After the first look at the new and younger (and cheaper) offensive line of the Baltimore Ravens, Luke Jones and Nestor can only say it needs to improve for the running and passing game of Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry to be truly effective.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
offensive line, run, ravens, lamar, play, week, teams, game, oyster, luke, talking, thursday night, touchdowns, lele, orioles, yards, ball, friday, thought, terms
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Luke Jones
Nestor Aparicio 00:02
8
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, Towson, Baltimore, Baltimore, positive and am, 1570 i There’s a whole like am dial on your car. Just make us the whole AM. Now that’s all. Make it. I can be number six. I don’t need to be number one or number two. Just make us number six. We’re number six. Make us number five. Like Brooks, Robinson and Joe Flacco, that’s fine. Just set a spot for us, because it is football season. It is baseball season. Luke is about to join us. It’s all brought to my friends at the Maryland lottery. I have the Gold Rush seven stumblers. I will have these on Friday when we do the Fells Point oyster festival. We’re doing 26 oysters in 26 days and 26 ways. Luke, I had an oyster in Hamden that was a fried oyster fritter on a Benedict of French toast with a poached egg. And I know you’re thinking like, maybe not. I looked at it on the menu like a deviled egg. I thought, maybe not. I ordered it and it was it, if anything is better than that. Later this month. From the oyster tour, I want come see me as Joe Flacco would say. I want to know about it so our friends at and you know, I now have a prop for this. Luke liberty, pure solutions. They’ve been providing our water forever. I now actually have a prop. I have a shirt too. See your 1-800-253-2692, if you can’t remember that, just 800 clean water, 800 clean water. Liberty, pure solutions takes care of all of our water needs, all of our plumbing needs. But more than that, if you have well water, I’m that guy. Want to stay healthy well stay safe. Liberty, pure Solutions does that Jiffy Lube. Multi care gets Luke back and forth from Owings Mills to Camden Yards and his palatial estate somewhere near Shrewsbury, Pennsylvania, our friends at Royal farms, putting the gas in Jiffy Lube, making sure things are happening. And we call these wise conversations because we were wise enough to take Sunday off after Thursday’s loss and extra days extra time they’re still owing one. I got a lot of football in me on Sunday, and it’s a long season around here, Luke, but it’s no fun being on one for any of the teams that lost this week. Yeah, it’s not
Luke Jones 02:10
I would say this having watched as much of the action as I could, having also been at Camden Yards covering the Orioles lose two out of three to the reigns. I’m just
Nestor Aparicio 02:19
saying if you had Roku, you could have stayed home.
Luke Jones 02:24
I kind of wish I had, based on how the Orioles didn’t hit the ball, but I had red zone up, and I was following it. And I’ll say this much. Look, it’s not good to be Owen one. It’s not fun to be Owen one. It is only Owen one, however, and compared to how a lot of teams around the league played, and, more specifically, how the rest of the AFC North looked, including the Steelers, who did win but did not score a touchdown in the process of doing it. I think you come out of the weekend feeling a little bit better about the Ravens overall. You know, we talked about this at length on Friday when we broke down the disappointment of the season opening loss. But I said at the time, nothing about Thursday night’s performance really changed my mind about the team or where it’s going or anything like that. I already had concerns about the offensive line and and there was nothing that really changed about that. It confirmed my concerns to this point, and that’s certainly something they need to figure out. There’s no doubt about that. But you look around the league offense, not very good quarterback play, not very good I saw Steve. Is it Palazzolo? I know we’ve talked. We’ve had him at Radio row. He used to be with pro football focus. He just moved on from there recently, but he tracked it week one NFL passing touchdowns. Now this is excluding Monday Night Football, and assuming Aaron Rodgers and Brock Purdy don’t throw 412 touchdowns between them, or anything crazy like that, but this is shaping up to be the worst week one in terms of NFL passing touchdowns that we’ve seen in a long time go back to 2019 There are 61 touchdown passes in week one, 2021 61 2022 51 the last two years, Nestor last year, 37 this year, going into Monday Night Football, 33 I mean, we’re talking roughly half of what we saw five years ago in terms of week one passing touchdowns. I think offensive line play, I think a lot with cover two defense. Yeah, that’s been talked about you, and I talked about that quite a bit last year. But point is, I get it. It was choppy. And you know the raisin the raisins, the Ravens did not have a clean, rhythmic passing game for a full 60 minutes on Thursday night by any stretch of the imagination. But when you look at how they performed and what the final numbers look like compared to a lot of teams around the league on Sunday, I think you come out of it feeling better. Better about this team and saying, Look, yeah, they got to figure out how to win and beat Kansas City at some point if they’re going to get to where they want to go. And they’re probably going to see them again in January, if both teams are healthy and upright. But based on what we saw around the league, there are a lot of teams looking for it, including the Cincinnati Bengals, who put up the, you know, the Carolina Panthers, we knew they stunk, right? I mean, okay, maybe people thought they’d be better, but they stunk last year, right? So you’re not shocked by that. The Bengals to lose to the Patriots at home, easily the most surprising result of the weekend. And if you’re the ravens, expecting them to be your biggest threat in terms of trying to win the AFC north. I think you feel better about things than they certainly felt on Friday morning. Look
8Nestor Aparicio 05:48
on a Monday, it’s easy to talk about Sunday’s game. I’m going to go back to Thursday. I want to see where the ravens are. And I want to talk about, in retrospect, having watched most of the teams in the league play now, my wife and I even got the first half of that Sao Paulo game. And before I fell asleep on Friday that we went up to Cooper’s north and I had a glass of Cabernet, and I had a delicious black and tuna wrap, and the next thing I know, I’m asleep, and I wake up like, what happened to love, what’s going on? You know? Um, there was a lot of football over the weekend, not to mention college football that I me and everybody else didn’t watch Mike Loxley, by the way, and you and I could talk about that, because that was, that’s its own thing. And my wife and I had a long conversation about that in the car on Sunday, having an oyster over at Urban oyster, but the the offensive line and the running game and what the Ravens really want to do, right like, so I wrote my column this on Friday, I saw you wrote your 12 thoughts and all the things you write. It was kind of weird, because it’s a Friday and a Saturday, and nothing else was kind of going on, um, the offensive line and running the ball. I still think, like, what are they trying to do? What do they really want to do with Lamar? They don’t want Lamar to throw the ball 50 times. They don’t want him in a pro set. They don’t want to be in a drop back passer, although you’ll say he’s good at it and and they don’t want to be throwing screen passes. I you know they bring Joe Flacco back to do that to me. This when it works, when the offense works, whether it’s Greg Roman or Todd monkin, I’m so bad Lamar. When Lamar works? When this his style works is when they’re in second and two and second and three. When first down is really productive. When first down puts them in a position that you have to worry about Lamar hips, you have to worry about Derrick, Henry. You have to worry about the ball going over top. You have to guard, say flowers. You have to worry about too tight end, like all of the stressors that the Ravens offense and their talent, a lot of talent. So it’s JK Dobbins, apparently, from what I saw too, in chargers game, there’s your money saved, Luke. But are they going to consistently be able to do what they want to do at HEART OF HEART OF HEART OF HEART. They want to be in second and two and second and two and second and three. They want to score touchdowns. I get that, like all of that, Lamar ran that. That was an awful game plan on Thursday night, right? They they ran. Lamar ran a lot. Lamar took a lot of hits. It didn’t work. The running game wasn’t working. The Derrick Henry thing didn’t work. Um, likely worked. I mean, you know, there’s a star and that’s and Lamar is an MVP. I mean, I’m not, not down on Lamar. I’m I’m trying to figure out where, how this thing really works, and how it’s really effective. And when I think of 2019 and I think of the best elements of last year, and I know it’s hard to do every team in the league like to get seven eight yards on first down, right? But when they can do that, it changes everything. And they get defenses backing up. It changes Second down, it changes personnel, it changes all sorts of things. And I woke up Friday, and when I’m writing my columnist in sobriety on Friday before I wrote my dear Eric the Costa letter, I thought to myself, there’s nothing about this that feels to me like Derek Henry’s going to fall three yards forward after gaining five yards, and that this offensive line is consistently maybe gets bad teams. I don’t know. I mean, I don’t think the Raiders have a bad front and we have a bad team, but I am worried about that element of when this has been really successful, that’s been the formula, when they score the 40 and 50 points and they’re just, you know boat racing teams. They’re boat racing teams because they can keep the ball and they can enforce their will on the run and scare the hell out of you in the past. And then there’s lamar’s hips, right? You have to worry about all of that. But if you can’t stop the run, you’re not going to beat the Ravens. If you can stop the run a little bit, I don’t know, I don’t know. I don’t know that the Ravens can win that way a lot, or often, or in January, and we’ve seen that when they fall behind, when they’re 10 points, that, like all of those things, they they have a harder time. And I know you’ll say they came a Tippy, tippy toe away from maybe even stealing the game the other night, but it wasn’t that. Game plan they want. What they want to do this week is being second and two, first and 10, be in second and four, first and 10. Ball goes over the top, big play. Come back. Run it again, second and three, second and four. That that’s that’s how the timing of this work, when they work great, when they’re going to win 13 or 14 games. Yeah.
Luke Jones 10:20
Well, and look, it’s a simple formula. You need your offensive line to play better, having reviewed the game, having re watched it, I came out of it not quite as concerned about the past protection, because it did get better as the night went on. Now I’m not, let me be clear. I’m not saying it’s perfect or that doesn’t need to improve as well. Let me be very straightforward about that. However, where my grave concern graves too strong. It’s week one. Let’s not overreact too much. Anyway. We overreact in week one. But let’s also be measured, not grave, but potentially fatal. Flaw, if we don’t see long term improvement, is very much on the run blocking side. I think, having reviewed the game, Tyler linderbaum, there were maybe one or two reps where he didn’t look great, you know, the holding call. I thought, for all the hand wringing about the illegal formations, the holding call on him, I thought was really ticky tack. And though the illegal formation madness aside, I actually think Ronnie Stanley played really good football on Thursday night. That was a good version of Ronnie Stanley. Now the big question is, are you going to get that for 19 more games, potentially, or, let’s say, at least 15 or 16, you know, if we’re being a little more realistic, knowing his injury history, but you know the rest of the offensive line, and specifically the right side of the offensive line, just had so much difficulty moving anyone in the run game and for this to work at the optimal level, you know, everything you just mentioned, you know, being productive, getting 678, yards on first down. And look, every, every team wants to do that. I, as I have said to you over the last five, six years, where the Ravens have had this, you know, Lamar Jackson era offense, where it’s been way more successful than not. We’ve talked about it a lot that the best third down offense is what the offense that avoids third downs altogether, right? And to do that, you need to be really good on first down. So I look at the O line, and as I’ve said throughout training camp, even going back to OTAs, it’s in pencil, not pen. I’m going to be interested to see, not necessarily that there are drastic changes this week, but what does right tackle look like in terms of McCary and Rosengarten? Right? I mean, McCarry started, Rosengarten played a little bit really rough start for him. You know, I don’t think he necessarily played with a ton of confidence, which, hey, line up against someone like Chris Jones. That’s, that’s a challenge for someone in their first NFL game. There’s no doubt. So I expect him to get better. So what do we see there? And I think the big one is Daniel falay. It’s been an interesting experiment. Going back to the end of OTAs and mandatory mini camp. I think he is better in past protection than some have made it out to be. You know, even going back talking about the preseason performances lumped in with what we saw week one, but I don’t know how much of that is his technique and how much of that is he’s 380 pounds, just trying to get around him from a past, you know, from a pass rush standpoint, I could argue he has a little bit of an edge there, but he is just, I’m not seeing it with him as a run blocker. And that sounds counterintuitive, right? When you’re talking about someone who’s 380 pounds, you’d like to think, oh, man, he’ll Maul people. But offensive linemen need to have good footwork, right? They’ve got to have quick feet. Even though we’re talking about 300 plus pound individuals, they need to be able to move. And you know, when you’re talking about counters and pools and traps and all those different things, you’ve got to have the quickness to to get to where you need to be to make the block, and whether we’re talking about the three preseason games or what we saw Thursday night, I’m just not seeing that from Daniel Fowle. I’m not and I’m not saying that they’re going to bench him this week or that. I’m adamant that they need to bench him immediately. But
Nestor Aparicio 14:17
well, this is an experiment all along. Right? You look at him and you say, Sure, this is hardball, saying we’re going to do something. Nobody else you were. Nobody else sees it, but we see it or and I always say horrible. Dell Sanders is dead. I mean, this was decisions of offensive line coaches that have been here five weeks. This has to be more about monkey and more about Harbaugh and more about senior leadership, looking at this and saying, what do we have here in these players that we’ve drafted? Is this the best we’re going to do? And to your point, Ben Cleveland, what I mean they it’s very telling as to who’s on the field, as to how they feel about the guys that aren’t on the field. For me, sure,
Luke Jones 14:56
8well, and I was just going to get to Ben Cleveland, and look, you’ve heard me. I. I have criticism of Ben Cleveland over the last three years, right? I’m not like the president of the Ben Cleveland fan club. Let me be clear about that. However, when he filled in for Kevin Zeidler the last couple years, albeit I get it, it’s only a few games, but they were still real NFL games, he played pretty well, like I’m not saying he’s the next Marshall yonda Well, but he played pretty well. But to your point, and I think it’s evident, no matter what they say in a press conference format that they have, they don’t have a lot of trust in Him and but at some point in time, I can also remember once upon a time, the Ravens not having a whole lot of trust in Bryant McKinney, and it came down to it, he was still their best option at left tackle. When it came down to it, it helped win them a Super Bowl as much as we talk about Flacco and Bolden and some of the other heroes of that playoff run, Bryant McKinney being inserted at left tackle and the shuffling they did on the offensive line was way up there on the list of the reasons why they made the run they did in 2012 in that postseason. So I’m not at all implying that moving Ben Cleveland into a starting guard spot is going to fix their offensive line. But at the same time, when I see fall Lele struggle the way that he did, and just the limitations that he has physically, I continue to look at this and say, I have a tough time believing and buying and accepting that he’s not one of their two best options at guard right before he’s at left guard. I thought he played a little bit better than we saw in the preseason. So that was encouraging, because I thought he struggled in the preseason and did not look all that great compared to, you know, how much we’ve been talking about him, and you know, the perception that that was a steal for them in the draft a year ago. So, you know, I what I saw in week one for him. I want to continue to see growth. But, you know, I thought it was okay, you know, there, there was something to say. Hey, I want to see more of that. Needs to get better, no question about it. But I just look at Fall Lele, and it’s just he’s so limited physically, in terms of his feet and being able to move, and understanding that got a 250 pound running back, you can’t have a 300 pound running or up guard that isn’t getting to where he needs to go with trap blocks and different things of that nature. And again, I’m not an offensive line guru in terms of evaluating it, but I just I don’t see him doing nearly enough as a run blocker to be encouraged by it, right? So we’ll see. And again, Kansas City does have a good defense, and they proved it again on Thursday night, although they were susceptible to the run last year, which is why so many people lost their minds about how little the Ravens ran the ball in the title game. But what we saw on Thursday night, they didn’t run effectively, right? I mean, Derek carrot, Derek Henry, got 13 carries. It’s not as though he touched the ball three times, 13 carries, any average, three and a half yards per carry. I mean, you can keep beating your head against the brick wall, or you need to run block at a higher level. I mean, Lamar 122 rushing yards. It sounds like, you know, that sounds awesome, and it was, and look, but that was largely Lamar scrambling. Those weren’t, you know, there were only he had the two design runs early in the first half, you know, kind of on those back to back plays. There wasn’t a whole lot for Lamar in terms of design runs that was primarily scrambling, which, don’t get me wrong, I’m fine with that. You know, I like Lamar scrambling, but if that’s your entire running game, as it basically was on Thursday night, that’s a problem, right? That you don’t want that that’s not ideal, right? No matter how much you love it. I mean, we agreed on this. You and I have thought, how many times about Lamar running? How much is too much? We absolutely are on the same page that Thursday night. Specifically, he took way too many hits, and you don’t want to see you see that over the course of the season, you’re begging for trouble. So, but that said you’ve got to be able to move the ball on the ground. And you know, that’s that’s where I look at this. Somebody’s got to run it, if
Nestor Aparicio 18:55
you’re going to run it right, somebody’s got to run it. Somebody’s got to get 567, yards when they run it, not 123, yards,
Luke Jones 19:02
but, but, but also part of that is design runs though, right? But he’s still their best running back. What we saw him like being called running back. He’s still their best play, their best rusher. Sure, and look again. I don’t I never want to see them apologize for that. However, when you bring Derek Henry in and you’re giving them $9 million this year, you need to have a functional offensive line that’s going to allow you to maximize that investment. And that’s where my concern really lies right now, the other thing I will say, only a couple option runs in there. You know, the read option with with Derrick Henry and Lamar that everyone talked about throughout the offseason, they did very little of that. Specifically. Now, I will say this, and this has been talked about by a lot of people smarter than me, even, you know, a lot was made about Derek, what he did at Tennessee, you know, not running out of shotgun, a whole lot being under center. More the Ravens did try to run. Under center. They were under center a decent amount. I think, if you’re going to do that more than you have in the past, which I’m not surprised, to see them do that a little more. And let me be clear, they’re still way more in shotgun than not, but you’ve got to mix in passes and be balanced there and not too predictable there. So it wasn’t so much that that I had concerns about. But you know, I definitely want to see them mix in a few more option runs there and really try to put the defense in conflict, and that, in turn, should help the offensive line. You know, if you’re doing that. But you know, it just it needs to be better. The running game needs to be better. And again, you look at the final stats and you say, Luke, you sound crazy if you’re just looking at it from a box score standpoint. Yeah, they ran for 185 yards and 5.8 yards for Gary, but we know that most of that was Lamar scrambling, which, if you have to do it in a given week, then you have to do it in a given week. I’m not you know, and I still think Lamar initiating and taking as much contact as he did on Thursday night was way more a byproduct of the opponent, and some carryover from the AFC title game and the national stage and all that. So I don’t think what we saw out of Lamar Thursday night is that Lamar suddenly, 2018 Lamar again, that he’s gonna be running into guys or anything like that. But you’ve got to have a more productive, structured ground game, so they’re chasing that right now. There’s no question about that. And that’s where I do have more concern, where, you know, the past protection at least settled down some as the game went on. Now, they were chipping guys. And you know, whether it was Justice Hill or or the tight ends. I mean, we saw even mark Andrews stand in the past protect at times, you know, not a whole lot, but at times so they they were adjusting, and they weren’t asking their line, Justin Hills taking
Nestor Aparicio 21:45
on, you know, Chris Jones at the end of the game, and doing an okay job. It
8Luke Jones 21:50
was commendable. Yeah, right. I
Nestor Aparicio 21:52
mean, but that’s not, that’s not ideal, right way you want to draw this up the next time you play to Kansas City Chiefs, of
Luke Jones 21:58
course, no question about that. So, I mean, look, they need, they have to grow from a past protection standpoint. But what’s really behind right now, what’s really lacking right now with the offensive line is the run blocking. I mean, that that that was not pretty. I mean, that was not pretty. I mean, even think back to that penultimate drive where, remember, they go for it on the fourth and one, and then they ended up kicking the field goal. Then on the fourth and four after that, you remember the fourth and one right? A chiefs defensive lineman was in the backfield ready, and Derek Henry broke the tackle, or they would have been stuffed in that position. So that’s how close they came to getting nothing on that drive. And then we’re having a way different conversation than a toenail of Isaiah likely away from potentially winning the game. So,
Nestor Aparicio 22:42
8you know, my column, I wrote the end at the end, it came close, but it wasn’t a close game.
Luke Jones 22:47
I mean, there are different ways of looking at it. I mean it, yes, it was a close game, because ultimately, it’s the points on the scoreboard is what matter, right? I mean, you know, you are in the same way that we built ourselves. Would say you are what your record says you are. The scoreboard is dude. I didn’t
Nestor Aparicio 23:01
get that last year after they lost that championship game. I thought, well, if they played them five times, they might want three or four of them. I don’t know that. I feel that way about this year’s version of it, having seen him get beat twice now, and having seen this offensive line. And unlike the orals pitching, which may have somebody in, you know, Grayson might be coming back, and they might get westburg back in the lineup, I’m not looking up and down Matt Burke and his prime and Marshall yonda, they’re not coming here. You know, Brian McKinney, I don’t know who’s coming here, but I was a little thoughtful in my conversations all summer with you that, like when the cuts happened and I was on vacation and the Orioles were in LA two weeks ago, that they would find somebody else’s Kevin Zeitler or Morgan Moses. You know that somebody would cut somebody over money. Hey, we got this kid. Let’s, let’s cut the $6 million guard we have, because we got a kid that can play and he’s not, you know, whatever it is. I thought they would back into something where they would get a garter or a right something on that side of the ball, on the right side of the offensive line, that they could say, well, the year they got Andre garad, it didn’t work. You know, I mean, they brought Willie Anderson in, what you didn’t work work for a minute, but he was 100 years old. But I just thought that if they didn’t like what they saw all summer, they would do better than putting Daniel fall Lele out there to run around and starting the game with McCary. And the kid they drafted is not ready. If he was ready, he’d be. They wouldn’t be starting Patrick McCary. So I don’t know it. It feels a lot messier and when to Costa, the only time his head comes above water, like Loch Ness Monster. You know, when he’s acknowledging horrible, has to acknowledge it, whether he wants to or not. The rest of I’ll acknowledge it for you, John, that the offensive line might not be good enough right now. And I don’t know that we look at it and say, in November, they’ll be better. Okay? Maybe I don’t know. I don’t know. I mean, I. Don’t believe that right now. I have, there’s no basis to believe that on those small sample size I have, and there is no preseason whenever you see them running around a gym shorts out there for a month, that doesn’t mean anything. Yeah, Raiders will be another test for them this week. I mean, Raiders front seven, we’ll see. But if you can’t dominate at home and running the ball, I mean, offensive line and running the ball is about dominating on every play, not some place every play.
Luke Jones 25:28
I mean, you just, you have to be able to move people. I mean, it’s, it’s that simple. And, you know, we didn’t see it in the preseason and understanding it, you know, that’s an incomplete evaluation, but you could still look at those specific individuals that were playing, even if Linda bam and Ronnie Stanley weren’t out there, and Derek Henry and Lamar weren’t out there and Patrick Ricard wasn’t out there, you know. So we understood it was incomplete, but when you looked at it on an individual basis, they weren’t moving people the way that you’d like to see. So and that’s why I said, I mean, file a lay pass protection in the preseason was better than people gave him credit for the run blocking. I’m just I’m not seeing that for him right now. I mean, unless we see some drastic improvement in growth in that specific area, I don’t know if that experiment’s gonna last, let alone if it’s gonna work. So
8Nestor Aparicio 26:17
that’s what they want to do. They want to run the ball, but, but But to go back
Luke Jones 26:21
to what you just said, I mean, look, part of the problem with that is, I mean, you were, you were watching around the league more closely than I was, having been out at the ballpark covering the Orioles for the early afternoon games. Offensive line play around the league is not very good. I mean, how about the mess that the Rams were dealing with on Sunday night with the injury. It’s, it’s borderline miraculous that they were able to make that the game that they did, where it goes into overtime, considering the state of their offensive line, with guys going down with injury, and they were shuffling what they had, three or four different guys that had changed positions and all this. I mean, it was a mess. I think you see way more offensive lines closer to that, or closer to where the ravens are currently, than offensive lines that you say, Man, that’s a that’s a dominant offensive line or man, that’s a really complete, steady, trustworthy offensive line. I mean, we’ve talked about this for years. The quality of offensive line play in the league, or lack thereof. So I think part of the problem of what you just said, and look, I was in agreement with you, and I’ll remind everyone the trade deadlines not till early November. So you do have a couple months here, and so much can happen in terms of teams that have young offensive linemen that, you know, they want to get on the field, get ready to play. Teams will fall out of, you know, the wild card race, and, you know, some team will be two and six and might have a guard that has an expiring contract that they’re going to want to try to see if they can get a late round pick for it. And if that’s the case, I could see Eric da Costa pouncing on that, right? But is that going to be there in week two? Is that going to be there in week three? Is that going to be there in week four? I mean, that’s the question mark right now. So as things stand in the in the present, you have what you have on your roster right now. So look, we a week from now, we might be talking about Ben Cleveland being the starting right guard, and maybe he replaces McCary, because they or not, McCarry fall Lele because they say privately, you know what? We don’t love Ben Cleveland. We don’t trust them. You know, we haven’t played them the last three years when people, you know, outsiders, thought he might be a starting guard the last three years, but he he’s the best we have there. So we need to go with him. You know, maybe we see that this week. Maybe not. But boy, you want to see some growth. And like I said, I can live with the fact that their past protection did settle in some as the game went on, but boy, you need to see a big jump from them in the run blocking department, because, you know, we saw it last year with Derrick Henry in Tennessee. He ran behind an awful offensive line, and go look at his numbers. Now he was still 1000 yard rusher, not saying he was terrible, but he didn’t look like the Derrick Henry of a few years before that. And the big reason why was he’s behind a lousy offensive line. So you know that that’s where I’m really looking to see some growth, and I’m really looking to see if, potentially, there are a couple tweaks with the lineup, because, as we’ve said all along, this was written in pencil, not pen, so it’s got to be better, and it starts with that. And yeah, I do think Todd monkin A goal this week is definitely going to be to mix in some more option runs and things of that nature that we kind of expected to see all along with Lamar Jackson and Derek Henry in the same backfield. He
Nestor Aparicio 29:40
is Lou Jones. He is Baltimore, Luke. He’s monitoring baseball and football all week. Orioles in Boston. Orioles heading to Detroit this weekend. The Ravens hosting the Raiders. We got Pearl Jam in town. Springsteen’s in town. Stix is in town. You’ll hear some rock and roll this week from those Lofgren, the great, great mills. Lofgren, Marylander as. Well as Lawrence Gowan, Canadian from the band sticks, joining us here. Mark Viviano did a long form sit down with us last week at Cocos, as did micro. Sigliano. We’ve had all sorts of great guests here. We’re doing Gambling Awareness. We’re doing 26 oysters in 26 days on behalf of the oyster recovery partnership. I’m a couple of days into that. You’ll want to follow that on social media as well. We will be at state fair on the 24th with Angela also Brooks. You will have Marilyn lottery scratch offs to give away. I’ll have Raven scratch offs giveaway, but I have a handful of Gold Rush seven doublers to get rid of. This week. We’ll be at Cooper’s on Friday for the oyster festival going on down to Fells Point. My dude, Dave, shining from the Washington Post, back from Patty and the Olympics. He’ll be joining us talk about the the Olympics, as well as Chad whistling, NFL agent who lives in Canton, my buddy, he a Terp. Can talk about the Terps and their crowds, and Mike Loxley and losing and all that good stuff. So plenty of things here. Baseball, football. It is a political season. Going to have an election in about eight weeks as well. We got oysters, we got crab cakes, and we’re a two sport town. He’s Luke, I’m Nestor. A M 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore. Positive. You.
