Luke Jones and Nestor get you ready for the ending of what has a been a strange week in Baltimore sports. The Orioles demise and the Ravens meltdown in Pittsburgh has set the stage for a return to jolly old England, where it didn’t go so well the last time.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
game, ravens, orioles, team, hollywood casino, pittsburgh, play, sunday, ball, week, year, titans, lamar, steelers, london, point, arlington, good, talking, football team
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Luke Jones
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome back W and S T, Towson Baltimore. Baltimore positive it’s tough to do the elimination stuff and certainly the aftermath of all the Oriole stuff we’re going to be talking Orioles free agency lease. contracts. We’re gonna enter we’re gonna do all that stuff. We got a football game on Sunday we’re gonna be up at Hollywood casino in Perry Ville beginning at 8am for breakfast come on by get some french toast with us eggs and bacon and spend the day with us. I’m going to be having the salmon BLT might even have an ice cold beverage up there as well. Breakfast from Tottenham against the Titans this week. It’s all a Hollywood casino 30 bucks for the the buffet if you want to participate you don’t have to but if you do, you get entered into winning all sorts of cool stuff. It is a casino after all. You play games all day and watch the games all day. Come on up with us in Hollywood casino up in the sports book. Christian Horton and I are gonna make our picks at a pretty good week last week. Picking games had a better week than the Orioles had in Arlington but certainly a better week than the Ravens had in Pittsburgh. Luke Jones joins us now he’s gonna join us on Friday at the drug City at the fountain that we’re gonna be upstairs in the tasting room. Looks good to see what gourmet potato chips and milkshakes are all about and properly sorted jerked sodas little will get you a little egg whatever they call that stuff I don’t know I mean little little almond smash that’s delicious as well. So come on by on Friday we’ll be there in the afternoon to Maryland crab cake Tour presented by the Maryland lottery we’ll have some hopefully lucky ravens scratch offs to give away we all need some good luck this week. As well as our friends at window nation 866 90 nation and our newest sponsors at Jiffy Lube and shipping new multi care Lucas multi sport multi rested this point you can you know we don’t have to worry about ALCS we were gonna fly to Minnesota. No, we’re gonna fly to Houston now we’re gonna go to Toronto now we’re going to Tampa. instead. We are still here in Arlington talking about football, amongst other things. We’re done with baseball for now Kitt Can we can we do we have enough bandwidth here to sort of focus on the Ravens on on Sunday morning, Luke as they disappear, giving you a little bit of a bye week from going out to Owings Mills in a week that this would have been an uncomfortable week in Owings Mills. I have a feeling it’s not been a very comfortable week in London.
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Luke Jones 02:21
Yeah, it’s kind of one of those situations where I think normally the Ravens aren’t used to being second fiddle, which they kind of have been here in late September and obviously the Orioles playing in October. I’ll be a briefly. But now they’re back to being under the spotlight, even being over in London this week. And it’s not a good feeling when you lose to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the fashion in which they lost and we talked at length about that game. But I think if there was a silver lining for the Ravens it was hey, we’re leaving the country. Everyone’s focused on the Orioles and the LDS in Texas and trying to come back from oh two and I’m guessing some people with the ravens and not specifically John Harbaugh, or the team itself. But I’m guessing there were some people that might have hoped that maybe the Orioles would carry on a little bit longer, at least until Sunday. And you try to get yourself back on track as you’re playing the Tennessee Titans, but not not a great feeling this week when you’re coming off of the kind of loss that they had against the Steelers. Now the good news is that they do they are getting healthier. We talked about the guys who returned in last Sunday’s game against the Steelers and you would hope that the injury reports are favorable as we get closer and closer to kick off Sunday morning. But this is a team looking to get back on track. And I think this is a team that as we’ve been talking about for a while now and I will get back into writing a little bit more with a focus on the raid on the Ravens of course with the Orioles now being done, but Steve’s got to figure out how to finish football games twice in three weeks. You know when you go back to Indianapolis and what happened in week three? And of course what they what happened at the place formerly known as Heinz Field. I I can’t bring myself to call it what is aperture stadium or whatever it’s called. I can’t even remember
Nestor Aparicio 04:24
it’s at least 15 Yeah, it’s weird, right? But all these places like committee and the Jake and it’s so odd.
Luke Jones 04:31
Yeah, but but at the same time, I mean, we saw this last year they had issues finishing football games and snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. And I think I pointed this out to you at some point might have even been at some point prior to game three. As we were getting ready for Orioles Rangers. We did talk about the Ravens for a few minutes. Just you and I all fair. Did. You kind of look at this team right now it’s DNA, I would say He is more struggling to finish some football games and leaving teams in games. And we’ve seen that happen a couple of times this year. So that happened a handful of times last year. And look, I’m not saying that’s every week. Of course,
Nestor Aparicio 05:14
8he did play a little bit for a couple minutes, you know, two weeks ago.
Luke Jones 05:18
I mean, it’s, you know, we’re not talking about every week, we’re not talking about this, meaning they’re a bad football team, far from it. But these games that they have dropped the last couple years. That is the difference between playing in the first round, or potentially being a wildcard compared to winning the division and having a chance to be the number one seed when you’re talking about dropping two or three or four games on a yearly basis that you look at it and say, Shema lost that game. Now, it’s going to happen, you’re not going to be perfect. Over the course of the season. No one’s saying you’re gonna go 17 No, of course not. But when you have these games, where it really feels like you’ve outplayed your opponent, and for whatever reason, you’re making a mistake, here a mistake, they’re a mistake, they’re a turnover, here a fumble. They’re a miscommunication, which has become all too prevalent, you know, in terms of their operation. These are the things that add up to an extra couple of losses in a season than you normally would have had. And that’s the difference between being 10 and seven, or 11, and six, compared to having a chance to be 13, and four, or 14 and three, we’re then you’re talking about being able to surpass Kansas City surpass buffalo, throw Miami in that conversation with the way their offense is played this year. So that’s, this team’s part of their identity, the last couple years has been doing way more of that then come from behind victories, for example. So not saying that they’re going to be in that in that same position against the Titans on Sunday. But at some point in time, you got to figure out how to finish football games, you got to figure out how to play a more complete 60 minutes, or you will continue to drop some of these games here and there that you really feel like you shouldn’t drop. And again, that adds up to playing in the first round, that adds up to playing more road games in January, then having a chance to to be a number one seed to get a first round. Bye. So you know, we’ll see how it plays out, though on Sunday. I mean, certainly going, you know, going across the pond. I mean, there’s not as much media there. You know, there are a handful of reporters, but not many. So, you know, they kind of get to get away from it. But with the Orioles having lost now, the focus comes back on the ravens and I said this on Sunday. You know, I said this in the aftermath of what happened Sunday. For the Orioles, there was more disappointment for the ravens, I think there was way more disgust and how that lost the Steelers played out. So this is a team that needs to turn the page and put together a more complete performance against the titans in London on Sunday.
Nestor Aparicio 07:57
Well, then we start to think about the next couple of weeks now, right? Because we were at the well what happens with the lions in the Orioles in the ALCS. And then they’re gonna go to Arizona and Arizona stinks. But maybe they don’t stick that much and certainly not at home. They’re now in a stretch where they’re playing a team with a real defense on Sunday in the morning and we’re going to be up in Hollywood casino come on out. I would say this looks to be a tougher game than it did a couple of weeks ago, the Titans have sort of come to life at least defensively for what they would want to do. And we talked about Lamar as Waterloo pick the chargers, the Titans, the bills, you know, there there, there have been difficulties that defenses and defensive minded coaches like Mike Grable put together something here. And the Ravens did not fare well on this trip, by the way the Jaguars want again, over there. And there’s something about the experience of Nathan ivaldi. We saw the other day the experience of Bruce Bochy, the experience of having done it before, the Jaguars are good at going over there. The Ravens my God, dude, I mean, if I could pick you up, we’re in Arlington right now. It’s early in the morning, you know, we’re about to get out of here and escape. If I could pick you up sick, dude, I’ll tap you on the shoulder. We’ll fly to London right now. And, you know, we’ll go over there with the notion that it would go any better than it went last time. The first thing you’d say is, I recognize this this didn’t go well. I really wonder what horrible and the organization learned the first time around about going over there. And and obviously the political turmoil, the knee the goof run in the country all of this stuff that was going on that’s six years removed now. i And that really did get caught up into all the bad things that happened, including I think the Jaguars just being a better team that year. They wound up being a playoff team and all that but we all have some we you know some shock therapy in regard to the especially those of us who flew over there and remember walking through Soho after getting your ass kicked that I am hardball remembers that plane ride home well as well, this Pittsburgh thing on the front end of that this is a real measurement for me to see these guys rebound, I want to see Marlin Humphrey rebound. I want to see Mark Andrews and all the guys that drop passes, right. I want to see Lamar who through the fatal pick, rebound, I want to see them, go over to London, have a professional week of practice, not pitch about the fact they don’t put ice in your drinks, they drive on the wrong side of the road on stuff that I’d be doing right now, if I weren’t in Arlington, they some taking some good barbecue home. So we got that going for him. He didn’t have to drive to Austin to do it. This is a weird week for them. And if they get their ass kicked, and they come back as a 500 team, I wouldn’t be shocked. I mean, I’m gonna bet against them. This week in my when I make my picks are Christian Norton, from Hollywood Casino. I don’t like the way they’re trending just from an injury standpoint, where the coaches and his thing where the quarterback isn’t getting paid, where they are just in general about bringing this thing together. I want to see them bring it together a part of bringing it together is doing it against the titans in a good defense, moving the ball against the good defense, catching the ball executing plays, then playing defense and maybe even getting your backup quarterback on the field right against a team that does not have fireworks offensively. If you can stop the running back, if you can tackle the running back now next week, Detroit after that, then they’re gonna go play in Arizona, these next couple of games. Where are they going to be looping before in three, three and four, five and 266 into it? Can they? I don’t know. Can they win three games in a row? I don’t know. I mean, if they do that, now we go to Halloween. We’re like all right. They’re back on track. Then feel back on track with the record doesn’t feel back on track with to your point. Steelers colts, meltdowns? Yeah, literally meltdowns get giving games away, including giving game games away at home and giving a games away in Pittsburgh where they should know better and do their their two decisions and a play away from being five enough? There’s been years we could say that. But they haven’t been dominant. They haven’t been confident. They haven’t played a great game and played a good game. I mean, they haven’t they haven’t played a game I’d look at and say there’ll be buffalo. There’ll be Kansas City and there’ll be in whatever order. I haven’t seen any sign I see the potential as as coach pillock would say your potential is going to get me fired. Well, the potential is there. And if John Harbaugh gets fired, because and I hear, I’m not going to be the guy fire the coach, I’ve been on the arrow 32 years and I haven’t tried to fire a coach yet. So I’m not going to start today. But the winds blow in that direction. And this is where it’s the middle of the season. And they got to start showing some signs that they’re as good as their roster. Construction was in the offseason. Yeah,
Luke Jones 13:01
I’ll disagree a little bit that we haven’t seen them look good. I mean, I thought unless you just think the Bengals completely stink. And this past week, maybe showed some signs of life for Cincinnati Bengals stuff that day. But okay, the Ravens made them stink, though. Like, I don’t agree with your assessment that they haven’t looked good at all or like that. It’s I think the defenses look good. I think it’s been up and down. You know, I thought the offense played very well against Cincinnati. I think, you know, the offense has been a work in progress defensive played at a high level, but I think it’s tough for me to look at that women Cincinnati. tough for me to look at the Cleveland game, which was weird because Watson didn’t play but like, what do you want them to do? They won 28 to three, you know, it’s not as though they let them stay in the game. For me, it’s just way too inconsistent. You know, it’s that simple. I’m not trying to make it out to be that they haven’t been impressive at times, because I think they’ve been very impressive at times. But same thing applied last year, you know, at some point in time, your identity is that you are leaving teams in games too frequently, and you’re letting games get away that happened last year. It happened against Miami it happened against buffalo when they had a multi score lead it happened against the Giants. It happened against Jacksonville later in the season. It happened when Kenny pick pick it threw a touchdown on Sunday night football and ballgames for
8Nestor Aparicio 14:26
all that is you have to go on the road and play football January when you when you dropped actually, when you drop games, you shouldn’t drop and you look at the end and you’ve only got 11 instead of 13. And he’s on the road.
Luke Jones 14:38
Yeah. Or you have 10 instead of 12. I mean, you know it’s not we’re not talking about the difference between being a good team and a bad team. We’re talking about the difference between being a pretty good team that has these flaws that leaves teams and games and this happens a lot in the NFL. You know we’ve talked about that a lot the NFL, I feel as time goes on becomes More and more like the NBA where, you know, stick around for the fourth quarter. And you see what happens, right? I mean, it’s it’s just one of those deals where there’s a Texas
Nestor Aparicio 15:09
Rangers would be a good example of that, right? Sure, sure. But I think
Luke Jones 15:13
8for me, you know, and you just did this, and we all do this, but I’m kind of at until they show they can be a more complete football team and finish off inferior opponents teams that I believe to be inferior. We need to stop doing this. Oh, well, you know, they should win this game and they should win this game and okay, this game might be challenging. When you lose to the Indianapolis Colts, that is a rebuilding team that has never had their backup quarterback and and I get it, I mean, Indianapolis had had some good things going for them. But they’re not a great team overall. And they were playing at home. That Pittsburgh team is not a good football team. Maybe Mike Tomlin will have them being a decent team as the year goes on. But I do not at all subscribe to the idea that the Steelers are a good football team right now. Now, that said, same record as the Ravens. So you know, you are what your record says you are. But they’ve got to find a way to finish off teams, they’ve got to be more complete. I need to not see a football team in every phase of the game, face adversity, adversity and then crumble in crunch time, which is what they did on Sunday in Pittsburgh. I’ll hear it. Lamar Jackson played great football until the fourth quarter. But the fourth quarter still counts. That’s still important. When Acropolis,
Nestor Aparicio 16:32
Jackson and and Humphrey that’s everyone rumble, it’s everyone well can’t be Mark Andrews dropping passes. It can’t be
Luke Jones 16:41
the the defense was fantastic for most of Sunday’s game, but you played your worst football at the end of the game. And that’s becoming an alarming pattern for this football team too often, where you’re letting some of these games that should be games that are in hand games in which you lead. And they’re letting a team hang around. And then things start to go sideways, a turnover, whatever it might be a mental mistake, and then they just crumble. And that’s becoming like I said, they’ve been doing more of that the last two years, then having these great comeback victories where you’re down 13 points and come back and win. So that for me is unsettling in terms of trying to really assess where this team is in terms of being pretty good to good to great. You know, they’re they’re doing things that great football teams don’t do. So that’s where it is right now. It’s not. It’s not a sense of panic. But I mean, put teams away that good
Nestor Aparicio 17:42
enough. That’s the part of the problem there.
8Luke Jones 17:44
That’s what’s concerning. Exactly. If this was a lack of talent, then that’s a different story.
Nestor Aparicio 17:51
Like the Orioles pitching, we look at it and say okay, well, that’s why it wasn’t good enough. They were what they have on the field should be good enough. If, if I don’t think three weeks ago, when they’re missing seventh and eighth starters, now that they’re rounding into this, this is a test for them. Because they’re a better team than the Titans as constructed. They should? They should? They should.
Luke Jones 18:11
They should. But I’m skeptical that they’re going to and that doesn’t mean I’m picking against them, per se. But why do you see them do it? I’m not nearly as confident in their ability to let me rephrase that not as confident in the fact that they’re actually going to do it, I think the ability is there. But at some point in time, you can keep talking about potential potential potential. You are what your record says you are. And you’ll go back to last year, you know, to the point that I’m trying to make because that’s where I feel like this has become an alarming part of their DNA. And I think this started at the end of 2021. Fully acknowledging, of course, Lamar Jackson wasn’t out on the field and of course, he’s not on the field. Nothing really matters but think of how they lost those last six games with two point tries and different things that just the ball and roll their way. It was a six game losing streak, but it’s not as though they were awful, you know, they were in all but one of those games which is remember that was the borough, Bengals game where they had COVID and injury issues and they had a what felt like a junior high team of guys out there compared to the varsity but I felt like some of those losses. There was a little bit of a hangover with that for everyone. And last year you look at it, the Miami loss, the buffalo loss, that loss to the Giants, the Jacksonville game another game where you know Trevor Lawrence marched down the field and it was the defense wilting late the Pittsburgh game you know that the game that they lost the week before Christmas to Cleveland with Tyler Huntley. The Browns are just kind of better than them that game. I mean, it’s not as though the Ravens like did anything in that game other than just the fact that yeah, they have their backup quarterback In the field, and their offense isn’t good enough. But most of those losses that I just talked about from last year, they did things, they self destructed. And that’s what’s concerning to me, you’re gonna have a couple games every year, even the best teams are gonna have at least a couple games every year that you just get beat. You know, the other team just plays way better than you do. And it’s not even that you play horrendously and shoot yourself in the foot, you just you just don’t have a great game. It’s bad matchup injuries, whatever it might be,
Nestor Aparicio 20:28
8we were the Cowboys complex. Well, we’ll spend a month talking about the Cowboys complex, but they got their ass kicked by the 40 Niners. That’s not to say that maybe in January, it’s different. But the Cowboys aren’t a bad team, but they they play like a bad team and a big year.
Luke Jones 20:43
And, and again, it’s not I don’t think it’s a talent issue. I mean, even talk about the wide receivers dropping passes this past Sunday, I mean, that’s awful. But it’s not as though they they were dropping a bunch of passes in the first four games. And this was just, you know, something that they’ve been doing it just kind of popped up. But my concern is when things pop up, you know, for this team when an issue pops up, you know, some mistake, you know, fumbled snap, your Tyler Linder, bomb, snapping the ball when when you should not be doing that, and you cost yourself a field goal at the end of the first half. When something happens, you know, adverse in game adversity, they have not handled it well. And that’s a couple years now that we’re talking about that and that is something where I agree with you wanna, you know, talking about firing the head coach, but I will hold John Harbaugh responsible for that when you have a team that is not handling adversity in game very well. And you’re making some questionable decisions. Or you’re just getting too cute. You know, my big thing with the end of the first half with what happened there? Yeah. Tyler Linder bomb didn’t do what he was supposed to do when he owned that but what was the upside even bothering with that? Just kick the fuel goal showing
Nestor Aparicio 21:55
how smart a head coach you were you were you really wanna you can strategize
Luke Jones 21:59
where you really that worried about Pittsburgh marching down the field with what 15 seconds to go or whatever it was, then move the ball the entire half, you know, so what were you were really trying to gain there was the juice really worth the squeeze there and even trying to doing to do that? Knowing that something like that could potentially happen. So yeah, John Harbaugh is responsible for that. And they need to be better when when you’re talking about some of these in game situations. And when you’re talking about just handling adversity, because they are gaining such a reputation these last couple years where you let a team hang around, you let a team hang around, you let the team hang around. And then that team actually does something to punch back. And they fold. I mean, that’s happened several times can you pick it threw the ball over their head to beat them? Yeah. I mean, it’s just that shouldn’t happen. And again, that’s not to say they’re bad. But that right there that we just laid out is the difference between being a playoff team. Great. Good. Don’t take that for granted. But that’s the difference between just being a playoff team, and not really having a great belief that you’re going to make a deep run, and not being in position to be the number one seed and to be playing multiple home playoff games. And being in that position where you’re vying for the number one seed, and you have a chance to have home field. So it’s cost them it’s absolutely cost them the going back a couple years now. And I just I want to see a team with a little more of a killer instinct, I want to see a team that what happened on Sunday, you’re gonna have mistakes happen. I’m not expecting perfection. But I don’t like how they’ve handled imperfection within these games, if that makes sense. I don’t like the fact that they had breakdowns in every phase late in that football game, including Lamar Jackson, who had played great until that point, including the defense who had played great to that point. I don’t like how they collectively are handling adversity in some of these games. And yeah, they’re just coming up small and in some really big spots. And you know, that’s not the mark of a team. That’s inspiring confidence that, that you’re going to win multiple games in January and get to a Super Bowl.
8Nestor Aparicio 24:07
They are a four point favorites. We’re going to be up at Hollywood casino in Perryville. On Sunday morning, you can bet on the game. You can have the $30 brunch with us, Luke’s gonna be joining us for the Maryland crab cake tour on Friday. That’s brought to you by the Maryland lottery, Raven scratch offs to give away our friends and window nation and Jiffy Lube with us as well. So we’re gonna get the crabcake tour going again. Obviously, we have a game in London on Sunday that’s got you know, Paramount significance. I mean, this really puts the focus back on Lamar, the Ravens the Orioles aren’t playing tonight, tomorrow night anytime for the next six months. We’re gonna have plenty of Mike Elias and John Angelo’s and lease talk and all of that but the actual focus on the ravens and their hope and their promise to win a Super Bowl will be we’re going to live and die with that the next couple of weeks and I would say for the state of the franchise and where they are that the defense is ahead of the The offense right now. That’s not a bad thing. I don’t think it’s a bad thing at all that row Quan Smith has been great and Patrick Queens been visible and Kyle Hamilton has emerged and you know, all of these things, but there is this focus on the offense to say, first off getting the pieces in order, right? Like, it was always Ronnie Stanley, Ronnie Stanley, let’s get him back. Then it’s Lamar, Lamar, Lamar every December now, you know. And now it’s back home in the money and who’s really going to run the ball? And are they going to fumble the ball? And where’s the ball security and Melvin Gordon and Anthony Mitchell’s kid and what happened to Gus and so to me this, the identity you talk about is what are you going to be offensively because 6000 yards passing and we’re gonna throw the ball 40 times a day, like all that and to your point last week was almost a worst case scenario. Lamar hasn’t played much in Pittsburgh, he hasn’t played big in Pittsburgh, he hasn’t had a chance to play in Pittsburgh COVID All the things that happen and he throws the ball really well. Like really well, I mean, hits guys between the eighth and the whatever are in their single digits, because that’s what they all have to wear now. I mean, you want to wear a single digit jersey, catch the ball, catch the ball, you know what I mean? And so and then Lamar gets heat, right? Because he throws the pic at the end and he’s thinks well he can’t throw that pic. But if any of those number of those guys catch a ball, he it’s he’s not even in the game to your point and the ball can’t go over Marlin Humphreys head so really does kind of work in unison that once they can’t run the ball and once they’re not in second into orlimar has to run the ball and have a chance of getting broken in half. A lot of things conspired in Pittsburgh to go wrong for them. And um the Marlon Humphrey thing aside ball going over his head not good for the defense that that happens. pass rush, like to see more, you know, run stopping fine, they’re going to need to run stop this week ran no doubt about that. Right. So offensively, finding them in some level of what are you? Who’s doing what what are our roles here? Who’s usurping this JK Dobbins role. What’s Odell Beckham doing on the team? Is Bateman going to go in the Prashad Perriman. Category? I mean, get Aguilar out there more if he’s going to run around and get open and maybe catch the ball some of the time he had dropped his Philadelphia people thought he was a dropper a decade ago. Yeah, I mean, all these names and all these people and Morgan, Moses and Macquarie and who’s going to play right tackle and Linda bomb comes back and winds up making the biggest mistake of the game. And he’s the heady guy, right? So the offense for me finding whatever that’s going to be because it feels disjointed in a lot of ways because of the offensive line because of the injuries. Now we have drops we can add into this. But it really started when Dobbins went sideways early on. And we’re like, all right, that was the plan that he was going to be the guy taking the ball instead of Lamar, the first half of the game, three quarters of the game, before we get to Gus, what is this going to be when it grows up? And we’re six weeks into this? Let’s figure this out. Yeah, I really
Luke Jones 28:29
liked that. You just said, what is this going to be when it grows up? Because I think we’ve seen stretches where it has looked good, right? I mean, I mean, again, the quick game that they used in Cincinnati, I love that, you know, especially considering what the state of their offensive line was, and Lamar operated that so well. So, you know, we’ve seen what it can look like, you know, it has hardly been all bad, you know, far from it. But at the same time, you need more consistency. And, you know, somewhat sometimes even in a couple of their wins, they haven’t necessarily finished games as well as you would like you know, whether you’re getting into your four minute offense and running the football and being able to to clock so you know, it’s not as though they’ve been perfect even in their in their victories. But you’re right, you want to start seeing this become what it’s supposed to become. And, you know, that goes for Todd Monken that goes for running the ball that goes for throwing the ball that goes for catching the ball, just knowing assignments, not having pre snap penalties, not having mistakes like Tyler lendr been made on Sunday. But, you know, yeah, there’s something to be said about what exactly is the identity mean? You know, the passing game has a timed look good. You know, I think Lamar Jackson at times has looked really good. But there have also been times where it hasn’t looked as effective. It’s just been very up and down. very inconsistent. A lot of Drag, that’s the term that Todd Monken likes to use in terms of just the operations. So you need to start putting that together. And yeah, it’s only week six, you know, there’s a lot of football after the three and two, they’re in really good position, you know, because this is not even if this division looks a little bit different than we were talking about a week ago, because Cincinnati looked a little more like Cincinnati, be it not against, you know, a top elite team or anything like that, but got to win when they absolutely needed it. And as much as we’ve spent time talking about the Steelers not being good, and I still don’t think they’re very good. But give them credit. They, Dave eventually took what the Ravens were trying to give to them for, you know, three and a half quarters, they they finally took it after that. So I guess you give them credit to browns, we’ll see what’s going to happen with Watson. But the point is, this division is still sitting right there for the ravens to seize control of it. And they’re two and one on the road in the division should be three No, but they’re not. But that’s still, you know, you’ll take that right way better than me and Owen, three in the division. But at some point in time, you want to see this start to take hold as far as what you envision it being and I think it is still very much a team that wants to run the football, pass it a little more than they did in previous years, certainly be a little more wide open. And we’ve seen them use way more 11 personnel way more three wide receiver sets. And I think from a spacing standpoint, I think that will give them more room to run the football between the tackles, I think that will help Lamar Jackson, shake free when he scrambles and takes off. So I understand what they’re trying to do. But you still need to go out and do it. And that’s where it’s just been very, very choppy for them. So you hope you mentioned the right tackle situation, we’ll see how that looks this week. You know, Morgan, Moses, you know, missed his first game in nine years, this past Sunday, Macquarie left with a chest issue. So we’ll see what the injury report looks like the practice participation looks like but overall, they are getting healthier. So that’s where you do take some solace, even with these two disappointing defeats in three weeks where you say they lost games, they should have won, you know, based on how most of those those games looked, but they are getting healthier, which should make a difference. But it’s time to start putting it together. Because they do have some tough stretches that are coming up not I’m not a big believer in the Titans, but they’re not complete garbage either or anything like that, you know, they’ll beat you and we’ve seen this in the past, they’ll beat you. If you don’t play your best football, the Ravens painfully have learned that lesson. So gotta shut down the run. Gotta play mistake free football, limit the turnovers. I mean, they’ve got to knock off the turnovers. I mean, you’re just killing your operation. When you give the other team the football. I mean, that’s it’s Captain Obvious, but they’ve got to do it, you know that you got to stop turning the ball over. So they do that. Get a win and in Tennessee, have a flight home playing against a good Detroit Lions team. Then you’re feeling much better about yourself at that point. But if you go to, you know, you go to London and notice they did arrive much earlier they they flew to London on Monday rather than Thursday.
Nestor Aparicio 33:24
Remember, a couple of years ago John did all that Hokey Pokey out on the west coast at Santa San Jose, and we’re gonna stay here. I don’t. I don’t know. It’s kind of like asking Brandon Hyde about five days off, which I did in the aftermath. Like, yeah, it’s like, what do you do with something with creatures of habit when you break their habit to make it feel like you didn’t break their habit when they know you broke their habit, and your cars are on the wrong side of the road? And it’s six hours behind and your wife’s over there? And there’s nothing normal about being overseas, especially when you have a business to do and I mean, they’re not on vacation over there. All those parts of it may feel that way when they go out for fishing chips for dinner and you know, and the league wants them to do certain things and then ravens flocks all I don’t have any people flocked over there. I know we some fans when I don’t think it’d be nearly as much as the first time just on the basis of the dollar and how much it was a really expensive trip. So I don’t know about all that, but none of the will be normal. And the guys who know the trip this six years ago, one of the five six guys left on that roster. Justin Tucker, a handful of guy I mean, Flacco was in that locker room for crying out loud.
Luke Jones 34:34
8Yeah, I don’t think it’s that many Nestor I don’t have it in front of me. But Justin Tucker comes to mind. And after that, I mean, you’re talking you know, Brent urban was on that team. Obviously he had a stint you know, stints elsewhere and then came back. That’s it, but it’s not. It is not many you know, Ronnie Stanley. Yeah, I mean, like I said, there, there are a couple but it is not many it really is not so. And let’s be clear. That’s probably that might be a good thing, you know. So they don’t know, they’re not thinking about that, because we just talked about, you know, this team hasn’t handled situations well, when it goes sideways. It’s kind of snowballed for them. Right. So, so maybe that’s a good thing. But, yeah, I mean, it’s they’re going out there earlier. How are they going to handle that? You know, I’m not questioning their professionalism. But how are you handling things, you know, that you’re you are outside of your comfort zone, you are in a different environment? So how are they going to handle that? I think it’s perfectly reasonable to ask that, at the same time, on paper, on paper, and the same thing applied against nd the same thing applied against Pittsburgh, on paper. This is a better football team, then, you know, then the Tennessee Titans you know, on paper, it’s much more talented football team, but that doesn’t matter if you’re gonna go out there and let the Titans hang around and make mistakes, turn the ball over miscommunications. Don’t you do those things and you leave Tennessee in the game, they absolutely are capable of beating us. So we’ll see how it plays out. Need to have a good week of practice. Hopefully, you know, the injury reports looking continuing the trend and a more positive direction as it started to the last week or two. So we’ll see how it plays out. But it’s good when you get when you’re feeling so much better about yourselves. But Pittsburgh in the rearview mirror. You have Ravens fans, Baltimore fans who’ve been frustrated over this last week, finally have something to be happy about after the last week. You do that, then you’ve stabilized but yeah, there’s there’s so much that we saw last Sunday that it’s hard for me to shake you know, I again, I don’t like seeing a team that handled adversity as poorly as they did across the board. Late in that game in Pittsburgh.
Nestor Aparicio 36:53
Leadership leadership leadership. We are in Arlington, Texas, Luke and I will be together a drug city on Friday for the Maryland crabcake Tour presented by the Maryland lottery we’ll have some ravens scratch offs to give away hopefully some lucky ones. I think they’ll find me some cake they don’t have cake they got whiskey and they have more back so and they have milkshakes but they’ll have cake for me I’m sure they have some Dangerously Delicious pie no they have ice cream they have to Harker right there and and Luke doesn’t know the joys of drugs city so we’re gonna get Luke over to Dundalk come on by say Happy Birthday say hello. There is no game five Camden Yards on Friday night so unfortunately and of course the Ravens will be in London on Sunday we’re gonna be up at a Hollywood casino in Berryville. Early in the morning on Sunday. It’s 30 bucks for the brunch you want to come by have some french toast some eggs and bacon do it all day wing sliders the whole deal. I’m going to be having the bacon be the salmon BLT. I love that that sandwich they had up there so I’ll be there early in the morning I’ll be giving away copies of Purple Rain to I’ll have Raven scratch offs to give away. They have all sorts of table games and fun stuff that they do every single Sunday, including having the NFL games on like great TVs you feel like you’re in Vegas when you’re in Hollywood casino in parallel. So come on up and say hello on Sunday morning. That’s the other side of my birthday. So the birthday celebration on Friday isn’t really my birthday. The Friday the 13th I’ve been lucky or unlucky My God. The Orioles aren’t playing I guess it was an unlucky Friday the 13th and then on Sunday, the 15th My birthday is Saturday, the 15th we get to celebrate Jim Palmer’s birthday. So come to Hollywood Casino. It’s near shawarma. Jim Palmer Jr. That’s what I’m going to share with Jim Palmer jersey to celebrate Jim’s birthday on Sunday morning. He’s Luke I am Nestor together. We’re going to continue to do the sports thing around here from Arlington, Texas back to Baltimore over to jolly old London and back again we are wn st am 1570, Towson Baltimore. It’s been a busy week around here. We never stop talking Baltimore positive
