It’s hard to knock a 7-3 effort to start the season but the questions about the defense of the Baltimore Ravens will continue after a 35-34 win over Cincinnati. Luke Jones and Nestor address the many issues of a porous pass defense and narrow victory over Bengals on a night when Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase proved unstoppable for the men of Zach Orr.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Ravens defense, leaky defense, pass rush, Marcus Williams, Roquan Smith, Dean Pees, Marlon Humphrey, coverage issues, offensive balance, playoff readiness, defensive improvements, injury concerns, special teams, offensive performance, defensive scheme
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
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Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S T, Towson, Baltimore. We’re am 1570 please set a spot out on your radio dial. Will be number six. Will be Number Seven If we need to be on your dial. But make sure you do that. Luke and I’ll be talking football all weekend, as well as all through next week. Our friends at the Maryland lottery. Give us the Raven scratch. Also giveaway. We have the Maryland crab cake tour coming up in so many places. I can’t name them all, but we’ll have a commercial for that later. We’ll be at Cocos on December 4. We’re going to be Acosta’s back at State Fair. I had a date there with Angela also Brooks. Now that she’s senator, also Brooks, maybe we’ll get her out to Catonsville before it’s all over with also our friends at Raskin global. I got the shirt on here. And the Leonard Raskin trying to keep everybody calm after an election. Luke Jones is trying to keep everybody calm after the defense has to play to its knees on a two point conversion in order to seal a 3534 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday night, we have heat sprays on Joe burrow. We have talked about the closeness of the game and where the Bengals are sort of on the fail on the Pass Fail meter at this point as being a playoff team and not a complete team. We’re here to talk about the ravens, and not necessarily in praise of Lamar or what happened to the running game, or even what’s happened to Justin Tucker missing extra points, but the defense itself? Luke, you and I have spent a lot of time talking about this, and you spanked them. I’ve spanked them. We talked about issues, we’ve talked about scheme. We’ve talked about Zach or we’ve talked about clowning. We’ve talked about lacking a pass rush. We’ve talked about the fact that they’ve been relatively healthy through all of this. And, you know, as we sit here in Pittsburgh’s coming in, and then the chargers, and those are two teams that do play defense, interesting if, you know, they keep it in the 20s or even in the upper teens, because the Ravens have to kick some field goals or something. Not that they necessarily wouldn’t would have the fourth a lot to start kicking field goals for them on any sort of consistent basis, but two big matchups some time off, and I don’t know where the repair would be for the defense. I I don’t think it’s true Davies in the secondary. I don’t know that it would have been as a Darius Smith or a clowny, I mean to me, somebody across the middle of the fields got a cover, and I haven’t seen any of it. And there are people on the internet that are calling roquan Smith fat, by the way, or just slow. I don’t know what it is, but there, there’s a real problem on the defense, given the length of this and what they can do to slow it down, mitigate passers. I mean, against bad quarterbacks, they’ll be okay against New York Giants, you know, on the rest of the schedule, but thinking you’re going to navigate January with this leaky condition across the middle of the field and no pass rush. I don’t know they got a lot of work to do. And I by the way, they showed Dean peas a couple times on the TV, because I know you’re up in the Kevin Byrne little press box, the tiny box, they show Dean peas going crazy and very active, and he is not a passive part of this defense. Four weeks in
Luke Jones 03:19
no and even talking to Marlon Humphrey this this past week, I guess it was Monday, leading into the Thursday night game, I had a chance to ask him about Dean peas and of course, Marlon one of the very few players on this defense that actually played under Dean Pease. It was Marlon Humphries rookie year back in 2017 and he even acknowledged that he has made more of an impact the last week or two. So take that for what it is. Interpret that as you will. Don’t think it means he’s calling the defense. Let’s be clear. I’m not suggesting a conspiracy, but I think it does lead you to believe that he’s more heavily involved in what they’re trying to do. Game Plan wise, you
Nestor Aparicio 04:00
know what I mean that you bring him in, you don’t bring him in to be a flower on the wall. I mean, I guess, right.
Luke Jones 04:05
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I mean, good, but you need to start getting results. And I’m, let me be clear, I’m not blaming him individually, just in the same way that I haven’t blamed Zach or individually. I mean, Marlon umpfrey Now after Thursday’s game, and going back to Monday evening, talking to him outside the Ravens locker room as they were getting ready for this short week game. He seems to be very adamant that to try not to put this on coaching, to try not to say that this is a major scheme problem, or anything like that. He has said repeatedly that when they’re getting to games, they’re not playing it and performing and carrying out their coverages and their assignments in the way that they practiced it. So now he’s not throwing any individual player under the bus, but that to me, sure sounds like he’s not trying to. Jess that it’s a coaching problem as much as, hey, as players, we need to execute. So, you know, you mentioned roquan Smith. Look, roquan has not been good in coverage this year, and how much of that is roquan, and, you know, I’m not going to get into, you know, weight or anything like that, because, you know, I don’t watch these players get weighed, or what, or know exactly what he weighed last year, or anything like that, but he has looked slower in coverage.
Nestor Aparicio 05:26
You know? I mean, the sky does not lies. George,
Luke Jones 05:29
so, so. But how much of it is that? How much of it is what they’re asking him to do? Coverage wise,
Nestor Aparicio 05:34
I don’t know, but it’s not working. I mean, Nestor, maybe Patrick Wayne felt more like chocolate and peanut butter at one point, right? Like, and because neither one was no good without it. Yeah, right. I mean, and I rocs middles very good in Chicago on a really lousy team, but blossomed two years ago this week when he showed up here. Yeah.
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Luke Jones 05:54
And, you know, Patrick Queen hasn’t been very good in Pittsburgh, based on most of what you read. So look, I think Trenton Simpson and I’d have to look at Thursday night’s game, as you alluded to, being up in the corner of the end zone. Now, I can’t sit here and say, just with my first viewing of the game how Trenton Simpson fared, but you know, I think Trent Simpson has played pretty well relative to what your expectations would have been overall, but that hasn’t worked. Safety, I mean, let’s just look at the last few weeks. Let’s look at this pragmatically. Nestor Marcus Williams had been this issue. His performance had been very clearly leaving something to be desired. He gets benched in Cleveland, doesn’t even play. Was active, but didn’t play a snap. Eddie Jackson steps up plays every snap. Becomes a starting safety the following week against Denver. Marcus Williams is back on the field. Eddie Jackson is a healthy scratch. They play better against Denver, no question about it. But it’s Denver. It’s Bo nicks, right? I mean, we can’t sit here and try to say that that was, you know, problem solved. Everything’s fine, by
Nestor Aparicio 07:02
the way. You see the difference between Bo nicks on Sunday, it’s but, you know, it’s two weeks
Luke Jones 07:09
but at the same time, two weeks ago, Jameis Winston look great, and then Jameis Winston look like Jameis Winston this past Sunday, right? He turned back into a pumpkin. So we Gardner Mitch, you looked like a real quarterback against the Ravens in the second half, back in week two. So I can’t just look at the opponent and just say, oh, you know, I mean, it’s an easier quarterback to your point, you talk about Pittsburgh and and the Chargers. Now I’ll say those are both teams that want to run the football that should play into the Ravens hands, you would think, because the Ravens have been able to stop the run. However, they have tougher defenses. So what kind of game is that going to be? But? But my point is, you know, even if Russell Wilson’s not, Russell Wilson back in 2017 with with the Seahawks, and even if Justin Herbert, who, by the way, is playing some good football here recently, go look at his numbers the last few weeks compared to earlier in the season, even if Greg Roman is coordinating that chargers offense. I mean, the Ravens have had so many issues you can’t make any assumptions about anyone. But I mentioned safety. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the fact that they waved Yanique and gawk way on Thursday afternoon to make room for Keaton Mitchell. And let me be very clear, I don’t think unique and gauquet was doing a whole lot to move the needle. I don’t think he was great. At the same time, he was playing over David ajabo. The last couple weeks, leading into Thursday’s game, they were telling you that they preferred unique and gauquet over David ajabo. Now they they did an about face, and David ajabo played a good bit well on Thursday night.
Nestor Aparicio 08:44
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Maybe some of that’s a factor of just having some fresh legs on four days of rest and saying one guy will play one day when the same thing with Mitchell being up as opposed to being down on Sunday, like I would, it’s almost like a bullpen or something when you got to play two football games in four days. Well, but they
Luke Jones 09:00
waved in GAC way though. I mean, I could see that, if you’re talking about, yeah, no, but my point is, he lives here and in signing anywhere else. And no, no, I and again, I’m, let me be very clear. I’m not saying there’s Super Bowl hopes hinged on the status of unique and gauque. And who knows, maybe he clears waivers and is back on the practice squad and back on the 53 it’s at three weeks from now. Who knows. But I guess the point I’m trying to make is just look at how they’ve handled the last three weeks in terms of what they’re doing with some of their personnel, who’s up, who’s down. I mean, it reeks of you’re throwing bleep against the wall and trying to see if something sticks right, doesn’t it? I mean, it feels that way. So, I mean, this defense is a mess right now. This past defense, as we said, it’s lousy. It’s lousy. I mean, there’s no we can’t keep trying to point to the schedule. Or you know what happened in against Dallas and Tampa Bay, all of that was garbage time. And I mean, in its totality, go look at where their numbers are compared to the. Rest of the league
Nestor Aparicio 10:00
compared to the 26 years that came before it around, right, right? Like I
Luke Jones 10:05
said, I mean, this, this past defense, is 1996 esque right now. And I don’t need to tell you. I mean, you, you, you saw
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Nestor Aparicio 10:12
a lot of film. I watched it from a sandwiches in Marvin’s office
Luke Jones 10:16
that but like I said, if you look at the history of the Ravens in years where they’ve had bad defense, and, more specifically, bad past defense because their run defense. I mean, they’ve had some years where maybe they didn’t stop the run particularly well, but generally speaking, when they’ve struggled defensively, it’s been defending the past, but most of those years that stand out in saying that they can’t defend the pass it’s because they lost a Chris McAllister, or they lost a Samari role, or they lost, you know, a Jimmy Smith, or they lost Marcus Peters, you know, right before the season started back in 21 I mean, you look at those years, and you’d say the secondary was ravaged by injuries. The secondary is healthy until the Hamilton injury on Thursday night. And fortunately, it looks like that’s not going to be super serious. I mean, that doesn’t mean he won’t, you know, it doesn’t mean he’s going to be on the field against Pittsburgh, but when he went down in real time, I mean, you’re feeling an Achilles or something like that, it was scary. No shot. Yeah, right.
Nestor Aparicio 11:16
Like classically bad. And then you’re following Dr Chow and trying to figure out what’s going on. But so before they may have dodged a bullet on that, yeah, I
Luke Jones 11:24
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mean, it looks like they did. I mean, he was and the fact that he was on the sideline, albeit in a walking boot, but if there were, if that was something where they thought this, this was a multi week serious ankle sprain, I don’t think they would have had him standing on the sideline. I think he would do
Nestor Aparicio 11:38
they’re seven and three, and for me, like whoever’s healthy and playing on January, they blank teeth, whatever, whatever that game is. They need Kyle Hamilton out there in the same way that they need some version of Derek Henry that isn’t a 30 something that’s playing game 19. Same thing with Ronnie Stanley. Same thing with Mark Andrews, who, you know, they’re senior citizens. Marlon Humphrey, yeah, they’re senior citizens. Need the we’re in the midway point here. They get this little mini by. Everybody’s sore, everybody’s banged up a little bit, but they’ve, they’ve positioned themselves nicely, aside from fourth quarter meltdowns and aside from the kicker being unreliable, excuse me, all of a sudden. And the defensive calls and the defensive productivity, they’re seven and three. They’ve got the best quarterback on Earth. They have the best running game anybody’s ever seen. And they have health right now. I mean, by and large, their health overall,
Luke Jones 12:41
yeah, overall. I mean, again,
Nestor Aparicio 12:43
so how do you fix the defense? Is it, right? That’s, that’s definitely a 10 day question here, before Russ fake well, and
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Luke Jones 12:50
it’s not a 10 day question. I mean, this is, this is officially now, this is a two month question because we’re, we’re roughly two months out from the start of the playoffs, right? I mean, the final, the final game of the season will be, assuming they play, that’s what’s that Sunday would be January 4. I think it would be something like that. You know, obviously they play the Christmas day game, which is a Wednesday, so that’s weird, but they’ll have extra rest there, but assuming they’re not going to get the first round by I mean, they’ve got two months to fix this defense, and specifically the past defense, right? I mean, they can stop the run, but we’re seeing that that doesn’t do a whole lot for you. When teams know that they can just chuck the ball all over the field on you, they just, we’ve seen it. I’ve joked with you on multiple weeks now and saying these teams that still try to mix in some runs. I mean, they’re wasting plays more often than not, so they’ve got to figure this out. And look, I wish I could sit here and say that I’m smart enough to know exactly what the problem is, and, more specifically, not the problem, because the middle of the field’s been the issue right? Marcus Williams, you know is this, what a 16, $17 million safety, whatever his, you know, Cap number is this year. I mean, it’s the third highest cap number on the team. He’s not playing anywhere close to that. This isn’t a value concern. This is a liability. I mean, this is a guy
Nestor Aparicio 14:09
who, he’s a guy too, like the fans booed during the game, which I thought, you know, boot the offense. Which I was like,
14:16
I mean, the offense especially, come
Nestor Aparicio 14:18
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on. Now. Sober up. You know, stop, sober up. You know you’re not, I know you got Trump elected this week, but don’t think you’re entitled to, like, more than a three and out once in a while. You know, you don’t just go down and score points on every drive. That’s not normal. But what I but I would say for the for players that have been spotlighted around here, going back to Glenn Davis before Chris Davis and guys that are given money, guys that are brought into the outside, he sort of came under the radar, right like there. Most people don’t know who he is. They don’t know what he sounds like, what he looks like. He had played a whole lot. He’s made a whole lot of money. Uh, Eric da Costa has an ad to ask answer a lot of questions about. What the hell were you? How did he become Marcus? Who? How did he become the third highest player, player in the team, like he hasn’t been that good, and I think, through the annals of reagent signings and fringe Corey Ivey’s and who was the guy the car and the guy they brought in from Dallas that played a little couple years and Brandon Carr, I’m talking about not Chris Carr, but I but like I think about these guys that they brought in that they paid Samari roll, the Derek masons, the guys he brought from other places, paid him some money. Earl Thomas Marcus Williams, at the top, at the top of, the top of any of that, all of in the history of the team, their top three to five players have always been Ray Lewis, John Ogden, Joe Flacco, guys. They drafted their own guys. They haven’t been players on the free agent market, which sort of eliminates the need to pay guys in your, you know, top five on your own team to import roquan Smith. Now that that was a trading sign right in the middle of the in the season, really weird. But Marcus Williams getting all this money even, even I was a little taken aback, like signed the deal a couple years ago. He was hurt. You can’t pitch at him when he’s hurt, right? And they’re winning. So they’re winning, man, okay, we don’t need him on the field. They’re doing okay. This kid, Hamilton, he can play. He’s a safety, you know, so it sort of created this oxygen for him, for Marcus Williams, not that I want people going all Ed Whitson on me, but like he’s going under radar for making this much money and being completely unproductive, and the defense thinks, and today we’re bringing everybody flowers, because they won right Marcus Williams has gotten a free pass around here in a way that probably wouldn’t in Philadelphia. Or, you know, guys like me aren’t even allowed to be in the media anymore and even meet these guys. So I don’t even know what he sounds like, what he looks like. I mean, I’m not physical with him, or any of the other young guys that never met say flowers. I don’t know these guys, so I can say what I need to say on the outside, but Marcus Williams, from the fans perspective of hate, a lot came in. Was never really, nobody expected a lot out of him, I don’t think. And here we are, and they’re carrying the water for a big salary, and more than that, a bigger expectation right? Like two weeks ago, they benched him, no speaking, nobody’s speaking. There’s clearly some some air that’s not good out knowings Mills, Dean Pease is coming in. There’s a lot of turmoil going, you know, going on underneath of this seven and three operation right now, because I think deep down, the Costa wakes up on Friday morning. It says, How are we going to navigate January, like this same way? You worried about the bullpen for the Orioles? Yeah. And
Luke Jones 17:46
let me be very clear, and I want to be fair to Marcus Williams, I didn’t have any issue with his performance. I thought his first year was I thought he played very well. He had the wrist injury back in like week five, and then he was out two months with that, came back, played well. I didn’t have any concerns other than just availability, and he was someone who had been very durable in New Orleans last year. Had the PEC injury early on. Remember, initially there was fear that he was going to be done for the season, came back, what a month later, and had some issues tackling. There’s no question about that, but from a coverage standpoint, still thought he played very well through two years, I would say value concern, sure as a $70 million you know, five years, $70 million that kind of safety, value concern, but still thought he had played at a high enough level when he had been on the field. This year has been a different story. He’s been healthy, we think. But he’s just looked a shell of himself in deep coverage and just not making plays and at times, looking confused. And it’s been, it’s gone from value concern for the first two years, primarily driven by his lack of availability and injuries, to year three now being liability and just a concern about how he’s played, period, and to the point where they benched him. And look, I think we all assumed there was a little more to that story than just performance, but performance had something to do with it, right? Maybe even if it was as simple, and this is pure conjecture, let me be very clear, but just saying, maybe there’s a scenario where they said they told him he was going to be a little more situational, maybe come off the field in some certain instances, and maybe he reacted poorly to that. Who knows? Guys do that sometimes,
Nestor Aparicio 19:31
maybe he missed a meeting or something, you know, maybe, who knows.
Luke Jones 19:34
But the point is, with that now in year three, I mean, this is a problem. I mean, this is one. And look, let’s not give roquan Smith a pass. He hasn’t been good enough this year. One of the things that I talked about a lot with you is value concerned off ball linebacker paying them $100 million a five year, 100 million dollar contract, you better be elite in coverage. You. Quan Smith has been nothing close to elite in coverage. He’s been a problem in coverage. Get
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Nestor Aparicio 20:04
you together with Chad whistling one day and just talk about value of off ball linebackers and running backs. And because your mind does work in that Eric the Costa way as it should, right, which is we’re sort of like we have 100% of a pie. How much of that pie? Hey, look Ryan Billick, our partner here, on behalf of living classrooms Foundation, once said to Ed Reed, Hall of Famer, Ed Reed, add your safety you. This is what safeties make, you know, so that that’s what makes all this interesting is, I’m not saying that Ravens have been stingy with money. No, they’ve been smart with money. But also, in the history of the city, very few people have gotten $70 million deals and not produced we can go through any of the Orioles, the ravens, so a lot of money and a lot of expectation. And he is sort of skated as a guy that they’ll cut him at the end of the year and take the cap cut or whatever, but he doesn’t go down in the annals. Is awful signings, but it’s hadn’t been a very good one at this point for value in and I’ll keep going back to Earl Thomas, just because of the character part of that in so many ways. But in as far as modern signings, this is one where Eric, you know, kind of missed right?
Luke Jones 21:15
I mean, it’s kind of funny when you look at it, their free agent safety track record over the last decade or so is not a whole lot to write home about Eric Weddle. Check, I think Eric Weddle was a good signing. You know, even if maybe his last year as a raven wasn’t as good as he you would have liked to have been, but he was a Pro Bowl caliber safety, he lived up to what you expected. I love Tony Jefferson as a person. That was not a good contract. When you look at how much they paid him relative to his performance, Earl Thomas was a disaster. I’d still put Earl Thomas worse than than Marcus Williams. I mean, when you throw,
Nestor Aparicio 21:51
and this is in June after they win the Super Bowl, and you have to write something crappy, you do, like, top 10 worst signings and Raven, you know, like, I don’t you know off season issue,
Luke Jones 22:02
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but it sounds kind of crazy because you you talk about the fact that they drafted maybe the greatest safety in the history of the National Football League, and Ed Reed Kyle Hamilton is well on his way to be in a multi time All Pro, Pro Bowl caliber, maybe a Hall of Famer, if he does this for
Nestor Aparicio 22:17
is this where you talk about that guy, Brooks and the Elam Kid, and, you know, we, they’re, they’re, they’re some safeties around here. And look, I mean, I mean
Luke Jones 22:25
everyone has some whiffs in the draft, but a free agent like that, that’s supposed to be a known you’re paying for a known commodity, or what you think is a known commodity. And I mean, this, this Marcus Williams deal, has really turned in an unfavorable manner, to put it kindly, and
Nestor Aparicio 22:43
even more so, if Humphrey gets hurt, he’s get make he’s got a big number. Roquan’s got this big number. They paint Matt abike. And by the way, Matt abigay A big applause on Thursday, right? Like to see nobody showed up, right? Yeah.
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Luke Jones 22:55
And to this point in the season, it had been a little underwhelming for him. Now I think he’s had more double teams, and certainly we can talk about the Travis Jones injury that you know hindered him for a few weeks. It was good to see Jones back playing his normal allotment of snap. So it seems like the ankle was mostly behind him at this point. But we talked about this, and we talked about this the last couple weeks when Marcus Williams, roquan Smith, not a BK to a way lesser extent, because, again, I don’t want to put him into the kind of problems that they’ve had with Williams and roquan in past coverage, at the very least. But you’re talking about two of your highest paid players on defense right there. Marlon Humphrey, I think, has played very good football Overall this year compared to where he’d been the last couple years with the injuries, or maybe not being at his best. I think he’s been one of their very best players defensively, and again, for all the the hand wringing about the defense and understandable and deserved hand wringing about this defense, Marlon Humphreys forced fumble absolutely was the turning point. I mean, Lamar Jackson went out of his way to say that even so so they the value concern that many people had for Marlon Humphrey going into the year hasn’t really been one, because he’s played at a at a Pro Bowl level. But they’re not getting that from Marcus Williams, and they’re not getting it from roquan Smith, and it’s just been the middle of the field in general has just been such a problem for them. So it’s not just those two. Let me be very clear, there are more guys that are part of that equation, and I’m not giving the coaching a free pass either by any stretch of the imagination. But, man, they’ve got to get this fixed. I mean, you’re talking about some of your highest paid players that are supposed to be solutions for these things, not part of the problem. These are supposed to be guys that are assets for you guys that are moving the needle, for you guys that are above average, guys that aren’t just guys, and they haven’t been so they’ve got to figure this out. And it’s not just about Pittsburgh in 10 days. It’s not just about. The Chargers after that. I mean, this is about January, because, like I said, this offense is great. This is a phenomenal offense. Lamar Jackson is playing phenomenal this. He’s playing the best football of his career, and he’s coming off of an MVP season. He’s been that great. They have so much balance. I mean, tylen Wallace had 100 yard receiving night and made the plane I get it the Bengals couldn’t tackle on the sideline. I understand, but he still made a play, right? He still did that. I mean, they have guys all over the field, wide receivers, tight ends, running backs that make plays. And it’s all headlined by your transcendent, generational on it on the verge of being a three time MVP quarterback, and you don’t want to waste that because your defense can’t stop anyone. And that’s that’s what’s so unsettling about what we saw Thursday night, that Lamar did what he did, and this offense did what it did, albeit after a really slow two and a half quarters to start the game. But we saw them turn it on and just do the things that they do and the things they’ve done all year, but it still came down to a two point conversion at the end of the game. I mean, your defense, you got to find a way to be better, especially understanding the Bengals were not at full strength on Thursday night. So I wish I could sit here and say I’m smart enough to to know, oh, do this and adjust this in coverage, and play this coverage and, you know, cycle this, you know, maybe, maybe they’ll find something in tredavius White, in some way, some capacity, helping the this defense. You know, I the Rams were very clearly on the verge of cutting him. You know, that’s how, how obvious that trade was. You know, when you’re talking about a future year seventh round pick swap, I mean, that’s, you don’t get lower than that in terms of that’s right up there with trading a player for cash considerations in baseball. I mean, that’s what that is. So, you know, we’re not talking about a tremendous white who’s where he was four years ago, which was in the same space as Marlon Humphrey, quite frankly, but the injuries have just devastated him. But boy, I’m open to anything at this point as it pertains to figuring out this defense, because, well, we’re also
Nestor Aparicio 27:07
starting to see that point in the season where you mentioned like a Coleus Campbell or a clowny van Noy um difference maker, for periods of time. I think the older these guys get into this part of the year, even putting roquan into that, moving him into that category, because he plays a lot of plays, and he runs at everything like a tank, right? Like this is where they this 10 days off, this little mini buy, and they have a real buy coming up as well that they’re going to get some time. And then they play shotgun football around Christmas time. They’re playing these really weird schedule in the middle of the week and playing a Saturday and a Wednesday and like all of that, but this little period of downtime to get their heads together and to evaluate this, and I guess this is where Dean peas and quality control comes in and says, What can we do better? Be in better positioning? But they don’t look fast. They they don’t look fast. It doesn’t look as schematic as it looks, and there have been communication issues. It just looks like guys can run away from them a little bit, and they’ve identified places in the middle of the defense, where there’s there’s nobody’s going to be running and especially when they can sweep people out and do different things. It’s kind of like when Lamar takes advantage of that with the wheels. But defensively, for me, the middle of the defense, there’s not been a point. And part of this is you can’t play like Ed Reed. You can’t take guys heads off anymore. So the intimidation factor of you’re going to break me in two when I come across the middle. Roquan Smith, no, you might break me too, but you’re going to get 15 yards. You’re going to get it. You have to you’re going to get an envelope from the league later in the week that’s in the back of everybody’s head. I think as well, that wide receivers and tight ends have never had it so good in that way.
Luke Jones 29:04
Yeah, I mean, and in the general sense, I mean, every defense deals with that in this day and age. So I mean, that’s part of it, but I mean, they’ve got to figure this out. And I hear it, people will say, well, not every team has a Jamar Chase noted. I agree. But again, go down the list of teams they’ve played and and you’ll see some nondescript guys that have made plays against them, and nondescript quarterbacks even making plays against them. I mean, it’s it’s unsettling knowing that you know
Nestor Aparicio 29:34
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any pass rush isn’t getting there, right? So a lot of this stuff is brought on by the fact that the pass rush. Now, the other night, Matt abik A fine, but they haven’t had anything consistent in that way the way they did last year. And you can feel the difference of last year’s defense versus this year’s defense, just time quarterbacks have time, yeah,
Luke Jones 29:53
I mean, and how much of that is scheme and their sim pressures. You know that that worked beautifully under Mike McDonald and trying to. The same stuff, maybe not, not getting there. Now, again, that one part of what was so disappointing about Thursday night was, I thought the pass rush was markedly better than it’s been in recent weeks. And Joe burrow still through for 428 and four touchdowns, right? They still couldn’t stop Jamar Chase. I mean,
Nestor Aparicio 30:18
Jamar Chase had a Jimmy Smith kind of day, right, right? And again,
Luke Jones 30:23
it’s funny, you mentioned that because there Jamal Lewis kind of day that game, that game had some to the 2000 Jacksonville. It had a little bit of that vibe to it. You know, I made the comment. I don’t, I can’t remember if it was this segment or a previous segment, but I said to you how this team is shaping up to be, the bizarro 2000 ravens, where you’ve got this historic offense and yet you have this defense that you have all these concerns about. And again, maybe it’s not as pronounced as five straight games not scoring a touchdown as that 2000 offense had that streak in the middle of the season. But it’s bad. I mean, this defense is bad right now, and they’ve got to figure this out, because, look, Lamar has done amazing work carrying this team, right? I mean, this offense has carried you’ve mentioned it in passing with Justin Tucker, but in general, the special teams haven’t been very good this year either, right? They’ve had their breakdowns, and, you know, they’ve had their games where they’ve been okay, and you know, Jordan stouts had some great punts and but coverage or penalties on coverage, things like that. I mean, they’ve, they’ve had their issues there. So this offense is just all world, and it’s, it’s been able to overcome, and it’s been able to carry them, but man, can they continue to do it to that degree. When you get into January knowing that you’re going to play a good team every week, that’s where I have concerns, because I just don’t want to see them wasted. Think about this, even as recently as earlier this season, Nestor, and I’m not picking on you here specifically, but just in general, one of the narratives about Lamar Jackson, as far as the question marks, has been, what can this offense come back when they’re down multiple scores in the second half? They’ve now done it twice against the Cincinnati Bengals alone this year. So this this offense other than January, other than mahomes, and there’s nothing they can do about that until they get to that point. They’re checking all those boxes in terms of erasing deficits and passing when they need to pass, and all those different things, but and I just don’t want it. That’s why I don’t want to see this ruined by a historically poor defense by rave, Baltimore, Raven standards. That’s what’s so frustrating about this. Because it’s like, my goodness, this offense is checking every box you can imagine, including the offensive line, playing so much better than people feared it would wouldn’t have the ability to do at the beginning of the season. So for this defense to just look, I expected some drop off from Mike McDonald to Zack, or I expected the fact that they weren’t as deep at some of these positions with, you know, Geno stone walking out the door and jadavion Clowney walking out the door and Patrick queen. I didn’t expect him to to be a Triple Crown winner and points, turnovers and sacks like they were last year. Defensively, I didn’t expect that. No one should have expected that. But to go from that standard to now this, which is unrecognizable by ravens defensive standards. That’s unsettling, because Lamar, as phenomenal as he is, and maybe he can carry them to a Super Bowl doing what they’re doing right now. Because let’s face it, as much as we’re complaining and you know wanting about this defense right now, they are seven and they’ve won seven of eight games even with this defense. So maybe the joke’s on us and dwelling on it so much, maybe their offense, maybe their defense won’t matter. Yeah, maybe
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Nestor Aparicio 33:49
they’ll beat the Chiefs 41 to 30. Yeah,
Luke Jones 33:51
maybe they will, right? And maybe they will. But if they don’t, and it’s not because of Lamar and the offense falling apart in January, as has been the case in the past, you know, as was the case last January, where, by and large, the defense played more than well enough to win, if it’s the opposite, where Lamar and this offense score 31 points, but they give up 34 points and lose that way in January. I mean, just think how maddening, how heartbreaking, how excruciating that’s going to be if that happens. That’s why they’ve got it. They’ve got to figure this out. I’ve said it for weeks now. They don’t need this past defense to be great. They don’t even need it to be good. Just don’t be awful. Be decent, be mediocre, get to average or close to close to it, if you can do that, then I think Lamar in this offense is more than good enough. And I want to say good enough, it’s great enough to overcome a mediocre pass defense. But I think you look in the history of the NFL now. Me a team that won a Super Bowl that had a lousy pass defense, and I’d even say, even if statistically it wasn’t very good, I would challenge and say they were way better in December and January, at the very least. And you know, you’d probably throw the chiefs of a few years ago into that category, probably, so man, they’ve got to figure this out, because I’ve got something so special on offense right now. I mean, that’s why, that’s where my frustration comes from. It’s because this offense is everything you could possibly imagine it to be, short of just being Patrick mahomes, I guess, right. I mean, that’s the only thing you could say about Lamar, that he’s not Patrick mahomes, everything else. I mean, he’s, he’s playing such flawless, amazing, spectacular football. I don’t have the superlatives for it at this point. That’s how great he’s been. That’s how great this offense has been overall. So and defense got to figure this out. And as Marlon upper he said, I do think it’s too talented defensively to be this bad. Maybe it’s not the best anymore, or anything close to the best, but it’s got to be better than this. I just, I can’t fathom that you go from where you did last year, albeit recognizing some of the changes that they underwent, to now be this to be this bad, to be dead last in passing yards allowed by a pretty comfortable margin. I mean, it’s and they’ve got to figure it out. I know I keep saying that, but hey, I’m just echoing what Marlon Humphrey said probably three or four, five different times in his post game locker room session, where he just said, something’s got to change. We’ve got to fix this. And because he knows it, he said, we’re the little bros right now, and Lamar is carrying us. And that’s great, because Lamar is amazing, but it’s not great, because we need to be able to finish a game too, and it’s they’ve got work to do. And it’s not just about this mini by getting ready for Pittsburgh, although that’s certainly the next up on a very important agenda as it pertains to the AFC north.
Nestor Aparicio 36:56
It’s nice being frustrated after they win. They’re seven and three. They survive. They got time off. Luke and I have enough time here to discuss all these things and sit around on Sunday and watch football. We got baseball free agency. Hey, Tampa Bay, gonna sign one soda? Sure they are. I mean, the only thing more ridiculous than than the election is the off season of baseball and things people would talk about, but we’re going to talk about it, because we got hot stove baseball around here. I met Mr. Rubenstein this week. I’ll tell my story about that. It’s, it’s pretty much like that, pretty much. But, um, we’re going to do some Orioles around here next week as well. We have the Maryland crab cake tour out on the road, brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery. Have Raven scratch offs to give away. Had a lucky batch in the beginning. I don’t know what happened in mama’s on the half shell. Uh, you’ll be hearing some of those conversations as we get into next week. Now, if the election’s over, crab cake tours are out. We’re going to be out eating crab cakes, eating more oysters, telling more stories, uh, getting more feedback on all sorts of things, including this, um, historic ravens, run of Lamar Jackson. He’s Luke. I’m Nestor. We are W, N, S, T am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, and we never stop talking Baltimore positive. I.
