pass protection, even when it’s not perfect. Lamar having such a good command of the pocket at this point in his career, and we saw him start doing this as he got more comfortable last year in Moncton system, and he’s just taking it to the next level this year, whether whether we’re talking pre snap, or whether we’re talking about the times, the where pressure does come, and he’s just able to get away because he’s Lamar Jackson. It’s just such a a mastery of the system and what they’re doing that, you know, it’s just very difficult. So if you’re the defense, you know, if you’re the opposition, just trying to get one stop, you know, trying to get one stop. I mean, it’s what Washington needed in the second half. If Washington gets one stop, and I don’t mean holding to a field goal, I mean getting us making the Ravens punt, you know, one time in the second half, we might be talking about a different story, right? I mean, you might have been talking about overtime in that game, for example, but when you have Derek Henry, when you have Lamar Jackson, with Derek Henry, and as I pointed out to you, I’ll continue to say, and I’ll say this to I’m blue in the face, Derrick Henry’s benefiting more from Lamar Jackson than Lamar Jackson is benefiting from Derek Henry. But it’s a good it’s still a give take. It’s still each guy making the other one better, right? And once
Nestor Aparicio 18:45
50 million ones making 10s. Oh, right, well,
Luke Jones 18:51
and that’s why Lamar makes 50 million
Nestor Aparicio 18:53
case for Derek Henry earlier in a week. And I’m never going to do that again, because you, you’re going to be like, Well, look, dude, you can talk Derek Henry, all you want, but he’s not the MVP. I
Luke Jones 19:02
mean, let’s stop he’s just not silliness to me, even he
Nestor Aparicio 19:06
would acknowledge that, right? And that’s and that’s my point. Look,
Luke Jones 19:09
let’s be clear. I mean, regardless of you know how you and I debated the move back in March, there was never a case of me doubting that Derrick Henry wasn’t going to be very successful in the system and be very helpful to the Ravens. I mean, it all, all of this, all of this from Lamar to Derek, Henry on down, is about what January, right? I mean, we’re the Ravens. Have been in this position before, and I don’t say that to be dismissive, because it’s very difficult to do what they’ve done in the regular season multiple years now, with Lamar Jackson at the helm, but everything they do is still with an eye towards January and getting over the hump, and that’s why right now. I mean, one of the biggest storylines is just their overall health. Now, they have a couple guys out this week, but it’s been reserves, right? I mean, they’ve stayed very healthy, and the goal is they’ve got to stay that way for the next two or three months, right until they get to. January, but, but when you just look at the operation that they have right now, when you have individuals beginning with Lamar, right? I mean, obviously the franchise quarterback drives the, you know, drives the the car, you know, directs the ship. How, whatever analogy you want to use. I mean, it’s all it’s about Lamar, but you throw Derek Henry into that equation. I mean, it just makes it that much more difficult. You know, John Harbaugh was asked about this last week, specifically, when you think about these late game toss plays, you know, the outside pitch that has worked out so well, especially late in games. And Harbaugh talked about it. I mean, you think about offensive coordinators, and you hear them say this all the time. I heard Greg Roman say this, you know, I can think back to Marty morning week saying this. I can think back to tresman and, you know, Jim Caldwell and Cam Cameron, and they always talk about wanting to force a defense, to defend every blade of grass, right? You know, in terms of depth, in terms of width of the field. And you have to have talent to do that. Of course, you have to have the right personnel. You have to be good enough at every position group on offense. But when you consider what they can do with their running game, when you consider what Lamar does, when you consider the play action factor, you just you’re able to stretch the defense really thin trying to defend everything the ravens are capable of doing. And then you throw fatigue in there as you get into the fourth quarter. And then you have Derek Henry speed. Then you have the fact that you have wide receivers and tight ends who blocking it above average level, regardless of where their overall skill level might be, as pass catchers, player by player, you just have an operation that’s really good, and then, oh yeah, you’ve got a 250 pound back who, in the open field, can get up to 21 miles per hour, which is freakish, in the same way we were talking about Lamar Jackson and just his inherent skills that are just so unique at the quarterback position that you just have teams that you just kind of wear them down, wear them down, wear them down. Keep scoring on them, keep driving, keep moving the ball, frustrating the heck out of them, because even their offense, because the Ravens defense, hasn’t been very good, is capable of scoring. But it’s just like, can we get them the ball back? Can we can we flip the score here late in the game, and, you know, early in the season, that happened against the Raiders, but since then, it hasn’t really happen. I guess Dallas, you know, fourth quarter scares in that game. But, you know, you just look at how this has played out, then you throw the toss player to Derek Henry, and late in the game when, yeah, guys are a little tired, and all those factors I just mentioned still apply, and then boom, you know, you just rip their heart out. You know, we also
Nestor Aparicio 22:39
have three tight ends and Pat Ricard, yeah, short situation said, make them punt. They’ll go for it on fourth and four from the 40. They’re on 40 with eight minutes left to go in the game, especially if they have a lead and they feel like they could bury you with a you know, it the defense. I like the team better when the defense was good, right? I mean, like to your point, the fact that we’re sitting here seven weeks in and saying we better score 38 because they might score 34 Boy, that’s Peyton Manning Colt’s era, right? That’s that’s living on the edge. For me, that’s would have been unacceptable in the Ray Lewis, Rex, Ryan Marvin Lewis, you know that whole school of ravens defense, but that’s where we are seven, eight weeks into this, and we’ll get to the secondary and the ball going over the head, and where the pass rush is and how they’re missing clowny and, you know, and how good Vannoy can be, and some of these players, Matt abiki, is being paid to be good. Travis Jones has been very good. They’ve had good players on defense, but to me, this offensive thing where they have all these fat guys, they can get in there and block the hell out of you and get the running game going later with the sleight of hand and road Great. I’m talking about chewing up six, eight minutes on drives which they I don’t think they look to do that if they feel more quick strike. It feels like they work better in two minute or four minute. You know, when they put that pressure on you and can personnel you a little bit and wind you spread to your point late in the game in Tampa. Um, but they have unique personnel, not just Lamar mean ricards, but a couple Time Pro Bowl, even though they wear those whatever the Pro Bowl means, or whatever. But he’s kind of a special, weird factor player that’s different than Kyle used check who I saw diving around against the the chief still all these years later, but they can really beat you up late in the game by bringing in fresher personnel. I and I think that that’s something that as it gets colder and later, and especially when they’re playing the B teams, you know, being up 33 to 14, and finding out who our backup quarterback is, and Voorhees and getting Ronnie Stanley off to get some guys off the field. I like when you said last year, the Orioles need to blow more teams out. I want to see a little bit of that over the I don’t think it starts here, but I think it what you’re talking about with specialized. Personnel and being able to get the ball to Derrick Henry in space, where guys have to shed a block and the blockers Pat Ricard and still pull down Derrick Henry while he’s dragging your safety, that’s, that’s when, that’s when it gets real, and they start to look like something that’s going to do something in January instead of just being there.
Luke Jones 25:20
Yeah, yeah. I mean, and look, I mean these again. I don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves, because they’ve done these things. And, you know, part of the Derek Henry thing, and I’ve continued to go back and look at the numbers. And I mentioned to you earlier in the week that, or last week that, you know, you look at his numbers of yards before contact, per carry. He’s overwhelmingly at a career high. I mean, this is the Lamar effect, but, you know, the GUS Edwards was a really underrated back, not last year. You know, he it kind of run its course. And I think that’s a reason why the Raven said, you know, we need to upgrade from a bruiser standpoint. And obviously they did, and they did big time. And Gus Edwards, unfortunately, is on IR for the Chargers at this point in time. So I think that was a big part of it, because you look at some of what he did from a metric standpoint, even though he never was a guy that you gave the ball 25 times to, he did that so they could play bully ball. And we’ve seen them do that. And Greg, Greg Roman, leaned into that way harder than Todd monkin, as Todd Monken wants to be a diverse offense, as I’ve said to you, to me, one of the more overrated talking points in football for an offense is needing to have an offensive identity. Because to me, you have to be careful with that, that you’re not so rigid that you become easy to stop. Then right? If you have tendencies, if you have this ironclad identity, then teams can stop you. I mean, what makes the Ravens so difficult to defend, beginning with Lamar Jackson, but then extending beyond that, is the diversification of their personnel. I mean, they have two different, two tight end packages that they like to run. And obviously there are tweaks, and you can mix and match, and they do some of that, but when they want to go heavier, it’s Charlie Kohler and Patrick Ricard basically lining up his tight ends. And we know Ricard lines up as an inline tight end. He lines up as a fullback. He does all kinds of different things. It’s not really just a fullback, but so they’ve got those types of two tight end looks, and then you have your more pass heavy one that is Mark Andrews and Isaiah likely, right and but those guys have blocked, and you can run the ball with those guys and go look at some of the blocks those two guys have delivered this year. Look at some of the catches that Charlie Kohler has made as a number three tight end this year. So you just have such diversity in your offensive personnel. You and I haven’t even mentioned what zay flowers has done the last couple weeks, or how about the fact that Rashad Bateman has has had his best two games of the year the last two weeks. So when you got,
Nestor Aparicio 27:50
say, flowers zigging in, and you got Derrick Henry in the backfield, and you got Lamar pulling back right, and you got the offense pulling or pushing in a direction that’s false, that’s showing run, showing pass, showing whatever they’re showing, and there’s a misdirection. And say flowers is going that way, and Derek Henry’s coming toward the middle, and Lamar is moving toward the right. Lamar has got the ball, oh, and maybe Mark Andrews has broken the line and just gonna sit behind your linebackers now all of a sudden, defend it like if you could draw that up and stop the play, and stop where a middle linebacker and the four guys crashing down, and where safeties need to be, and where Aguilar is on the player, whoever the decoy wide receiver, tylen Wallace, whoever it Is, whoever’s out there, I was gonna say Perryman Bateman out there. I get Perry man and Bateman mixed up. I don’t know why. I wish I didn’t if they both caught the ball more, but they don’t throw the ball as much. But when that play happens and say flowers is coming across the back or in motion, dude, I mean, like, that’s why the NFC is one and 22 against Lamar. You always say 22 and one. That sounds more impressive when it’s one in 22 because it sounds like Bill Ripken with the bat on his head. You know, it feels like holy hell, 22 and one at any things a lot, it is. And
Luke Jones 29:22
again, to the point that you just made, even if your scheme, even if you believe in your scheme, even if you are a sound football team, even if you know your assignments, even if you have your eyes in the right place, how talented is your personnel? I mean, we’ve talked about this a lot, and you know, let’s just use the Tampa Bay just as the example, because that’s who the ravens are playing. Ravens are playing tonight. But, you know, you look at their linebackers, you know, are they good enough? I mean, LaMonte, David’s had a heck of a career, but at this stage in his career, you know? I mean, 10 years ago, okay, I’ll
Nestor Aparicio 29:55
hear that.
Luke Jones 29:55
I think those linebackers are just put in. I mean, the entire. Defense is when you’re facing a Lamar Jackson led offense, but those deep those linebackers are just put in such conflict that they’ve got to be special talents to even be able to carry out what your game plan is going to be. So
Nestor Aparicio 30:14
you can see when you put the all 22 on where their hips move and their eyes move, and that’s the game, right? And
Luke Jones 30:22
sometimes guys will play it perfectly, and they still can’t, they still just
Nestor Aparicio 30:26
see where you’re going and what you’re right, yeah, so, so,
Luke Jones 30:29
and you know, I’ll leave you with this point about any defense. And I’ve said this before, and obviously it differs a little bit every year, because the Ravens offense certainly is different now than it was five years ago. I mean, you just mentioned, you know, they don’t throw the ball a lot. That all depends, right? I mean, the last couple weeks, opposing defenses have done a lot to try to take away the run, and Lamar has thrown for over 300 yards each of the last two weeks. I mean, they’re eighth in passing yards per game at this point. Nestor, I mean, the volume is caught up to the efficiency. You know, the efficiency has been there in the past. You know, I mean going back to 2019 with Lamar leading the league in touchdown passes, even though he was like 28th and pass attempts. But you know, they are throwing the ball more in in recent weeks, because teams have seen what they’re doing with their running game. So pick your poison. But my last point, and this is where I am interested to see what Todd Bowles does defensively, because of, you know, the fact that he saw Lamar two years ago. A lot of this personnel saw him two years ago. Not, you know, if you recall, they did a good job against the Ravens in the first half, Andrews was hurt, and that second half was actually Isaiah likely’s NFL coming out party in terms of making some plays and really kind of being a big reason why they were able to win that football game. But I feel if you’re going to have any level of success against this ravens offense at some point in time, you’re going to have to take some chances, and you’re going to have to go for the big play from time to time, and you know what’s going to happen if you don’t do it, Lamar and this offense will embarrass you, but I just feel it at some point in time. If you want to force a turnover or get a sack in a big spot or confuse this offensive line that’s getting better by the week. You might need to be in a position where you have to take a chance and say, You know what? We might get beat on this play. But we also feel this might be a play that could turn this game around for us. You know, if it means getting our offense an extra possession or forcing a punt when we haven’t made them punt since the first quarter, for example, which is what happened to Washington last week. You know, I think at some point in time you have to be bold, and sometimes that’s going for a fourth down at a spot on the field where you wouldn’t expect to do it. I just think this team is so good, this offense specifically, is so good that ultimately, if you’re a defense, if you’re the opposing defense. If you’re the opponent in general, you’re going to have to take a chance at some point in time. And if it works out for you, great. If it doesn’t, it might turn a one score game into a two score game. And but you can’t be afraid about that. I mean, if you want to give yourself the best chance, I think you think you’ve got to take chances against the Ravens. And you know, to this point, it hasn’t really worked out all that well for the opposition. You know, again, we’ll see what a Todd Bowles led defense that, you know, is solid, but I think lacks the elite playmakers that I think you need to have to be able to get enough stops against this offense. And ultimately, that’s where I kind of feel that Tampa Bay is going to fall short, because I just don’t know if they have enough elite playmakers, even if their defense is relatively sound across the board, you know, if you look at it in terms of efficiency and DVOA and things like that. But again, at some point in time, you’ve got to try to take a chance to make a play, and that’s where, when teams have done that Lamar or Derek Henry or zay flowers, or Isaiah likely, or mark Andrews or Rashad Bateman, or go down the list. You know, the Ravens have just killed teams when it’s come down to that. So, you know, I expect on the flip side, you know, we haven’t spent too much time talking about the defense. I think Tampa Bay is going to move the ball. They’ve got two elite wide receivers. Baker Mayfield’s playing at a high level. Give them credit. He’s really rejuvenated his career. But, well,
Nestor Aparicio 34:27
I was going to ask you what concerns you the most about the Ravens secondary passing game. Where’s the problem for you? Um, other than, you know, personnel scheme to the exact or and we talked to EMP but from a player standpoint, the Marcus Williams situation, the depth situation. Simpson, I saw Patrick Queen running around. I mean, that kid wound up on a stretcher on a weird hit. Patrick queen was involved in it on Sunday night. Just the missing and great. I keep going back to Yeah, what made him better last year? Clowney, the past. Rush stopping the run, which they do anyway. I mean, the defense is 22 and one against the NFC too.
Luke Jones 35:11
Yeah, um, Mike McDonald probably would be near the top of that list, because I just think he’s that good and that that doesn’t mean Zach or is not going to get there. I mean, two years ago, at this time, we were talking a lot about the Ravens defense, and they had blown some fourth quarter leads, and they had had their issues in the back end of the defense. So I want to continue to remind about that. But I think Mike McDonald, but more specifically, when it comes to the players on the field, it’s been that intermediate, middle portion of the field. You know, those over routes, over the linebackers in front of the safeties have just killed them this year. And I think that’s where you look at someone like Chris Godwin, who has played from the slot primarily, I’ve came into the week leading the NFL and slot receiving yards. That’s where you really look at him. I mean, they’re tight ends. Kate Oton is not he’s solid, but he’s not special. That said the Ravens made Zach Ertz look like it was 2019 last week. You know? I mean, a guy who is in the December of his career, and they made him look good, because they haven’t been able to cover that portion of the field, so, and
Nestor Aparicio 36:14
then tackling. So, tackling, right? Yeah. I
Luke Jones 36:17
mean, I, in fairness, I feel like the tackling has, they’ve cleaned that up some from where it was, you know, week two, week three, you know, somewhere in that neighborhood.
Nestor Aparicio 36:27
But I’m speaking to the importance Monday night.
Luke Jones 36:30
Oh for this. Oh yeah, they’ve got a tackle because you’re talking about a team that’s a yak team. I mean, if you look at Baker Mayfield, regardless of the numbers and the fact that he’s played well and he’s doing a good job for them. He’s at a career low in air yards per pass attempt. He’s at, I think he’s set for career lows in pass attempts beyond 10 yards beyond 20 yards past the line of scrimmage. So it speaks to this has been a much more underneath kind of passing game, which probably is better suited for the Ravens given, you know, the way that Cincinnati threw the ball over their head, for example, but you’ve got to tackle and certainly you’ve got to be on your P’s and Q’s in terms of your assignment and not having miscommunications. And, you know, like, like I said, I felt that, and this is, you know, damning them with some faint praise. You know that they were better against Washington than they were against Cincinnati in that regard. But, I mean, they were so bad against the Bengals defensively that that was a really low bar. So they’ve got to tackle. They’ve got to they’ve got to figure out the middle, the middle, intermediate portion of the field. Those over routes have just been a problem. You know, some of it. Some of it’s roquan Smith at Trenton Simpson. Some of it’s Marcus Williams and Eddie Jackson. You know, as I mentioned, I even asked Harbaugh about it this past week. I’m curious to see if we’re going to see more ardarius Washington at one of the two high safety spots, and less of Eddie Jackson. It seemed that they went in that direction against Washington late in the game, and and our Darius Washington, if the ball comes your way, catch it this time, right? And that’s one other thing I want to mention here. They’ve given up a lot of yardage, right? They’ve given up a lot of points. We know that, right? I mean, we’ve been talking about that since week one. You know that that’s been the early season story. But think about this, they’ve also dropped. We can all think off the top of our head, our Darius Washington last week. Marlon Humphrey dropped one a few weeks back, Nate Wiggins has dropped a couple. They’ve had opportunities to get some interceptions here. And look, that’s
Nestor Aparicio 38:32
five drives that don’t happen, right? But that’s the whole point.
Luke Jones 38:35
If you’re going to be a defense, you can live with your defense not being elite in terms of passing yards allowed, and you can even give up some points. We know they stopped the run, I think Tampa Bay, despite the fact that they have a really good running game statistically, I’m at a point where I think teams are wasting their time trying to run against the Ravens in early down situations. I just I think you’re putting yourself in second and long deliberately after a while, because I just think that that’s how good they are stopping the run. But if they want to improve this defense, of course, cover better, right? I mean, that’s that’s kind of the simple no duh kind of reply. But if they can become a little more dynamic in terms of come away with a few more takeaways. You steal a possession, you give an extra possession to your offense. Boy, I would take that rather than, you know, trying to improve from 31st to, I don’t know, 24th right? I mean, at some point in time, you kind of, you are who you are, and I’m not sure this is going to be an elite pass defense by season’s end, especially if Marcus Williams doesn’t start playing better and roquan Smith doesn’t cover better. But if you can become a little more dynamic in terms of takeaways, and then I’ll also throw sacks in there, I mean, they’ve been okay, yeah, they’re pass rush. Times has been good, but it’s been very feast for famine. You know, it looks good for a quarter and a half and then it disappears, right? Jaden Daniels was a unique situation last week. They were trying to keep him in so that was deliberate, how they did it. But, man, if they could just add a little more takeaway ability to this defense, I could live with the passing yardage statistically not looking very impressive, right? If you can add a few more takeaways, that really changes things. It’s about, you know, can you become a higher variance defense? And what I mean by that is, you know, mix in some splash plays that that was one thing that Kansas City a couple years back. I mean, Kansas City’s defense has become pretty darn good period when you look at what they’re able to do, but even when they were very shaky statistically as a defense a few years back, I felt that they were a team that could be dynamic and could force a takeaway at a critical time and do a little bit more of that. I’d really like to see if the Ravens can start catching a few more of those. You know, I get it. Defensive backs aren’t wide receivers. I know people will say that, but this team punched the ball out a lot. We’re talking about catching the ball and making sure, whatever, but like punching the ball out with something, that’s another thing really well, sure, and that’s another thing you can do. I mean, that was something they did really well. You go back to what Marlon Humphrey in 2019 I think was the year. I mean, he punched out like six or seven in one year. I mean, that’s for a defensive back to do that. That’s impressive. So can they add a little more of that, while also, yeah, cleaning things up on the back end a little bit. I mean, I’ll say this much if you’re going to ask me, Would I rather have a great offense and a defense that has some issues or the other way around. I’ll take where the ravens are right now. You know, I will take the dynamic quarterback and the dynamic offense and then try to improve on defense, rather than the other way around. I mean, the Ravens lived years and years and years and years. I mean, most of their a big chunk of their history was great defense and offenses that weren’t good enough, right? I mean, going all the way back to, you know, the early, early years. So, you know, so in terms of where their makeup is right now, look, they’re four and two, and they could easily be six and, oh, we’ve talked about that, even with their defense being where it’s been. So can you improve? Can you become a little more dynamic? Can you force a couple, a few more takeaway, you know, for a few more turnovers? If you can do that, then I think this defense profiles much better as the year goes on. You know, not great, not elite, necessarily, but much better. And I’ll also point out, and this is where I’ll stick up for them a little bit after we’ve, you know, we’ve beaten them up plenty in recent weeks. And you, you talked about this, talking about getting to softer portions of the schedule. I mean, let’s, let’s call a spade a spade to this point in the year. Patrick mahomes, okay. Gardner Minshew, that will continue to look ridiculous, right? Whether this team wins the Super Bowl or whatever. I mean, losing to the Raiders still is just like a total How the heck did that happen? And it’s feel like it gets worse every week. But after that, Dak Prescott, Josh Allen, Joe burrow, Jaden Daniels, which, you know, forget, you know that kid’s not playing like a rookie, although, give Washington credit, they’re able to beat the Carolina Panthers without him, it speaks how to how bad Carolina is, and now Baker Mayfield, right? I mean, they faced a tough slate of quarterbacks here, and I’m not excusing that. Let’s be clear, this defense hasn’t played good enough, especially on the back end, but they have faced a pretty, pretty stout slate of opposing quarterbacks to this point. So next week will be different in that regard. The following week against Denver will be different in that regard. And then it’ll pick back up again with Joe burrow and I assume Russell Wilson. You know, we could talk. We can get into that in another conversation. But, you know, they have faced some some teams that with some quarterbacks playing at a high level. So, yeah, I didn’t necessarily expect them to be first in the league, you know, going up against a slate of quarterbacks like that. But that said, it hasn’t been good enough, and they know that. I mean Zach or and this defense, they’ll, they’ll be the first ones to tell you it needs to be better. So we’ll see how it plays out tonight. But certainly the great point of emphasis this week, keep things in front of you. It’s a team that likes to throw underneath, keep it in front of you, and then run to the football right, rally to the football and get the first guy. Gets them down. If you do that, then I think, you know, I think this team will win. I mean, I’m picking the ravens to win. You can check out my 12 ravens thoughts at Baltimore positive.com I still think that Lamar and Derek Henry and this offense is going to be too much for Tampa Bay to handle. But on the flip side, you’ve got to make tackles. You’ve got to hold them to three if you do that, if you can do that, at least a few. Times right over the course of 60 minutes. I certainly like their chances, because the way this offense is operating right now, you’ve got to be a really, really, really impressive defense to think that you’re going to hold this team down, because they’re just too many guys that can hurt you, and you’ve got an MVP quarterback that’s again, playing at an MVP level. I
Nestor Aparicio 45:22
think I’m gonna miss the Chargers Cardinals game tonight. I mean, do I have ESPN plus Luke? Do I? Do I not or, I mean, I Yeah, no. I mean, it is.
Luke Jones 45:30
It’s such an interesting dynamic. Because, I mean, nothing against those teams. And look, the Chargers actually have looked decent. You know, they look pretty good. I mean, their defense is played at a high level, but it’s two hardballs. You got your choice tonight, who’s watching that game other than, other than Cardinals and chargers fans? Because it’s Lamar, right? It’s Derek, Henry. I mean, even Tampa Bay. I mean Baker. Baker’s still on commercials. I mean, Baker still has
Nestor Aparicio 45:56
Hang on, is it Flacco and every doing the thing tonight?
Luke Jones 45:59
The man and cast, that’s correct, yeah, dude, I
Nestor Aparicio 46:02
can’t miss that. I mean, nope, no offense. Joe Bucha Troy, love you. Slam a lama. Flacco is what I’m going to say. Luke Jones is here. I am. Nestor, we are W n s t, game time tonight. Full Coverage follow all of our work out of Baltimore. Positive, we’re back for more on W, N, S, T, AM, 1570 we never stopped talking. Baltimore, positive you.
