Another tough opponent with playoff aspirations, another road victory. Luke Jones and Nestor praise Lamar Jackson after another impressive win over Jaguars on Sunday night as the Ravens clinch a playoff berth for Christmas.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
ravens, game, lamar, jacksonville, talk, wide receivers, week, point, team, sunday night, touchdown, number, win, mark andrews, year, quarterback, throw, san francisco, yards, bateman
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor J. Aparicio
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:01
What about w n s t tassel Baltimore and Baltimore positive we’re positively into the greatest time of the year over one. Oh 1.9 They’re playing holiday music. We’re not doing that here. But we do have some peppermint pay out multipliers that smell like peppermint, as well as some oh snap gingerbreads as well as these. Unwrap the cash. We had a lot of winners. The other day we were out moving about we’re gonna be wise on Monday. We weren’t far and daughter on Friday with Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Gina shock. Also got a laundry science lesson from Drew Westervelt. He’s a lacrosse player, a product called hex if you see that HDX we talked to him as well as Michael Bronfman, who gave us while just a history of education, about cannabis, about health about pharmaceuticals, and it’s all going to be coming your way this week. But the most important thing that’s coming your way this week besides Santa Claus is that the Baltimore Ravens are taking on the San Francisco 40. Niners on Christmas evening they are now 11 and three and what a win it was on Sunday night national TV. Lamar Lamar Lamar on the back end of Joseph Vinson Flacco winning games and putting the browns in playoff position. Here comes Lamar back on national TV. A great win. I mean, it’s good to win as they’ve had at any point this season Luka on the road down in Jacksonville, Jacksonville, had many opportunities to score points early in the game did not wind up paying the ultimate price for a real nice win for the Ravens on Sunday night. It’s
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Luke Jones 01:27
what they’ve done most of the season, which is take care of business. You look at Sunday night’s game, and you look at what the Ravens did you look at what Lamar Jackson did, which was a fantastic showcase performance that goes beyond the statistics and I I get it 171 passing yards, one touchdown, one interception, that doesn’t look incredible. We’ve seen Lamar run for big yards, as he did on Sunday night as well. I’ll be it as a scrambler moreso than design runs. But it was just the difference between a legitimate contender, a team that has a legitimate chance to make some serious noise and make a deep run in January. And frankly, Nesta a pretender. And that doesn’t mean the Jacksonville Jaguars won’t make the playoffs. They’re now in a three way tie in the AFC South. But I think the last three weeks, you kind of seen the difference of a team. That’s pretty good, but nothing special. And that’s the Jacksonville Jaguars, and a team that has all the potential all the makings to be special. And that’s the Ravens who are officially playoff bound now at 11. And three still have a lot of work to do as it pertains to holding on to the number one seed but when you have Lamar Jackson at quarterback playing the way that he’s playing, you have a good shot, a great shot against anyone, and we’re gonna see that on Christmas night. That’s going to be put to the test against the team that’s playing the best football in the NFL over the last five, six weeks in the San Francisco 40 Niners. But the word that kept coming back to me, watching Lamar operate on Sunday night was called under duress, offensive line issues pressure. How many times did he break away and getting away is one thing, but continuing to look downfield and making throws or deciding to take off. He was just so composed and so calm throughout the night and I get it you throw pick, throw across his body, something that he shouldn’t do, although he gets away with that, more than more than most quarterbacks in the league just because of his talents. But he he played at such a high level and the Ravens will talk about the defense, I’m sure but they did the things that you need to do to win games. They were the better team. And they played cleaner football throughout the night. Not perfect football but cleaner football throughout the night than the Jacksonville Jaguars did. And you see the difference. This could have been a very, very close game. But it wasn’t because the Ravens were better. And like I said they were the smarter, cleaner football team over the course of 60 minutes on Sunday night.
Nestor J. Aparicio 04:03
Well we beat hardball up last week. And your your first question was, well, everybody’s done. Everybody’s doing it. Everybody screws up to minute everybody screws up the clock. Everybody screws up timeouts. And there goes your proof for Jacksonville at the end of the two minute wine. That was just brutal to lose points like that at home, especially after they missed field goals, especially after the turnover. You know, going into the half that was a brutal, brutal thing that Jacksonville did. And then the Ravens pretty much stepped on their throat in the second half. Well,
Luke Jones 04:33
I don’t know how much that’s coaching as much as that’s just Trevor Lawrence has to be better than that. You can’t make that throw when Marcus Williams has the guy covered blanketed underneath. I mean, he’s not gonna get out of bounds unless Marcus Williams completely blows the tackle so they have no chance of scoring a touchdown. So you throw the ball away. Well, what you have to do in that spot, I kind of like not clocking it there but it’s got to go to the endzone. Either someone’s open in the endzone or you throw it out of the back of the endzone you take your three I mean, I think for me, and this goes back to what I was just saying how the Ravens just played smarter, cleaner, better football over the course of 60 minutes. I mean, look at that first half missed field goal missed field goal, and I get it, they’re too long field goals. But assume you make one of those if you’re doing what you need to do. Yeah, Trevor Lawrence. So keep in mind on the previous drive, just dropped the football. I mean, that wasn’t a forced fumble, he just slipped right out of his hand. So that should have been a field goal. And then they should at least get three, three points at the end of the half. I mean, that game, even if Jacksonville doesn’t play perfectly, that game should have been 10, nine or easily could have been 10. Nine, or it could have been 12, the 10 at halftime instead, it’s 10 Nothing. And we saw how the second half played out. I mean, that could have been a much different football game. And it just emphasizes once again, the margin for error in the NFL, is so so minut that just a couple of critical errors like that. That’s a difference of it being a neck and neck back and forth. Second half compared to the Ravens being two steps ahead, you know, once they once they scored, and got you know, hadn’t had a two score lead after the long play that Jacksonville got in the third quarter. So I mean, it’s just the Ravens had the much better quarterback Trevor Lawrence is bad. And I’ve been a Trevor Lawrence guy. And look, he played brilliantly in the fourth quarter against the Ravens last year in that game where the Ravens had the collapse down there. But Lamar Jackson was just way, way better than him and smarter with the football and made better decisions. And it really reflected in what the final score was. So but but yeah, I really look at that game, that first half the squandered opportunities, and the Ravens squandered some chances as well they squandered some good field position. Again, they weren’t perfect, but Jacksonville just was so bad situationally that it put them behind the eight ball. You know, it’s 10. Nothing at halftime, compared to a one point game of a four point game, however you want to speculate. So again, the Ravens played high caliber football, specially on the road, and Jacksonville, who just three weeks ago, we were talking about them as a very legitimate serious contender for the number one seed and well, they turned back into a pretender over the last three weeks, losing dropping three straight to the AFC north. So again, you see the difference. You see a football team that in the Ravens that defense gives up one touchdown. And the offense, again wasn’t perfect very little from the wide receivers in the passing game. Fortunately, Isaiah likely did a heck of a mark Andrews impersonation, and the running game aside from Lamar scrambles, and we’ll get to keep Mitchell in a moment. Not a whole lot from Gus Edwards, once again, not a whole lot from Justice Hill. And we’ll see what Melvin Gordon who John Harbaugh already was talking about in the postgame will contribute down the stretch. So it’ll be part of the 53 man roster. It’s expected. So you know that it comes back to how far can your defense carry you? And how far can Lamar Jackson putting on the cape? It’s a different kind of Cape, but it’s still the cape. And look, that’s how it is with any of these these teams that have elite franchise, quarterbacks, I mean, Kansas City’s Same deal. How far is Patrick mahomes going to take it to a team that’s not as strong offensively as it’s been in years past, but again, for the ravens, to again, do what they do on the road. They have put themselves in great position now that even if they can’t get the job done in San Francisco on Christmas night, they’re still right there controlling their path to the number one seed having Miami come in the following week. So they, they’ve put in the work to this point. And now they’re in great position where it’s staring them right in the face, they already got already had the playoff spot locked up. But getting that number one seed, Sunday’s win was huge, because if they don’t win that game, then you start to look at more of those possibilities in terms of, okay, maybe Cleveland in the division, Kansas City, Miami for the number one seed. Now it really is a case of regardless of what happens against San Francisco, which is going to be a great opportunity. And a great litmus testing. It’s the team that I think most people would say, is the best in the NFL right now. And the body of work over the last five weeks or so is tough to argue with. But even if that doesn’t go, well, Miami coming into your building on New Year’s Eve, you’re still feeling really good about your chances of getting that number one spot. What’s the treacherous
Nestor J. Aparicio 09:44
8part of the stretch, right? I mean, these three games and I tweeted before the game. I don’t remember the Ravens ever having three games like this and being this good, right? I mean, there were times I guess they were sort of scuffling around on their route to being a 10 and 16 or whatever. whereas they would have a couple of Denver at the end of the year giants at the end. I remember some of the good years where they played some decent teams. But this three this gauntlet at Christmas on national TV on national television in general beginning on Sunday night, and expected to maybe be the best team I the way, the way the media is talking about them. But what has happened to Buffalo what has happened to Kansas City now what has happened to Jacksonville, nobody’s ready to anoint Miami that the ravens are the number one pick up at the Hollywood casino in Perry Ville and on your app and wherever you are, because they’ve managed to see it through and as they see it through every week somebody bad game right every week. They’re losing Andrews one week, you know, week after week, they get Marlon Humphrey back and Kyle Hamilton’s a little messed up caller Hamilton had a great game for being a question mark all week for sure. Obviously, Matt a BK. Ro Quan, the defense is stepping up. But for me that these games and escaping them and winning these games, this is something we’ve never really seen the franchise do. I mean, if they go out to San Francisco win on Christmas night, and sort of put their flag in the ground on Christmas night for the whole world to see that they’re 12 and three, and that they’re going to have a buy that they’re coming home to play Miami, they’re coming home to play home, knowing that they won’t go on the road again, if they win. This becomes even a bigger matchup this week. And it feels like the 40 Niners have the big bad wolf, everyone is ready to say they’re the best team in the NFL. And here come the Ravens with a chance to prove that maybe they’re not.
Luke Jones 11:40
Well, I mean, it’s it’s gonna it’s a Super Bowl preview, right? I mean, that’s what everyone’s gonna hype. I mean, it doesn’t mean it’s guaranteed that it’s gonna be a Super Bowl that the Super Bowl is going to be these two teams, but it’s the best team in each conference right now. I mean, I think everyone can agree on that, at least. I mean, Dallas took a major step back. So pipe down in the NFC eagles, we’ve seen what’s happened to them of late where they’re looking much more mortal and not nearly as good as that record would indicate. And in the AFC, I mean, you know, you mentioned buffalo, I’ll say this, the rest of the AFC is hoping, hoping, or dear life that buffalo doesn’t get in. Because, and I’ve said this, I’ve said this for a while. I still think buffalo is a top five team in the NFL right now, they’re not record wise, because of stubbing their toe earlier on. But if you’re watching the games, they’ve looked like a top five team the last few weeks. So they might be the biggest threat to the Ravens in the AFC if they get in. But that’s still a big if and they still have a lot of work to do. Whereas the Ravens have at least guaranteed their place in the tournament, let alone talking about their opportunity to secure home field. But yeah, I mean, this is a great opportunity on Monday night. I mean, this is a chance to, as I just said, I mean, it’s one against one right now, as far as the two conferences go. And
Nestor J. Aparicio 12:54
that’s rare to get these teams. We’ve had some I mean, look, Buffalo and Dallas, good game. We’ve had marquee kind of games every week. But this is sort of the ultimate marquee game, I think for the whole league.
Luke Jones 13:05
Yeah, it is. But I mean, you made mention that we haven’t really seen this. We did see this in 2019. I mean, San Francisco came into Baltimore, and they were the two best teams at that point. I think most people assumed because at that point, the Ravens I mean, we’re not just beating teams, and not just winning, but boat racing teams week after week, we haven’t seen that kind of extended run of dominance from this team, but they’ve just taken care of business, the defense is better passing game is better. You know, the running game overall is not as good even though you look at the efficiency numbers. But the eyeball test between the tackles, you know, as you and I’ve talked about a little bit,
8Nestor J. Aparicio 13:46
it’s a two minute warning and all 14 games, right. I mean, that’s, it’s I don’t know what you could say about that, that that’ll never happen again.
Luke Jones 13:54
I mean, it’s, they’ve been in position to win. And we’ve talked about it. I mean, this team could be, we could keep talking about this team could be 14 to know right now. They’re not. And you know, I think you get to a point with some of that stuff where you’re kind of wasting your breath because it’s not reality. But the reality is they are the number one seed currently in the AFC. The reality is that they’ve lost one game since early October. And they haven’t you know, they, they’ve lost one game on the road. And that’s where you take some some satisfaction and some some confidence into going into San Francisco and having a chance to win against a great 40 Niners team. I mean, if you beat the 40 Niners on Monday night, then ravens are Super Bowl favorites, then I mean, I don’t think there’s any way to dispute it. And I’m talking in terms of oddsmakers in terms of where they are right now. Still acknowledging Yeah, Kansas City and Patrick mahomes are still there. And they’re still the the big
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:53
bad wolf. They
Luke Jones 14:54
8are I mean, they are I mean, and again, and we’ve and we’ve seen this, we talked about this for years with the Patriots right how many Times did people try to right out right right off Tom Brady and the Patriots, you know this they don’t feel as good as they are they used to be and they look vulnerable and then before you know what they’re playing in the Superbowl again, I mean, how many years were rescinded radio row talk at that same story. So
Nestor J. Aparicio 15:15
talk about good teams, and we’re talking about next month, the ravens are probably going to see the bills and chiefs and back to back after a buy, right? They’re gonna see that sort of, that’s that’s what they’re gonna see and they’re gonna have to win two games like this a Jacksonville, San Francisco, San Francisco, Miami, it might be Miami and Cleveland. In the end it might be Jacksonville, Indiana. But these are the teams that are gonna come here they’re gonna have to win to really hard games on home cooking without Mark Andrews without Keaton Mitchell without whomever else there without a couple of weeks from now, because I’ll probably be without somebody. Maybe Ronnie Stanley before it’s all over and trying to figure out the running game without him. But they’ve now put themselves in a position I’ve been doing this 30 years I I’ve never seen them on Christmas in this position. I guess that’s my, I remember good years and teams where you believe in teams where you think well, Flacco is okay. And they still have Ray Lewis and they still have everyday, you know, they have a great coach, they, they have a system, they have all the Rex Ryan, whatever you want to say they had, what they have right now is daylight in a way that they’ve never really had it before.
Luke Jones 16:21
Oh, they did in 19. I mean, they’re 14 and two, and they sewed up the number one seed with a couple of weeks ago. I mean, you know that so they did. I mean, they have been in that and see, I think our perception is skewed because they lost to the titans in the divisional round. They were the best team in football that year in the regular season. They had the best point differential since the oh seven patriots. I mean, they have it’s remember
Nestor J. Aparicio 16:41
the smile a marshal yawn does face every week after
8Luke Jones 16:45
right and Marshall yonder, saying it was the best team he ever played with, which played on which he was on the Super Bowl 47 team so and Marshall yonder was not the kind of guy that gets caught up in the moment, you know, so. So I just I’ll push back on that they haven’t been in this position. But I think what’s exciting if you’re a Ravens fan, trying to not rationalize because everyone’s excited right now. But if you’re trying to see where your confidence level is, in terms of why January can be different for this team than it has been in recent years. It’s because they’re more experienced at this point. I mean, they have our backs better,
Nestor J. Aparicio 17:20
better than he was in 2019. By a lot. Well,
Luke Jones 17:24
I don’t know by Allah. He’s different. He’s different. Let’s not dismiss 2019. And this is what, not you. But in general, when people do this, he had a historic season that year. He was phenomenal that year, but He’s different. He’s more experienced now. He is calmer in the pocket. When the pocket breaks down. He’s not taking off quite as quickly. He’s looking downfield, he’s still scrambling a ton. He’s still this team’s leading rusher. So you know, that’s, you know, let’s not say that it’s completely changed, but it’s evolved. And that’s what it needed to. And that’s why so many people were arguing that to move on from Greg Roman to Todd Monken as a reason to continue to evolve. That’s
Nestor J. Aparicio 18:04
8coaching, that’s coaching that keeps him in the pocket. He’s clearly doing something he didn’t do in Louisville, because when the pocket broker broke down, right, he took off, he took off always that was it felt like it was his instinct to take off. That’s not who he is right now. He all the complaints that you had about me that I had about him that listeners had about me because I wasn’t purple enough and all of that his his game was limited in 2019. What he he wasn’t willing to look down the field. He didn’t have the receivers to look down the field. He didn’t have the confidence level or the time or you would say the calm to keep his eyes on when you watch Game filming him when you watch the the eye in the sky now. You see where his eyes are all the time. And they have coached him to try to not run it like even when you see a lane, fake lane and wait for Beckham to get open fake the lane and look out for Bateman. Get rid of the ball, find likely down the field don’t get hit. He’s playing. I think if you go back and watch the games, he’s just playing a different style. And it’s a style many believed he couldn’t play or that he would be unwilling to play or would be left handed from the play that way certainly didn’t look like he does not look left handed in traffic even without Ronnie Stanley with bodies flying around. It feels like he has that John Elway where he feels the pressure coming behind them. And he’s moving into space in a way that he never did. He never tried to move into space he took off in 2019. And then after that you can guess as to what could have should have happened and sometimes he broke legs and ran 80 yards and we’re all cheering, but I don’t know that he wants to do that. I don’t know. I haven’t seen him do that, quite frankly, I haven’t seen him take off and run 60 yards anymore. I don’t know that his speed is the same as it was five years ago in that way. But no, he’s not trying to utilize it in that way. And they have better receivers, they have better weapons, all the things that decline Lastolite about in the offseason, our wide receivers are great through Vernay, Brochet, all of that. They’ve they’ve really helped his confidence level. And he’s gotten Mojo now with these receivers from practicing for five months. He knows what Beckham is going to do. He knows what Bateman is going to do. There’s, there’s some symmetry and synergy and what they’re doing that. I mean, it’s exciting to me to see him play this style. It’s It must be very gratifying for all of them to give him the money and to say, see, we know we could do it. We just needed the right coach and we really needed the right players around him when we needed him to believe to not take off because he’s not taken off.
Luke Jones 20:44
I have to laugh a little bit because he ran. I’m not disagreeing with. I disagree with some of the degree that you’re making some of it out to be, but I don’t disagree with your general points. But what’s ironic is Sunday night was a very 2019 like statline for him 14 to 24 471 yards at a touchdown and 1212 carries for 97 yards roughly
Nestor J. Aparicio 21:07
under was 215 on him passing Yeah, I would have bet the over. I mean, I you know I would have any 71 Yeah, I would have lost the bet.
Luke Jones 21:15
Well, I did the other and the other funny thing is you mentioned the wide receivers wide receivers did nothing on Sunday night. We’d say flowers that would catch back a bed would catch Aguilar one Target Zero catches Bateman had a nice game three catches 39 yards. So I think what’s exciting about everything that you just said and again, I I don’t disagree with the general sentiments that you just laid out there is Sunday night was another example of a different way they won, right. I mean, we’ve talked about this previous week against the Rams it was the defense’s worst game of the year and it turned into a shootout and yet they got big performances from their wide receivers and Lamar put up big yardage. So, Sunday night’s game, it was Isaiah likely looking like Mark Andrews and I mean, my goodness that the jump ball play. I mean, first of all, the front end of the play, which was Lamar getting away from pressure, creating time throwing the ball downfield throwing into double coverage. I mean, I know Lamar described the play in the postgame. And I don’t think it was a case where he randomly just threw it up like some people thought, but certainly he put the ball in in harm’s way on that play. But he trusted his guy to go up and make a play. I said this watching the Cincinnati game on Saturday, where Browning throws went up to T Higgins who just made an unbelievable play at the goal line Jump ball and then had the body control to put the ball over the pylon for a touchdown. I tweeted it out at the at the time I said sometimes you have to let a wide receiver go up and make a play and Isaiah likely is not a wide receiver but Lamar gave him a chance as he has for years with Mark Andrews to go up and make a play and and Isaiah likely rewarded him by rewarded that trust by going up and make a play making a play but we’re seeing a team that is winning in different ways and they have their strengths obviously this defense is the best in the league or people in Cleveland will try to say all their only second best Okay, I’ll tell you which defense I trust more come jet come January and come crunch time but I think you have a great defense. You have better wide receivers to your point you know the running game beyond Lamar now that’s going to become more of a question mark and we’ll get to keep Mitchell but you haven’t a quarterback who it’s a different year than 2019 2019 this statistical profile I mean despite what you say about Lamar has limitations as a passer which I think were overblown at that point in time but he is different as a passer now than he was then. He led the league and touchdown passes get 36 touchdowns whether people thought he could throw from the pocket or not he led the league and touchdown passes so it must have been a heck of an accident for his biggest critics that he did that but he had that he was sixth in the league and rushing that year. You look at them as they go into Monday night through Week 15/15 and passing yards certainly 17th and touchdown passes and he’s 18th and rushing yards you know it’s not the same overwhelming statistical slap you in the face unanimous MVP kind of season and that’s what’s gonna make this Monday night matchups so fascinating because you have Lamar doing what he’s done which doesn’t Wow, you just looking at the stats and not looking considering the player that you’re watching on a week by week basis compared to Brock Purdy, who has unbelievable statistics. But if you watch San Francisco every weekend, and look I think some of the the Kyle Shanahan talk about being quarterback friendly. Yes, that’s true. At the same time, Jimmy Garoppolo never did what Brock Purdy is doing some of the other quarterbacks that they’ve had at various points over the last five, six years never doing anything close to what Brock Purdy is doing at the same time. You watch San Francisco and watch the throws he’s making To not just open receivers, but wide open receivers. It does, you know, it lends itself to a slightly different perception than just looking at the numbers. So, it’s gonna be fun. We’ll have plenty of time to talk about that. But, yeah, this ravens team that, you know, they’ve had a couple games I saw some people say they haven’t played a complete game yet this year. I mean, they did against Detroit. They came very close against Seattle. I mean, those were blowouts where they scored a bunch of points and they didn’t give up very much defensively at all. So I beg to differ on them not playing any complete games, but it is still a team that most weeks you still feel like they leave some meat on the bone one way or the other. But they’re still we
Nestor J. Aparicio 25:40
don’t vote race you like Miami, I mean, a boat race Seattle and certainly Detroit but like, they’re not gonna vote race, anybody, I think that they, they can control the ball too. If they can run the ball better. If they can run the ball better. It’s gonna go a long way next month. And I think I leave it at that because we’re going to talk more about that. How are they going to run the ball? Because we’ll Mar 12 rushes 97 yards? I don’t know that I want to see that the next four or five weeks right? I don’t know that I like if that’s what you have to do to win a playoff game. That’s what you have to do. But that that’s that would be a question for the postgame about running the ball 12 times because that’s not the way they want to do it. Looks here. We have so much talk when we talk about the defense yet. Certainly gonna talk about the rest of the division and the rest of the NFL and holiday week where they start playing football I think Thursday and they stopped like right around Tuesday, so December 22 23rd 24th 25th bowl games, football games, and the Ravens headed out to Santa Clara to take on the San Francisco 40 Niners look John’s can be found at Baltimore Luke we found a wise markets on Monday with former professional wrestler Derek Frazier as well as John Morton from the Maryland lottery be giving away the unwrap the cash giveaways at wise markets at honey go so come on out. I don’t know whether that’s sort of North Perry Hall. I always get into this with people Perry Hall Nottingham Whitemarsh. Upper Perry Hall i Honey go honeycomb was a park back in the day. We’ll be there on Monday at wise markets also Tom Kelso from the Maryland stadium authority, trying to count the free money that the citizens of Maryland are going to be giving Mr. Angelos to I’m sure sign Blake Snell I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. Lots of baseball, tons of football ahead and his Christmas week around here. Hoh, we’re in the spirit for the holidays. He’s Luke on Nesta, stay with us. We are wn st am 1570, Towson Baltimore. We never stopped talking crabcakes Baltimore positive
