The big picture of NFL maze and trying to win games

It’s three weeks into the season and the Baltimore Ravens are 1-2 and the loser at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City on Sunday evening will be 1-3. Luke Jones and Nestor take a bumpy ride through the league and the fast week ahead for Ravens and Chiefs and licking wounds.

Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the NFL Week 3 action, highlighting the Ravens’ upcoming games against the Lions and Chiefs. They noted the Ravens’ 2-1 start and the importance of the short week after a Monday night game. They praised the Ravens’ consistency over the past 15 years, contrasting it with other teams’ instability. They also discussed the Chargers’ 3-0 record, the Colts’ surprising 3-0-1 start, and the struggles of teams like the Texans and Raiders. The conversation included personal anecdotes about travel and NFL experiences, emphasizing the unpredictability and excitement of the NFL season.

NFL Week 3 Recap and Personal Anecdotes

• Nestor Aparicio shares his experience of traveling to Los Angeles, attending a baseball game at Dodger Stadium, and navigating the city with his wife.
• Nestor describes his culinary adventure at Rubio’s fish taco in El Segundo, California, and his observations of the South Bay Chargers’ presence in the area.
• Nestor recounts his NFL weekend experiences, including attending a game in Phoenix, seeing various NFL jerseys at the airport, and watching Monday Night Football.
• Nestor and Luke Jones discuss the NFL weekend’s entertainment value, highlighting the number of last-minute game-winning scores and the performance of teams like the Steelers and Patriots.

AFC North and Team Performance

• Nestor and Luke discuss the performance of AFC North teams, with Nestor expressing skepticism about Cincinnati without Joe Burrow.
• Luke notes the resilience of Pittsburgh, despite their defensive shortcomings, and the potential of Cleveland if they had a better quarterback.
• The conversation shifts to other divisions, with Luke highlighting the Colts’ surprising start and the struggles of teams like Houston and the Raiders.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the Eagles’ performance, noting their reliance on Jalen Hurts and the impact of Jordan Davis’ big play against the Rams.

Chargers’ Emergence and League Dynamics

• Nestor shares his surprise at finding the Chargers’ campus in El Segundo, California, and reflects on the changes in Los Angeles sports.
• Luke and Nestor discuss the Chargers’ impressive start, their win over Kansas City, and the potential vulnerability of the Chiefs.
• The conversation touches on the impact of injuries on teams like the Steelers and the Bills, and the importance of quarterback play in the league.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the challenges faced by teams like the Bengals and Browns, and the potential for emerging teams like the Bears and Vikings.

Ravens’ Upcoming Games and League Landscape

• Nestor and Luke focus on the Ravens’ upcoming games against the Lions and Chiefs, emphasizing the importance of these matches for the Ravens’ season.
• Luke highlights the challenges of a short week after a Monday night game, noting the impact on the Ravens’ performance.
• The conversation covers the league landscape, with Luke discussing the potential of teams like the Colts and the challenges faced by teams like the Texans and Raiders.
• Nestor and Luke reflect on the stability and continuity of the Ravens’ organization, contrasting it with the instability of other teams.

Final Thoughts and League Predictions

• Nestor and Luke discuss the importance of the Ravens’ upcoming games and the potential impact on their playoff chances.
• Luke shares his thoughts on the league’s unpredictability, noting the surprising performances of teams like the Colts and the struggles of teams like the Saints.
• The conversation concludes with Nestor and Luke reflecting on the Ravens’ potential to be a playoff team and the importance of maintaining consistency.
• Nestor mentions upcoming segments on the Baltimore Positive podcast, including discussions on baseball, crab cakes, and responsible gambling.

Luke Jones and Nestor take a b…ek ahead for Ravens and Chiefs

Mon, Sep 22, 2025 9:01AM • 40:47

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

8

NFL Week 3, Ravens, Chiefs, Monday Night Football, AFC North, Joe Burrow, Pittsburgh Steelers, Cincinnati Bengals, Kansas City Chiefs, Los Angeles Chargers, Indianapolis Colts, Daniel Jones, Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson, John Harbaugh.

SPEAKERS

Nestor Aparicio, Luke Jones

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore. Positive football week, Monday Night Football, Sunday afternoon football. Short week. Luke Jones will be on the scene as he is, and will be on Monday night for all things ravens and we were pretty much on the couch over the weekend. Look, I went to a baseball game last week. I went to Dodger Stadium. I got to go to Chavez Ravine, and I did my West Coast thing. But you know the football thing out there. Let me say this before we even get into Sunday on the couch, my wife and I, we when we travel, she drives, I navigate. I know LA really well. I’m driving around. She does not know LA well. She’s been there a handful of times. Never really liked la much, so I’m driving her around and showing her things she’s never seen. And I had a hankering for Rubio’s fish taco, and I know where the Rubio’s fish taco was just south of lax in El Segundo, home of George Brett and Ken Brett, by the way, and it’s a smokestack community right south of the airport, where the beaches aren’t really beautiful, and then Manhattan Beach, everything’s $12 million up on a hill. It’s beautiful. Looks like dusk and castles. Um, so I said, Let’s go get some tacos before we go to the airport, we make a turn off the freeway, and we pull up an El Segundo, and everything’s powder blue and gold, South Bay chargers, Harbaugh, Ortiz, Herbert, it was like, almost like being in San Diego 1971 you know, Maybe for Johnny, you what he found when he got out there. I just want to say it was an NFL weekend, and I traveled. I was in Phoenix all day, Friday and into Saturday morning and day. Saw Pat Tillman stuff everywhere. Saw Fitzgerald jerseys. Saw cowboys jerseys everywhere when you travel in an airport on a Saturday in this country, I saw packers, fans going this way, browns fans going that way. And I thought we got Monday Night Football. I can red eye back from Phoenix. No problem. Get some sleep. I really enjoy being on the couch all day, spending the day with Scott Hanson, as well as the really, really freaky deaky, weird throwback thing that CBS did. And, you know, whatever, if you see Evan, tell him, whatever he does to auction off those gold glasses, I hope it makes a lot of money for charity.

Luke Jones  02:36

Yeah, I enjoyed that. It was fun. It was cool to see Brent Musburger, and it was cool to see the reverence that some of those guys had for Brent Musburger. I mean, I think it was, I think it was I an eagle who said how much of an honor it was to because, you know, they do their 20 minutes before kickoff, like whip around, where every broadcast team will spend 90 seconds talking about their game, that he was able to send it back to Brent Musburger. He said, how much of an honor that was. I just I thought that was cool. I mean, the outfits and like that was a little hokey or whatever, but it’s a pregame show. We don’t need to take ourselves too seriously. But it was a very interesting day in the sense that if you asked me at halftime of the early window games, I thought it was pretty terrible. I mean, there because there were some lopsided games. The bad games on Sunday were bad. But when you end up seeing how it it all wound up, there were, there were seven different games where the game winning score came in the last three minutes. I mean, that was the most since in the merger era, according to Elias Sports Bureau. So you’re talking about a very entertaining day, even if it wasn’t conventional great football in the way that you normally think about it. I mean, I mean, look at the Pittsburgh game. I mean, Steelers didn’t play that well at all. New England turned it over five times, right? And that allows the Steelers to come away with a victory. I mean, you look at how the Browns won. You look at some of these games with defensive scores and kicks and special teams adventures and returns. And there was a there was quite a range. There was a wide net of weird things that happened on Sunday. But it resulted in, to your point, if you’re watching red zone at 350 on Sunday afternoon, it’s pretty good. I mean, it absolutely was entertaining. And starting to see, you know, three weeks in, you start to see the cream rise to the top a little bit, although you look at the AFC north, and you’d say, well, Cincinnati is, you know, came, came into Monday in first place, and yet

8

Nestor Aparicio  04:46

that was no one believes. I’m not a believer. Well, of course,

Luke Jones  04:50

well, and no one is because Joe burrows done and, you know, I know there’s some talk that he could be back in late December or for a playoff run. But. You know

Nestor Aparicio  05:00

what I took out of Sunday, Pittsburgh’s real. I mean, they’re not going anywhere. I mean, you know, I think they’re going to hang around. Hang around. Yes, do I think they’re anything special? No, I don’t think special. I just think special enough just to be a three point team in every game and a touchdown in and every game and a few kicker better be on and because Rogers can if you’re down, if they’re down, 10.8 minutes left to go, they have a chance. And they haven’t really had that with this cast of Bubby bristers. They’ve been running in here lately, since Roethlisberger went away, you know,

Luke Jones  05:32

8

yeah, I mean, to a point, yeah. I mean, you’re right. I don’t know, I for one, I just and I know their defense played better. I think their defense has been really underwhelming. It was better on Sunday, and clearly the Patriots helped out by turning it over five times, and Pittsburgh had a played a part in that. I don’t want to my

Nestor Aparicio  05:52

boy, Chuck Clark still like he got hazed in the room this week. He dropped

Luke Jones  05:56

yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. So, but, but, yeah. But the reality is, when you look at the rest of the division where Cincinnati is, look, I think Jake Browning actually can be a decent backup quarterback. And, you know, I mean, he’s, he kind of proved it two years ago that you can win a couple games here and there with him, but they can’t run the ball at all. I mean, they, they just, they did. They were careless with the football. I they were just awful. I mean, and the Vikings had a backup quarterback too. So you can’t just say, Well, no, Joe burrow, well, the Vikings are playing Carson Wentz. And I get it. I mean, Carson Wentz has a little more of a track record, but, but yeah, you look at this division right now. I mean, the ravens are the class of the division, and that’s regardless of Monday night’s outcome, right? I mean, I’m just saying that in terms of looking at how it looks on paper right now, because Cincinnati, without Joe burrow was lost, and Pittsburgh, to your point, yeah, I agree. They’ll hang around and everything. But, you know, you’re not a big believer in that. And I Cleveland would be the most interesting team if they had any kind of an offense whatsoever. I mean, if they had any kind of, and I don’t say this to be too disrespectful to Joe Flacco, but I have to be react. I have to be realistic with what Joe Flacco is at age 40, if they had any kind of a solid quarterback and a functional passing game that could actually make some plays. That defense is for real. I mean, that defense is pretty legitimate, and I think they, they certainly proved that against the Packers. So, you know, just looking at the AFC north, but you know, then you you kind of take, pull your focus to the rest of the league and chargers looking pretty good about the Colts, they’ve punted once I get it. You know, being the Titan, beating the Titans is no impressive feat in 2025 but man, that Indianapolis team is starting to wonder, like, okay, they could win that division, right? I mean, especially, I mean, look at Houston.

Nestor Aparicio  08:01

Houston’s terrible, right? I mean, that’s, that’s a shot, that’s a big piece of news, right? Like, I thought they were setting the Ravens a couple weeks, right,

8

Luke Jones  08:10

two years ago. I mean, when you saw what CJ Stroud did as a rookie, and where they were, and, you know, they came into Baltimore, and remember, as much as the Ravens pulled away in the second half, that that was what that wasn’t that a 1010, game at halftime two years ago in the divisional round, you know, but before the Ravens beat them and went to the title game, you thought at that point, okay, here’s Houston joining the party, knocking on the door where Kansas City ravens buffalo have been, you know, and throw Cincinnati in there If you’d like as well. But you thought Houston was on the common and getting ready to join that group, and they’ve done nothing but go backwards since then. So it’s a crazy league. And you know, the first couple weeks, you kind of see some things, and you kind of want to see, okay, how much of it is real, how much of this, you know, Green Bay look like total world beaters the first two weeks. And then you go into Cleveland, and you lose to the browns, right? I mean, that’s not going to convince anyone, I mean, and I still think, I still think the Packers are good, and could be really good, but certainly not a good day for them on that front so, and then you have a team like the Eagles, you know, defending Super Bowl champions. They fall behind big but to the Rams, their passing game looks like a disaster. You know, all this, all the chatter about them has been about the tush push, and you know how that works, jumping off the line early, yeah, but, but they, but they, they fall behind. And then, then they just say, hey, Jalen Hurts, it’s time to go air it out. And they did it. And then they get, they get the big play from, from Jordan Davis, you know, the block field goal and the bat guy touchdown, you know, running down the field, which, by the way, he’s really fast for,

Nestor Aparicio  09:48

for how big he is, by the way, that that was a theme, too, these crazy, crazy block kicks, block puns,

Luke Jones  09:56

stuff, yeah, yeah. It was crazy. I mean, it was a reminder. You know, it’s one of those Sundays that coaches love and spec and if nowhere else, John Harbaugh will love. Because, as the ravens, you know, in the aftermath of the Detroit game, you’ll look around the league, and they even do this. They will, they have a, I forget what they call it, but I know every week they have they’ll put together clips that happen in other games. They use it as teaching tape. You know, something will happen, you know, an obscure rule, an obscure penalty. Some team takes advantage of some kind of situation. Some team shows some great situational, situational awareness. And then they’ll play that. They’ll say, hey, look what happened in the Green Bay, Carolina game, you know, on Sunday, you know, and I’m obviously making that up.

Nestor Aparicio  10:43

8

Well, you and I go through this every week on situational, and imagine if we bet on it. You and me, right? Like, can you imagine betting on that game’s game? Oh, my God, I said to Jen, I’m not even a gambler, but I know that pushed the line. I mean, like, and I’m thinking to myself, you had your bet one, you had your game one, you had like, all the way through when that happens. And then I’m sharing the Joe Flacco, him sitting there when the kick and the ball goes through, and he has to count the five to make sure that it actually happened, because he’s been through everything but him, you know, Russell Wilson still running around. Tyrod Taylor was running around throwing the football, like just watching the quarterbacks, Marcus Mariota, winning games, right? So the, I mean, I saw Jamis Winston on the sideline in a game where somebody older than him is playing, where they have the young kid waiting to come in. And I’m thinking, and then I’m seeing the poor Denver kid, Nick so I sort of root for a little bit sitting there looking all sullen and beaten. And I go back to the fact that I forgot the Chargers were in LA and I was taking my dude. I swear to God, I’m driving through South Central, not a great neighborhood, and we’re driving south on the 110 and I said to Jen, because she’d never been the Memorial Coliseum, they now have like a spaceship in the parking lot where they play soccer, and it’s a silver thing crazy we I say to her, let me take you over and show you so far. We had an hour to kill before our flight at LAX we get off, we go through this area that used to be just an area you would not drive through on the way to see Magic Johnson play Showtime at the forum. Forum’s still there. I went there last year to see to see Pearl Jam in the forums in the parking lot were so faced. There’s a whole nother structure. There’s a whole nother arena across the street from the arena and the stadium. And I’m like, the hell is that looks like a spaceship. It looks like the sphere in Vegas, and we’re pulling up on it. It’s the Intuit dome where the Clippers play. That thing wasn’t there four years ago when it just I started in the last year or so, dude, it wasn’t there a year and a half ago when I was there drinking beer on that I bought in a San Francisco place with the liquor store for $1 doll boys Coors lights. So I take my wife to Sofi. We drive around. She sees the campus, and I’m like, let’s get a taco. And we drove, I don’t know, four miles, not far south. And I’m on the Chargers campus in El Segundo that I had a girlfriend in El Segundo 30 years ago. Like I, I know El Segundo, I know that area. I’m like, I forgot the Chargers even existed. The league. Better catch up to that. They’re three and oh, like, you know, I don’t know if they even look like they might have fans now, like they’re an established thing there, I guess is what I’m getting at. And not just how much la sports has changed from the fact that I used to go out there all the time and say, Are they ever going to get an NFL team? Is like, is it ever going to happen here for them and harbors? Brother, watch out. I mean, he’s playing Okay, and they’re doing okay without the left tackle. And I don’t know there’s something about the hardball thing, and I’m sure he’s cheating, but there’s something about Jim that wherever he goes, this happens, right? Like, that’s the biggest story in the league, to me is, are the Chargers real at this point of three and, oh,

Luke Jones  14:23

well, I mean, I think they’re real. I mean, I I’m not ready to say that they’re going to be the class of the AFC by any means. But, I mean, yeah, when you look at the fact they’re three and, oh, they’ve already beaten Kansas City head to head. The Chiefs are working through whatever they are right now. And I’m not ready to bury the chiefs, but they don’t do it

Nestor Aparicio  14:40

this week. We got to play them. No no,

Luke Jones  14:43

and I and, and look Xavier worthy. It sounds, I mean, he practiced this past week. I think he’s going to be back. It seems like they found something with Thornton in the second half of that game. He’s actually emerged as someone that can catch the ball and make some plays for them, but, but yeah, like Kansas City. The at least, you know, and look two months from now, they might be humming again. They might figure it out. I mean, two years ago, they were in a position where they looked like they were done, and then they figured it out. So I’m not at all saying that won’t happen, but as they’re presently constructed, this is as vulnerable as they’ve looked in a long time. So you have the Chargers doing what they’ve done now. Bummer for them. Najee Harris, Achilles tear, you know. So they’re going to be relying even more on Hampton, you know, the young back they, they, I mean, Khalil Mack had the elbow injury on Monday night football in week two, but he’ll be back. So, but, yeah. I mean, you look at them and say, hey, that’s, that’s impressive. I mean, tough one for Denver to lose, right? I mean, that that that was a that was a good football game, unlike that cowboys Bears game, that was the other game at the late window that

8

Nestor Aparicio  15:46

well, you know, Peyton’s got Denver better too. I mean, Denver was a laughing stock for a period of time. And I think the Raiders are, whatever the hell they are. I mean, we talked

Luke Jones  15:56

about they’ve been, I I didn’t think the raiders were going to be good, let me be clear. But boy, they’ve been really bad.

Nestor Aparicio  16:02

Did the really bad teams? Man, it is. We’re a week three, dude, and Raiders, saints, Titans, jets, right? Like, you know, just teams that like browns, right? They can’t win, but the Browns play half a game at least, right? I mean,

Luke Jones  16:20

8

the Browns defense is very legitimate. It’s just, are they going to be able to score at any kind of level that’s going to allow them to win games, and will that defense hold up when you’re nine or 10 or 11 games into losing games because your offense isn’t doing anything for you? And look, they beat the Packers on on Sunday. Good for them. But look

Nestor Aparicio  16:41

how come Monday night, not withstanding with the ravens and the lions, I expect the ravens to be playing football in January. I’m interested in who’s going to be playing football in January. On the other side, I’m going to give the bills the hall pass in the face like at Disney World, they’re just going to get the Fast Pass because of where they are. I’ve mentioned the Steelers. We’ve written off the bangles, which I’m good with that I’m 100% good with without Joe burrow, I write them off.

Luke Jones  17:08

Have you seen Chase Brown’s rushing numbers so far? I mean, it’s wild, like it’s something that you would think it’s like a video game, or some kid just keeps picking the same exact play over and over and over. Chase Brown, who I let me be clear. I’m not saying this is his fault, but their running game, he has carried the ball in three games, 47 times for 93 yards. He’s averaging two yards a carry, and that’s with Joe burrow being there for the first game and a half. So if they can’t run the ball, they can’t protect the quarterback. That’s evident because Joe burrows hurt again. They can’t you know, their defense might be better than it was last year, but it’s still a weakness. I don’t care how great Jamar Chase and T Higgins are, I don’t see how they’re going to win games right to the to a level that’s going to matter, that that Joe burrow coming back in late December as well.

Nestor Aparicio  18:05

You go back in the building after getting your ass beat like that with a backup quarterback, and Joe’s can’t play, and the wide receivers want the ball and can’t get it. And I mean, that gets lopsided very, very quickly and with the expectation of that community now that’s bought in. For the first time I can ever remember, they certainly, you know, tried to during the Marvin era and the Carson Wentz era and the Andy Dalton era. I say Carson Wentz, I meant Carson Palmer. Excuse me, some Palmer. I’m getting all my car Johnny Carson, though, I was in Carson California this week too. So there, there was a Carson California. I showed my wife where the Chargers played with their with the Ravens a couple of years ago in that junior college soccer rink. So, I mean, I got the whole tour out on all of this, but looking around the league and reading the tea leaves. I mean, eagles are really good, no matter what happens with the lions. I’m, I’m a buyer, that they’re a contender, I don’t know. But the bears, though they might have a quarterback, huh?

8

Luke Jones  19:10

Yeah, you know what? Though, I think you cut for me, I’m, I’m not ready to say that. I mean, look, Caleb Williams, there’s a reason why he was drafted where he was, but it’s been very up and down, and as good as it looked on Sunday, then you tune into Sunday night football, you see how inept the Giants offense looked. And then you remembered what the Giants offense did against the Dallas defense the previous week, and you start to say, I think that’s more of a Dallas defense issue then

Nestor Aparicio  19:41

those they got rid of their heart and soul. I mean, that tells you how asleep Jerry Jones is. You’re going to do that on the eve of the season. But I

Luke Jones  19:49

just think that, I think that defense is really bad. And I think you saw the bears do what the Giants did the previous week, which is, look pretty darn good against the Dallas defense. So which, by the way, we’ll. Be treated to the Cowboys on Sunday night football, facing Mike, Micah Parsons and the Packers. If you didn’t have your fill of see, they won’t make a big deal about that or anything, right? Well, I mean, they’ll make a big deal about it, but once the game starts, I think that’s going to get ugly, because i Hey,

Nestor Aparicio  20:15

8

and I’ll say this for, for all, for all that aside, Monday night, what? Notwithstanding, with the Ravens of the lions, ravens, chiefs is the game. I mean, this is, sure it’s a heavyweight fight that’s going to be a four o’clock afternoon. You know, Midwestern chiefs are one. I mean, chiefs are teetering, right? So I this is a big, big league week for you and I to be talking about where the ravens are, but who’s going to be there waiting for them. And that’s why I found myself unwittingly on the Chargers campus, without even seeing it on the Google Map. We just popped up at a red light, and it was, we were at the Chargers corner, and I’m like, Oh, my God, they’re here, because I had forgotten. I, you know, the league they, they are reaching to the point now is saying, all right, are we real? Or are we not real? Because the bills are in, the ravens are, yeah, she’s used to be. I don’t know who, who else is in the way here, because it ain’t the Houston Texans, because I thought it was them. And you would say the Colts, but, I mean, yeah,

Luke Jones  21:23

it’s not. And look, I’m I’m not going to sit here and say that I thought the Colts were going to be anything special going into the season, but at some point in time, you have to recognize, like, through three games. And I get it, they played the dolphins, who we know are a disaster. They did beat the Broncos, and I don’t think the Broncos are a bad football team. So hey, I’ll give you that one, even though, you know, it was a week, it was a week earlier, but we were talking about some of the crazy special teams, you and I never even touched on that, how they had the leaping call at the end of the game, and they got the mulligan then, and they and they won. But you know what? They they’re three, and, oh, Daniel Jones is kind of playing at, you know, we’re Daniel Jones. Remember, he had the year with the Giants, where they paid him then, because he had a nice year. This is the best he’s played in a couple years, and the rest of that division. I mean, are you a believer in the Jaguars? You know, we’ve already talked about the Texans. The Titans are awful, so someone’s got to win that division. I’m not saying the Colts are going to go 14 and three and that they’re a juggernaut, but they look pretty they look pretty solid so far. So I would not have expected that. And you’re talking about a team, a coaching staff in a front office that, let’s face it, they’re playing for their lives. You know, when you consider how the Anthony Richardson thing played out, and just how the Colts in recent years, you know, post Andrew Luck have fared, you know, it hasn’t been very good. So, you know that that’s a coaching staff that is feeling some urgency. I think that’s part of the reason why they, they went to, they turned to Daniel Jones, because I think they just trust them more than Richardson. And you know, so far, it’s, you know, they punted once in three games. I mean, it’s, I know they haven’t played juggernauts, and I’m, again, I’m not putting them at the top of my power rankings by any means, but you have to start acknowledging that, hey, they might, they might be decent, you know, they might be, might be the, the team that’s going to come out of that division that, at the very least,

Nestor Aparicio  23:17

at this point with the scheduling, I start to look and say, All right, who’s over the hill? I go back to billicks, quartiles, right? Who’s over the hill? Texans, rams, who do we have to play? Bears, Vikings, they look a little they look more formidable than even the bangles, which we looked at. I now look at the Bengals and say, Man, not as formidable, for sure, by the time we get to them. But Houston would have been the one where I’ve been like, I’d way rather play the Colts now of a sudden you get Houston, you’d be like, hey, all right, avoid the Colts here, because I think avoiding games like the Detroit Lions and the Kansas City Chiefs back to back on short rest that the Ravens have to deal with, when the matabiki thing, when the Ricard thing, when other injuries are happening in real time and team. I mean, I saw Connor tear up his ankle in that chart and that Cardinals game, so yeah, I mean, I just see these horrible things happening and think, like, all right, we’re who we have this week? Who do we have next week? Who’s in the way. And if you think you’re a 12 or 13 win team, and we do here, who’s going to be in the way at the end, who are the emerging teams? And, you know, we might see a couple of them, bears and Vikings might be emerging teams.

Luke Jones  24:33

Could be, although, like I said, I’m still not there with either of those teams and the Vikings, I think it’s more so just the quarterback question, right? I mean, JJ, McCarthy, I understand, gets hurt, but wasn’t looking very good the first couple games before he got hurt. You know, Carson Wentz, is he a good backup at this point in his career? Sure do. I think he’s a guy that if he plays more than a couple games, is going to get exposed. Yes. So meanwhile, don’t look good. Yeah. Right? Well, yeah, no question. So, I mean, it’s, it’s going to be interesting. I mean, obviously the ravens, we’ve talked a lot about this pre buy gauntlet that they have. And, you know, when you’re talking Detroit, Kansas City, and I’m not, believe me, just because the Chiefs have looked how they’ve looked so far, you’re still going to arrowhead, right? I mean, it’s still the chiefs, and they’re, they’re going to get some guys back, and you’re going to see how it looks over the course of the year. I mean, Andy versus John and, I mean, that’s part of it, right? That’s part of it, bags, Spags and all of that. But at the same time, they’re, they’re preparing for the Ravens. But, you know, you look at Houston after that, I mean the Texans. I mean, they’re oh and three. Where are they going at this point in time? I mean, that’s, don’t get me wrong, I was kind of down on them coming off of last season, but not like this. I mean, to be Owen three, that that’s one of the more surprising outcomes around the league through three weeks, is to see the Texans be at Owen three, but the Rams, disappointment of their choke job on Sunday notwithstanding. I mean, they, they kind of pulled a Ravens, right? I mean, they blew a big lead. And the second half, although you could kind of see that coming in the first half, because they settled for some field goals at some times where they really could have stepped on Philly’s neck, and they didn’t do it. But hey, we saw this when the Rams came in two years ago, when the Ravens beat them in that, you know, that game and the tylen Wallace punt return game, they gave the Ravens everything they could handle. I mean, that was a fantastic football game. So, you know, I think the Rams, assuming Stafford’s back holds up. I mean, that was the big question over the summer. But if it holds up, if the

8

Nestor Aparicio  26:48

Rams go to Philadelphia and give them hell, seeing them in three weeks is a problem here. No question, no

Luke Jones  26:53

question. I mean, I expect it to be a heck of a football game. So, so, you know, I mean, that’s, that’s where you look at this thing. And, you know, that’s why it’s disappointing to drop the game in week one the way the rate the Ravens did against the bills. Because, I mean, you had it, right? I mean, you had it. You had a two score lead halfway through the fourth quarter, and you know, you blew it. So, you know, I’m still very high on this football team, but, yeah, you’re trying to look, look around it, who are the who’s legit, who’s maybe, and who’s done? And, yeah, there are some teams you can I’m already comfortable saying Dawn, because I didn’t think they were, you know, I didn’t think the Titans were any good, any you know that

Nestor Aparicio  27:34

that’s that really speaks to the Ravens as we, you know, I give them a hard enough time about their lack of integrity and the whole Justin Tucker thing, and just, just all of it, the lies that come inevitably through this. And you hope they’re telling the truth about Matt APK, but it’s a hip of this and a quiet that, and we can’t talk, you know, like whatever it is now that we’re into the cones of competitive what mood is John Harbaugh in on a Wednesday or Thursday reading tea leaves to figure out where they are. The Ravens have rarely in 30 years, and they celebrated all this with Ozzy and the two trophies. And I have books that you can have that they’re available on the internet, about their championships and the experiences inside and outside all of that, these franchises that can’t get out of their way, that are perennially bad, or even have bad luck, like the Bengals with the quarterback situation, or whatever the poor commanders, Washington football fans have been through for 30 years, 40 miles away, where we’ve witnessed how bad it’s been. Buffalo was 17 years without a playoff anything, and now they have this juice and this momentum. And even places like Green Bay, where it looks like they can win again, and they’ve been for 35 years now, 53 quarterbacks, pretty good. These other places where it gets bad and it gets dark and it gets lonely and you feel like you can’t win. I mean, just the Falcons with this kid throwing the ball around, I think I like him, but my God, they got blistered, and they look, they looked awful. And when you have a young quarterback and you look awful, or you don’t have a quarterback like Cleveland, and you’re paying, you know, a serial predator, money, and you have a 40 year old quarterback, you have Russell Wilson or Joe Flacco or Tyrod Taylor, or any of these kind of guys running your offense. I like all them, fine, nice people and all that. But what are you selling to your fan base when you’re getting your ass kicked, if you’re if you’re the saints at this point in regard to hope. And it’s not like baseball, where it’s about money. And I was at a Dodger Stadium last week, you just feel the money drip off the Dodgers and wonder how they can have this impair. There’s Mookie Betts playing shortstop. I’m like, he ain’t even a shortstop. How’s he played shortstop? He’s 40 years old. Why is he playing shortstop? So I’m like, they’ve got all these moving parts the. They found they all have same money. They all have the same pool. They all so for teams to be the Raiders, the saints, um, I just keep going the brown. I mean, I just going through teams with no chance on September the 22nd it’s really disheartening for how bad their leadership is and sort of how the Ravens have figured it out. You know, quarterback to quarterback, haven’t changed their coach, having changed their philosophy and managed to win in the Eagles would be another one of those places where, like, they shake it off and they win. And I feel like Kansas City this week as we play them, watch out, because it feels like they’re not going to take a dip, no matter how pissed off Travis Kelsey gets.

Luke Jones  30:42

8

Yeah, I mean, and that that’s completely fair. It is funny. I you mentioned the saints. And I have to bring this up, because you know how these types of things just drive me nuts. They were losing 35 to three late in the first half. They put together, they actually put together a drive they were at. They had a fourth and two at the Seattle 33 mind you, they’re down 35 to three. This isn’t five seconds to go on the half where it’s the last play that there was a little under three minutes to go. It shouldn’t even be a question, right? You’re going for it in that situation. Well, we gotta get our field goal kicker some reps. They tried a 52 yard field goal when you’re down 32 points and it’s fourth and two at your opponent’s 33 I mean, my goodness, get on the bus and go to the plane, go go to the airport and fly home at that point. That’s disgrace. You know me, I don’t like using the word disgraceful in the realm of sports too often, because I think the word loses meaning. That is a disgraceful decision for a franchise that is embarrassing at this point. They’ve been in cap jail for years. They continue to restructure and extend old guys and for what a best case scenario that they maybe could go seven and 10 or eight and nine if the stars align perfectly. I mean, that is no way. Yeah, that is no way to go through life trying to go so that just I saw, I happen to see that red zone showed that, and I don’t know who was calling the game, and I’m not saying this to be personal, but someone even like they said that they could understand them doing that. I’m like, What the heck are you talking about? It was the most asinine thing I saw the entire weekend. And and there were plenty of really weird, like drunk things that happened over the course of the weekend with some of these crazy plays and and things of that nature. But, but yeah, and you know, to go back to your point about the ravens and their stability and how some of these franchises have operated. This is 2011 was my first year full time covering the team. So we’re talking 15 years now. They have had exactly one season where they weren’t playing meaningful games. In December. That was a 2015 team that remember Suggs tears his Achilles week one, they got off to, what a one in five start, one in six. Flacco got hurt. Flacco got hurt in November, like you know. So that was the one year where they even 21 when Lamar got hurt and they lost their last what six games keep in mind, even going into week 18, they still had a mathematical chance. If they had won and things had gone a certain way, they still had a chance to make the playoffs. So one year in the last 15 and look, I know fans get frustrated that this team hasn’t broken through you and I have talked about it a lot. We’ll continue to talk about it until they break

Nestor Aparicio  33:45

and they can’t break through a Monday Night Football against lions, January

Luke Jones  33:49

months away, right? January’s months away. So I get it. I understand the frustration that they haven’t been the Chiefs right? Buffalo has the same exact discussions. I understand frustration that people in Pittsburgh have had about Mike Tomlin, and I mean, you’re talking about a team that hasn’t won a playoff game now in nine years. And I think that is a much more legitimate discussion. However, the grass isn’t always greener when you make changes and when you kind of scoff at the stability and the continuity that you’ve had, the success that you’ve had, but, man, you look at some of these teams and you see, I mean, look at the dolphins, you know, that was Thursday night, so it feels a while ago, and I get it, they played a little bit better against the bill.

Nestor Aparicio  34:33

I watched that game at Dodger Stadium, and looks like this lounge. I’m like, in the afternoon, but the game’s on, it’s West Coast, and I’m like, hey, that’s real football, you know.

8

Luke Jones  34:43

But, and, you know, they had a more representative effort than they had the first two weeks, but they’re done. I mean, Mike McDaniel’s done, right? I mean that that thing needs to be blown up again. And you think about how bad they had been for a while, and they get to the point where, you know, you’ve got tua, you try. Made for Tyree kill Mike McDaniels, this, you know, this hot shot, young, you know, like kind of off the beaten path, unique, quirky guy, and their offense is scoring a ton of points. And you’re thinking, hey, you know, in the same way that I mentioned Houston a few minutes ago, maybe they’re going to join the the tier of Kansas City, buffalo, Baltimore and Cincinnati, if Joe burrow is healthy that we’ve seen over the last three to four years, and they stink again, you know? I mean, it’s just

Nestor Aparicio  35:29

but then this enters the Colts into being a have, or Denver, maybe, or the Chargers being perceived as it have right now. And we’re not even sure if the chiefs are a half. We think they’re have because they have a quarterback and they have a coach and they have a pedigree, right? But they certainly haven’t shown that yet. They’ll have the chance to show that against the Ravens on Sunday. And you know, as we speak here, the Ravens have a big week ahead too, right? To be a have and not a have, not a three in one and not a one in three, because somebody gonna be one and three, and you just got to make sure it’s not you. And if, if you think you’re going to be a good team and you’re not, this is the time of the year where like to see the Falcons get their ass kicked like that, to see the Bengals fade without the quarterback, to see some of these teams that the Texans teams that had hope that now week three, not so good, and then teams like Miami that are going to have to fire their coach. And it’s week three, yeah, and we’re looking at it and saying, okay, you don’t want to be in the position of firing your coach in week three. That’s not, you know? And there’s five places where I don’t even know who the coach of the saints is, but to your point, he should be fired.

Luke Jones  36:42

It’s week three. Well, what’s funny is he, he’s new and I like Helen Moore, but I don’t know what that was all up. That was just, I mean, that was that reeked of we want to try to make the score not look quite as embarrassing, rather than, are we actually going to try to get back in the

Nestor Aparicio  36:58

8

football? Hey, dude, the brands take the field goal. Nobody would have kicked and wound up winning the game 10 minutes

Luke Jones  37:03

later. But hey, the league’s crazy. It’s a week to week league pending Monday night’s result. The Ravens going into Kansas City off a Monday game. Now it’s not a Monday night road game, but it’s a Monday night game. So it’s a short week. I of all the scheduling things that people talk about that. I think a lot of them end up being overrated. I absolutely think there’s something to a Monday night game with the short week. Usually it’s more so the Monday night road game, in fact, that’s what happened to the Ravens last year in Cleveland. They played Monday night at Tampa the week before, and I think that got to them. So that’s something to watch as well. But hey, you know this league is, you know, there’s a lot you try to figure out. You think you know something. I mean, Atlanta, I thought they had a really good defense, and then what the heck was that on Sunday, you know, and their offense was the way bigger problem, but still, so you never really know. But that’s also why it is a testament to these teams like the ravens, year in year out, are consistent enough that even if they’re not at their very best, or injuries might catch up with them at times, or they might blow a game occasionally. You’re still talking about a team that’s in the hunt to do really meaningful things. And there are a lot of cities that would do cartwheels to have the kind of problems that the Ravens might have coming out of week one, or Mada BK and Van Noy being heard or or whatever. I mean, still in a really good position here. And, yeah, it’s going to be a huge week, you know, with Monday Night Football and then going to Kansas City to try to, I don’t want to say exercise demons, because that’s not what we’re talking about when January is a different animal. But you could certainly put the chiefs in a major hole, and that would be a lot of fun from the Ravens perspective.

Nestor Aparicio  38:45

Big week around here for football. Big short week around here for football. Luke will have it all handled out in Owings Mills. Any breaking news on the non de madabiki situation, you’ll get it on the breaking news service that we’ve provided here for two decades. Now. It’s all brought to you by Cole roofing and Gordian energy and but, you know, I’m hanging loose this week to talk some football. I went to a real baseball game last week, and we’re in the real football season here. Luke and I also had a lengthy conversation about Trevor Rogers and Kyle Bradish and the silent bats of the Orioles as the season wanes the end of this week. So we got you covered around here, also doing the Maryland crab cake Tour presented by the Tour presented by the Maryland lottery. I have the these are kind of the shiny match. I kind of like the way that kind of has a shimmery glow to it. The Ravens times two scratch offs with an opportunity to win a trip to Cincinnati, which feels a lot better. I would even recommend the chili when the Ravens will be a 10 point favorite with it by the time they get to Cincinnati later in the year. That’s the big trip for Raven scratch Austin, of course, tickets for 20 years as well. I did a huge segment on playing responsibly, gambling responsibly, if you’re three weeks into this, if you’re chasing losses, if you’re doing silly stuff, you know you shouldn’t be doing one 800 gambler is there for you? And had an unbelievable conversation with man named Will Hindman. You can find that at Baltimore positive who was a recovered addict, who is the person you’ll speak to if you call the 800 number. So this time of year, it worries me, for everyone that loves football, in the way that I love football, but in a different way. I just like collecting my little belt buckles at this point and waiting for Monday Night Football so I can, you know, I gotta, I got a big story for you, Luke. I don’t want to, I don’t want to make you salivate, but I went to Pizza John’s on Sunday to make sure I had it on Monday night. Bro, move dude, I know what’s up. I’m having pizza John’s during the football game tonight. And I said to Jen, we’re the only ones. You thought ahead. Hey, yeah, I even got a cheese steak on ice. Don’t worry about it. Back for more. We are Baltimore positive. Stay with us. You.