Lamar Jackson will play on Sunday night in Pittsburgh but will that be the difference in a playoff berth for the Baltimore Ravens? Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the long, mediocre roads that lead the two franchises toward a massive game that will define more than who gets to play a home next weekend as the AFC North champs.
Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the upcoming Ravens-Steelers game, focusing on Lamar Jackson’s health and performance. Jackson, who has been practicing with protective gear, is expected to play despite a back injury. The conversation highlighted the high stakes for both teams, with potential coaching changes and franchise futures at play. They also noted the Ravens’ recent struggles, including a 2-4 record in their last six games. The discussion emphasized the importance of running the ball effectively, with Derek Henry expected to play a key role. The outcome could significantly impact the teams’ playoff prospects and future coaching decisions.
- [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Inform Luke Jones whether Preston is in the press box on game night and report whether the team is upset about the Preston story
- [ ] Monitor Lamar Jackson’s practice protection and report on how the padding affects his throwing, movement, and comfort leading into the game
Lamar Jackson’s Health and Upcoming Game Against Pittsburgh
- Nestor Aparicio discusses Lamar Jackson’s health and his confidence in playing against Pittsburgh.
- Nestor mentions TJ Watt’s potential return and his own presence in the stadium as a guest of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
- Nestor reflects on the national media’s focus on coaches and jobs, particularly if the Ravens lose with Lamar.
- Nestor and Luke Jones discuss the Ravens’ regular season performance and the high stakes of the upcoming game.
Lamar Jackson’s Career and Past Performances
- Nestor and Luke Jones discuss Lamar Jackson’s past performances and the expectations for his future.
- Nestor mentions Lamar’s past losses and the pressure he faces to perform well.
- Luke Jones references an article he wrote in September predicting the Ravens’ regular season performance.
- Nestor and Luke discuss the manifest destiny of the Ravens and the pressure on Lamar to succeed.
Impact of Coaches and Potential Changes
- Nestor and Luke Jones discuss the potential impact of coaches like John Harbaugh and Mike Tomlin if their teams lose.
- Nestor mentions the high stakes for both teams and the potential changes in coaching staffs.
- Luke Jones notes that conversations about coaching changes are already happening among fans.
- Nestor reflects on the history of the Ravens and Steelers rivalry and the potential outcomes of the upcoming game.
Lamar Jackson’s Protection and Game Strategy
- Nestor and Luke Jones discuss Lamar Jackson’s protection and the potential impact on his performance.
- Luke mentions Lamar’s practice sessions and the protection he will wear during the game.
- Nestor and Luke discuss the importance of Lamar’s health and how it will affect the game strategy.
- Nestor reflects on the challenges of playing in cold weather and the need for Lamar to perform well.
Potential Matchups and Game Outcomes
- Nestor and Luke Jones discuss potential matchups in the playoffs and the strengths of the opposing teams.
- Nestor mentions the possibility of facing Houston or Buffalo in the next round.
- Luke Jones discusses the strengths of the Steelers’ defense and the challenges they pose to the Ravens.
- Nestor and Luke reflect on the importance of winning the upcoming game and the potential outcomes for both teams.
Final Thoughts and Predictions
- Nestor and Luke Jones share their final thoughts on the upcoming game and their predictions for the outcome.
- Nestor emphasizes the importance of winning the game and the potential consequences of a loss.
- Luke Jones discusses the potential impact of Lamar’s performance on the game’s outcome.
- Nestor and Luke reflect on the history of the Ravens and Steelers rivalry and the potential for future games.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Lamar Jackson, Pittsburgh Steelers, playoff game, health concerns, coaching future, Ravens season, Super Bowl potential, Aaron Rodgers, Derek Henry, offensive strategy, defensive matchup, game preparation, national media, franchise stability.
SPEAKERS
8
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 to Baltimore. We are Baltimore, positive. It is a new year. So it says 27 on there. Just for 27 years we’ve been doing this. It’s not 2027 we did not have a leap year around here’s 120/5 anniversary for copper state. I am wearing that. And this is the I don’t know how many games he played up there. It’s been 30 years. 63 the couple playoff game. I don’t know. 60 456, somewhere in there. I don’t know what that number is. Luke Jones knows all things because he has the math. He has been out at Owings Mills on New Year’s Eve, Lamar Jackson was wearing the eight and out and confident he will play. Word out of Pittsburgh is that TJ watt might play Word out of Pittsburgh is that I will be in the stadium, but not in the press box as a guest of the Pittsburgh Steelers. So I am appreciative to Mike Tomlin and the professionals in the Rooney family. I’ve had dinner with Mr. Rooney in my lifetime. They do not want to be a part of locking me out of Chad Steel’s locker room, but this guy will be in one room. And Luke, you can explain that there’s a interview room that’s adjacent to locker room underneath of I’ll still call it Heinz Field, because I still eat the ketchup and I sort of enjoy it. Thank you very much. John Kerry, but I would also say, for me, this is the national media. Everywhere I go, everything I see, every ESPN, every Fox, every bar. So everybody out there is talking about these coaches and jobs and some sense that there could be some finality here, in some weird ways, in all sorts of ways, if the Ravens lose with Lamar, right? And I’ve been tea leaving this Lamar thing since last week. You know, you and I have been talking a lot about games. Pittsburgh. Is Lamar healthy? Talked a little bit about, like, what happens the day after the season’s over? Whenever that is Monday, the following Monday, they could play three more. We think play five more. They can win the Super Bowl, right? I mean, we are, are you of the mindset that if Lamar gets them up right, that they could start winning, that they’re the dangerous team that everybody seems to think they are?
Luke Jones 02:10
I mean, I think when you’re talking about a two time MPP quarterback, or if you’re talking about Josh Allen, or, you know, whatever quarterback you want to name that has experience, and there aren’t many in the AFC. Mean, I guess Aaron Rodgers, but Rogers and Lamar can’t be in the in the playoff field, sure, right? And it’s funny, I was just, I was going to work this into the conversation, and maybe this is the best time to do it, but I went back and found something that I wrote back on September 4. It was three days before that opener in Buffalo, and I’m not going to read the whole article, but the headline was, ravens still in thankless regular season territory. But that doesn’t mean 2025 can’t be different. And look, I wrote it at the time, and everyone said it at the time. We know that the Ravens were very much a consensus Super Bowl favorite amongst the national pundits. When you look at Vegas, they were right there with the Eagles, and I think the bills. Kansas City was still there as well, but they were right there. And perhaps more than any other recent year, the Ravens were the team that people were on the bandwagon, and I said at the time. So that doesn’t really make the Ravens a bold Super Bowl pick, really, the only bold prediction you could make about the Ravens back on September 4 was that they would miss the playoffs. Now that could happen on Sunday night, and it’s a playoff game on Sunday.
Nestor Aparicio 03:31
There’s also a manifest destiny thing with Lamar that people just believe at some point the Ravens because of the coach, because of the team, because of the quarterback, because of roquan Smith, whatever it is that they will be the shining star one January, you know, Lamar, he got beat by the Titans. Ah, we’ll go get him Gipper chargers at Hey, bills, it was a cold night, and, you know, it’s weird season, and we’re wearing mask and, like, there was excuses for all of it, until Kansas City two years ago. Then there was hold on home game, you run the table. And then last year there was, is he going to be the MVP? Is he not 41 touchdowns, four, intercept, whatever the gaudy numbers he had last year, Rizzy numbers like, Yeah, I mean, cheat code numbers, and it hasn’t happened. So when it didn’t happen last year, not his fault. Very Joe Flacco, right? Flacco through the pass, it hit Lee Evans in the hands, and Cundiff missed a kick, and the Hall of Fame coach that loves banning medias to this day, he whiffed on a field goal and a timeout, right? So like that, Manifest Destiny never touched Joe Flacco, because how’s he ever going to beat Tom Brady has he ever going to beat Peyton Manning? You know, but Peyton Manning had that aura for years where, when they didn’t win, you’re like, one year this sob is finally going to win. I don’t know if we ever believe that with Elway, when they were running the ball at the end. But these quarterbacks that go 678, years of disappointment, and Josh Allen’s about to get another one, if he’s not the guy in Santa Clara in four weeks, five weeks, right? We’re like, they start to add up when you’re a veteran quarterback who’s lost a lot of playoff games and it’s never won a big one. And I just mentioned a bunch of guys that that happened for that the feeling for Lamar, I think, after last year, when it wasn’t his fault, right? It was, it was, say flowers fault two years ago was, you know, whoever blame it on somebody else? But Lamar did enough to get them through the playoffs last year, and was doing enough this year. We all looked at it and say, I don’t know what this is going to be on Sunday night for him, let alone for his career, let alone for his health, let alone from coming back and saying, This is what I’ve said to everybody, and I’ll say it out loud once I got your text that he was going to play on Wednesday, he better play well, dude, like he better play really well on Sunday. That’s all I’m saying.
8Luke Jones 05:57
That’s fine. I mean, I’m not going to sit here and disagree with that. I’ll push back a little bit about buffalo. I mean, he did turn the ball over. Turn the ball over twice in the first in the first half, and one of those was up just a fumble that he just plain dropped. Well, he
Nestor Aparicio 06:07
did the press conference after Mark Andrews did. And one of the reasons I want to be sure is they like running out the back door after days like this. And part of this is this might be Harbaugh’s last rodeo and lamar’s Last rodeo on Sunday night. It might be Mike Tomlins last rodeo. It’s certainly be Aaron Rodgers last rodeo if he loses, right? So there’s like lot of high stakes from the national perspective, let alone nobody’s winning the Super Bowl Sunday night either way, right? We go into the whole next week of drama for whatever the franchise is. But this team here, the purple team, you and I better not be up at 5:45am in Monroeville doing radio and the season over because of mistakes made on the football field on Sunday night.
Luke Jones 06:50
Yeah, I mean that that’s fair. I’m not going to sit here definitively saying that drastic change is going to happen on either side regardless of the outcome. But those conversations are going to be had certainly. I mean, they’re already being had externally. I mean, you know, you you talk to an average fan in in Baltimore or Pittsburgh. I mean, there, there’s at least a perception amongst a decent percentage of fans where they say, Oh yeah, the loser of this, that coach going to get fired. I’m not convinced that that’s definitive, but the fact that we’re having these conversations speaks to the state that each team is in at this point. And you know, for the Ravens you said it, I mean, it kind of goes back for really, the AFC title game two years ago, right? I mean, and with each each of these postseason disappointments, you can kind of look at it in a vacuum. You can look at each one in isolation, and kind of like understand what happened. But that’s when you go back to the big picture, and you say, all right, why isn’t the sum greater than the parts? Once you get to January, when you’ve seen it look so incredible in the regular season. But to go back to the point I was making, you know when I cited something I wrote nearly four months ago at this point in time, if they, if they win on Sunday night, you know, the Slate’s clean, right in terms of what I was just saying about the regular season and and look, the Ravens could be 13 and four right now. Look, maybe not, let, let’s not call it that. Let’s say there were the number two seed or the number three seed anything but a first round by right, their position wouldn’t be drastically different than what it would be if they’re flying home as AFC North champions late Sunday night into early
Nestor Aparicio 08:33
8their destiny on the locker room Sunday night and they won the Division. That’s their their regular season destiny, right? So they’ve done everything. They’re on schedule at that point. Is just my day, but my point with that would be,
Luke Jones 08:46
had they had a shiny record? Had they looked great? Had they looked like they did last year and like the year before, and how they looked and even 2020 and certainly 2019 but let’s just say they weren’t the number one seed. Let’s say there were two or three, not even, like, just humor me on that. What would we be saying right now? We’d say, Okay, that’s great. You did what you needed to do in the regular season. It’s about January. It’s just about January. So they have a chance if they can go into Pittsburgh on Sunday night. And it’s not going to be easy, because it’s never easy with Raven Steelers, even the times it turns out to be easy. You can never expect that, right? You’re never anticipating that. And you can look at what happened last time or what happened last year or two years ago, and generally, it doesn’t mean a whole lot, right? We know that the circumstances here DK Metcalf’s suspended their wide receiver position room is not what it is when he’s out there, although it does seem like Calvin Austin, who’s their number two, he’s not a great number two wide receiver, but sounds like he has a chance to play. We know Darnell Washington’s on IR. I mean he’s out, and we know how much Aaron Rodgers like throwing him. So you look at this on paper and couple that with Lamar Jackson being a full participant, I am interest. And intrigued to see what Lamar is going to wear to protect himself. He had some kind of a flak jacket. You know, it seems like we used to hear about quarterbacks wearing those all the time,
Nestor Aparicio 10:12
but man, Dan pastorini was the originator, yeah, yeah, but he’s
Luke Jones 10:16
going to wear something. And I think these, these few days of practice leading into even Saturday’s walk through, I think a lot of that is about, okay. One, how’s Lamar feeling? Two, what is he going to wear, and how comfortable does he feel wearing that? Clearly, he wants to wear some protection, but at what cost? Right?
8Nestor Aparicio 10:35
This is the game where he’s going to pull out all this. This is a playoff game, right? So sure if there wasn’t time to come back and circle the wagons and all that, which really leads to, should he? Would he? If this were week seven, would he be playing? We’re not going to know that, but we’re going to know that at 820 on Sunday night, if he’s avoiding contact, if he doesn’t look right, if the throws are high, if the throws are low, if he’s wincing, if he’s breathing funny, it’s going to be 24 degrees. I know because I’m going to be sitting outside. You better damn well, get me some cookies. By the way, I already told you that you better slide me a roast underneath the glass thing there.
Luke Jones 11:07
It’d be the turkey. It could be turkey. Sometimes it’s Turkey and not roast beef, but I’ll take a
Nestor Aparicio 11:11
picture of it and get a little extra for me. I’ll go over to Taco Bell across the street sandwiches with the French fries on there, but they’re going to be frozen because it’s 20 degrees out. So, but nonetheless, I mean, I am looking forward to the game. I haven’t been a football game three years, so last game I was at, I was a guest of Mike Tomlin in the press box the last time till Chad got upset. So yeah, I mean, it’s just a big it’s just, it’s such a big game, man like and I, I keep thinking about the crossroads of these franchises that all of our relationship, you and me, all of our relationship, it’s been these two coaches. We’ve been on stage with them, like the whole deal, through all of this, to think that it might be the end for one in some way. And I’m with you. Listen. Will graves came on, and I would encourage. I’ve had the greatest conversation this week with Charlie bats, with will graves, with you, with others. Vinnie Velarde came on. He’s a Lamar guy wants to a documentary on Lamar. I think the fascinating part about this is we’ve never talked about Mike tomlin’s job. I think you and I’ve spent five minutes talking about hardball here a couple years ago, before Lamar came in, the Lamar har ball thing is its own thing. There’s nothing to do with the game, with Sunday night. We haven’t really gone into it. It’s all Mike Florio wants to talk about. It’s all the click people want to talk about. You know, who’s going to win the battle. Hey, you didn’t have any problem with his sleeping habits and his eating habits. And his eating habits when he’s winning. MVPs, you know, she weren’t talking about that. Who planted the story? Where did Preston get it? Chad, still happy about it or upset? We’ll see if, let me know if Preston’s in the press box on the night or not. Let you know whether they’re upset with that or not. I because I have no idea, because it felt to me like a little bit of a hit job from the inside, which I thought the timing of that was strange, but Preston wouldn’t give him any timing on that. He would do it when it’s most devastating, because that’s who he is. So last week, doing that in the middle of we just got our ass beat by New England, by the way, Luke, how many double digit leads have they blown this year?
Luke Jones 13:15
8Five through the Ravens? Yes,
Nestor Aparicio 13:18
no, not nearly that many. How many leads did they have that? I mean, they where I’m going with the put me on the spot here. That hasn’t been as big of a problem this year. They just haven’t been as good this year period, like they haven’t blown a ton of leads, like big leads, or here’s where I am. But it feels like they keep buffalo in New England games. So like the Isaiah likely game, the zay flowers, the push, like, not the fumble games earlier in the year, where they got, did they got, you know, run off the track Houston in different games like that. I’m talking about the closer games. I feel the same way you do where I watched Pittsburgh almost come back and win that game. They were on the goal line running two minute Rogers is yelling at I said, there’s one thing that won’t happen this week. They will not be subbing in two minute offense once the Steelers start going downhill. So and the Ravens know that too. They better get a package on the field they like. But and Steelers might come out and run that all day. I don’t know. I mean, literally
Luke Jones 14:09
they should. I mean, you can’t run two minutes for 60 minutes. It’s the best that they looked again. No, it’s Cleveland’s defense. The Ravens have no one like miles Garrett, right? So we understand that, but in terms of how their operation looked, the best it looked was their two minute at the end of the first half when they got a field goal, and their two minute at the end of the second half. I mean, it always explains when they get the ball in candy and the common and the common denominator there is aaron rodgers running the show there. I don’t think much of Arthur Smith, their offensive coordinator. I think, I don’t say this to be too disrespectful, but he looked way smarter when he had Derrick Henry running the ball for him in Tennessee, when he was the OC for variable, and Tannahill was a rock solid quarterback for a couple years.
Nestor Aparicio 14:53
And quarterbacks like going into this game here Aaron Rodgers, like, I don’t what you call dude, and that’s kind of where, like. To end, and as long as they have kumbaya on that on Wednesday in the in the, you know, in the room, and saying, Aaron, what are you feeling? What are you feeling? What are you feeling? Because it better be that, because I can tell, I could tell there was tension. There’s a lot of tension all the way through these organizations going down to me being on the phone with Chad steel and Steelers PR staff for an hour on New Year’s Eve, because I sense the tension, and as a reporter, I want to be a part of it. And there’s tension all the way through all of this. And then there’s, how do you win the football game? Right? I mean, that’s where we’re trying to stay in this, because if they lose plenty of time to talk about Lamar and har ball next week, but I still think that is a superseding story, the coaches, the franchises, the longevity, their propensity to not want to fire anybody. I mean, will Gray said to me they’re not firing Mike Tomlin over this game. And you and I would sit here as real experts on all things John arball and the fraud of it all, and the lies and behind all that, and say bashati, the last thing on earth he wants to do is be involved in a head coaching search and have to come back in here and answer questions. Have people poking around about Justin Tucker amongst other things, like they do not want that turmoil, so even if they get their ass kicked on Sunday night, and Lamar is the one that they just feel like, we’re going to deal him and get a couple of ones and rebuild, and John and Eric are going to be my rebuilders, and we’re going to paint Lamar as the bad guy, and he didn’t play well on Sunday. I’m trying to write these story lines, because Chad Steel’s writing them right now. Because, you know, how are we going to position this in horrible How am I going to position this? And does horrible want the Giants job? And, like, who knows, but I know bad things are going on right this minute. And to your point, win on Sunday, host the game next week, win that game, somehow running the football and the season is completely successful. We won’t talk about anything that happened before this week, because I know how this works, right? I mean, they’re only going to be judged on next weekend, but this weekend’s first,
8Luke Jones 16:58
fair enough. I’m not going to forget what happened. If you’re telling me they’re getting to the divisional round and they lose, then I’ll say, Fine, but no, I’m not gonna sit here and, you know, be throwing it
Nestor Aparicio 17:09
for sure. But I understood these. I understand stole a game or two more, the loser would still have 10 or 11 wins and probably be out or, you know, could be out anyway, and then you win is in it. And just say, Well, you know, you had a good you’ve you won your division. Like, I think it deodorizes nine and eight, okay?
Luke Jones 17:31
I mean, I think, look, I’m not saying you’re wrong. I’m saying I would reject that in terms of, like, not needing to be really seriously introspective about what went wrong.
Nestor Aparicio 17:42
8Winning hasn’t fixed either one of these operations, because
Luke Jones 17:45
January is what matters, but because that’s what I wrote back on September 4. So what I’m saying, and again, kind of the greater point I was making is, if you win on Sunday night, you’ve completely reset 2025 even though now it’s 2026 from the standpoint of, okay, you’re here, you’ve got a home playoff game, you’re the number four seed, whether you actually deserve to be the number four seed. I mean, really, you deserve to be the seven seed. But that’s, you know, that’s just the structure of the NFL postseason. My point is, you now have a chance to right the wrongs of the entire season where you haven’t looked like that team for more than a quarter or two at a time, three and a half quarters in Buffalo, I’ll give you, I mean, Lamar wasn’t out there. I’ll give you how they played in Green Bay on the offensive side of the ball. Now the defense is a completely different story, right? The defense played really well during the five game winning streak, which is why Kyle Hamilton was named ravens MVP the other day. So you kind of go through these different periods of time in this season, but everything resets if you win Sunday night. Now, to sit here and say with any conviction that if they get in and we’re talking about a playoff game next week, that I’m going to sit here and talk about this team like I would believe that they’re a favorite to get through the A, F, C, no, of course not. But we’ve talked about the nature of this field when you’re talking about no Patrick mahomes whatsoever we’re seeing, I know you’ve been, you’re, you’re way more down on the bills than I am, but I’ll acknowledge like, there’s questions about that run defense and Josh Allen’s got a bum foot right now. Doesn’t sound like it’s like major, but it’s something that’s hindering him.
Nestor Aparicio 19:25
Well, I would see that for the Ravens. Ravens are going to win Sunday. We’re all in agreement on that, right? Blah, blah, blah, shish, boom, bomb. We’re going to play a home game next week. It’s going to be Houston or Buffalo. Probably Houston. And the question would be, which one would you rather see? Right? You know, I guess. And all year long, I would say, Houston, Houston, Houston, Houston, Houston. Oh, with that defense, they stopped the run, then Lamar or Snoop, whoever’s got to go throw the ball, and here we go. Yeah, I like, I don’t think that’s a great matchup either way. And I’m with you. If it’s buffalo, it’s a Gympie quarterback, you know what I mean to me and and a leaky. And I know they played better, but, like, I I think it’s 5050, at this point. I never would have thought that. I never would have said that,
Luke Jones 20:07
yeah, and that’s just the reality. Like, look, I love what they did in Green Bay last Saturday night. I mean, yeah, if Derek Henry can run like that and carry it 35 or 36 times, but
8Nestor Aparicio 20:19
against the defense without Micah Parsons, against the defense with that four star, right? I mean, I star
Luke Jones 20:24
against a team that had its playoff birth clinched a couple days before that, on Christmas. And you wonder, okay, you know, like we still have a chance at the division, but do we? You know what I mean, they
Nestor Aparicio 20:33
also had the quarterback that wanted to run. Snook was running like a healthy quarterback. I don’t know the Lamar can do that.
Luke Jones 20:40
8That’s what’s going to be interesting, right? And that’s where you kind of look at this thing, you know, to bring it back to Lamar for this game, and where he is health wise man. I already mentioned. He’s going to be wearing some kind of protection around his midsection, which makes sense. You know, when you’re talking about a contusion to your back and like floating rib area, I’ve been
Nestor Aparicio 20:59
saying bubble wrapping for eight years, sure, sure, but he’s
Luke Jones 21:03
got to figure out, like, what exactly is he going to wear? How does that feel? How does that potentially restrict him? Can he be free enough to throw the football, let alone trying to run around? It was interesting to see him out on the practice field. Wednesday, he came out without any sleeves on, which is unusual for him in a practice setting. But then
Nestor Aparicio 21:21
you look at his conferences with he’s a Florida guy. Sure, he’s a South Florida guy. Look, I hate you as I get older. I hate the cold, so my people are from Venezuela man. So, like, you know my people from the equator. I hate this.
8Luke Jones 21:35
But to watch him and look, I’m This isn’t like some major takeaway, it’s just the observation from being out there for the first 30 minutes, it was interesting to kind of see that. You could see he had something around his midsection, like, again, it’s not like a flak jacket and like that Brett Favre would have worn 30 years ago, but it’s the same idea. You’re trying to give him some padding to protect his back, his back area, but at what cost, right? So he’s trying to work through that these next few days in practice to kind of say, All right, you know, this feels pretty good. I can really open up and throw the football the way I want to my back. Like, how does it feel? First of all, just the contusion and his back itself, but what he’s wearing is that restricting his movement at all, which is a question for him when he’s turning his trunk, to throw the football and to go through progressions, or if he’s taking off and running, right? So, so there’s a lot of want to say it’s trial by trial and error, but it kind of is, you know, in terms of, okay, how much padding, how does it feel? What material is it, right? I mean, we’re in 2026 I mean, it’s probably some, some fancier material that it’s made out of compared to what someone would have worn back in the 90s. But how does it feel? So I think that’s part of it. But then when he gets into the game, I think knowing you’re going up against a Pittsburgh pass rush that even without watt, you know, they still have good edge players, right? I mean, Alex Highsmith was the guy that ended the game last time, we know that they have what Jack Sawyer and Nick hair big. I mean, they, you know, they’ve got other guys, but clearly Watts the best. They have the guys in the interior with Hayward, Hayward and we’re going to see Derek Harmon this time around, who’s going to loom large in terms of their ability to be able to stop Derek Henry. So, you know, you have all those factors. But I think for the ravens and this, this is where we kind of get into the conversation in the aftermath of the Green Bay game, the first couple days of the week, where we were kind of saying, Okay, is it Lamar Jackson, but a very much diminished Lamar Jackson, a very limited Lamar Jackson, or Tyler Huntley. And I think the argument, the argument is, you know, at this point it’s clearly going to be Lamar. I mean, barring something strange, which, I guess, you know, you should never rule out entirely knowing history. But he’s practicing full, you know, he was out there, you know, he has protection around his back. You know, it’s clearly, you know it’s a circle the wagons moment. You know there’s no tomorrow when you get out there Sunday night, but I think you still are mindful of the game plan that you had last week, and look to sit here and boldly proclaim that Derek Henry is going to run 35 times again. That might be a stretch, because Pittsburgh going to
Nestor Aparicio 24:20
have something. We saw him run a couple weeks ago. He ran him out of the playoffs last year this time.
Luke Jones 24:25
So run, but I think you want to run. But I think the other element that you can take away from what did work against Green Bay is some of the quick game, some of get give Lamar an opportunity to get the ball out quickly, especially early in the game, right? Get him, you know, couple completions, get him settled in. He hasn’t played in a couple weeks. It’s a big game. He’s going to be nervous. Everyone’s going to be nervous. Aaron Rodgers is going to be nervous on Sunday night. It’s, it’s a playoff game, you know, it’s the end of the regular season, yes. But this is a playoff game. I mean, this is the first time these teams and third. Years of this rivalry where they’re playing a regular season finale, winner take all scenario. Now, the Christmas game back in 16 was not exactly like that, but it had the same impact for the Ravens. They lost and they were eliminated, and Pittsburgh won the Division. But this is the last game of the I mean, it’s the last game of the entire NFL regular season. So they’re going to be nerves. So what can you do to get Lamar into a flow? I mean, who knows? He might say, Look, I have to pull out all the stops. I’m ready to run. You know, I’m not ready to run 20 times like I did maybe when I was 22 years old,
Nestor Aparicio 25:38
8real early on, right now, by 845, if first 810, plays. If he’s not a part of it in that way, or looks to be, not want to be a part of that. If they’re quick throw, if they’re doing all the things you’re saying to do, they would mask all of that up. And him running becomes the last resort, but a first threat, play action, RPO, but he doesn’t say a ball, right now, right? I was gonna
Luke Jones 26:02
say, I mean, look at what the Ravens did for the first we talked about this, the first play against Green Bay. They were a little play action, and Snoop got commission to mark and off the bat. Clearly, that wasn’t their picture, overwhelmingly going to be what they would do, but it got Snoop into the game. You know, got Huntley into the game and settled into it, I wonder. And look, this isn’t me saying this would be a precursor to Lamar running 1515, times, I don’t know, maybe do a boot action on the very first play of the game. And first of all, see if Pittsburgh is ready for it. And second of all, it kind of gets Lamar out in space. And you know, when he’s outside the pocket, he can protect himself a little bit better than being, you know, kind of running in, you know, a condensed area, you know, between the tackles, and see what that looks like, and that might settle him in, or it’s what you said, where they are very much protecting him. And it’s more of what we saw. Say that during the five, the latter portion of the five game winning streak, where, you know, he was only running a couple times a game, and it didn’t look great when he did take off. And, you know, so if it’s some of those weeks, he didn’t need to Sure, sure, no question. So if it’s that, then, yeah, it’s just going to be handled all the Derek Henry, as much as you can. And look, there should be plenty of that, regardless of how Lamar is feeling, right? I mean, that’s you want to be able
Nestor Aparicio 27:19
to do that. I’ve always been successful, bro. You know what I mean, and I’m the first one to admit, like, I’m the genius to dream this thing up three years ago. Bring in Derek Henry. They’ll just, they’ll be able to run and run and win these games, and all the other problems of the offensive line and working on the road, and whether Lamar is accurate, and whether guys catch the ball when they’re hit between the eight and the nine or whatever, right? So there, there’s all of that plays into the.
