What happens when Lamar doesn’t practice?

When the franchise quarterback doesn’t make it on to the practice field on Wednesday, the purple flags get raised. Luke Jones and Nestor discuss the achy knee of Lamar Jackson and the Ravens path to victory in Cleveland. And beyond…

Nestor Aparicio and Luke Jones discussed the Baltimore Ravens’ upcoming game against the Cleveland Browns, focusing on Lamar Jackson’s knee injury and the team’s offensive line issues. Jackson missed practice on Wednesday, raising concerns about his availability and effectiveness. The Ravens face a tough Browns defense, particularly their defensive line. Nestor emphasized the team’s need to win their next three games against the Jets, Cincinnati, and the Patriots to secure a playoff spot. Luke highlighted the importance of the defense and quick game strategies to mitigate offensive line weaknesses. Both agreed that the Ravens’ success will depend on Lamar’s health and the team’s ability to adapt.

• [ ] @Nestor Aparicio – Monitor Lamar Jackson’s status and practice participation throughout the week.
• [ ] Evaluate the Ravens’ offensive line and their ability to handle the Browns’ defensive front.
• [ ] Assess the Ravens’ defensive performance and their ability to limit the Browns’ offense.

Lamar Jackson’s Knee and Ravens’ Upcoming Games

• Nestor Aparicio discusses the Maryland crab cake tour and upcoming guests, including Dr. Jenkins at Coppet state.
• Nestor mentions Lamar Jackson’s absence from practice and speculates about his knee injury.
• Luke Jones expresses concern about Lamar’s absence and the potential impact on the team, especially against the Cleveland Browns.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the Browns’ defensive line and the challenges the Ravens’ offensive line might face.

Concerns About Lamar Jackson’s Health

• Nestor expresses skepticism about the team’s communication regarding Lamar’s injury.
• Luke acknowledges the uncertainty surrounding Lamar’s knee and the potential impact on the team’s performance.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the importance of Lamar’s mobility and the potential for the Browns to disrupt the Ravens’ offense.
• Nestor emphasizes the need for the Ravens to win their upcoming games to secure a playoff spot.

Impact of Injuries on the Ravens’ Team

• Nestor and Luke discuss the impact of Marlon Humphrey’s surgery and other injuries on the team.
• Luke mentions the potential absence of Rashod Bateman due to a high ankle sprain.
• Nestor highlights the importance of maintaining health and avoiding injuries as the season progresses.
• Luke and Nestor discuss the challenges of playing three games in 11 days and the need for the team to stack wins.

Ravens’ Offensive Line and Playoff Hopes

• Nestor and Luke discuss the limitations of the Ravens’ offensive line and its impact on the team’s performance.
• Luke emphasizes the need for the offensive line to protect Lamar and allow the running game to function effectively.
• Nestor expresses concerns about the team’s ability to maintain their offensive prowess with a less mobile Lamar.
• Luke and Nestor discuss the importance of the Ravens’ defense in winning close games and the potential for the offense to struggle early in games.

Lamar Jackson’s Role and the Team’s Future

• Nestor and Luke discuss the potential for Lamar to play a more veteran, mature game in the playoffs.
• Luke highlights the importance of Lamar’s ability to handle pressure and make quick decisions in the pocket.
• Nestor expresses skepticism about the team’s ability to maintain their offensive success with Lamar’s current health issues.
• Luke and Nestor discuss the potential for the team to win games in different ways, including relying on their defense and special teams.

Ravens’ Upcoming Games and Strategies

• Nestor and Luke discuss the importance of winning the upcoming games against the Browns, Jets, and Cincinnati.
• Luke emphasizes the need for the Ravens to play smart, mistake-free football to secure wins.
• Nestor expresses concerns about the team’s ability to handle the Browns’ defensive line and the potential for a close game.
• Luke and Nestor discuss the importance of the Ravens’ defense in setting the tone for the game and leading the team to victory.

Nestor’s Personal Reflections and Health Update

• Nestor shares his personal experience with a colonoscopy and encourages men to get regular check-ups.
• Nestor thanks GBMC for their support and mentions the importance of health awareness.
• Nestor and Luke discuss the importance of staying positive and supporting the Ravens through their challenges.
• Nestor expresses gratitude to the sponsors and listeners for their support and engagement.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Lamar Jackson, knee injury, Ravens offense, Cleveland Browns, offensive line, defensive line, practice absence, game strategy, playoffs, health concerns, Derrick Henry, quick game, defensive performance, AFC North, injury updates.

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SPEAKERS

Nestor Aparicio, Luke Jones

Nestor Aparicio  00:01

Welcome home. We are W, N, S T am 1570 to Baltimore. We’re Baltimore positive. We’re positively getting the Maryland crab cake tour out on the road. I’m gonna have some surprises in December, like Santa Claus. We’re gonna go to some new places. Have some new fun. Maybe bring on some old guests, some old friends. Like last week, we were pizza John’s. We’re Cocos. This week, the radio has been phenomenal, with Nancy Longo getting together with Marcella Knight talking about crab cakes all week. Also big thanks to the connects folks. I’m going to be seeing Ivan Bates speak. So we’re going to get some guests together. I’m organizing Dr Jenkins at Coppet state. It’s all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery. I have Raven scratch offs we’ll be giving away until such point where I get the candy cane ones, because I need my bag to smell like a peppermint, if not eggnog and pumpkin spikes, because it, you know, it is the holidays. Luke Jones joins us now. He is in Owings Mills for weird couple of weeks here, dude, right? Like, first things, first, bad football teams ahead. You just scored as a W then you find out Marlon Humphrey has a surgery. He’ll be back. Fine. Finger. Okay, they can, it’s the browns. What are they? But then Lamar doesn’t walk out onto the field on Wednesday, and I’ll bring you in for all the festivities. Of Is he hurt? Is it a day off? Has his knee? Was it ever his knee? Was it his hamstring? Because they’re willing to lie about anything. And this is where trust and Dear John, once you start lying. I don’t you know, I sit here on the radio, I sit here on the internet, and I, I we’ve just been lied to so many times and misled, including two weeks ago. Yeah, I don’t know. I mean, Sunday at 425 we’ll find out if he’s playing, I guess, right?

Luke Jones  01:46

I mean, hopefully we know before then, but yeah, I mean, it’s always unnerving when your franchise quarterback isn’t out on the practice field. And we’ve seen this in the past, and there have been plenty of times where he misses a practice because he’s sick or because there is something that’s a little bit sore, and then he’s back out there. But there have also been times where they have initially downplayed something and it ends up being a little bit more than that. It’s certainly not ideal when you’re going up against the Cleveland Browns team that, as you alluded to, is not good. But the one thing that is really good about that team is its defense, and, more specifically, its defensive line and their ability to get pressure on a quarterback. And we know the state, literally, right? And we know the state of this ravens offensive line.

Nestor Aparicio  02:29

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So look, stop the run, get him in the third down, get him off the field. You wreck the game. That’s Jim Schwartz. Like three plays. We can wreck them three plays at a time that

Luke Jones  02:40

see, I think it’s even it’s more extreme than that. It’s a strip sack. It’s knocking the ball out. It’s turning the ball over, right? I mean, that’s even more so than three and outs. Three and outs aren’t necessarily the end of the world when you’re going up against an offense led by Dylan Gabriel, who’s been woeful, who’s been woeful. I mean, he just, he has been so but it’s not ideal, but because we were already going to be talking about this matchup of the Ravens offensive line, and can they handle miles, Garrett and this front and now, at the very least, and look, I’m not going to assume malice right off the bat, unless Lamar is not practicing all week, and then we’re going into the weekend, and he’s listed as questionable, or whatever it is, right? I mean, obviously, as you and I speak in real time, we’re talking about one missed practice.

Nestor Aparicio  03:28

But I always assume malice, by the way, because I’ve dealt with them. But I’m just being honest with you, you know, as Jason Tucker becomes available this week, yes, sure,

Luke Jones  03:37

but my point is with that, even if it is one day, even if it is truly just a little bit of a sore knee playing on the turf, right? I mean, we’ve heard many, many, many players over the years who play a game on turf and they need an extra day or so so. But does that mean that Lamar is going to be fully 100% fully the best mobile version of himself against that front, that’s where you look at this and there’s a little bit of uneasiness. Look, it’s not going to force me to change my pick or anything like that. Ugly plays, right? I mean, it’s definitely a different it’s a different game, if you’re talking anything to that degree.

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Nestor Aparicio  04:16

So the rest of the way, by the way, too, not just this week, but like at any point they have no, see, they have no margin for error. I mean, they’re the favorite to win the division four and five at this point, but no margin for error means that they’re going to be as healthy as they’ve been the last two weeks. And we know that that’s not that’s not the case. Marlon Humphries already gone, right? So they’re already not as healthy as they were on Monday morning, as as we knew it, right?

Luke Jones  04:39

And we knew that that that wasn’t going to last. You’re not going to continue to have completely empty practice reports the way they did on Wednesday and Thursday of last

Nestor Aparicio  04:47

year’s time 17 games or 16 games, the 300 games in it’s the first time you can remember it

Luke Jones  04:53

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being I mean, it’s a miracle. They literally had no one last Wednesday and Thursday on their practice report. And then. On Friday, Humphrey showed up with the finger he played. And Ronnie Stanley had had a rest day, right? So you knew that was going to continue. But as we see this week, no Marlon Humphrey, who had a pin put in his finger. They’re hoping he can be back next week. But let’s, let’s be a little more realistic on that, be a little more conservative on that. Let’s say Cincinnati game, the Thanksgiving games more realistic for Humphrey, but Bateman’s dealing with a high ankle sprain. You know, there’s already reports out there that he’s not going to play. At least miss this game. This is

Nestor Aparicio  05:32

problematic with them. With three games in 11 days, it’s problematic. And, I mean, and three games, and it’s, well, they can go to one, I don’t know. Dude, they need to stack some wins here, man, these in the bag before Santa comes down to chimney and brings in the Patriots and the Steelers and and the Packers.

Luke Jones  05:50

That’s stretch. I mean, that’s why I’ve said to you, like, thanks. Or November is the time where they really need to get themselves back over 500 because they do have a little bit of margin for error, right? They don’t have to win out, right? They don’t have to go 12 and five to win the division to make the playoffs. But the reality is, whatever, if we’re talking in terms of thinking 10 and seven does it, and I mean, the way the Steelers have looked, I don’t know nine and eight might end up doing it, but we don’t know that right now, right? So you look at it through the lens of, okay, you have a couple losses that you can endure. You don’t want those losses to happen now. You want to save that for December, when you’re playing three of your last four on the road, when the Patriots are coming to town looking like a much more formidable team than anyone thought they would be three or four months ago when you’re going to Pittsburgh, when you’re going to Green Bay, right? Green Bay a couple days after Christmas, not knowing what the weather could look like, but probably not going to be very pleasant, based on history. So, so, so these are the games that look no one’s like raising the red flag about Sunday’s game, necessarily. But if Lamar is a little bit gimpy, a little bit less than 100% that’s a front that becomes that much scarier, because are you going to be able to protect Are you going to be able to run the ball with Derrick Henry? I mean, they didn’t run the ball at all against Cleveland in week two. If you go back and look, yeah, their defense played really well, and they had some special teams plays in that game as well, but their offense really did not get going until the second half, when they finally started to make some plays. So it’s not something to raise the the alarm sound, the alarms about necessarily, but you do have to be careful and you want to start fast. And certainly we’ve talked about it. I mean, this is about it. I mean, this is a Cleveland team as bad as they’ve been. The Ravens haven’t swept them in several years at this point in time, and Cleveland’s beaten them in their place. And you know, the Browns would love nothing more than to hand the Ravens a loss, especially knowing that the Ravens don’t have a ton of margin for error right now. So you know, it’s, it’s not something to panic about. But yeah, I mean, when Lamar Jackson’s not on the practice field, that’s never something that makes you feel good. Hopefully it is just one day. You know, the early indications are that it’s minor, that he’s just a little sore, and they’re being careful with them, but until we see him back out there and running around and and seeing that he’s a full participant. There’s at least a little bit of doubt there, and frankly, does add a little more intrigue to this matchup on Sunday.

Nestor Aparicio  08:30

Well, I mean, let’s assume he plays and assume he plays a little gimpy. I mean, the thing that I’m turning the corner on with the team is that that powerhouse we saw the last couple of years, and all the DVO a and all of the greatest offense and all of that I I’m not expecting that to turn on again because of the offensive line, and that part where the defense is locked down, shut down Three and out, they don’t rush the quarterback. Well, now I want to see more Draymond Jones, because that felt like a decent sized addition to me in Minnesota for five minutes, right? So let me see that for a month, especially against these bad teams. Go get two sacks against these bums on Sunday, when they’re in third and 18, you know? I mean, like, go stack it up. Go beat the Jets up, right? So that that’s fine, but I think the offense and what we think of when I even go back to the first half of the Buffalo game, week one out of the game, I just looked up to Eric Henry stats from week one. It’s amazing. His stats, right? Like it’s on or it’s off, it’s like a spigot. And only been three times. It’s really four times, really been sort of, kind of on other than some long runs. But first half buffalo chin strapped up season opener. They’re coming off of whatever they were last year and the disappointment of the MVP issue, and they’re going to be this, and they’re going to be that because of this skill position and that. And. At a D hop. And Derek Henry’s getting younger, not older. And I don’t know, man, I mean, we’re halfway. We’re more than halfway into this. I mean, it’s Thanksgiving. They got three games against sort of bum teams here that we expect them to win. Pat and if they win, they if they win, it should be a padded stat kind of thing. It should be Derek Henry with 100 it should be 36 points, 39 but it should feel like that. It shouldn’t feel like 12 nine in Cleveland in the fourth quarter on Sunday, because Schwartz is sticking a pole up their backside, and they fumbled the ball three times, and they punted six times, and they’ve made a mistake here again, in some way that’s created a close game for them that they escape and they win 18 to 12, or something like that. I’m not shocked by that at this point. I’m not expecting this to be a juggernaut because of the offensive line, because Lamar doesn’t look like Lamar. He doesn’t run zigzag break ankles. Now he’s got a knee. He can’t make it to practice on Wednesday in November. How am I expecting him to go this gauntlet and in January, on a 28 degree day, be the 24 year old version of Lamar, not the getting up on 30 and a lot of mileage and a lot of hits on him, Lamar on a cold night in Buffalo or wherever, they’ll have to play. I know I might not have to play there. I mean, we talked about all the good things on Monday, but I’m looking at they can win the Super Bowl. I’m very I mean, I don’t want to take that away from them, but it’s going to be down, dirty, ugly, all that, judge, not pretty British, all of that, because I don’t think this is going to be pretty, not the way it was. It was symphonic here and revolutionary for a period of time. I think it’s going to be gritty and dirty and ugly. These next three games are going to be favored. They’re going to be big favored and all that. I don’t see them laying 500 points on any of these three teams, 500 yards, excuse me, and 40 points. You know, I’m not expecting that kind of an awakening from this team, because I don’t see Lamar as electric. I don’t see Derrick Henry as electric. I don’t see the offensive line as being capable over 60 plays in a game of making this a dog fight, you know, making it just making it ugly for the defense, where they quit and you’re up 37 to 12 against the Browns at six o’clock on Sunday night because they’ve made five mistakes. Marlon Humphrey won’t be peanut punching this week, so they for me, I’m tempering my expectations while I expect them to win this week, while I expect them to win the next three, I do. I’m not expecting this to look symphonic.

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Luke Jones  12:50

That’s fair and look. I mean, I think this is where you’re hoping that this team being a little more veteran leading, because they are year by year by year, right? I mean, we talked about it in the aftermath of the Minnesota game. I mean, Kyle Hamilton even used the term scar tissue, and he was referencing the one in five start this year. But think about the scar tissue this team has built up over the years, right? With January disappointment and having the high expectations and having the regular season success that you were just alluding to that doesn’t feel

Nestor Aparicio  13:22

and by the way, Kyle Hamilton hasn’t been a part of a lot of that. He wasn’t around for Tennessee and San Diego beat them. They ain’t even got a team anymore. I mean, like Ronnie Stanley and Lamar, all of them have more scar tissue. Is all I’m saying,

Luke Jones  13:37

fair but, but I’m, you know, I’m not trying to break it down. No, he’s the biggest

Nestor Aparicio  13:43

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locker room, right? Kyle Hamilton, he I mean, I’m all the people in the locker room that have perspective. As a young guy, he has it, and he’s only been here a minute, kind of, sort of,

Luke Jones  13:53

well, I mean, it’s his fourth season at this point, but I hear what you’re saying, but you’re hoping that’s where some of the veteran qualities that scar tissue, those experiences, the idea of being battle tested, the idea that they’re already in the midst of bouncing back from one in five, and No, they haven’t finished that job. But assuming they can, assuming they can get to the point where they’re in first place, and they’re winning this division. You’re hoping that that can help them in January. Look, scoring 40, you know, scoring these 4045, point games. You know, having these kind of performances, that’s not a requisite for winning the Super Bowl. I mean, the Kansas City Chiefs two years ago showed everyone that everyone was completely ready to leave them for debt. Now I’m not comparing the ravens to the chiefs in terms of what the Chiefs have accomplished in January. The point is there isn’t necessarily one specific profile that says you have to do that to win the Super Bowl. I mean, Baltimore should know that better than anyone with the 2000 ravens and the way that they want a Super Bowl in the way that no one else. Replicated exactly like that since then. So, but, and let me be clear, I still think this is a really good offense at the end of the day, but it’s not the great, special offense that it wasn’t far from it Well, I mean, let me rephrase that. I think they have the potential to be really good in spurts. Let’s say, however, the consistency because of the offensive line, because of their inability to run the ball as consistently as they have in the past, it’s been much more hit or miss. It’s been much more score dependent. I mean, go, go back to the Miami game, right? You look at the final numbers, you say, hey, Derek, Henry, had a great day. We know that that most of that was the last quarter and a half after they had built up a two score lead when, when it was kind of a game neutral script, they couldn’t run the football. So point with all that being, yeah, they’re in a position where they’ve got to grind it out a little bit more. And you know, one thing we talked about in the aftermath of the win over Minnesota, Lamar didn’t put up big numbers in that in that game, I thought Lamar played a really veteran, mature football game there. They used a lot of quick game. The ball came out quite a bit, and it needed to come out quickly, because the pass rush was bearing down on him, and they were blitzing the daylights out of him. And I thought he handled that so well. He only took one sack. He threw the ball away. At times when it warranted throwing the ball away, he threw underneath. And look, it wasn’t like this Sterling performance. It wasn’t an AFC Offensive Player of the Week performance, but it’s exactly what they needed in that spot, in a hostile environment to win a football game, and I think it’s that kind of play from Lamar Jackson, specifically, that they’re probably going to need come January, when you’re going up against teams that have stronger fronts and you have doubts about your past protection, and you’re not running the ball at a six yards per carry kind of clip with Derrick Henry,

Nestor Aparicio  17:01

the history of the game, going back to Kurt Warner and Dan Fouts and whatever freight train Peyton Manning could bring at you at any point. Tom Brady, it wasn’t. It never felt that way. It never felt like he was going to go out and throw seven touchdowns on the first seven possessions the way, you know, you’d look up. And Peyton Manning had 42 points on the board at halftime. He like, they don’t even kick field goals, you know, like the Rams of Kurt Warner and this team did that on the ground in a completely unconventional way over two generations, one being the Marshall yonder thing in the very beginning, and then after all of that, whatever the thing was two years ago, you know, hosting the AFC Championship Game, same concept, but they didn’t have Derek Henry either, you know, I mean, they had Lamar running it primarily, especially the first time around, so to expect it to look like the greatest offense ever, Maybe, the way we were talking about it in August, right? Because we we had higher hopes for the guards. I think that the first round draft pick center, the second round draft pick right tackle, the reconstructed Hall of something left tackle that just got $60 million and that, you know, other teams wanted him, all of that. I think we felt differently on Labor Day, then I feel, then I felt on Halloween, for sure that I’m going to feel on Thanksgiving, and they’re going to play three games by the time I go to dinner on Thanksgiving night, and they better be seven and four or seven and five. Excuse me, I would say that the visions of what this was, and hey, this could be said for Buffalo too, right? Sure. Josh Allen, this isn’t what you had last year, the year before. It’s what you got now, and what the Ravens have now is four and five sort of kind of gimpy quarterback that’s been hobbled a lot of the year and couldn’t practice so far this week, some injuries, but they got guys back, and they’re putting it together. They have hope. I mean, my God, they can win the division, they can win the Super Bowl, but I I’m tempering my expectations of phone booth, Lamar, that that’s all and Derek, Henry, being someone that can run through tackles at this point, because I haven’t seen that. I’ve seen him get tackled. You know what I mean, when he’s supposed to be tackled, he’s been tackled, and that’s no offense to him or any other running back built like him, like Jamal Lewis or John rigging, you know, and pick any big back that there’s times where they feel like Jamal, ever times it felt like, No, you know, he was just going to stiff arm him and move. I’m not feeling that from there. I mean, so these bad teams, and this is not a bad defensive front with Cleveland this week, but the Jets gave their best player away to, you know, this week. So Cincinnati, right, yeah, well, thank you, right, yeah, it’s too Right. So I look at it and say, All right, you know, maybe Derek Henry runs for a. 91 yards against the Jets next week, because Lamar is a little more gimpy, and you don’t want Lamar running the ball 12 times if he’s got a bad wheel already. So I’m the Lamar thing is a real red flag for me, in a in a overall sense of this isn’t getting we’re not getting the 24 year of fresh faced bleed at Lamar come January 10. If we get to January 10, it’s going to be, you know, seven, eight years into the slog, in the hits, into this, into that the offensive line isn’t good enough and not and hey, we’re in the playoffs. Let’s go. Maybe we can win 19 to 17. It that’s how it’s going to feel to me, because they’re not going to walk off the bus in there, and maybe they have the potential to school you, and they do, because they have great skill position players, but I don’t think they’ve done enough scheme wise, to protect all of them, and I think that their deficiencies are apparent To Jim Schwartz this week, especially if Lamar doesn’t want to run, can’t run, or can’t run like Lamar has to run to be Lamar, it changes the game. And you’ll say, Hey, he’s a great pocket passer. I’ll agree with that. Now he’s a pocket passer with no protection. Yeah, so there’s a little bit of that they have to they’re going to grind. And I’ve come to that conclusion. And I’ve come to the conclusion that I think that they’ll win these grinds. I mean, I think they’re the better team as they go into a lot of this, but this is not going to be easier. I said symphonic, that’s kind of a fun word. I should throw that into the AI hopper and find out what synonyms, you know, I could come up with for that. But whatever it is, the beautiful game that they were playing around here not going to look that way. And that doesn’t mean they can’t win, though,

Luke Jones  21:44

sure, sure. The only thing I’ll disagree with a little bit is I will say, and look, this has nothing to do with playing Cleveland on Sunday. This has nothing to do with the Jets next week. This has nothing to do with Cincinnati on Thanksgiving night, right? Really doesn’t even necessarily have, like, a full implications for December, although it certainly would have more of that. I will say this, I think you’re going to need that version of Lamar come January if you’re truly going to win three games in a row, right? So

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Nestor Aparicio  22:18

in the cold, yeah, somewhere back

Luke Jones  22:21

there is such a thing you’re gonna need, and that’s why, like, look, I’m fine that Lamar is not running a whole lot in the regular season. You know, obviously the hamstring kept him out for three games entirely. You know, he, he actually, we didn’t even talk about it, because, you know, he had a couple decent runs, but a Sunday in Minnesota, that was actually his season high for rushes. Yeah, he ran the ball nine times. Now, some of those are scrambles. There were a few design runs mixed in, and now he can’t practice on Wednesday. And whether that’s completely related to that, we don’t know, right? I mean, it could just be that, hey, his knees a little bit sore from the

Nestor Aparicio  22:53

turf, and one of the last questions I ever asked him was, hey, you ran the ball 21 times. You got to play on Thursday. They all got pissed off at me, Harbaugh guys. I mean, it was four years ago, and then, then he didn’t play anymore, like so I am on red alert about how much they lie at the podium, and he’ll be back tomorrow. All right, you’ll be out there today, you’ll be out there tomorrow, you’ll be out there Sunday. I mean, we’ll all find out, right? But Lamar is not healthy, right? I mean, if Lamar was healthy, he’d be surprised, be out there wins. I mean, that, that’s what it says to me. It’s not, well, let’s give him a little rest. He needs a down to dude. He needs to practice. Yeah, practice with the team a whole lot to begin with, the last eight weeks. I mean, come on man, you could come on man. I mean, and to your point, he hasn’t run a lot, and that’s okay, because he was hurt and he didn’t play, and trying to ease him in, he ran a lot this week. You know why they needed to freaking win, and if they find themselves in the second half of one score Games Week after week, against the Jets, against Cincinnati, because Flacco is throwing the ball over everybody’s head three times. Flacco beach in the first half, they got 17 points. What do you got? You know, like 2120, I don’t know I mean, but that’s the kind of track meet that thing’s so week after week, they’re gonna have to win in different ways, right? But it’s going to take the offensive line running, passing, stopping, starting, protecting, opening holes, and dude, it’s getting late early for me to believe in that. Now that’s not to say that I don’t believe they’re going to win gain. I don’t. Most of these teams stink. Maybe the Patriots will be in a well oiled machine by the time we see them, and they literally will be 10 and three, whatever it’ll be, and and we’ll be in a position to stake a new claim by beating the Ravens. Because you beat the ravens, you’ve done something no matter who you are, right? Like, if you because they’re the big bad rates, like beating the bills, beating the chiefs, you feel like you did something. I don’t know these teams feel like they’re different this year than they were and but I don’t know that we talked about this on Monday. I don’t know if they’re really. The Colts or Denver. I don’t know that I believe in them or New England, but along the way, if that’s where you got to go to win, you want to go to Denver second week of January with Lamar running. I don’t know. You know that doesn’t sound fun. New England doesn’t sound fun either. Indianapolis, that’s kind of dreamy. Always 72 and sunny. But for me, with their offense and braiding it the way we used to and the way we thought of it in week one against buffalo, I’m done. I’ve turned the page on thinking about what this is, especially when Lamar can’t practice on Wednesday, it tells me they’re going to be ginger, not Marianne the next month here in how they’re going to have to handle this because of your point. What we’re really trying to do is win games in January. And if we beat Lamar up running nine times every week and he can’t practice on Wednesday, I don’t know. Yeah, Lamar is everything for them. Let’s go back to that, of course.

Luke Jones  25:57

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Apologies to Tyler Huntley, who that’s the lead. But yeah, no question. But yeah. I mean, it kind of goes back to what I was just saying in terms of, you know, you want to be a, be in position to be able to do that in January, right? You’ve got to get them there, you know, you I think with their run game, probably more of the read option, mesh point kind of stuff, they probably in an ideal world, if you’re talking about if you’re playing the Super Bowl on Sunday, you need more of that from Lamar right to be a little more heavily involved. But you know, when he when he has a sore knee, even if it’s just missing one practice, and he’s back out there and he’s no question about whether he’s going to play, but level of effectiveness, and then especially the offensive line, right? And your ability to to protect him, or your inability to protect him, and how that factors so

Nestor Aparicio  26:48

level of effectiveness, but level of confidence to even make the call, monkeys like that. That’s a big part of my playbook, if I’m Todd monkey, right? I mean, well, I think part of it is the threat of Lamar running, and once the other teams catch on to the fact that he doesn’t want to run, then you got something. You got a bigger problem.

Luke Jones  27:04

And I think, but I will say this, it’s always there, right? It’s always there. The presence is there. What a football analytics concept that a lot of people will talk about is, you know, the old school mentality is you need to establish the run to Set Up Play Action Football analytics will tell you no, if you have good enough play fakes, because all it takes is literally the one time where you do hand it to your running back, even if it’s not a great running back, then that should still work, because you still have to respect the play fake. It’s still Lamar Jackson out there, even if he’s not running 10 times a game or eight times a game on the regular anymore. You still know that that’s there, right? You’re still seeing him scramble when he needs to scramble, for the most part, right? And but it does impact how you call a game, as I said with the the Vikings matchup, where they did run a lot of quick game. You know, we saw them do that with Tyler Huntley against the bears a couple weeks ago, ball came out quickly, and I said to you at the time, I wanted to see them incorporate a little more of that, even when Lamar comes back, because we know that this offensive line is limited from a pass protection standpoint. But all that being said, yeah, it does lead to a choppier grind it out. Kind of, often more of a grind it out kind of offense than we’ve seen in the past. And, and look, I mean, Lamar, and I’d be remiss, as we’re talking about, you know, where he is physically or, you know he’s not running as much. You know, you still look at his numbers, and he’s thrown one interception, and he has, what, 14 touchdown passes. I mean, he’s, he’s had a heck of a year, all or 15 touchdown passes. I don’t want to short him, but, you know, it’s been six games. He’s missed three games, and we haven’t seen him run as much. You know, how much of that is just by design from a big picture standpoint, and how much of that is out of necessity from a physical, you know, standpoint,

Nestor Aparicio  29:00

he’s not practicing on Wednesday, I would go with the latter, not the former.

8

Luke Jones  29:03

Like, literally, I think it’s both, right? I mean, I look we and we’ve talked about this for a few years now. I mean, he doesn’t run even last year, you know, even going back two years ago, he wasn’t want running as frequently as he did the two or three years prior to that, right? And we part of that has been his development as a passer, and obviously the arrival of Derek Henry last year. So it’s a combination, right? I mean, you are always thinking in terms of the big picture. I know coaches will say, Hey, we’ve got to win this game. It’s all about this game. But there’s always an eye toward the future, right? You’re always trying to keep everyone that’s why you don’t run the ball 35 or 40 times with Derrick Henry in one game, right? Because you’re thinking about what that means for the next three weeks after that. So but when you look at and for me, it still begins with this offensive line and where they are. And their limitations, and wondering if Ronnie Stanley is going to continue to stay healthy, wondering if these guards are going to hold up whatsoever, hoping you can get more from Rosengarten as the season goes on, it’s kind of been an underwhelming second year for him. Tyler Linder bomb, just you know him, have being flanked by two below average guards. I mean, that has an impact on him as well. So for me, it’s that, and then you start to branch out and look at everything else you know, whether you’re talking about Todd monkens play calling inside the red zone, how much of that’s tied to the offensive line, how much of that is, hey, maybe he’s not having his best year as a play caller, right? Derek, Henry, maybe he’s not quite as explosive as he was a year, right? So we always try to make it one thing. It’s more than one thing. But for me, the very big picture theme here is their offensive line is not very good, and now you throw in your quarterback, you know? And I’m not saying it’s directly because of the offensive line. We don’t, we don’t know how. Why his knees sore in the same way that we don’t we didn’t see exactly how he earned his hamstring in Kansas City, but those are always going to be issues that are tied together, right? Because if Lamar is not 100% or any player, any of your skill players, aren’t 100% then the pass protection or the run blocking are become that much more critical to to give you your best possible opportunity to succeed. And that’s where we we go back to this matchup and talking about miles Garrett, but not just him. You know, when you look at Malik Collins and Mason Graham, Alex Wright, their other defensive end probably is not going to play, as he’s dealing with an injury. He was, in fact, he was the only guy on Cleveland’s roster not to practice on Wednesday. But you know, that’s a really talented, really tough front, and this is going to be a heck of a challenge for this ravens offensive line. That’s why I’m guessing we’re going to see more quick game, and that’s why the ball is going to need to come out very quickly, and Lamar is going to have to process really well and throw it away when it warrants throwing it away. And yeah, he’s going to have to scramble and move around when he needs to, you know, even with that knee being less than 100% but it’s whatever you have to do to win the game on the flip side. And this is where we can probably not, probably definitely be more positive the way the Ravens defense is playing, which is certainly better than we’ve seen. We’ve seen it over the last month, certainly become a much higher floor defense, and, you know, just more consistent, if you’re Cleveland, okay. Judkins, the rookie running back, he’s had a nice year. I give the kid credit. Beyond that, how are they going to move the ball consistently and that? And that’s where you kind of look at this thing and say, you know, this is another game, kind of like we talked about the Vikings game, where you need your defense to kind of lead the way here. I mean, Dylan Gabriel is bad, like last week, we talked about JJ McCarthy and some of the intangibles, and he was a first round pick, and what he did against Detroit the week before. I mean, Dylan Gabriel, there’s just, there’s not a whole lot to write home about. You look at his Pff, grade, you look at his QBR, you look at EPA. Like, all these different stats in addition to just the raw traditional stats. I mean, it’s, it’s ugly, right? So to the point where people in Cleveland, I think, are kind of like, hey, when, when should ore going to get a look? I mean, because this doesn’t look very good, it’s probably not going to look good with him, either, but, but the point is, with this uncertainty with Lamar, even if it’s not something where I’m sounding the alarm, but hey, his knees sore, at the very least, they’ve acknowledged that, and knowing that the offense has had some of its issues as it is, and its biggest weakness is clashing with Cleveland’s biggest strength as a football team, you’re going to need your defense to man up again, and I expect they’re going to right if Dylan Gabriel starts throwing the ball around the field against you. Then, then I’m wondering what what happened to this defense? Because, you know, this defense has played much, much better football over the last month, so I think that’s the group that is going to have to lead the way. And let me be clear, I don’t think this means. This isn’t me saying that the ravens are only going to manage six or 10 points or something like that on Sunday, but we saw it in week two. Go back to that week two game go, look and see how little the Ravens offense did in the first half of that football game. It was the defense and the special teams that put them in position to score points. And my point is, I think that’s what we’re going to need to see here again, unless you are talking a bit about this being a really tight football game, come the fourth quarter. You know, if the defense and the special teams isn’t doing those types of things like they did in week two, then, yeah, there is absolutely a scenario where this could be a one score game in the fourth quarter and and things are feeling kind of tight. So, you know, it’s just, I’m not saying this to be Mr. Alarmist. I fully expect the race. Stevens to win, but we already talked about some of the history here and how they played in Cleveland in recent years, and that’s a factor. It’s an AFC North game, you know, even if it’s not the toughest game on paper, but they need their defense to set the tone. You know, they need to that that group to do the heaviest lifting, especially if number eight is going to be less than 100% if they do that, then I think they’ll win relatively easily. You know, not saying that’s a 40 point blowout, but I think they can win by, you know, more than one score, and it could be a situation where maybe you could pull Lamar for the last series of the game or something like that. But, you know, they need that group to come up big. Because you do wonder, you know, just with the way this offense has started games the last couple of weeks, and knowing what Cleveland can do defensively, you do wonder if this ravens offense is going to be firing on all cylinders out of the gate, especially now knowing Lamar Jackson has missed some practice time this week.

Nestor Aparicio  36:01

Supposed to be very windy in Cleveland. Imagine that’s

Luke Jones  36:06

gonna say. What is it not it’s gonna be windy

Nestor Aparicio  36:09

on Sunday. It’s late in the afternoon. Games can be dark when the game starts. We’ll be monitoring it all. Breaking news happens on the wnst tech services, all brought to you by Cole roofing and Gordian energy. It’s nice to hang out with my pal Bill Cole last week talk some AI and his coaching prowess over Maryvale, you can always reach me. Nestor, Baltimore positive. I’m out on social media. Luke’s out. Luke at W nst.net, he is Baltimore. Luke out on the interwebs. Of course we will ever even scratch offs to give away when we continue the Maryland crab cake tour right after Thanksgiving. I am around all week, big GBMC week here. I’m 57 the colonoscopy. Things real for me, I got the instructions, the milkshake, all of that stuff. So I implore all men out there to do what I’m actually doing instead of talking about doing because I’ve been talking about it for years. I don’t feel old, but I’m starting to have to do old things, and that’s why GBMC came along to help us with knee replacement, hip replacement, doing all sorts of great, great advice and stuff that I’m learning about, because I’ve had like, a dozen friends of mine with the knee and the hip replacement thing, and they’ve gone through with it. So they can go through with that. I’m going to make it through next Friday. Just fine. I hope he is Luke. I am Nestor. Big appreciation to all of our sponsors out there. It’s football, 425, on Sunday, browns and ravens. We’re Baltimore positive. Stay with us.