The special teams of the Baltimore Ravens certainly has not been its strength this season. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the overall operation and the sudden unreliability of a future Hall of Fame kicker and what Justin Tucker needs to do to kick them straight after another Ravens loss in Pittsburgh.
Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Baltimore Ravens’ recent loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, focusing on the performance of kicker Justin Tucker. Tucker missed two field goals, including a crucial 47-yard attempt, contributing to the two-point loss. Despite his long-standing excellence, concerns about his current form are rising. Jones highlighted Tucker’s previous perfection in Pittsburgh and suggested the Ravens might consider bringing in other kickers for practice. They also discussed the broader issues with the Ravens’ special teams, noting penalties and field position challenges. The conversation emphasized the importance of reliable special teams in close games.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Ravens loss, Justin Tucker, field goal misses, special teams, kicker issues, confidence waning, kicking competition, mental side, offense struggles, defense performance, playoff chances, kick return, penalties, field position, kicker replacement
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
8
Welcome home. We are W n s t, am 1570 task of Baltimore. I gotta work on my introduction. Welcome him. Is I should start saying that like w n s t, we’re Baltimore positive. We’re 26 years into this. On Thursday, I will be giving these Marilyn ravens or Maryland lottery ravens, scratch offs, the $2 a variety, with 20 grand. On Thursday, up at Green Mountain station, we’ll be in Hampstead. Come on by. Been a lucky batch of lottery tickets. Our friends at Jiffy Lube MultiCare also powering us up, powering Luke back and forth to Pittsburgh with the ends and not powering up on the royal farms coffee and we’re going to get to Justin Tucker in this I just want to promote the crab cake tour. Let everybody know we’re everybody know we’re going to be out in December lots of places. We’re going to Cocos. We’re going to be at the BMA Gertrude with my my cousin John shields and my friend Dan Rodricks. We’re also going to be at a me cheese. I just want to say, Ah, me cheese in December, they don’t have a crab cake yet, but I think they’re going to import Nancy Longo over from pure point and try to have her make us crab cake. And her crab cakes are delicious. So we’re gonna, I’m trying to celebrate the holidays while a, we still have democracy. B, we still have a chance to win a Super Bowl. I don’t know if they’re gonna win the World Series or not. I’m making all that up. Luke and I know they did move the fences back in. They’re out there in, they’re out, they’re in. It’s kind of like the the Ravens have been out in Pittsburgh a whole lot here, eight out of the last nine. Luke is a little punch drunk, you know, in the in the back end of this, driving up, driving back, doing it all alone while I watch on the internet. And the Tucker thing is, you know, I don’t how long you expect the guy to make 60 yard field goals when he’s in his he’s in his mid 30s? I mean, I know he’s the goat. He sells chicken, and everybody loves him and like he sings and like all of that. But we’ve talked about this one too many Mondays for it not to be an issue. Luke, right? I mean, it just is what it is at this point. Yeah. I
Luke Jones 01:56
mean, we said this last week, it’s a thing. How big of a thing, it’s becoming a bigger thing, and that’s the problem, and that’s what’s concerning. And even you just made the point of considering Justin Tucker the goat, the caveat was always the challenge, not just for him, for anyone. That’s why Adam Vinatieri is remembered the way that he is. It’s to do it for a really, really really long period of time, and how difficult that is in any sport, right? I mean, longevity is a big part of what makes someone a Hall of Famer, unless you just happen to have the Terrell Davis kind of contract or career where the peak is just so impressive and you have enough support from enough voters or enough people that are in the room, depending on the voting for process for any given sport that you get in. But this is a problem. This is concerning at this point in time. I think one of the last frontiers, and I noted this in my 12 ravens thoughts going into Sunday’s game in Pittsburgh, is just how well Justin Tucker has performed at the place formerly known as Heinz Field. He had not missed a field goal in that building. And keep in mind, we’re talking about someone who is in year, what 13 of his career, year 12 of his career, 13, he hadn’t missed a kick in Pittsburgh since his rookie year, Nestor, he’s met he had missed one field goal in his entire career in Pittsburgh as a rookie, he’d been perfect since then, regular season, and he was, I think, three for three in that playoff game in the 2014 postseason. So you’re talking about someone fully acknowledging the challenges of kicking in that place, and even how Steelers kickers have, over the years, gone sideways trying to kick there, especially with that open ended you know, that open end zone, and that’s something that never impacted him, that’s something that never seemed to faze him. He’s always been nails in Pittsburgh. So for him to go out there and miss two kicks on Sunday in a game that ended up being a two point loss, I I’ve been asked this question a lot. It was even amongst us, some of us reporters, just, you know, asking amongst ourselves, as we’re heading down to the post game locker room, where you start to ask the question, are the Ravens at a point now where you at least consider, consider bringing in some other kickers, just just a look, right? And that doesn’t mean you’re cutting Justin Tucker. Let’s be clear. I don’t think we’re there yet. I don’t think we’re all that close to that dramatic.
Nestor Aparicio 04:38
Remember when Billy brought in and zawner brought in the guy that just kicked off from the 40 Niners, and Stover was still doing the field goals. Remember that? Yeah,
Luke Jones 04:47
yeah. I mean, you had, there have been times with that. I mean, the Ravens had some kicking competitions, even when, what was it, Shane Graham and Graham Gano, or whatever it was. A lot. Rams is graham crackers. Yeah, they’ve done some different things like that over the years. Ice cream, I’m sorry, but, right, but, but I think, I think it’s a fair question at this point in time to start saying, are, are we getting close to the point where you need to at least bring in a couple kickers, if you think? And look, so much of this is psychology, so much of this is the mental side of this. Tucker was asked about his confidence after the game. He said his confidence isn’t waning. Of course he’s going to say that. No one, no one is going to say, My confidence is shot. Right? You’re never going to hear an athlete say that. But it’s hard not to look at this now through the lens of how much of this, whatever the potential physical or mechanical issue might have been, you know, we’ve talked about it at a couple points wondering, you know, is there some kind of physical, you know, minor injury, something like that, that’s impacting him? We’ve all speculated, because this is, this is uncharted territory. I mean, this guy has been so unbelievable for so long. And by the way,
8Nestor Aparicio 05:57
the internet thinks it’s a holder, just so, you know, the internet thinks that it’s, it’s fair
Luke Jones 06:01
to ask that, right? I mean, it’s that question was posed to Chris Horton this past week, but, but that’s again that speaks to how great the operation, how great Justin Tucker has been for 12 years, right? I mean, we’re talking about someone who came in at a time when kickers were from a perception standpoint, with Ravens fans, we’re at an all time low with what had happened with Billy Cundiff in New England and and this kid at what, 22 years old, I think he was, at the time, comes in and just out kicks Billy condif wins the job. And, I mean, kicked him into the AFC Championship game when you remember the kick he made in Denver and over time. So it’s just there’s such an affinity. And I don’t think, I think it would be hasty to say he’s done, he can’t get back on track, anything like that. But I would say this much, even if you’re not at the point yet where you’re ready to bring in a kicker to just to take a look see, you got to be updating the Rolodex on kickers right now, because this is not getting better, it’s getting worse. We talked about this with the missed extra point last week, misses a 47 yarder on Sunday, misses a 50 yarder. Did make his longer kick. That was good to see that at the very least, but it’s just not inspiring much confidence. I mean, you’re, you’re at a point now where even on an extra point, I don’t want to say you’re holding your breath on every single kick, but you’re kind of holding your breath on every single kick, right? I mean, it’s just, it’s not inspiring much confidence right now. And when you’re talking about a team, and this goes back to our previous segment, the offense Sunday aside, has played at such an elite level, it was an off day for the offense. Obviously, on Sunday, the defense played as well as it did, but the defense has had its issues. They’ve had penalties, issues all over the place, every phase of the game. Now you add unreliable kicker or kicker who’s searching for it? No, that’s probably the kindest way to describe it right now. Justin Tucker searching for it right now. That’s I mean when we’re talking about all of the factors that you want to have going for you in terms of a championship resume, in terms of making a deep January run, especially the way it’s looking now that chances are they’re going to be on the road and be on the road a lot. You don’t want to have kicker issues. I mean, you just don’t. It’s that simple. And the juxtaposition of where Justin Tucker is right now with what Chris Boswell did for the Steelers, who were bad offensively overall, right? I mean, they had short fields, and they could not put the ball in the end zone, and they were zero for four inside the red zone. Chris Boswell did what break kickers do, which is make up for some of the other deficiencies, what Justin Tucker did for years and years, especially on the back half of the Joe Flacco era, where their offenses had issues. We know that. So it’s it’s unsettling, it’s concerning. I think it’s one of those that, you know, it tugs on the heartstrings a little bit, because you don’t want this to get to a place where, dare I say, you’re talking about parting ways with Justin Tucker, and again, I’m not that’s not this week. I don’t think that’s next week. But the way it’s looking and knowing how much money he makes and everything, hey, he the rest of the season’s big for him, right? I mean, you you can’t just give him a free pass week after week after week without trying to see what else is. You know, what your other options potentially could be. So again, I don’t know if we’re at that point.
Nestor Aparicio 09:39
Well, I don’t want to be mean to be mean to Justin Tucker, but he’s one of the reasons they lost on Sunday, when you leave and you missed two field goals, you know? I mean, it’s not like he’s the goat in that way, because there were goats in other places, you know, around the field. He’s one of the goats. He’s one of the goats. Yeah, yeah.
Luke Jones 09:57
8I mean, you, you can’t dispute that, right? And. And he’d be the first to tell you that. And I even, you know, I asked John Harbaugh after the game, I I tried to word the question in a way that wasn’t going to allow horrible to just lean on Justin Tucker as a track record. Justin Tucker has a track record. We all know that Justin Tucker has been phenomenal. I even acknowledged he had been so good in that venue and missed a kick in in Pittsburgh since 2012 and John flat out said, tucks, got to make kicks. He knows that. We all know it. And again, are we at the point now where you’re at least making contingency plans behind the scenes in terms of not cutting him, not releasing him, nothing, nothing drastic to that magnitude, but you’ve got to at least have in your mind, if this continues to go sideways, you can’t just let the kicking game take down the ship, right? I mean, I don’t know who that kicker would be, because Nestor, I haven’t studied kickers that might be out there right now because we haven’t had I don’t know that this
Nestor Aparicio 10:59
organization has looked at a kicker. I don’t know that Randy Brown has been scouting the next started temple or at Penn, you know. I
Luke Jones 11:06
mean, they, they’ve brought in, you know, they brought in kickers. If you remember, it was Corey vetvick, who they ended up getting the fifth round pick for in trading. I mean, will, what
Nestor Aparicio 11:13
was the guy that that got, that got the jump down in the cells? Point, will, will, lots
8Luke Jones 11:18
had, has made a really impressive career out of someone who was just the third kicker in training camp and went on to New Orleans and has been other places since then. So it’s not as though they don’t have an aptitude for that, but it’s like I said, at the very least, you’re needing to update the Rolodex. You need to at least look at this and say, All right, we’re not doing it yet, but kickers A, B and C are out there right now. We like this kid coming out of the draft three years ago. I’m just putting this kid kicked in the UFL or the XFL, and we and we’ve seen that. I mean, look at what Detroit uncovered as far as for their kicking game. So again, I’m not saying we’re there yet, but just the fact that we’re even asking that question, Nestor, it speaks to this being very unsettling, because, again, when you’re talking about all the factors that go into a football game, and understanding the history and the makeup of this football team under John Harbaugh, special teams have been so important to that. And this is just not a very good special teams group right now. I mean, Jordan stout has been the biggest bright spot. I’d say, you know, he hasn’t been perfect, but, you know, boomed a couple kicks. Did have one that went in the end zone. Was disappointing. But, you know, he’s kind of in the bright spot. Their you know, their return teams have committed too many penalties. Tucker’s situation speaks for itself right now. These are the types of things again, when you’re projecting this out and thinking about January, special teams are an area that can win you ball games. I mean, the Ravens know that as well as anyone, right? I mean, when you consider their history, not just with Tucker or Matt Stover, but Jacoby Jones, Jermaine Lewis, I mean, guys that won them football games and helped them win football games in January, in that phase of the game, and they’re just not getting nearly enough from that group overall.
Nestor Aparicio 13:15
You mentioned Ed Reed, even though Billick never won. Oh yeah, them out there.
Luke Jones 13:19
Oh I mean, the greatest, greatest, ever, greatest punt blocker in NFL history. I mean, I mean unbelievable, right? I mean, that’s something that for all the young kids out there, you may not remember that, because Ed only did that his first couple years, but, oh my gosh, he was unbelievable. That only does medical and whiskey commercials these days. Yeah, but, yeah, yeah, so but, but special teams, we’ve, we’ve spent a lot of time focused on the defense and the reason, and for good reason, the defense weighs more, is more valuable, carries more clout in terms of what it takes to win a football game. You know, we always talk about the three phases of football, but offense and defense are much more important, and special teams is, you know, 1/7 of the pie, or something like that. I’ve even seen some analytic types kind of view it through that lens, where you kind of say, offense is the most important, defense is right behind it, and special teams is, you know, a distant third. But that doesn’t mean it’s meaningless either. And I mean again, John Harbaugh, his background, Jerry Rosberg, the tradition that he built, you know, Chris Horton’s, I’m not saying his Job’s working
Nestor Aparicio 14:24
8on here, working on it, yeah, but they’ve got to get better, right? I
Luke Jones 14:28
mean, they’ve got to get better. It’s not just Justin Tucker, although that’s certainly the big headline. So again, you talk about a game like this, where it’s 18 to 16 and it’s slow scoring, and by the way, I’d be remiss. I don’t think I mentioned this in our previous conversation. If I, if I did, I apologize to your point. I’m a little little loopy and tired from a lot of driving on Sunday, but first time in Raven Steelers history that the winning team did not score a touchdown. I could not believe that, by the way, Nestor, I would have guessed that. At least once or twice over the years, but first time in the history of the rivalry that the winning team did not score a touchdown. And when you’re talking about a game like that, the margins matter, right? The little things matter in a game like that. And you know, whether we’re talking about Justin Tucker or some of the penalties on special teams that have been an issue, we’ve we’ve talked about the penalties on offense and defense. It’s been an issue on special teams as well. You know, these are the things that add up to losing by two points, right? I mean, some of the things, some of the issues, are more obvious than others and more evident than others. But you know, when you’re talking about field position and how important field position is in a game like Sundays, how many times did the Ravens end up finding themselves backed up? You know, it’s not like they sprung any 60 yard returns that got called back, but there were a couple occasions where, you know, they’d be on the 30 or somewhere like that, and suddenly you’re back at the 20, or you’re back at the 15. I mean, that matters, especially on a day when your offense isn’t clicking and firing on all cylinders the way that it can at its best. So again, Tucker is the headline, and I’m trying not to make too much of it, but this is not something that you can just continue to brush off every week. I mean, when you look at kickers, and Boswell was a great example of this. I mean, how about the fact that you know Bucha in Kansas City. He’s on, you know, he’s on IR right now. I mean, that’s, that’s a big deal for Kansas City. He’s going to be back, you know, the way it sounds. But kicking matters, and the kicking game has been better than ever in terms of distance and what kind of weapon that can be. And on a day where the Ravens were not great offensively by any stretch of the imagination. They needed their kicker to come through, and he failed on two different occasions. And you do the math, they lost by two and they missed two very makeable field goals. Meanwhile, the other team’s kicker made all six of his so you know, it’s never just one thing. And to your point, Justin Tucker wasn’t the only goat, and we don’t mean the greatest of all time. We mean the traditional connotation, the kind
Nestor Aparicio 17:08
of gun my Dad, you’re doing exactly about Right, exactly, exactly. He
Luke Jones 17:12
wasn’t the only one, but he certainly was one of the big ones on Sunday. And Tucker be the first to tell you that, but he’s got to figure this out. And like I said, if he doesn’t the ravens, they’ve got to have the Rolodex updated at the very least to see, you know, if this thing doesn’t get better and continues to go in the wrong direction, I don’t know how much longer you can go without at least taking a look at some other kickers here to see what you have, even though I don’t think the next Justin Tucker is just out there waiting to be signed. I’m not at all suggesting that. But if this continues to spiral and feels like it’s spiraling a little bit, it feels like it’s snowballing a little bit in the way you don’t want it to again, you’ve got to at least be willing to work out a kicker. Maybe that sends the message. Maybe that I don’t know again, I don’t know what’s going to make Justin Tucker tick in this way, because we haven’t been in this territory with someone like him, but it’s very unnerving, considering some of the other issues we’ve talked about on this football team to now be talking about your multi time pro football or Pro Bowl future Hall of Fame kicker being a problem and being something that you can’t trust right now,
8Nestor Aparicio 18:25
Lou Jones is here. We are going to be doing the Maryland crab cake tour on Thursday at Green Mountain station, and then take a little week off next week for the holiday, plenty of turkey and stuffing and football and the chargers and all that. We’re doing a huge Music Week here. So if at any point later in a week you put on am 1570 or you’re out at our website, all of the, I think it’s 194 total music pieces that are up at Baltimore positive but 72 Hall of Famers, rock and roll, Hall of Famers, including 21 that I just found and on earth in the modern era, all that stuff is going to be coming your way. You’ll be hearing it, seeing it, clicking on it, seeing it out on our social media, you can follow Luke at Baltimore. Luke, by the way, I am now on blue sky. You can find me out there at my name. I have not put a Baltimore positive page up yet, but I tend to do that very soon as well. Luke, I want to do a whole segment later, probably, you know, today on coaching, and you mentioned Horton, and we’ve talked about Zach or and we’ve talked about him losing coaches, and the value of coaches and where all of that is, and even seeing thinking monk in is better than Greg Roman. And we’ll have the chance to look at that. You know, over the next week is we’ll see Greg Roman next week, special teams globally, something that I the one time John Harbaugh really got pissed off at me. We were having breakfast together at five in the morning out at the castle. The sun wasn’t even up, and we’re sitting there eating Cheerios down in the thing, down in the capture. I mentioned him being a special teams coach. He bird up at. Me, and I thought he was going to slap me, like, you know what I mean? Like, he hates all of that. And this was a number of years ago, but it’s after he won a Super Bowl, so, um, I still think of him as, that’s what he that’s his specialty. And I see the dude chewing the gum on the sideline with the Steelers. I’ve been watching him all year. That guy’s a treat. And I almost reached to Mike West off last week and didn’t realize he’s the Broncos special teams coach. He’s got to be 94 years old. He was the Baltimore called special teams coach. So special teams is one of these things that, like, once you’re really good at it, you’re good for life. Dave tobe is still doing stuff, and they pulled off some fake thing last week. And I’m like, That’s Dave tobe, you know. And John Harbaugh worked with Dave tobe, so they know each other. Well, um, special teams and what the league, what health and science has legislated out of the game in regard to returns and in regard to onside kicks. And, you know, one point there was a kick away when you thought three time outs, maybe they’ll alongside kick, not a high percentage play. John said that no one knows more about special teams to John, if that’s an insult to him, then wear it John. But I think of John as being a guy who’s spent large, large segments of his life up late at night thinking about a wedge, and I don’t mean, you know, salad or a lemon wedge that Jack crabby is going to give me next time I’m down at the CFG Bank Arena, or billix wedge in the Coors Light commercial, right? But a lot of special teams has been legislated out, right? So a lot of the 30 years of studying the game, it’s all gone like they’ve taken so much of that out. I don’t know who to blame, or I haven’t been around I’ve never met Chris Orton in my life. I’m not allowed to ask questions. I wonder why. Maybe it’s the length of my hair. I’m not sure why you get to ask the questions, but the special teams game from the outside feels to me to be greatly diminished, until you miss a kick, or until the punts not good, or until you have penalties on whatever plays are out there, even though they don’t feel as high impact, even though you give them the ball in the 30 yard line. Right now, that’s like a really bad return every time you give them the ball in the ball 30 yard line in the old days, you said, that’s really crappy coverage. Hardball get fired for that. You know, allowing a team to start at the 30 yard line every day. So the games change, right? I mean, and we don’t, certainly, in the middle of the season, we don’t talk about it. You certainly are not going to get hardball to talk about it, unless you’re going down to the owners meetings where he sits there. It is saying that they’ve now condensed to everything where there used to be an hour where he would sit in opine about special teams for a whole hour if he wished to. And they were looking to change the rules, and he was looking to be a hard ass traditionalist, you know, bringing back the ghost of Bo sham Beckler and all the stuff that he liked to do. But John hasn’t won the special teams battle as a coach the last two decades, that battle has been won by science and by Roger Goodell office and by the legal department and neck injuries. And I saw tomorrow Hamlin celebrating, you know, after they shut down the homes, and he’s back out on the field, special teams and coaching, and we’ll do coaching, but just special teams and what the game has become. And then we sit here and we lose in Pittsburgh and say our special teams weren’t good enough. Yeah. I
Luke Jones 23:29
mean, it’s not like special teams been a limit. I mean, the kick return is obviously the drastic change here. I think everyone’s trying to search that. I mean, going back to your point about John Harbaugh. I mean, it’s, it’s an area of expertise for him. That doesn’t mean that’s his only expertise. I mean, he’s been a head football coach now for what, 17 years. So he has, he has more expertise as a head coach.
Nestor Aparicio 23:51
I hear you Weaver right now on my shoulder in that John Miller books, and I’m going to the hall, you know. So, yeah, I mean, but at the same time? Well,
Luke Jones 24:00
8it’s just, and I’ll use this on a much smaller scale, much less significant scale. I’ve now been in sports media way longer than I was a fifth grade teacher, but I’m not going to be offended if someone says, Hey, you were a teacher once. What do you think about this? Right? So, so yeah, I mean, but putting that aside, you know, putting that part of it aside,
Nestor Aparicio 24:19
dude, I love when I do teacher stuff with you. When you and I are on the road, you start yelling about being a teacher. We should do segments on that, because you were an expert on that too. So I’m
Luke Jones 24:28
no longer and I’ve been out of it too long at this point, and and maybe that’s John Harbaugh might say the same thing from the standpoint of how different special teams are now compared to But that said, Don’t let and
Nestor Aparicio 24:41
you know what, if he were man enough to get in front of me, I’d
8Luke Jones 24:43
ask him, I would ask him, but I would say, don’t let it. He doesn’t want to see me, believe me, he don’t want to run into me. Don’t. Don’t let don’t let any of that fool you. I mean, he still obviously takes a strong interest in what’s going on with their special teams. And look, even before Sunday. Even before Justin Tucker’s two misses or more penalties on Sunday, they were 19th and special teams. DVO, way, I mean, that’s very unremarkable punting. Jordan, stouts had a good year. The metrics look good there. Overall, not perfect. You know, he’s had his moments where he’d like to have a kickback here or there, but that’s kind of been the bright spot. But, you know, the return game has been unremarkable. It’s not as though their kick coverage has been poor. So, you know, I don’t want to say it’s been bad across the board. It hasn’t been but it just really hasn’t been much of a difference maker for them, you know, like I said, punting, you know, stouts been been good. You know, he’s been I I’d say he’s taking a nice step forward, you know. Again, I’m just looking at TV away. That’s one metric, you know, going into this week, he was kind of ninth in hunting points as as they CO as Aaron shots and his team collects the data for DB away. So Aaron shots is my guest on the show later today. There you go. So, so it hasn’t been all bad, but that is another area, like Justin Tucker, where you’re thinking the ravens, no matter what their offense is in a given year, or in this case, what their defense is in a given year, they could always count on their their special teams helping them in the margins. It wasn’t going to, you know, special teams don’t turn a bad team into a good team, or a great team into a mediocre team, but it can still it makes a difference, right? And it matters on the margins, right? It can turn a really good team into a great team, or it can cost a great team a football game at a critical juncture, right? Or, you know, a team that’s less talented, but they’re really sound on special teams, it can help you win those one score games that tend to be 5050 over the long run, right So, but, but you just look at special teams for this team right now, and it’s just, it’s not very special, you know? It’s not something that’s really helping them win football games right now. And that’s just, that’s very strange territory. When you talk about Justin Tucker, not just him, but Matt Stover for over a decade, right? Matt Stover for 13 years. You know, even late in his career, when he was at the same long distance kicker, he was still accurate. You know, in terms of what his range was, you could count on him so well.
Nestor Aparicio 27:15
Kyle Richardson could have been an MVP, a Super Bowl, 35 for pin in, the Giants back, every punt that you talk about how long this thing went on with Sam Cook, and what kind of player he was, what kind of person and and that the wolf pack and the holds, and, you know, the operation was always automatic around here. And it’s not right now. It’s not right now. Yeah,
Luke Jones 27:38
I mean, it just isn’t. So that’s again, it is special teams number one on my list of of concerns, no. And I mean, even Justin Tucker, as much as it’s a concern, it I still have more concerns about the defense the past, defense long term. You know, Sunday’s performance encouraging, but let’s see what that looks like for the next three or four games. Let’s see if they have really made some hay here with some of the personnel changes they’ve made. But yeah, and again, Tucker’s the headline here. Let’s be clear. I mean, even talking about the kick return game, you know, with the new dynamic, you know, I use dynamic and using air quotes, because we know it hasn’t been very dynamic, but you know that as far as the weight of what that is. It’s not, you know, it’s not the end all be all in these football games. But you know, when you have a kicker who’s struggling, and when you have an offense, for example, on Sunday, that was struggling, and you had a couple situations where you end up being pushed back a little bit because of a couple penalties, those are things that hurt you. You know, starting field position is incredibly important. That’s why this, you know, with this kickoff, and you know, all the rules about the landing zone or a touchback is now at the 30, as opposed to the 25 compared to when it was, everything was a at the 20 across the board, you know, it’s, it’s changed the math in terms of, you know, the starting field position, and what’s what that means in terms of points scored and all of that. So, you know, it’s not like it’s all critically important, but it still matters, and it’s something they need to get better with, beginning with Justin Tucker looking like Justin Tucker again. So, you know, I don’t want to give too much oxygen to that compared to the other factors that worked against them and the other things they didn’t do well on Sunday. But yeah, it’s a part of it again. Do the simple math. Justin Tucker makes one of those. We’re having a very different conversation right now. Nestor, we’re talking about the Ravens having an ugly win, but a character building win. No, no nonetheless. And that didn’t happen. And instead, you’re talking about a seven and four football team that’s now a game and a half back. And you know, Pittsburgh has a game in hand in terms of the head to head. So, you know it, this is one of those games that, regardless of where what happens in January. Very but just looking at the end of the regular season, this is going to be another one of those games where you just say, as bad as the offense was these they should have won this football game. And self inflicted mistakes and penalties and turnovers and missed field goals. Mean it, it’s going to add up in a game like that. Surprise, surprise. AFC North Raven Steelers, history, the little things matter a whole lot, and the Ravens just did not do a good job with the little things whatsoever. On Sunday, get an
Nestor Aparicio 30:32
8extra day of cooking here this week, it’s a horrible three or four, right? They only played twice before, right? They
Luke Jones 30:40
played in 11 that Thanksgiving night game where the Ravens sacked Alex Smith 10 times, nine times whatever it was, a Super Bowl, and then the Super Bowl,
Nestor Aparicio 30:50
yeah, they never played out there, right? They only played the game here, right?
Luke Jones 30:55
They played out there. The next time they played out there was 2015 and what that was, uh, was that Tom Sula. At that point time, hardball was gone after 14 you know that he went back to he went to Michigan. So the other hardball two, it’s funny, and we’ll get to this. And I don’t want to, you know, again, there’s so much meat on the bone talking about this Pittsburgh game, but I don’t know about you, and it’s, it has nothing to do with John or Jim or anything like that. I just this storyline doesn’t do anything for me. Now, we did this a decade ago.
8Nestor Aparicio 31:25
They played in the Super Bowl. What? Right? Exactly, nothing. There’s no Monday night game. It’s going to top that, I think it’s checking in on the story as to where, I mean, clearly, Jim’s relationship with the NCAA and the sure the steaming bag a flaming manure that he left up in Ann Arbor, and
Luke Jones 31:44
anyone a national championship. I mean, that happened, right? I mean, regardless of any NCAA stuff that happened, like, you know, even if years from now, they vacated, or whatever, it happened, like we saw it with our own eyes. So there’s that, and the fact that he’s back now, and, you know, certainly you can get into, well, they’re both in the AFC. They could see each other in January, depending on how the chips fall there. I mean, it’s so I understand it, right? But just that was such a much more
Nestor Aparicio 32:13
interesting football game, and it is a hardball Harbor, yeah, right.
32:16
8I think a good football game on the and just the fact that they’re, you know, I mean, the Chargers are ravens West. I mean, JK Dobbins sealed the game with the touchdown on Sunday night against the Bengals. Gus. Edwards is back. Greg Roman storylines for Scott broadcasting down on the field at SoFi stadium next week. Yeah. I mean, Joe Ortiz isn’t going to get any attention in terms of the storyline for the actual game itself. I mean, Joe Ortiz. I mean, you know, he was a lifer with the ravens, right? I
Nestor Aparicio 32:44
mean, he was, he was from metal in drafting. So many of the players, had I written a Purple Rain three and Eric the cost and I got coffee together, I probably learned about which guys Joe liked the best. But Joe, Joe might have been a Mata BK guy, or probably was a Marlin Humphrey guy or, you know, right? Yeah. I
Luke Jones 33:01
mean, you just look at it through that lens. I mean, there’s, there’s a lot of interest in this game for me that goes beyond just the John versus Jim thing that the national media is going to eat up. And I get it, I mean, I mean, I understand that, right? It’s fine. I guess just that part of it for me, it’s like that Thanksgiving game in 11 that was a massive story, and then the following year, there was an entire week of it in New Orleans for the Super Bowl. I mean, it doesn’t get any bigger than that, so it’s fine. You know what the league’s gonna like? Your whole chapters in Purple Rain too. You
Nestor Aparicio 33:31
can read about the hardball family and how John got his gig and Jim got his gig. And you know, the part that’s unwritten is Jim going off to Michigan and winning a championship, and now coming back and saying the one thing I haven’t done is won a Super Bowl in LA with the Chargers. Nobody cares about the chargers, and they’re in a position to be disruptive, if nothing else, right? So certainly, to the Raven season this week, to the other side of joni’s sibling, a rivalry. Big week around here for music. It is a it’s international music day on Friday. We have the extra day and a half, Luke, and I don’t want to do the horrible thing, I may run some, find some Jim Harbaugh stuff to throw up, along with all the the really cool rock and roll stuff and the music such as rock and roll, there’s Engelbert Humperdinck. There’s all sorts of stuff you’re going to hear. It’s a Harry Connick Jr that I’ve interviewed. So I’ve interviewed all of these people, many of them I have not ever put out publicly. Some of that will happen later. This week, you’re going to hear a whole bunch of stuff on Wednesday and Thursday, going into the weekend. And Luke and I’ll be here talking football. You’ll find us at Baltimore positive. Luke’s at Baltimore, Luke, and we’re out on blue sky as well. The Maryland crab cake tour comes to green mount station on Thursday. We’ll be in amstead. I have a whole Whitney dates for next month. Oh, we’re going to be at Cocos on the fourth. We’re going to be Gertrude on the fifth at the BMA with Dan Rodricks. We’re going to be at a meet cheese the following week. We’re going to be we’re going to be at the at State Fair. We’re going to be at fadelies the second week of December, and then we’re going to be doing Christmas week at Costas as well. And our friends at Coopers North, who just had huge shows with the samples over the weekend. Good job. Up up there for Patrick and everybody there. So all of our sponsors are buckled in. We’re going to have a change of leadership in the country. We got football games going on. We have a baseball off season and and free agency. They’re moving the fence out, they’re moving it in, they’re moving it out, they’re moving it in. I’m Nestor. He’s Luke. We got plenty of football. We’re wnst. Am 1570 Taos of Baltimore, and we never stop talking Baltimore positive, I.
