Quite a mini-week ahead with the upstart Browns and rejuvenated Bengals coming to Baltimore just four days apart as the rest of the NFL looks to the Ravens as a legitimate Super Bowl favorite. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss DeShaun Watson, Joe Burrow and what will stand in the way of the best laid purple plans before Thanksgiving.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
ravens, week, browns, team, defense, playing, offense, point, pittsburgh, game, quarterback, feels, baltimore, cincinnati, cleveland, schedule, good, lamar, ball, winning
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Thom Loverro
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
Hey, welcome home we are W en st Towson, Baltimore and Baltimore positive. We are enjoying the fact that the Baltimore Ravens are 72. And certainly the the Orioles going to have some offseason things happening at some point here. But full focus this week with a team playing two games at home on Sunday and again next Thursday division games against I don’t know if they’re sending teams but they’re certainly improving teams. We’re trying to prove things around here. The Maryland crab cake tour is back on the road about a dozen times between now and Christmas. We’re going to start the party, where we probably should start right down in Lexington market where they’ve been doing it since 1887. With our friends at Feedly seafood, it’s all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery. I’ll have these rabid scratch offs to give away, but a lucky batch for us thus far and it’s going to be even a luckier batch. As we get into this. I guess I’m gonna get those gingerbread and peppermint scratch and sniff scratch offs to give away at some point when we get into December but in the meantime, could it be fade these this week? Gonna be Costas next week? We’re gonna be at State Fair later in the month. We’re going to be a Coco’s later in the month. We’re going to try for the very first time the gertrudes crabcake over the BMA with Dan Rodricks to advance his big night and big play Baltimore, you have no idea so lots and lots of great things going on. So I’m brought to you by the Maryland lottery in conjunction with our friends at window nation 866 90 nation you buy to you get to free five years 0% financing, and our newest sponsor for the Maryland crab cake toward Jiffy Lube MultiCare right around the corner from you more than an oil change, but they’re there to help you with all sorts of things, including my oil change my little orange light going on a couple of weeks ago down on Merritt Boulevard, Luke Jones is out in Owings Mills. He’ll be swooping in for practices this week. And if there’s one thing having Harbaugh around and you see these veteran coaches, Pete Carroll and Mike Tomlin certainly know how to deal with short turnarounds, these long trips to London get back from Arizona and being pretty spry against the Seahawks. The Seahawks getting out of bed and looking like they wanted to go back to bed on Sunday morning. Look, this is this is meat and potatoes of the season here and the Ravens are going to be favored this week. They could be favored next week. They now are there that team right but when you went 37 to three and you start winning games like this, and you’re seven and to Tony Romo and Jim dancer and downy anointing you Sippel, contenders and favorites and Aaron Schatz was on the air this week, what are your favorites? He was on last week before 37 to three and said the Ravens should be the Super Bowl favorite that they are statistically in his world. And now they’re healthy, real good time for the Browns to be coming in, from our perspective, maybe not from their perspective, because they look like they may have it together. And I certainly I can promise you this. Cincinnati has it together. I don’t know whether short rest is gonna affect them or how it’s going to work out. But the Ravens have proven a lot, right. I mean, over the course of time, we’re all very enamored with them and bringing them the flowers. Not even there’s a flowers today. But boy, these next eight weeks, they got a real half a season. And when you look at the quarterbacks, they’re playing the travel, they’re going to do two trips to the West Coast holiday games. It’s a good thing. They’re healthy, they’re going to need it. Oh, no
8
Luke Jones 03:07
question about it. I mean, they n also mentioned this as well Cincinnati have among the very, very toughest schedules that you’re that you’re going to find in the NFL the rest of the way. It bears out look at the Ravens remaining schedule. Cleveland Cincinnati, at Los Angeles going out there playing the Chargers team that at times looks good, other times not so good. So you don’t really know what you’re gonna get the Rams I think some of the Mojo they had going as kind of gone by the wayside, you know, a team that’s dealing with injuries themselves and who knows what the status is gonna be for Matthew Stafford at that point, but at Jacksonville, challenging at San Francisco, which their recent struggles aside the 40 Niners game, that might be the only game left on the schedule where I could see the Ravens assuming nothing strange from a health injury standpoint, that might be the only game left on the schedule where the Ravens could be the underdog, you know, I think they’re gonna be favored in just about every other game the rest of the way, you know, so it just speaks to where they been. It speaks to how impressive it’s been here recently. And, you know, at the same time, those games I just reeled off, and then they finish up home against Miami Dolphins. Now they’ve got an offense with a lot of speed. You know, I’m still wondering if that team is able to rise to the occasion against another good team, and they haven’t been to this point, but still a lot of talent there. And then home against Pittsburgh to close out the regular season. It’s not an easy schedule. I mean, the Rams at home feels like the closest thing to a lay up in the second half of the season and even the Rams at times and again, maybe a little bit earlier in the season. They looked okay at times. So it’s not an easy schedule. But the good news is when I say that this is a Ravens team that’s playing some of the very best football in the NFL. As I said in a previous conversation, I’m still calling Kansas City as the team to beat in the AFC until someone does it, because they’ve earned that for the last three or four years now. But there’s not a team in football playing better than the Baltimore Ravens right now. So, you know, you look at the point differential, you look at how the defense is playing at such an elite level, the offense, still wanting to want to see more consistency, but still playing at a high level for large chunks of time. I’ve officially entered that territory Nestor, where we were in 2019, where I said is that year went on, I wasn’t going to pick that against the Ravens again, until they give me a reason to pick against them. And we’ve officially reached that Mark, I’m picking them to beat Cleveland, I’m going to pick them to beat Cincinnati, I’m going to pick them to beat the chargers, I mean, go down the list, I think they’re gonna lose another game or two at some point, because that’s just how this league is. And we know that just because you’re playing great right now, doesn’t mean you will be a month from now buffalo is a great example of that when you look at how the bills looked in late September compared to where they are right now. But this is a really, really good football team. And as we’ve said, throughout our conversations in the wake of this big win over the Seahawks, it still feels like they can get better too. And I think that’s what’s really exciting about this thing, assuming you can stay healthy, which is a big assumption. But it’s the same one that every team in the league deals with, right? You’re, you’re a couple injuries away from not feeling so great anymore. But where the Ravens stand right now, how can you not be impressed with what this team is doing on both sides of the football? Um,
Thom Loverro 06:42
I think the level of competition and what we’re going to see certainly going to be different from a quarterbacking perspective. And you and I have you go out to Baltimore positive and hear Luke and I talked about the defense, the offense, we’ve given equal praise for seven and to team that, quite frankly, could have been a nine and o team or an eight one team, you look at the Indianapolis game or the Pittsburgh game. It’s not like they’ve ever rolled the ball out there this year and not shown up. And that’s that’s how John Harbaugh keeps his job. And that’s how Eric Acosta keeps his job bringing in these kinds of players that we can sit here in early November, be a really good healthy football team and say, This is a Super Bowl contender, not every team gets to say that for one hour a year, let alone gets to say that for nine months. And then in the 10th and 11th month, they actually go out and do it. And that’s part of Harbaugh’s postgame speech on Sunday was you’re doing what we’re coaching you to do what we believed you could do, I don’t want to say peaking too early, or any of that jargon, you know, sports, right or jargon. But there is a lot of season left. And for you to have an expectation, they’re gonna lose one or two, I’ll hear that you’ve already threw that out, they’re gonna lose one or two more. I’ll give him two, they lose too much when they go six into the rest of the way. They’re 13 and four. I don’t know if that’s a one C but it’s certainly a two seat, right? I mean, you know, 13 for a, you know, I don’t know where Kansas City is going to be. But buffalo is not coming. I mean, Cincinnati would really have to be given their schedule and given the Ravens schedule. But if they lose two more games the rest of the way and they get through this. What are the two games they’re gonna lose? They’re gonna go to Jacksonville, and when they’re gonna go to San Francisco, when they’re gonna go to LA, and when they’re gonna beat Cincinnati hear on short rest, and they’re there, they’re gonna just take care of business. You know, Pittsburgh, I mean, they have games left, right? So yeah, I look at this and say, they only lose two more the rest of the way. Even if they don’t play great against Jacksonville and went on a 58 yard field goal in the end, because it’s nice down there, whatever. I’m here, all of that if they go six, and to the rest of the way, it would it would be a lot more impressive than being seven into to me right now. Especially given the age of some of their players. The fact that they do have the bubble wrap their quarterback their whole season is in their quarterback, not that it’s not every that way everywhere, but it’s specifically that way here. And, and he did have a good moment with Bobby Wagner and reporters were asking John Harbaugh, where to defer to Lamar, but I have a feeling Lamar is probably a little sore today. And I don’t know what that means for his game, but the running part of his game, that’s not the whole game anymore, right? And, and that’s where they really need to be, as they go into this, that they don’t need to think about going to Jacksonville and having Lamar run the ball 14 times for 98 yards and having to get loose twice, because they’re behind by 13 points. And that’s the way they can get the ball down the field. I think we all start to see these weapons and what they’re trying to do with the offense and running Lamar less and Sunday was a great example of that other than Him getting brought down by Bobby Wagner. And that wasn’t a good thing. I know one time he wasn’t getting hurt in the fourth quarter because he wasn’t on the field.
Luke Jones 10:08
No doubt about it. I mean, it’s all about diversifying the portfolio, right? You want to be able to do multiple things to win football games. And that’s, that’s always been my point in talking about the passing game and wanting to improve that passing game, but I just want to go back to, you know, when I made the comment that I expect that they’re going to lose a couple more games, that’s not at all to say that they’re assured to go to run the table or go seven. And what I mean, this is a really, this is a challenging schedule the rest of the way I’m just saying on a week to week basis, when you look at these matchups, you look at how the Ravens have performed compared to how these other teams are performing. Look. Cleveland, I think the Browns are low key kinda good if they can get even just okay play from Deshaun Watson. I mean, they were winning games, the PJ Walker, you know, I quarterback, even though I think the Ravens defense is better than Cleveland’s defense, it’s still really good defense. So that’s not a team that, you know, I’m not at all doing that as a layup. They’ve got to go out and play good football on Sunday, Cincinnati playing way better, you know, go down the list. I mentioned the chargers, which chargers team shows up, you know, the Chargers at times look like a legit playoff caliber team and other times? Not so much. And that’s kind of been their story for a number of years now. But you know, I mentioned the Rams, that’s the game right now that Okay, now the rams are some of their early successes that were maybe a little surprising, considering we thought that they were in kind of this rebuild mode. It feels like that’s going away at this point. You know, kind of like we talked about that with the Cardinals a couple weeks ago, when the Ravens were going in there to play but you know, Jacksonville, good team, San Francisco, I still think is a great team, or a really good team. I think they’re gonna figure things out, you know, with some of their recent injuries and recent struggles. Miami, the talents there on offense. I mean, the speed is scary. Just that, you know, they haven’t shown up the way they need to against good teams and Pittsburgh. That’s the game who knows, right? I mean, I don’t think the Steelers are very good. But their record says that they’re a playoff team. They’re the number five seed
Thom Loverro 12:12
8it reminds me a little bit of some of the billet gears were you looking at? Like, I don’t really think the team’s any good. But I don’t know. There’s three, there’s seven and
Luke Jones 12:19
four. And they’re winning. I mean, that’s what Mike Tomlin teams have become, in recent years, even at the end of the Roethlisberger era, it’s become that. So look, if the Ravens get a couple of injuries, or they start, you know, they revert to that mode where they’re letting teams back in games and not finishing strong. And hey, do what they did against Arizona last week, except it’s against the better team, they’ll lose some more games. There’s no doubt about that, if they do those things, but if they continue to build on what they’ve done over the last few weeks, the My point is, all of those teams I just laid out on the schedule, challenging as some of them might look on paper. All of those teams right now are saying, oh, boy, got the Ravens this week. Have you seen how they’ve been playing the plate. And that’s my point with where this team is right now. But it’s always, it’s week to week it’s matchup driven. It’s so dependent on who’s healthy and who’s not any given week. So it’s a long way to go. And there are plenty of pitfalls, potential pitfalls remaining on that schedule. My point is just looking at them on paper matchup to match up. It’s tough to look at that and say that the ravens are going to be an underdog in the eyes of Vegas, too often moving forward, assuming they stay relatively healthy here. And that’s that’s a good place to be. Yeah, that’s really exciting. And again, it gets back into that territory. They were in four years ago when they what reeled off 12 wins in a row to close the regular season and number one seed and we were talking about an AFC Championship game in Baltimore until well, the Tennessee Titans unfortunately showed up.
Thom Loverro 13:57
Well the one thing about Cleveland Cincinnati is I think we’re gonna be in football games for the next two weeks. I wouldn’t have said that Detroit or Seattle that if it gets out of hand it gets it I almost picked the game out of hand on Sunday. I mean, almost pick the 37 three like that, but I didn’t because I I really want to respect the defense but I want to see them continue to do this against legitimate starting quarterbacks. You know, Smith, legitimate starting quarterback, Jared Goff, a legitimate starting quarterback. I think then there’s elite quarterbacks and their elite teams and you think of the 40 Niners defense as being involved it’s certainly a different kind of offense from what they’ve done with Brock party since Garoppolo. left those NFC weird matchups and the rams and and you know, they they see the dolphins a little more often some of these AFC tees but Jim Schwartz, he circles this this issue on the calendar dude, I know my boy, he’s over in our beautiful he’s got a number one defense, your defense, my defense my players Myles Garrett, making a case to be the best defensive player in the league at this point. There’s robot Smith right there. For a position different impact, but this is statements, stuff for the browns, you can never get out of their own way and at least are on the positive side of the ledger. They have their quarterback, they just shut a team out. I don’t think you ever get a whole lot of confidence when you’re a Browns fan. But I do think there are reasons to believe, at 330. On Sunday, this is going to be 20 to 1317 to 13. It’s going to be one of those kinds of division games that the ravens are going to find themselves in, in a close game that handle it well against Indianapolis didn’t handle it well against Pittsburgh, right. And when the games are in the balance to your point, finishing 37 Three, you know it, it smelled really good. The last two weeks, if you’ve driven your car down to the parking lot, ah, and you’ve gone in and you leave laughing in the fourth quarter, there are going to be some slobberknocker as I figure these next two and especially the Thursday night game, which is always just awful all the way around and for Cincinnati as well. There’s a this is an interesting couple of days of football because we’re kissing their ass right now. But God forbid they wake up next Friday, seven and four. Right?
Luke Jones 16:15
Yeah, I mean, but things can also turn that quickly. I’ve made mention of the bills too. At the end of September, it looked like their loss, their season opening. Yeah, that Monday night loss where Rodgers gets hurt on what the fourth play of the game, whatever it was, that was in the rearview mirror, the bills were rolling, they had blown out three straight blowout wins. And we see how that’s gone for them since then. So things can change very quickly. You know, I think what’s interesting for me, and we’ve talked about this element a lot, because obviously, I’m a baseball guy, you know that the whole element of facing a pitcher the second time, third time through the order. This will be the first time that a team has gone up against the Todd Monken ravens offense for a second time. So what adjustments has Cleveland made? And and we look at that final score and look so much was made about Cleveland’s quarterback situation with DTR. And I mean, he had no clue what he was doing out there. That was evident because they benched him the following week. And they made PJ Walker the quarterback with Watson out. But yeah, the 28 the three final score didn’t really reflect how Cleveland’s defense played for large stretches of that game, it was really the second quarter where the Ravens really got to them and really move the ball. Other than that it didn’t move the ball much, you know, the rest of the game it was it was a grind, and they they couldn’t really run the ball the way that they would have wanted to in the second half. And that’s something that we kind of forget, because the final score and they won and all that that was great, you know, especially on the road, but I am going to be interested to see how the Cleveland defense fares against them second time around against the mungkin offense see and Lamar for the second time this year. And that’s not to say that they’re going to shut them down just makes this matchup that much more intriguing. And, and on the flip side, the Ravens while I’m certainly not expecting Deshaun Watson to have a banner day against them, I’m not picking any quarterback to have a huge day against them their defense at this point in time, but you would think they’d be better equipped to have a little more success than they did last time around which is pretty low bar. So
8Thom Loverro 18:18
the Browns read the running game greatly affected. Yeah, yeah.
Luke Jones 18:24
I mean, you know, you don’t lose a Nick Chubb. I mean, we’ve talked about Dobbins here, right. I mean, Nick Chubb has been, you know, one of the very two or three best running backs in football over the last five years, you lose that guy early in the season, it’s gonna take you a while to figure it out. And it’s not as though they haven’t made it work. But how is their offense going to perform in Baltimore against this defense that is playing at such an elite level? It’s a division game. You know, it’s as simple as that. Right? I mean, it’s not quite as extreme as throwing out the numbers. It doesn’t feel as weird as ravens Steelers has felt over the last couple years where, again, you wonder how Pittsburgh is going to score and yet they hang around in the Ravens have given up. Last few times they played they given up a last minute touchdown and lost as a result. So it’s not quite in that territory, but still a division opponent. It’s still Browns team that, again, I think is pretty good. I mean, be the number six seed in the AFC right now we’re talking about an AFC north? Well, I think the Ravens have very much earned the right to call themselves the best team in the division and an AFC north where the other three teams are all they’re the three wildcards right now. I mean, that’s, it’s crazy, nine, nine weeks into the season to be talking about that. But it speaks to how much of a challenge still lies ahead for them. So the good news is they put themselves in a kind of position that even if they were to drop one of these two, they’re still in excellent shape. But to your point, you don’t want to be looking, you’re already smelling yourself too much, right? You don’t want to be feeling too good about yourself because you could look up as you mentioned, a week from Friday and suddenly you’re saying Going in for, and dare I say if you’re seven and four, what does that mean? Are you in third place? Are you in fourth place suddenly in the division, I mean, that’s how crazy this AFC North is right now. So they certainly, they can’t be looking past making any assumptions, anything like that Caitlyn is going to come in and give them everything they can handle, especially talking about that Browns defense. And then after that rematch with Cincinnati, and I mean, the Bengals team that boy they looked at, and we were, you know, you and I debated this, whether they were dead and how much trouble they were in at one in three, but where they’ve gotten themselves off the mat, and they have a very difficult second half schedule, just like the ravens, but they’re looking a lot better. So Thursday night, if
Thom Loverro 20:44
you want these big games, though, they’ve gone to a Super Bowl. Yeah, they’ve gone in one big games, they went on the road, they slay the giant, they beat mahomes they just beat the snot out of buffalo again, the fan base is all wound up. My wife’s like, are those empty seats? I’m like, no, no, no, they’re doing like a stripe thing. And there’s like 28 Bills fans in the whole stadium in blue. Because their tickets are 300 bucks. The Bengals have and it’s hard for me. And since Chad threw me out, I don’t go there anymore. But I went there for 28 years. And even when the Carson Palmer thing was happening, and an Andy Dalton thing was happening or whatever, there was never enthusiasm for their brand and for their team, that Super Bowl and what I witnessed out in LA, which feels like five minutes ago, Odell Beckham probably feels like it’s longer. But I saw that out there and I kind of almost laughed at the Zubaz and all of that. But the Bengals are like a real thing and some real energy off of what they’ve done. I’m worried more about them than I am the browns and I’m worried about the browns. Now I’m worried about both of them. And I think the ravens are playing so well that everybody else is smelling them. And I don’t know that it’s great to be playing that well and Halloween, like you know, but it’s great to be healthy. But you’re seeing two teams here that are ascending. Like literally they are ascending they’re playing their best football right now. Despite the fact that Klieman does have its running back. We don’t have our running back either. We can all talk about guys that are missing. But I’m looking at these two games and saying, Boy, this is the this is the 10 most important days of the season. They’re always the next 10 days right? But sure, sure, boy boy these two games here. You get through these on the right side you’re nine and two, you’re ready you then you can talk about all the Tony Romo talked about in our first AFC Championship game at home we’re going to make the Chiefs come here but then you still got to go to San Francisco when you gotta go out to LA you’re going to have la come here you got Miami coming you got real quarterbacks real offense is coming in. That’s going to give this defense a chance to lead the league in sacks a chance for MATA BK and for Patrick queen and Geno’s stone to get paid and further because look, smells great. And we’re at the halfway point plus two quarters. Man, they’re gonna be hard plus to play this well the next day, right? Like, as well as they’ve played on both sides of the ball and escape. And they didn’t even escape Indianapolis and Pittsburgh tight games. That worries me. They’re in a 1613 game in the fourth quarter. And they’re one mistake away from blown at one ball going over their head, one fumble 111 something. That’s not the position. I want to see this football team and I like it a whole lot more. I want to echo our Oriole reporter and saying the Ravens need more blowouts. They need more blowup?
Luke Jones 23:31
8Well, as as we said during baseball season easier said than done. What they did against Detroit. What they did against Detroit is not easy to do. And even with them repeating that from a final score standpoint. It’s not as though the Ravens came out and scored touchdowns on their first four drives on Sunday. That’s why to me, and I didn’t talk about this too much. But I wrote about this at Baltimore positive.com. I mean, for me, the really telling moment in the game on Sunday was the way that the Ravens handled the defense handled that sudden change at the end of the first half when Beckham fumbles the ball there? Seattle has two timeouts. They’re at what the 4142 yard line, whatever it was. They’ve got a chance to make it 1410 At halftime and you’re going in and thinking wow, they kind of felt like they control that game in the first half for the most part, and they’re really up for points. That would have been kind of deflating. I think that could have led to a different second half. And instead, Travis Jones bats down a pass. Kyle van Noy sack, cowboy strip sack recovery. Suddenly you had the ball and Justin Tucker territory with just a few yards and they kick a field goal and they go up 17 Three. I mean, that was just that was the stuff of a championship caliber defense right there where you say, You know what, the offense stuff that’s totally messed up. No problem. We’re not just going to make a stop here. But we’re going to stop them, send them backwards. We’re gonna get the ball back and you’re going to score you know, you’re going to score that field goal. You were trying to score before back and fumble the ball so they’re gonna feel even worse about themselves at
Thom Loverro 24:55
halftime. Exactly, exactly.
Luke Jones 24:58
I mean, it was so demoralizing and And we saw Gus Edwards come out and run for 42 yards and it’s all over the route was on at that point in time. But to get back to what you said, Look, you and I have the luxury of sitting here and I can already read the Facebook comments right now on the video that you’re gonna post of this. You guys are looking ahead take it one week at a time. Well, we don’t play we can look ahead. If you’re John Harbaugh, and you’re trying to if you’re Mike McDonald, if you’re Todd Monken if you’re ro Quan Smith if you’re a Lamar Jackson, if you’re Mark Andrews, go down the list, Kyle van Noy. Jadeveon. Clowney all the veterans on this team, Kevin Zeitler, you’re focused on Cleveland, and Cleveland alone. Okay, yeah, there’s some different things that you’re going to do in terms of taking care of your body, because you know, you have the Cincinnati game four days after that. So you know, John’s probably going to have them on a little bit of a lighter on field schedule this week, doing some things just to get them off their feet, keep them fresh, knowing they have two games in a five day period against Division rivals, and you’re not gonna
Thom Loverro 25:57
get the practice much before the Cincinnati gates. But practice is perfect, right? Yeah,
8Luke Jones 26:02
exactly. But you want to be fine. But you also you don’t want to push these guys too hard right now. And that’s why in recent weeks, and John’s even been asked about this, they’ve had walkthroughs, on Fridays, they’ve they’ve practiced without helmets, so the last couple of Fridays, and that’s not going to be a rest of the year thing. But that’s because of the stretch coming up. And the good news for them, as we said, if they can get to nine into, and they’ve got the Chargers game to go, and then their bye week. I mean, boy, it sets up for them to have a really fun and exciting month of December, if you can do that. But the Ravens themselves all those players, I just mentioned all those coaches I just mentioned, the singular focus is on Cleveland right now, because it can go the other way very quickly here, because you are going up against quality football teams and teams
Thom Loverro 26:50
or wildcard teams right now. They’re not just thinking they’re in, they’re thinking of turning the lights out in Baltimore, right? Like, these aren’t, they’re not playing for their lives, they believe they’re good, because their records all say they’re good. This is a different version of the division than we’ve seen, right? We’re talking about Pittsburgh, poor little Pittsburgh, they’re winning as much as anybody and who knows, we’re gonna see by the time we get, you know, to that period of time, but this version of Cleveland, this is a formidable version of Cleveland right now. A much more formidable version of Cleveland, we saw six weeks ago. Yeah,
Luke Jones 27:23
I mean, 2020, you know, the Browns were pretty good that year, right and made the playoffs beat Pittsburgh, I mean, so it’s not as though they haven’t been decent at all. But yeah, it’s a good team. If you want me to stack these teams in terms of power rankings, in terms of thinking, who I think is a more serious contender, yeah, it’s the ravens and the Bengals. And I am going to put the browns in the Steelers in that, you know, a step below. But it’s not dramatic. And look, the record says what they are, these are wild card teams right now. So you’ve got to go out there and handle your business. And we know it’s different in the division. Even if you’re talking about a division opponent coming into Baltimore, we know that that that is a different animal than facing Detroit, who you typically see once every four years. I know they played two years ago, but you get my point. And Seattle, who you see every four years. I mean, there’s a lack of familiarity with Lamar Jackson in this offense. And I continue to say, and it’s not a knock on the ravens, it’s an advantage that they have in the same way that if you’re an American League team facing a national league pitcher, who throws 100 with a wicked slider, and you only see that guy, once every few years, or however it plays out. And I know the schedule is different now. But you understand my point. That’s different. There’s a novelty to it, that you’re just not ready for these division opponents. They know Lamar really well, they know the Ravens really well. And the Ravens know them very well, too. So it really does come down to focusing on Sunday’s task against the browns, because I’ll continue to say as much as Deshaun Watson, there’s disdain and deserved disdain for him. And a lot of criticism about his play. I mean, he has not been very good for them, period. And a story he hasn’t. But he is better than the quarterback they encountered when they went there. Back in week four. So how’s that going to go? How’s it gonna go against this Cleveland defense that is now seeing the Ravens for a second time so I think they have to be prepared for the close football game for a tough Browns team coming in and I’m gonna pick the ravens and win up like I said, I’m I’m not picking against the Ravens again until they do something that makes me feel like they deserve to be picked against quite frankly, you know, like they did early in the year against India and Pittsburgh, you know, but they certainly cannot be looking past anyone. They certainly cannot be feeling too good about themselves, in the sense of hey, hey, look at us. We’re seven and two were tied with Kansas City atop the AFC you start thinking in those terms you start looking ahead, that’s when you’re gonna get your feelings hurt by the Browns who again, where do they rank? Do I think the Browns are a serious Super Bowl contender? No, I don’t I just don’t know. What are they a legitimate playoff caliber kind of contender? Absolutely with that defense, so you better be ready to buckle it up on Sunday and be ready for a physical football game.
Thom Loverro 30:10
Well, I’m gonna have all my pics later this week. I was a little sluggish this week but I began the week 12 over 500 right now and one honor for the week but we’ll see if we can get get some help on Monday night from the Jets but a full week and a full slate ahead here. We’re doing the Maryland crab cake tour taking it out on the road we are beginning on Friday at fade these I’m also emceeing the American Cancer excuse me, American Cancer Foundation’s event on Thursday night down at the Museum of industry. So big week around here lots of things going on but ravens five and a half point favorites when I get together with Christian Horton from Hollywood casino we’re picking the winners and we’re going to be up in Hollywood casino as part of our Maryland crab cake Tour presented by the Maryland lottery conjunction with a friends window nation as well as Jiffy Lube multi care families this week cost this next week. We’re going to Coco’s we’re going back to Pappas, this time in Parkville. We’re going to be gertrudes at the BMA later on in the month. I’m going to be with Governor Westmore, down in Annapolis later on this month, and we’re also going to be kicking it back over to Catonsville and State Fair in the early part of December, plenty of holidays. They had plenty of eggnog they got pumpkin spice leftover. We got things to happen in here and a seven and two football team Luke can be found at Baltimore, Luke anywhere social media follows. You can follow them out to what Owings Mills here this week as we get ready for the Jim Schwartz lead defense of the Cleveland Browns did a quick turnaround against the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday night. Moment of silence for the career of Joey Votto as I watched the little Cincinnati action there the other day. I miss going to Cincinnati, but I don’t miss the chili. I am Nestor we are wn st am 1570, Towson Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore. Positive and chilly in Cincinnati.
