The bye week drama with Diontae Johnson. The misses and head of Justin Tucker. And three games coming in 11 days coming for the Baltimore Ravens, who headed to Exit 16W on the New Jersey Turnpike this Sunday as prohibitive favorites. Luke Jones and Nestor reset the Ravens’ bye week and prepare for a perilous holiday with Steelers and Texans waiting to determine their January destiny.
Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Ravens’ bye week, their upcoming game against the Giants, and the team’s playoff prospects. The Ravens, currently 8-5, need to win out to have a chance at the division title. They highlighted the Deontay Johnson situation, questioning his impact and future with the team. The Ravens are favored by 15 points against the Giants, who are struggling. The conversation also touched on the league’s parity, with many teams having subpar records. The Ravens’ health and potential to perform well in January were emphasized, with a focus on the importance of the upcoming games.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Ravens bye week, Deontay Johnson, AFC playoffs, Lamar Jackson, offensive line, Giants game, Pittsburgh matchup, division title, injury concerns, team chemistry, playoff scenarios, Ravens schedule, team health, Ravens roster, football predictions
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Luke Jones
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T AM, 1570 tassel, Baltimore and Baltimore, positive it is, uh, the buy is over, bye, bye, bye. I sat around all weekend watch football and hung out with our friends from ravens roost, 50, which I allegedly helped found. 25 years ago, they were telling me memories of things I did, good things, not the bad things. I remember every bad thing I did, it’s the good things that I did. Sometimes I forget. We were over in Kearney the other night, and, you know, I knew I was in trouble on my way in, and Joe slifka was on his way out from the the old barn owner. He’s like, You better get in there. They’re waiting for you. I thought he was like, making they were waiting, and we were dancing and we were eating, and they were great. Cupcakes. So big thanks. Big appreciations to all Ravens fans who listen old school ravens folks, Roos folks, participate in Ocean City so many times. And if you want me to come out and give you some books, you know, throw me an email nest at Baltimore positive com. We’re going to be throwing crab cakes around only once. This week, we’re going to be faith leaves on Wednesday. Beginning next week, we’re going to have a deuce. On Tuesday, we’re going to be Adam beaches. I’m going to be hard pressed to get a crab cake at a me cheese, but I’m going to get to Pawnee rotundo, and I’m going to introduce the world to my favorite meatballs. And then on Wednesday, we’re going to be Acosta’s. I’ll have two crab cakes. I have the crab Imperial on Costas. It cost us on Wednesday that’s the 18th will be over there, or 17th will be your. 18th will be over there. 17th to meet you. 18th. It cost us. It’s a mouthful, my friends at Jiffy Lube, multi care power Luke up getting back and forth to Owings Mills in what should be a normal week this week, Luke, I guess, to say normal, they’re gonna go to New York. They’re gonna play football game against a really bad team, and then, like, the clock’s gonna start ticking on them for those two games. And we watched everybody else in the league play this weekend, and the bye came late. And then there was the Deontay Johnson incident that was so last week. But it was quite a weekend on the couch to watch the Chiefs sort of squirm around with the Chargers a little bit, watching injuries happen in various cases, and watching teams try to prove where they are in the cosmos here as we get into the middle of December. Yeah,
Luke Jones 02:13
and not really a whole lot of help for the Ravens. The Chargers lost, right? So that helps in terms of the Ravens moving up to the number five spot, the top wild card spot in the AFC, but you get a chance to survey, you get a chance to look around the league, and you’re reminded what we always say. One, it’s a week to week League. Two, every team has its issues, right? I mean, even the best of the best. I mean, maybe Detroit would be the one team, but, but even the lions. They’re ravaged with injuries on the defensive side of the football, despite the fact that they keep winning Kansas City, who is 12 and one?
Nestor Aparicio 02:48
Well, the best team vulnerable. The bills were losing by three touchdowns at halftime.
Luke Jones 02:52
Right, right. So I think that’s where you look at it and you and that’s not to say, Oh well, the ravens are the best or oh that, while the ravens are completely fine. No, that’s not what we’re saying here, but it’s a reminder that there’s still four weeks to go. There’s still a lot of sorting out needing to be done. The Ravens, despite all the disappointment of having lost two of three to going into the bye week at eight and five and really being behind the eight ball two games behind Pittsburgh, knowing that when they play the Steelers a week from this coming Saturday, that the division is going to be on the line, right? I mean, it’s that they have to win or the division shot at that point. But it’s a reminder that all these teams have imperfections. So when you look at the ravens and you say, Okay, well, I don’t like this, or I don’t like that, every team has those discussions, every fan base, every media, every coaching staff, every team has those discussions in terms of what needs to get better, what needs to improve. And you alluded to it with this Deontay Johnson suspension. That’s just been bizarre. I’m still skeptical how much we’re going to see this guy on this football team. You know, beyond the suspension this week at some point in time you’re talking about, is the juice worth the squeeze? I mean, there hasn’t been any juice to this point in time. So,
Nestor Aparicio 04:13
you know, you have that. Brian Billick would always say, those who can’t are no better than those who won’t. And you know what I mean? Like, yeah, if he refused to go into that when let’s not, let’s talk about it for two minutes, even though there’s two more minutes that he’s played, and
Luke Jones 04:27
it’s news at this point. But yeah, sure.
Nestor Aparicio 04:29
I mean, I would just say in any season. I mean, I wrote two books, I gave him out to the roost people. They had happy endings. I mean, they were perfect seasons. There was nothing perfect about either one of those Super Bowl championships, right? Like, the whole story is how everything went wrong and they still managed to win. Or, you know, the perception was that there were a lot of challenges, you know, in order for them to win in this particular year, the Marcus Williams thing, which we’ve given a lot of oxygen to the offensive line, which at various points. Was teetering on being a plus and not a minus, you know, for at various points, the Derrick Henry storyline, all the story lines, the wide receiver part of this is it felt like, when they picked him up, that wasn’t, wasn’t a need. It felt like all they said about Bateman getting better, felt like it could get there. Zay flowers makes commercials. He’s going to the Hall of something, right? Andrew still here. Likely they had receivers Aguilar. They liked him enough to bring him back. They like him enough to put him on the field 1215, weeks into this, and they like him enough to throw him the ball, right? So it really was always a little bit of a weird thing. And he they got it for a bag of donuts and but bringing in trauma, bringing in drama, bringing in any that that’s unusual. And that being said, when you were like, It’s bizarre. I’m like, it must involve a National Football League wide receiver. Yeah,
Luke Jones 05:54
I mean, and let’s be clear, this isn’t something that I have grave concerns about. I think if Deontay Johnson, if there’s a whiff of anything else, I think at that point, you suspend them again, you deactivate them, you send them home, you release them however you want to handle it. Jackson’s gone, right, sure, Exactly So, but, but all that being said, the exact scenario that played out against Philadelphia, is why you brought Deontay Johnson in, right? I mean, it was a case where Rashad Bateman leaves the game midway through the third quarter, knees bothering him a little bit. And he’s someone who, despite his reputation, has a pro bowl season under his belt. Has a what, 1100 yards, 100 catches, I think, back in 21 with Pittsburgh. I mean, this guy is a productive player, and even was productive for Carolina from a statistical standpoint earlier this year. You’ve been
Nestor Aparicio 06:48
here five weeks, and you brought him up a lot, because every Monday morning you’re like, he’s like, a real wide receiver. They brought him. He’s a real guy, like you feel that way about him. And clearly they felt some plus way about him, to be motivated to deal, for him, sure,
Luke Jones 07:03
exactly, exactly. So I, for me, it’s not that he can’t play, but everything you just laid out, and we’ve talked about this. We were talking about this before. Deontay Johnson came on the radar in saying there’s one football when you have a running back like Derrick Henry, a backup running back like Justice Hill. I mean, we haven’t talked about Keaton Mitchell hasn’t even even been able to get on the field. And look, a big part of that is working his way back to pre injury form. He’s healthy enough to play, but not healthy to the point that he’s pre injury, you know, no no scar tissue, anything like that. So you have that running game. You have Lamar Jackson, who takes off and run still, even if he doesn’t do it as much as he used to, and you and you have the pass catching targets that you mentioned. So all along, it felt curious, from the standpoint of, how involved Is he really going to be in this offense, unless something happens to zay flowers, unless something happens to Rashad Bateman, so from that standpoint, and we took some pause with this, and I remember writing about this the day that they acquired him, from the standpoint of remembering Pittsburgh trade him, traded him away at a time where they weren’t exactly enjoying an embarrassment of riches in skill talent they gave, you know, they didn’t give them away. I mean, it was a legit trade that they made with Carolina. They got a $17 million a year player, right? I mean, that that kind, yeah, sure. But you look at that, you look at the fact that Carolina, six weeks into this thing, despite the fact that the Panthers are the Panthers right now. They dealt him away, knowing that if they just let him walk, and he got any kind of a decent deal in free agency, he’d get a fetch them, a compensatory pick, and they wanted to get rid of them. So some of this is
Nestor Aparicio 08:56
they didn’t want him in the building, clearly, right? Like, yeah, from thought he’s going to make us worse. There are definitely guys that when you’re losing you don’t you don’t need losers. You got enough losing going around. You don’t need losers. So, like, part of that is like, Hey, dude, out and look, man, you and I could do a fun shtick right now, taking phone calls at 410-481-1570, about who was the biggest douche wide receiver in the history of histories, you know, beginning with name anyone? Michael Irvin, I don’t know. I mean, I before him. I’m sure there were guys that were Rod Tidwell, for crying out loud. He’s fictitious, you know what? I mean. So I’m just but from Antonio Brown straight on through pick any of these guys that Terrell Owens, I mean, maybe the greatest wide receiver ever I saw, Randy Moss, has some physical challenges right now, and wish him well. He was kind to me the two times I’ve met him in life. But also another guy that was sort of like March to his own beat, and that’s a wide receiver. Thing, and as much trouble as they put into all these guys giving them the PP test and the psychological test and the Rorschach test, and sit and talk to me and we’re going to get to know everybody in Indianapolis, the fact that they would bring a guy in the can’t get along in the middle of a season when they already had wide receivers, I just find that to be curious. I mean, I find that to be like sort of the last thing Eric and John. The reason they threw me out is they don’t want drama around there. And I ask questions about things like this.
Luke Jones 10:30
Well, I think I understood it on paper, but there was the factor of the background and also, and this is where I empathize to a degree, not to the point where I accept someone saying, Hey, I’m not going into the game. He’s in a contract here, right? So he’s already, he already was dealt in March, goes to a team that had a very problematic quarterback situation at the time, despite the fact that Bryce Young is playing much better for the Panthers, who gave the Eagles everything they could handle on Sunday, but he’s in a contract here, so there’s a business element to this. When you come in for a new team middle of the season, trying to get up to speed, knowing they already have some talent, knowing they’re not necessarily looking to chuck the ball 40 times to the wide receivers at the very least, right? I mean, I think we can all agree on that, even if you and I have to call Willie
Nestor Aparicio 11:25
Sneed in the beginning and said, dude, yeah, not gonna get the ball there much even Exactly. Isn’t getting the ball as much as he would in another offense, sure, exactly. But
Luke Jones 11:33
guys are, are okay with that, typically when they’re winning. But, and this is where I kind of laugh, because I go back to just a few weeks ago when Mike Tomlin was asked about Deontay Johnson, and part of his exact quote was, they’ve got more significant pieces with larger roles that occupy my attention. I mean, Mike Tomlin was basically trolling Deontay Johnson a few few weeks ago in terms of, like, why are you guys asking me about him? He’s a non factor for them right now. Now, all of that being said, if this was his proverbial see the light moment in terms of knowing, hey, suspended against the Giants, it’s the worst team left on the schedule. This might have been a game where I might have gotten some opportunities coming out of the bye week. Todd monkin and the coaching staff aren’t naive enough to think, hey, there’s probably some ways that we can work Deontay Johnson into this thing. Let’s think about this. Let’s brainstorm this. Let’s go into the lab during the bye week and figure that out. No, the story on him was he refused to go into the game on Sunday, to the point where they either were going to release him, which I think was absolutely on the table if you heard John Harbaugh’s answers to our questions last Monday, or they end up suspending them for one game, which that’s what they ultimately did. So instead of Todd monkin and the coaching staff having the mindset of, how do we you know, let’s utilize this guy a little bit. It’s been tough for him. It’s been tough for us. Things have been going well that we didn’t want to rock the boat too much and try to force him into the the equation, but instead, it’s been way more well, this guy’s a problem. This guy’s a distraction. This guy wouldn’t go in when we needed him. You know,
Nestor Aparicio 13:12
that’s insane, dude. I mean, like he’s still on the team, and it hardballs, right? That he still have the codes to the building to get in, is amazing to me. I don’t know, even though, what that speaks to other than maybe they feel a little bit desperate keeping them around like I don’t know what their upside is with a guy that I’m sure that Mike Tomlin, when that question was asked three weeks ago, and I haven’t spoken to Mike since, you saw me speak to Mike back in March, but I know Mike pretty well. I know Mike better than I know John. Like in a in what he would really say to me, because Mike said it to me 100 times. I would see where Mike would say, that’s a benefit to me, that that Deontay Thompson’s with the ravens, because he’s going to go in there and be a pain in the ass. And I could see Mike saying, and I can also see the Ravens saying Mike Tomlin didn’t want him last year. He couldn’t make hay with the Panthers. We’re not going to get him the ball. He might not be the right guy for our building in Halloween Well,
Luke Jones 14:12
and that’s why they didn’t give up anything real for him, right? I mean, you’re not going to give up a third or a fourth round pick. This ended up being a fifth round pick for him in a sixth round pick, right? So dude, I remember the
Nestor Aparicio 14:25
hour long conversation I had with Brian Billick at my condo in 2003 wandering amongst all these boxes when I just moved in, because nothing was put down. I just remember walking around and having Billick say, we have Ray, we have Ed, we’re going to absorb Terrell Owens, he kept saying, we’re going to absorb, absorb. And I’m thinking to myself, they all think they can coach him up, because they see what you see, which is, Hey, Coach a wide receiver. And we’ve tried for years to get a real one here, he’s a real one, if you can just coach him up and and every time I see Ed Reed doing a commercial, I have to chuck a little bit, because Ed was. Has a handful to manage, Hall of Fame, talent, Hall of Fame, everything, but no coach ever, ever saw the plane with Ed Reed as a player, and we think of him now, gray hair, Venerable, agreeable, having a drink, having a smoke, whatever I’m you know, like it is amazing how time treats players who can play Randy Moss being another one who was, you know, an incredible player, Terrell Owens, but they all think that they can fix and heal young men, yeah, of talent they do. Errol Thomas being, I’ll just leave you the floor with that.
Luke Jones 15:39
Yeah. And obviously that’s a name that at least mentioned in passing, at the very least. But $55 million that’s what the different, right? But, but the difference with Ed Reed, to your point, he posted up on Sundays. You You knew for as much as there might be times where it’s not in the best mood, hoods up, leave them alone. He’s going to be there on Sunday. So when that happens with Deontay Johnson, or any player, you know, I’m not, not trying to single him out to me. It’s just the act of saying I’m not going into the football game. And we haven’t heard his side of the story, but I think it’s pretty evident and and I can tell you from the very first I want to say the first or second game he played with the Ravens when he wasn’t heavily involved, there was evidence in the locker room that he wasn’t thrilled, right? And let me be clear, I’m not trying to sensationalize this, not throwing things or having a tirade or anything like that, but you could kind of tell that he was disappointed. I’ll leave it at that. So look, I think this is very simple.
Nestor Aparicio 16:41
All these guys that are Rod Tidwell, he’s getting on a plane coming to Baltimore. There’s seven and two at the time, wherever they were. And, you know, like, and he’s thinking he’s gonna get eight balls a week. I mean, wait, I don’t know what you You probably thought he was gonna get two or three at least. And he has a game with Todd Rod Tidwell, and they made movies about that, right? So at the
Luke Jones 17:01
same time, but again, that’s where I empathize to a point, to a point I’m emphasizing that I I am empathetic, knowing that it’s a contract year, and this is costing him money, but at the end of the day, he’s costing himself money much more so by conducting himself in this way. So look, we’re going to see how this plays out. I’m still not convinced we’re going to see this guy. Gonna see this guy play another game for the Ravens. We’ll see more
Nestor Aparicio 17:26
minutes on him than his whole career here is worth. Yeah, exactly. I
Luke Jones 17:29
mean, we’ve already spent six times the amount of time in minutes. My curiosity
Nestor Aparicio 17:33
is just in the Ravens inviting this in when they have the wisdom that they have, that’s That’s all because I get to them as being real smart guys, right,
Luke Jones 17:40
but you just said it. I mean, even, even 20 years ago, they thought the same thing when Terrell Owens, who was a much better, much, much, much better player than Deontay Johnson at the time, but the cost and all of that was much higher.
Nestor Aparicio 17:55
Tom Brady laid out to have Antonio Brown be his roommate when he was a billionaire broke up his marriage to try to win a Super Bowl,
Luke Jones 18:03
and Antonio Brown still, and Antonio Brown, to this day, still talks back about him. So it’s, yeah, I mean, it’s just, look, you just maybe it’s just a Pittsburgh thing. I mean, Tomlin, at this point, he’s still, he’s handling George Pickens right now, who’s a tremendous talent, but you can see needs to grow up. And Mike Tomlin has said that publicly as recently as what last Sunday, he still needs, he needs to grow up. So all these young
Nestor Aparicio 18:27
men have a maturity problem. You know, they all the eggs aren’t broken the same way. I should do my whole Tomlin, that’d be funny. But my, but my, my big takeaway is, next week we play them next week.
Luke Jones 18:37
My big takeaway from this is, I hope prasha Bateman’s knees all right after the buy, right? I mean, I think because you can’t count on this guy, that skill set would be nice if his head was on right, and if he was in a kind of place where he could check the ego and realize, hey, this is what it is, I can still make a big play or two at some point in time and help this team win, especially if zay flowers or Bateman aren’t on the field for whatever reason. But I think that scenario is far less likely than this guy maybe hangs around another week or two, or maybe not, maybe, maybe at the end of the suspension, he still doesn’t want to be here, and the Raven say, All right, this is it. This is over. Go home, you know. So, so we’ll see. We’ll see how it plays out. But I don’t want to make too much of it. I
Nestor Aparicio 19:26
just don’t think it’s crap John needs during bye week. Quite frankly, not just, not just John, but think about your teammates.
Luke Jones 19:33
I mean, put the coaches aside, right? Players are get ticked off at coaches, even the best players, even the best coaches. There are times where you’re ticked off at your coach for for you to look at your teammate, and he doesn’t want to go into the game. I mean, how does he step back into that locker room and look his teammates? And Ray Lewis wouldn’t like that. Roquan, right? Exactly, Lamar Jackson doesn’t like that. Lamar Jackson wants to win, right? I mean, Lamar was trying to. Make peace about it after the game, when he was asked about Deontay Johnson, before we knew exactly what happened, when it was just, hey, why didn’t he play? You know, Lamar was trying to kind of pacify the situation a little bit. But, you know, those guys were ticked. You know, those guys were thinking, how could we trust him? So it’s gonna be interesting, right? I mean, this week he suspended, and then we’ll see what happens after that. You know, I It’s hard to say it’s consequential from a football standpoint, because he’s barely played,
Nestor Aparicio 20:26
right? Yeah, in other news, they’re eight and five, and they just lost, and they’re playing a crappy team, and they’re, you know, just in a general sense, to bring it full circle, because we haven’t talked in a week, just, they’re in a little bit of a pickly situation right now. And to your point, watching the league, it’s week to week. It’s how’s your quarterback doing? The bills don’t travel well. You know they’re going to get that when they go out to LA and don’t play well, like that. So the teams that are in your way and the teams you’re going to have to beat, I still look at Kansas City, I look at Buffalo and say, Alright, 60 minutes in Kansas City. It’s 38 degrees, it’s January 15. You have to go there because you beat Houston, and you know you won a game. How are you going to get there? And I know you’re full, and so is John Harbaugh and everybody in the organization on how do we run the table here and take our chances to still win the division? Because that’s still the best pathway for this thing. It is. But
Luke Jones 21:19
at the same time you’re two back. I mean, you obviously must win over Pittsburgh, or it’s over in a couple weeks, but you’re going to have to look for them to lose a couple more games beyond that. I mean, that’s what we’re talking about here. Even if you beat Pittsburgh, they’re still, you know, they’ve got to lose again. And you look at, okay, what’s the division record and all that. So there’s work to do here. I mean, and the Ravens have to win out, right? I mean, for the division. I mean, they can’t afford to lose another football game. So it’s not impossible. When you look at the schedule, I mean, at the Giants. I mean, boy, you want to talk about a lousy football team, the New York Giants might be the worst of the worst, but got to go handle your business. Then Pittsburgh. And to your point, you’ve got this stretch of three games in 11 days, weird week, you know, Saturday game, Wednesday game. You know, better than anyone, these guys are creatures of habit. Sunday, 111, o’clock is not what the ravens are going to be dealing with the rest of the way. I mean that other than this, Sunday, they might not play another one because it’s TBD as far as week 18, and playing Cleveland, when they’re going to play them. So it’s just, it’s strange in that regard, but at the same time, from a talent level standpoint, you know, all these games, I mean, even Pittsburgh, they’re playing at home. They’re playing in Baltimore. You know, they they should be favored in these games. They should win these games, but are you going to win all four? It’s it’s time to be consistent. It’s time to get on a roll. It’s time to you think
Nestor Aparicio 22:45
going to Houston on Christmas nights. I mean, that’s really I’m
Luke Jones 22:49
not saying it’s an easy thing, but I put it this way, I would expect the ravens to be favored in that game back down there. I’m not saying they’re favored by eight. I’m not saying they’re favored by eight or anything crazy, but they’re favored in that game. I mean, Houston’s been very inconsistent, right? I mean, they’re, they’re leading that division because, well, that division stinks, right? And I think Houston still has the makings of a pretty good team, but they haven’t been consistent. They’ve had their issues, and they’ve had some injuries, and CJ Stroud for as much as even guys like me, because I was so impressed with how he played last year. Year two has been a little more. It’s been underwhelming for him, you know, relative to what we saw his rookie year. But hey, it’s a four week regular season. If you’re the ravens, you’re coming out of this bye week knowing that, hey, we’re preparing to play eight more games. You know, that’s the goal right now. That’s the objective, to play eight more games. You know, if they do that, they’re playing in New Orleans two, two months from now. So long way to go to get to that point. But I think one other factor, and I touched on this a little bit with the Deontay Johnson thing, but I wrote about this late last week, late by it’s tough getting to that point, but it can be an advantage, advantage to be fresher for the stretch run that you just had a week off, compared to some of these teams who had their buy back in week five, week six, week seven. So there’s that factor, and the other factor that we’ve talked about a lot, and they’re healthy. They’re pretty darn healthy relative to what you could deal with, what they have dealt with in the healthiest season they’ve
Nestor Aparicio 24:21
ever had forever, like, I remember games started versus games lost, like what they dealt with back in 15 what they dealt with three years ago, when they did, you know, when Lamar got hurt and everybody else was a mass treat, two years ago, I guess At this point, three seasons ago. But yeah, I I watching the rest of the teams. There’s nobody that’s pulling away. I mean, there, there are a cluster of eight to 10 teams who have a similar amount of talent, which is the way the football Gods draw this up with money. And we’ll get to Juan Soto later, and the Orioles and all that. I. Um, but it’s meant to be balanced, and by and large, it winds up being. I mean, Kansas City has questions, Buffalo has questions, Pittsburgh has questions. And, you know, the Ravens will be on the calendar in January. If the ravens are coming to town, plenty of people are going to like the Ravens on the road with the opportunity to run the football in the cold, because they were built to do it. They’re built to win in January. They really are well
Luke Jones 25:25
and I mean, the big question is their offensive line. It’s that simple. I mean, the defense will still talk about that, because they have to keep doing it every week. And you have a relapse, and you give up a 350 yard passing day, then everyone will start talking about it again. But the defense has trended in the right direction. The the offense hasn’t been as great over the last three weeks. Or, you know, they’ve gone up against tougher competition. We’ve talked about it with the O line, but by and large, the offense has been right there with Detroit as the best in football. And, you know, throw Cincinnati in there if you want to. I
Nestor Aparicio 25:57
guess you had Aaron shots on three weeks ago talking about it being a top 10 all time off
Luke Jones 26:02
and look, I mean, I’ll be perfectly honest, five sucks, but it hadn’t been a bad year, right, right? And that’s where I kind of look at, look at it through the lens of like, look, the potential is still there. But at the same time, I’m tired of talking about that. I really am. I think the fans are, and I don’t mean that in a sense of that it’s not a good team, or it’s not entertaining, or anything like that. It’s just we’re beyond that, right? I don’t care if Lamar Jackson’s the MVP of the league again. I don’t care if the Ravens have 10 guys go to the Pro Bowl, right? Do it in do this in January. You’ve been talking about it. People have been waiting for it. You’re not going to be the number one seed this year. I’ve said to you, how many times tongue in cheek, but also partly serious as well, about maybe that, maybe the year that this team breaks through is the year that no one’s expecting them to break through, right? And this might be the year right. They’re eight and five. Eight and five is nothing special. But to your point, talking to Aaron shots, or looking at DVOA or looking at EPA, advanced metrics tell you this is a really good football team. Okay, that’s well and good. Go do it then, right. Go do it. Kansas City. I get it. They’re 12 and one. This isn’t the most dominant version of the chiefs. That doesn’t mean the Chiefs aren’t going to be there in the end. Let’s be clear about that. Let’s learn our lesson from a year ago when it doesn’t
Nestor Aparicio 27:15
mean they’re not vulnerable. You can’t go in there exactly and play great football same way. You know, buffalo,
Luke Jones 27:21
buffalo, everyone was crowning them as the best in the AFC. And let me be clear, I don’t know if you had a how much you had a chance to watch the buffalo rams game. What a great football game. I mean, that was, that was high level quarterback play from Josh Allen and Matthew Stafford in that game. But you see buffalo, their defense certainly not invincible by any stretch of the imagination. Pittsburgh, okay, they handle their business against the browns. If you watch Pittsburgh over the course of 60 minutes, there’s still a lot that happens in a game where you say wasn’t very good, that’s not very impressive. So the point is, with all of this, there is no juggernaut. The closest thing to a juggernaut, I guess, is Detroit, I guess, you know, I mean, they’ve been really good. I think they’re the class of the NFC. And you know, Philly, there’s all, you know, some whispers and some disenchantment about their passing game coming out of their close win against Carolina. But that’s the other side of the bracket. You know. Focus on the AFC. The ravens are right there, right they’re going to be right there playing on the road, most likely the way this is playing out. But hey, to your point, run game and ascending defense, let’s call it, you know, I’m not ready to say it’s a great defense yet, but it’s ascending. It’s getting better. And you have Lamar Jackson, who I’ll still take going up against anyone not named Patrick mahomes. But even through that lens, you know, Kansas City is not invincible, right? And buffalo saying the same thing with Josh Allen, and every other team that has a quarterback that they fancy is great. You know, you’ve got to topple mahomes. But in terms of this year, 2024 lamars played as well, if not better than any quarterback in football. So, you know, it’s, it’s right there, you got to go do it. And they’re healthy. They’ve had a late buy. So they, hypothetically, they, they should be fresher than other teams coming out of this. So we’ll see. You know, I don’t think there’s anything we’re going to be able to glean from the trip up to the Meadowlands against the Giants. I mean, it’s, I wonder
Nestor Aparicio 29:21
if they’re better, 13 point favorite, they would open as a 15 point favor. Ravens are a 15 point favorite. I mean, and the over unders 43 and a half, that’s so they’re not expecting the giants to get nine. That’s such
Luke Jones 29:36
a big line. I mean, it is. And I’m not, you know me, I’m not. I
Nestor Aparicio 29:39
look down and I’m like, It’s 15. What I would have said? I
Luke Jones 29:44
probably, I did think I was gonna say 12 or 13. Yeah. I mean, that’s, that’s a little on the high side. But again, have you watched the job? I mean, even, even on Sunday, they ended up having a chance at the end of the game, and then
Nestor Aparicio 29:57
this big LIVE IN FOR NEW. Orlands
Luke Jones 30:00
hops over the line and blocks the field goal. I mean, it was just, it was incredible. I was actually joking with one of my good buddies from high school, who’s a long time New York you know, he’s a jersey guy originally, before he moved to to this area, but I joked with him. I said the Giants fans should storm the field and carry that guy off the field to preserve their chance at having the top pick to
Nestor Aparicio 30:21
That’s what I said to Jen when it went down. Was Graham Cano got the kick block, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And he’s been hurt most a year, but yeah, I saw Brian table and like, like, what, you know, you got to be kidding me, you know? Like, yeah, yeah. So, and again,
Luke Jones 30:37
I’m glad you mentioned, you know, we brought this up because obviously that’s it’s also a reminder of when you hear fans, and every fan base does this, I’m not picking on Ravens fans, but when you hear fans bellyache about some losses or a stretch of time where your team’s not playing as well, when you do have the bye week and you have a chance to put your feet up, you do see that there are some really, really, really lousy football teams around. And you say, all right, things aren’t so bad here, right? Every day, you know, Deontay Johnson’s a
Nestor Aparicio 31:08
Steve Kornacki put the AFC up, you know. And he’s doing his whole thing on Sunday football. I said to my wife, two and nine, two and nine, two. And I My God, Jesus, awful teams in the AFC. Oh, all of them, flutch them all down to toilet, all of them.
Luke Jones 31:23
I mean, it’s crazy. Think about the terms that we in which we’ve talked about the Bengals, and the Bengals are still, I think they’re 10th in the AFC right now, and they’re they clear the next team by, I think, a game and a half. I mean, that’s what we’re talking about here. So there’s a there are the haves that we’ve talked about, and there are quite a few have nots. When you talk about Cleveland, Raiders,
Nestor Aparicio 31:45
Titans, jaguars, browns, patriots, jets, yeah. I
Luke Jones 31:51
mean, you’re talking about a bunch of three and 10 teams right there, uh, evens lost the two of them. They did, and that’s, that’s what makes this year frustrating. But the league’s crazy. It is, right? It’s crazy. I mean, we’ve see it. We Carolina look at how they’re playing of late, albeit close losses. But in the last three weeks, they almost beat Kansas City and they almost beat Philadelphia, who are two teams that are regarded as two of the best four or five in football right now. So it’s the NFL, right? I mean, I hate to be cliche, but it, it’s not a cliche if there isn’t, you know if there’s truth to it and there’s truth to it. So you can just, you can only control what happens from this point forward. So if you’re the ravens, go up to New York and take care of a awful, awful giants team. And then after that, it’s here we go. And included in that is, don’t sleep on the on the browns in week 18, right? Don’t let, don’t let what happened with the raiders and the Browns the first time around. Don’t let that happen again. Because week 18, the last thing you want is to go on a roll and and have a chance. And Pittsburgh’s dropped a couple games, and then suddenly you’re in a dogfight. You know, no pun intended.
Nestor Aparicio 33:03
You wake up in Buffalo on January. So, you know, look long way,
Luke Jones 33:07
long way to go. But, and the Deontay Johnson thing’s weird, certainly not what you want. But I’m also not going to be an alarmist about it. You know, it to me again, if he’s going to have any any further with or inkling of trouble gone. I mean, gone. No questions asked. I don’t care that much. Again,
Nestor Aparicio 33:27
look at John Harbaugh on Monday and apologize for not going into the game. I don’t even, I don’t know how he stays in the building. I really, and
Luke Jones 33:33
that’s why I still don’t know if it’s, this is as cut and dried as one game suspension, and then he’s back in the building. So we’re going to see. We’ll find that out starting early next week, right? So at that point, whatever. But you know, for everyone else, it’s a matter of, hey, get your body right. Get your mind right. This is a heck of a stretch. Coming up with the three games in 11 days. Gotta be Pittsburgh. Gotta run the table if we want to win the division and have a home game in the first round and beyond that, knowing that you’re going to be playing on the road a good bit the way it’s looking right now. So you gear up for that. But all of that being said, all their issues acknowledged, I still think this is a good football team that with the potential, and that’s a, you know, at the end of the day, that’s not worth much potential, but it’s still worth something at this point, with the potential to be a really good or a great football team, but they’ve got to get there, and that starts on Sunday, going up to the Meadowlands and doing what you need to do, and just take care of business, get in, get out, get the win. Hopefully no one gets hurt in the process. And then it’s big boy time after that. Oh,
Nestor Aparicio 34:44
the old exit 16 W up there in the Secaucus, East Rutherford New Jersey. Luke will be at the game. He’ll be back and forth this week, Jiffy lubing it. This is one week where I’m happy they threw me out. I don’t need to go to New Jersey up here. Watch it slot, but I’ll watch, especially if the weather’s good in the. Work. And, you know, send you a good little Italian restaurant. And know about up there, our friends at Speaking of good little Italian restaurants, our friends at the Maryland lottery is sending me to amicis next Tuesday. We’re going to be downtown several times this week. We were downtown twice last week. We’re at Cocos last week and moving around and having some fun, as well as having some crab cakes. We’re going to be at fade Lee’s on Wednesday afternoon this week, then next week. We move to amicis on Tuesday, and then on Wednesday at Costas in Dundalk, where I’m sure to have the crab Imperial so I can feel like a king. We have tons and tons of great guests. Come on out. Say hello. I will give you free scratch offs in the middle of the lottery, I have some Raven scratch offs. I’m in the hopper to get some gingerbread or something good for to start the year. Uh, Luke can be found at Baltimore. Luke, He is back and forth to Owings Mills all week long, with updates. If you’re on the W, N, S, T tech service, brought to you by Cole roofing and Gordian energy, you will get all the breaking news first, including when the Orioles signed baseball players. We had a little bit of that happening over the weekend as well. Big thanks to our friends at curio wellness and foreign daughter, as well as our friends at Liberty pure for putting us out on the road for 26 oysters in 26 days, that is also a part of what’s going on. And by the way, before we get the Baseball Hall of Fame stuff, Dave Parker and and Richie Allen going into the Hall of Fame, I put up some old stories about that up at Baltimore positive as well. I have some music classic never before heard. I mixed down my chat with Billy Gibbons and dusty Hill from ZZ Top from the Capitol center in 1991 I’m still mixing down old tapes of Rock and Roll Hall of Famers. All that will be coming in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, it’s crab cakes and caroling and football. I’m Nestor. He’s Luke. We are wnst am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, we never stopped talking Baltimore positive. I.
