A promising season went awry on Sunday night when Mark Andrews dropped a two-point conversion in Buffalo. The Baltimore Ravens will have a long offseason of changes and pondering what might’ve been in the aftermath of a massive disappointment. Luke Jones and Nestor lament a dropped Andrews pass – and a lost season for Ravens after losing 27-25 to the Bills on a wintry night.
Luke Jones and Nestor Aparicio discuss the Baltimore Ravens’ disappointing loss to the Buffalo Bills in the playoffs, highlighting key moments such as Mark Andrews’ dropped two-point conversion and Lamar Jackson’s turnovers. Despite impressive offensive statistics (400 yards, 7.3 yards per play, 70% third-down conversion), the Ravens lost due to self-inflicted errors. Jones emphasizes the importance of key players performing in critical moments, comparing Andrews’ drops to past playoff mistakes by Billy Cundiff and Lee Evans. The conversation also touches on the Ravens’ regular-season success and the need to improve in January to break through in the playoffs.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Ravens loss, Buffalo game, Mark Andrews, Lamar Jackson, turnovers, playoff struggles, Derek Henry, Josh Allen, playoff history, coaching criticism, player accountability, Super Bowl hopes, offseason needs, January disappointments, team chemistry
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. This is the this is the one that begins the the off season. Luke Jones joins us now after a difficult evening in Buffalo. I don’t think anybody thought it was going to be an easy evening in Buffalo when the snow came and the weather was what it was, they’re used to it. You’re not. You have to go and play in it and and then you have to catch the ball in it, and you have to hold on to the ball in it. And you and I talked, we were violent in the face last week about, if this were a bad news final, it’s probably going to be turnover related, and it wasn’t because they were a good enough team to win the Super Bowl this year. They didn’t win the Super Bowl this year. Luke,
Luke Jones 00:51
oh, we’ve said that. How many years now? They were good enough to win the Super Bowl last year and they lost. They were good enough to win the Super Bowl in 2019 and they lost in the divisional round. So it’s, you know, the details are a little bit different, but it’s the the kind of the same old story I put on my Facebook page late Sunday night. You know, a GIF of Bill Murray saying, well, it’s Groundhog Day again, and that’s what this feels like. I mean, you look at the numbers, over 400 400 yards of offense, 7.3 yards per play. They were seven of 10 on third down. I think it was, you know, not, don’t have it in front of me bright at the moment, but everything about them, statistically, you know, two or three in the red zone, although certainly the goal to go situation where they had the ball at the two yard line and not getting a touchdown there hurt. But you look at all those other numbers compared to buffaloes, you look at that, and you don’t see the scoreboard, and you just look at it blind. You say, Well, that’s the team that should have won three turnovers. And then you get into Mark Andrews dropping the two point conversion, which is, you know, right there with Lee, Lee Evans, Billy cundieff. But the difference is, this is a Ring of Honor player, right? Mark Andrews gonna be in the Ring of Honor at some you know, when his career is over. And
Nestor Aparicio 02:08
is he the greatest tight end in the history of the franchise? I mean, maybe we’re getting to the point he is because, you know, keep and Shannon was here five minutes, and Pitta got injured before he could be great. I mean, they, all, all three of those players, Shannon was better than any of them, because only here two years, right? But he was also at the end. He was at they were as excellent as he was by the time he got here. We didn’t get Shannon Prime in his prime. We got him a minute after his prime, sort of the way, we got Matt Burke a minute after his prime. So we got Anquan Boldin a minute after his prime. Steve Smith, a minute and a half after his prime, maybe two minutes after his prime, but, um, but he’s pretty good. I don’t, I don’t want to be disrespectful, um, but in the case of Mark Andrews, he’s the is who has stayed, who is in this dynamic offense and and then he doesn’t speak after the like you and I would have flown to Buffalo for five degrees and and then he does. Then he disappeared out the back door of a tiny little locker room. That’s insane. That’s insane. I was in New England. Billy Cundiff came out, spoke, spoke again. Hung at his locker. Lee Evans sat at his locker and waited. Didn’t want to talk, but he talked, yeah, like, if you’re hiding after you lose a playoff game, where is your integrity? I like, literally, what, what are you about as a franchise? If that’s what’s going to happen, that’s embarrassing. I wasn’t a part of it. I was I was asleep on Sunday night, like, because Chad Steele made me go to sleep, put me in a sleeper hold. You can’t ever you don’t get to ask any questions. And then guys like you, they give a press pass to they run from like, that’s weak, that’s weak, weak, weak. It’s weak of Chad Steele, but we’ve already been through this with Bucha D and horrible and and my status as a former media member, what are they doing and beyond that, like on the field in this game, to run the ball and to win the game, I don’t want to say it’s inexcusable, because the bills are a good team. Josh Allen, last year. They ran the ball six times in the championship game, and then they kicked the ball around in Buffalo the other night. Have a chance to win, have a chance to tie the game, push it. And they they dropped the ball in the end, like this is self inflicted. We’ve talked so much about their problems and how good they are, how they’re they’re talented, and how their offense is DVO way and like all that, you gotta go win. You have to win in January, and until you do that, memo to Jerry Coleman, Buffalo is not the losers. They played this week. The losers are in Owings Mills, and then they hit after the game like i. I don’t know, sign me up and tell me I’m in the wrong place about this, Luke, tell me I’m wrong. Look,
Luke Jones 05:06
I mean, I’m not going to go on the attack beyond the fact that if your teammates had to speak for you, and you didn’t, that’s, you know, that’s disappointing, period. I mean, I don’t need to say any more than that, right? But, you know, you’re talking about an adult thing
Nestor Aparicio 05:19
I think you’ve ever said in 20 years, like, that’s what get me. You have no ability to be mean. You’re Deacon Jones. But like, if your teammates have to go out and face the music, you should have to go like that. They should not
Luke Jones 05:31
have to speak for you, right? And they’re going to be asked about you because you drop it in that spot, and not just the drop the fumble on the previous drive that led to a long field goal drive and cost you points because you were in Buffalo territory at that point in time, and he had the drop the play before the Lamar fumble, which came on a bad snap. And, you know, look, Lamar turned it over twice in the first half. If Lamar first half mark, Andrew, second half. I mean, if you want to be really over overly simplistic about it, but still pretty spot on. I mean, there you go, right? I mean,
Nestor Aparicio 06:05
well, your best players have to shine at this time if they don’t, and that’s where, like,
Luke Jones 06:09
see, this is the difference for me. And obviously, because of just where we are in 2025 as a society of sports fans, the instant reaction is to blame the coach, blame the coach, blame the manager. Blame the manager, right? What about this game plan? Can you really fault the coaching staff for, okay, the first two point conversion that they didn’t get? Which, you know, I saw some people saying that just kick an extra point there. There’s, it’s late in the third quarter. You try to tie the game there. You know, I’ll hear that in the first half. Not not going for two there, but you go for two there. But you know, there, you could have made the argument either give the ball to Derek Henry, or at least don’t motion him out the way they did that. Said, Isaiah likely was was wide open. Lamar probably needs to put a little more air under it, but Matt Milano made a great play, right? I mean, there are times where you do have to chalk it up to the other team making a play, but I mean, Lamar four interceptions all year. He throws an interception, and Lamar took accountability for that after the game. He was extremely frustrated. Used some colorful language in describing it, dropped the ball. It was a bad snap, right that part of its on Linder bomb, but Lamar still dropped the ball. Wasn’t even a great play made by the defense to strip him. He, you know, as he’s kind of losing his balance, he drops the ball, and Bond Miller’s running the other way, right cost him seven points right there. And like I said, Andrews the extra point or not, not the two point conversion drop and the fumble previous then prior to that. I mean, it’s you said it
Nestor Aparicio 07:42
when von Miller’s running the other way. I turned to my wife like, this is how you lose in January, sure, when he was running. I’m like, this, this is the prescription for how to destroy a Super Bowl
Luke Jones 07:55
opportunity. Yeah. And I think what’s frustrating about this, and I wrote about this at Baltimore positive.com you and I talked about this late last week. I really felt that the Ravens had the advantage from the standpoint of they didn’t necessarily need to play their A plus best game of the year to win, whereas I thought buffalo would have to do that to win at all things being equal. But the caveat there was the playoff ravens can’t show up, and they turned it over three times and they dropped passes. And, I mean, there you go, right? Josh Allen didn’t play a great football game in terms of making a ton of plays on Sunday night, but you know what he did better than Lamar Jackson, took care of the football, right? Look I Lamar on the final drive. Brilliant nose, a flowers, Rashad Bateman gets hurt. I mean, their wide receivers on that final drive were tylen Wallace, who made a big play, Nelson Aguilar and Anthony Miller elevated from the practice squad, right? I mean, and they still did it, and they had a chance to tie it up. And the guy that’s more experienced and more accomplished than any of your skill players that are out there on the field that Lamar could throw to mark Andrews, drops a pass. I mean, you look at that play, Lamar threw it perfectly fine. I mean, it hit him right in the bread basket. He dropped it. There’s nothing about coaching there, right? I mean, John Harbaugh isn’t standing on the sideline with a crystal ball, or, you know, Todd monkins Not up in the box with a crystal ball saying, Oh, I sense, you know, my spidey sense tells me Mark Andrews is about to drop the ball. I better call another play, right? I mean, your stars need to be stars in those spots. And I mean, for as much criticism as Lamar has gotten over the years for his performances in January, I looked it up Mark Andrews, and these were numbers according to pro football focus. And there’s always a little bit of subjectivity in trying to, in trying to look at drops, right? I mean. Some play, some drops are more egregious than others, right? But looking back at it, he was, he was credited with a drop in the 2018 playoff loss. He was credited with two drops in the 2019 playoff loss, and he was credited with three drops in the 2020
Nestor Aparicio 10:13
postseason starting to become a brand.
Luke Jones 10:16
I mean, if for as much as Lamar has taken the heat, and understandably so, and much, much of it justified, some of it unfair, but plenty of it fair. Mark Andrews throw him right in that same category, as great as he’s been in the regular season, three time Pro Bowl tight end. He’s come up small in a lot of these spots, and none more egregious than what we saw in the second half on Sunday night. I mean, the fumble and then to drop the two point conversion that ties the game. I mean, it’s just, it’s excruciating. I as I was thinking about it, and obviously, when the game, you know, when it’s in real time, you’re everyone’s processing and reacting, right? And I said that you won’t find a more agonizing way to lose. And, you know, a few people came right back at me on social media, saying, Well, what about Billy Cundiff? And Lee Evans noted, and that, of course, was the AFC Championship game. However, Billy Cundiff made a pro bowl the year before, but if you recall, he was hurt at the end of that regular season. He wasn’t really in a great place as a field goal kicker at that point in time, no excuse, right? He still missed a 32 yarder, but horrible. Also
Nestor Aparicio 11:24
had a time out, sure, sure, sure, sure. And I mean, that’s really
Luke Jones 11:28
we talk about. He still missed it, though you got to still miss time out. I hear you, but he still missed it. And again, I don’t want to belabor that point. Lee Evans, some people have called that a drop. There was also a defense, a defender knocked the ball away, should he have still dropped it or caught it? Yes. Point is, they were bit players. Billy Cunniff was never going to be in the Ring of Honor for the Baltimore Ravens. Lee Evans barely played that year. He was hurt and wasn’t very good, so but this is a three time Pro Bowl player, one of your highest paid players, one of your best players in Lamar Jackson era. Lamar safety net, right? I mean, if he’s going to go to anyone in that spot, it’s him or I you know, Isaiah likely, maybe they should have just gone to likely again right after he catches the touchdown. But, I mean, if you can’t count on your best players to be the best in those moments. I don’t know who what coach is going to get around that, right? I mean, and I don’t say that to give John Harbaugh a pass for past January shortcomings. You know the game plan last year, running the ball though I I’ve always been one, someone that recognized more nuance there. But I mean, again, to make it so simple, Lamar turns it over twice in the first half, and I understand the interception. Buffalo did not score any points, but that’s still a lost possession there. That’s still a lost opportunity to score points there in a game that you know there were, especially at that point in the game, there are a lot of points being scored, right? I mean, Buffalo had 21 points in the first half. So you just look at it, and it’s incredibly frustrating, because you see this team that’s been so good in the regular season and won so many games in the regular season, and so many accolades to your point, DVO way, and Lamar is going to Mars going to win a third MVP here in a couple weeks. You know, we saw the All Pro voting. He’s going to be the MVP. I’d be shocked if he’s not. So you have that, and you have eight other guys who made the Pro Bowl. And, I mean, there’s just everything about this team, from September through December, says they should have at least been to a Super Bowl or two by now in this era. And yet, we’re having the same conversation and not even getting back to the A, F, C title game, to try to have some retribution against Kansas City. So, you know, some some vindication, some revenge. It’s frustrating because, you know, Buffalo didn’t play their a plus, best game of the year, but they played cleaner football and they didn’t Dart it over. So incredibly frustrating. And I think the worst, worst part, I mean, this is what I’m about to say, is both a blessing and it’s a curse, is their windows still wide open, right? Lamar Jackson just turned 28 years old. He’s the the age right now that Joe Flacco was when he won a Super Bowl, right? So there’s and with the way that lamar’s game has matured in terms of him playing from the pocket and all the other things he does, there is no reason under the sun at this point, not to think that he’s going to be a heck of a quarterback for a long time, assuming relatively good health that any player needs. So this isn’t about a closing window, or this was their last chance, or anything like that. But where do you go from here? Because you added Derek Henry that. Worked out great. But unlike Lamar, who is 28 and has, you know, a shelf life that should still be fine for several years at a minimum, Derek Henry’s going to be another year older. Is he going to fight Father Time another year? What’s going to happen with Ronnie Stanley? What’s going to happen with Todd monkin In terms of, does he get a head coaching gig, are you going to be as healthy this year as you were last year? And it’s a little understanding the timing of the zay flowers injury that that argument lost a little bit of its sting, but they were extraordinarily healthy this year. You just look at it, and you try to, at the very least, not look at it in terms of a window, but just look at how the variables set up. These last two years have not been the most dominant version of the Kansas City Chiefs that we’ve seen, for example, right? And maybe Kansas City is about to beat Buffalo and go to another Super Bowl and win who knows. But the point is, on paper, they haven’t looked as formidable as the group three, four or five years ago that you know, not only won Super Bowls, but they completely crushed teams in the process of doing it. So you’ve had a more vulnerable version of Kansas City, at least in terms of how they’ve played. And, you know, Buffalo this year, this is supposed to be a down year for them, right? And it’s a credit to Josh Allen and the bills and Sean McDermott, but they had had a lot of roster turnover. So, you know, these last two years, felt like they’ve really set up very well for the ravens to break through and do it, and they haven’t even gotten to a Super Bowl, let alone win one. So you just look at it and you say, what is it going to take? What is it going to take right now, you ask me, their biggest off season need. It’s, I don’t know, right? I mean, it’s that the idea of sizing up off season needs is typically dependent on having these recognizable fatal flaw in the regular season. And you know, beyond the fact that they got off to an O and two start and they ended up losing five games, you know, I’ll hear that like, Okay, you weren’t the number one seed, or it would have been nice to play this game in Baltimore rather than buffalo, although it was snowing in Baltimore on Sunday. So who knows if that really would have been an advantage for the Ravens the way they didn’t take care of the football. But you just look at it and you say, what has to give here? How are you going to break through? Because, I mean, they’ve they’ve done everything in the regular season. Nestor, it’s not just the off season. It’s now going through another regular season where I expect the ravens to be excellent again. I’ll pick them to win the division most likely because until the Bengals show that they have a defense and until the Steelers show they have a quarterback, they’re the best team in the AFC North period. But what is it going to take to break through? And that is what is just so frustrating when you see the manner in which they lost on Sunday night.
Nestor Aparicio 17:48
We got to play better football in January. That’s That’s it. I mean, you have to play better football. You have to play cleaner football. And the mistakes that you make during the regular season penalties. They didn’t turn the ball over much this year, but when they did, it was trouble. It is trouble, just in a general sense. In the league, when you turn the ball over, it’s really, really hard to win football games across 100 years of the league. You can go through any of those statistics and find that part of it out, but the January disappointments, when they’ve had a good enough team three out of the seven years with Lamar to win Super Bowls, right? 19 they were they had a good enough team last year, and this year they had a good enough team. That’s the hardest part, because as we sit here talking about the baseball team, and we’re about to do that for the next seven months, as you know, they’re not really good enough. They weren’t good enough last year, especially once the arms fell off, they were good enough in May when I said to my wife, they’re as good as any team I’ve ever seen. And then you start having arms fall off. But when you’re constructed to be a top five team in whatever sport you’re in, and you don’t win, and you don’t win because of the way they looked on Sunday night, which is you lost enough during the regular season to put yourself on the road in an environment that is this wasn’t a road game in Miami or in the dome in Houston or, you know, someplace semi civil. This was a place where the conditions as well as the team as well as the fan base, all that was going to beat down on you one tonight. And if that game was in Baltimore on Sunday night, it would have been in the snow. You know, it snowed here all day Sunday. It would have been an awful environment here. Had the game here been here, Sunday would have been no different, but they would have been at least able to hear those snap counts, as long as the people that buy the tickets here aren’t stupid enough to make noise on offense, although they do have signs in the you just say, Don’t make noise when we’re on offense in Baltimore, which is just bizarre to me, but the cadence of the game in Buffalo and the way the crowd responded, and more than that, when they got the ball in that last drive and went down the field, I kept saying to my wife, I was Derek Henry. Derek. Derek Henry’s not even on the field when. You’re behind in the fourth quarter and you’re trying to get the ball down the field. They had to do that without Derrick Henry. That’s what they’ve been good at at various points, moving the ball down the field quickly, with Lamar being evasive, using his legs, just doing all of that. And they get themselves into a position to rescue the season. All the mistakes in the first half, they were in a rescue situation, because their defense stopped Josh Allen at the goal line when it it felt like they’re going in, and if it’s a two score game, it’s over with. And they held them, and buffalo made a mistake. Buffalo got held, and it was, it’s a touchdown game, an eight point game, and you had the opportunity was all sitting there on the road to be the miracle team, to go in the phone booth. Lamar did that much to get them to the end zone. I It’s, it’s certainly not Purple Rain three. That’s all I’m going to say, Luke. I mean, the way that it went down on Sunday night, it it’s scripted to be as ugly as it could have been, given how good the team was. Lose the Raiders. Lose to the browns. Wind up on the road, wind up on the road in the wrong spot on a 10 degree night in Buffalo, when the snow is coming down and
21:15
you make mistakes, yeah, and look,
Luke Jones 21:21
there’s no prerequisite that you have to be the number one seed, right? I mean, the Ravens have learned that twice in the last six years. So did the lions, by the way, right? The lions on Saturday night. No question, but, but, you know, you think back to the 2000 Ravens. I mean, they were on the road in Tennessee, you know? I mean, they won in Tennessee. They won in Oakland. The 2012 ravens, look at the law in December that they had, I mean, they fired their offensive coordinator. They had to go to Denver. They had to go to Foxboro. I mean, the ravens, their moment was right there, and that’s where you look at this thing. And you mentioned being in Buffalo and being on the road, and it’s cold and all that, they moved the ball really well, right? They averaged 7.3 yards per play. They had over 400 yards of offense. Lamar had the two turnovers in the first half. You can’t ignore that. He played great in the second half. It still came down to that moment in time you convert the two point conversion there, it’s tied. Now I’ll point out there was time, enough time left and two time outs for Buffalo that maybe the bill is drive down the field and Tyler bass kicks a few a 52 yard field goal with the gun, and you lose. I mean, it’s that’s very well possible, right? But you can’t drop that two point conversion, especially when it’s one of your best players, right? Again, the difference for me, in comparing this to Lee Evans and Billy Cundiff is they were bit players, right? There are guys that if, if that hey, happens you come back to Baltimore anytime you won’t walk through. Nobody’s who he is. No one would even recognize him. Yeah, Billy cundieff, at least, did make a pro bowl the year before. But again, Billy kind of go back and look at late in that 2011 season, things were not trending well for him, but, but again, these are bit players. If they didn’t make those, if those two didn’t make those mistakes in Foxboro, I don’t know if you’d even think about them ever again in terms of the Baltimore Ravens, right? I mean, Cundiff again, made up, made a pro bowl. I get it, but this is what, this is a Ring of Honor player. I mean, it’s not just the drop, the fumble as well, right in this fourth quarter. So, you know, I hate putting it on one player or two players, because, you know, the defense had its issues in the first in the first half. I mean, Buffalo ran the ball pretty well on them. They were put on a short field as well. Wasn’t you know, it’s not like the defense was horrendous or hideous in the first half, but it wasn’t as good as it had been down the stretch, that’s for sure. So there were multiple elements to this. But again, you go back to it. And normally, if you think about, oh, you have to go to Buffalo and play, you think of like the dolphins not being able to move the ball at all when they go to Buffalo in December, right? Or or or the rare times they’ve played in January up there, you think about that, this was not that. I mean, the Ravens moved the ball. The Ravens had success offensively, but boy, the miscues with with the turnovers, the drop passes. I mean, it’s just, it’s absolutely killer, just killer, and it’s why they’re going home, and it’s why we’re sitting here in late January, once again, talking about this team coming up short, and it’s just, you know, you had a team that had 11 turnovers the entire year, and they had three on Sunday night. Lamar Jackson had four interceptions the entire year, and he had one in the first half on Monday night. Now, again, he made up for it as much as he could after those two turnovers. And again, that last drive was the stuff of, you know, that was heroics, right? I mean, that was, that would have been a much different story if Mark Andrews catches that ball and the Ravens went in overtime. We’re, we’re talking. About this being this, you know, the start of a shift in lamar’s legacy for January, especially if we can go, could have gone to Kansas City and win. But instead, we’re talking about this in the same terms. But man, I mean the mark Andrews fourth quarter. It’s just you the best coach, you know, Vince Lombardi, Bill Belichick, Tom Landry, you name it. Throw whatever. Great all time. Great coach. Jackie Smith, we still go back to that. I mean, you can’t account for that. You can’t anticipate that, right? I mean, that’s just something, if that’s going to happen, you just kind of shrug your shoulders and say, Lamar, we called the right play. He was open. Lamar threw a good ball. Gotta catch it, period. End of discussion. Luke Jones is
Nestor Aparicio 25:47
here. He is Baltimore. Luke. You can find him out on the internet. He will be raging all week and catching up on all the Orioles of starting pitching before the end of the week, we are not going to Kansas City. I apologize to you. I Dude, I was looking at those onion rings at Jack stack, the big ones. I was all ready for that. I was already for another week of football around here. Instead, we have a requiem and Mark Andrews not showing up at his locker after the game, in in in Buffalo on Sunday night, they will be cleaning out lockers. Luke will be cleaning out lockers with them this week. We will continue to talk to people about this, talk to people in the league about this. And I guess I should say, get ready for Buffalo and Kansas City this week. But the the league moves on. They’re going to play football on Sunday. They’re going to be a Super Bowl two weeks from now. We’re going to have a cup of Super Bowl brought to you by the Maryland lottery. It’s my final Raven scratch off ticket. Now that the season is over, I’ll get the magic eight balls in here this week, we’re going to be beginning things that cost us two weeks from today. So come on out and donate the food pantries folks need food season’s over. We’re going to be talking about it until we’re purple in the face, because the season’s still going to be over tomorrow and the next day and the next day, and Luke will be out there covering all that. So full on coverage here all week, I am Nestor. He is Luke. We are W, N, S, T, A and 15 70,000 Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore positive, even when the ending is negative. You.
