Luke Jones and Nestor discuss Ravens coming up an unlikely foot short against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in Kansas City to kickoff the NFL season.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
lamar, ronnie stanley, running, years, oyster, game, offensive line, ball, week, thursday night, line, ravens, win, point, yards, called, give, isaiah, field, kansas city
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Luke Jones
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
8
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T, dassard, Baltimore, Baltimore, positive. I promise. I’m going to have those Raven scratch offs by next week. On Friday, we get down to Coopers and Fells Point, part of the Fells Point oyster festival with a lot of F’s and a lot of festivals and a lot of oysters. It’s not the Fells Point festival, it’s the Fells Point oyster festival next weekend. We’ll be there on Friday. Chad whistling and Dave shining will join us. We’ll have the Gold Rush seven doubles, because I have a handful left. We’ll have the Raven scratch offs, our friends at Liberty, pure solutions have already fired me up with some oysters. We did day one of the oyster tour with John shields, my friend, my cousin over at at Gertrude. It was delicious. We’re going to be at the pepper mill this week, everyone at the Frederick we’re going to also going to all sorts of places. We are doing the oyster tour at Costas. I’m wearing my Costa shirt on the 27th we’re going to be at state fair on the 24th with Angela. Also Brooks. Lots of things going on this month, but nothing more important than what happened on Thursday night. They needed one chance to beat the Kansas City Chiefs. They took their crack. You know when is an inch of foot? Well, it’s when you step on the line as time expires. My wife fell asleep. She woke up middle of the night. She said, who won? What happened? I’m like, You’re gonna have to read about it, because it’s just too Yeah, it was too much. Too much went on at the end of the game. Luke Jones joins us now to discuss and break down what will be. And you and I have talked about this for eight freaking months. They’re owing one for the next 10 days, and they will not get a chance to make this right until such point in late January where they would have an opportunity to do that. Yeah.
Luke Jones 01:34
I mean, look, nothing was going to make up for the AFC title game, even winning, even if Isaiah likely gets his toe in bounds. That’s not making up for what happened in January, but it is a difficult, mentally taxing, exhausting, frustrating, way to begin a season, because obviously there was plenty that did not go right, and we’ll get into that. We’ll continue to talk about that. Much of it was predicted or expected, like the offensive lines, choppiness, although I thought the group was better in the second half, but clearly that was an issue. There were plenty of things, legal formations, clock management, wasted timeouts, the kind of things that you don’t want to see, but you’re less surprised to see it in week one, I suppose. But with all of that, with miscommunication and busted coverage on defense and all the different things that happened over the course of the game, you’re literally a toe away from what I assume, and John Harbaugh alluded to it. You can kind of see it on the sideline. They’re going to go for two if likely catches a touchdown there, and they’re going to try to try to win it right there against an exhausted Kansas City defense. And if you do that, all of these things that happened up until that final play still apply in terms of things that need to be cleaned up and rectified and remedied and improved and all of that, but you’d have a win under your belt, and it wouldn’t be a case where you lost again to Kansas City. So I mean, heartbreak
Nestor Aparicio 03:06
just clean things up. You need to fix them when you lose the game.
Luke Jones 03:09
I mean, you’re always doing that right? I mean, you, you’ve you’re all as a team, as a coach, as coaches, as players, you should always be process oriented in how you’re going to look at it. But it’s way easier to your point. It’s way easier making those corrections when you win a football game and they had their opportunities. And I’ll say this much, as much as it’s very difficult to be in the moral victory headspace when you’re talking about this team and the regular season success, they’ve had the playoff shortcomings. They’ve had their lack of success against this specific team who’s been the dynasty of the last six years, of just taking picking up right where the Patriots left off, basically overnight. They did show better. Fight more, fight more. More of a, you know, under the hood, coming back in that game. I mean, they were down 10 points. I mean that we saw this last year, and they didn’t put as much fight up in January as they did. So if you want to take that away, then great, but they still didn’t get the job done, and it’s still very frustrating. And you still saw a team that was out of sorts, way too much through stretches of that football game. So again, I wasn’t shocked by all of it. I didn’t expect the offensive line to come out and play at a high level. I think the game plan was indicative of their lack of confidence. I mean, Lamar Jackson in the first half average 0.8 air yards per pass attempt. I mean, there was nothing pushed downfield. Now they got to that in the second half, and, you know, they used a little more, you know, Matt Max protect and things of that nature. I do think the the offensive line was better in the second half, and they were able to push the ball downfield more, but a lot of the game still came down to Lamar taking off and having. To scramble and run for his life and taking a lot of hits. I thought this, oh, that
8Nestor Aparicio 05:05
would have been my question. That’s always my question. Well, I mean, this is not sustainable. You can’t run him like this every weekend. And listen, I’m here at Collinsworth and jiriko. Oh, he really wanted to win this. He really, you know, like, okay, but like, he’s got to play next week, and he’s got to play the next 20 weeks, right? And I you and I just have a different opinion on that, and you will always get upset with me. It’s like arguing my wife about her driving. You’re every if I say he gets hurt, you’re like, he didn’t get hurt throwing the football. I’m like, doesn’t matter how he gets hurt, let’s not get him hit. There’s a reason you put him in a, you know, in a glass box out there eight months a year. I’m not saying he needs to be in a class box in Kansas City. I’m saying it’s not a great idea that he’s your prime running back in a game where you brought Derrick Henry and gave him all that money, because you can’t get Derek Henry to move. And this better be better than a screen pass offense. I mean, that miracle passed down the right sideline at the end that set this whole thing up. I mean, there were times in the game where I’m like, do they have a forward pass? Because, like, they don’t feel confident enough to use it. Lamar is just chucking the ball down the field, you know, just literally throwing it and praying there’s not really an open receiver. It’s go up and win it. Um, yeah, I didn’t like the passing game. And like, yeah, I you and I can argue. I never, I like the passing game when they’re scoring 50 points against the rams and last year, when they could when they’re in second and one, when, when, but they’re only in second and one and second and two, when that running game’s working, and when that running game been working, Lamar is running for his life that that’s that’s six years into this, and I tweeted this in the third quarter, when they’re Getting their ass kicked, six years into this, three offensive coordinators into this, their best place still him playing street ball. I mean literally. I mean, that’s the best chance for them to do something besides three yards in a cloud of dust, or, maybe worse, 1.8 yards in a cloud of dust. Is him doing razzle dazzle or them doing misdirection, things that give Lamar the opportunity to run, because if he has the opportunity to run, you freeze everybody so that that gives him the chance to throw over your head, right? But it’s all about lamar’s hips and the ball and the slate of hand, and I don’t know, I mean, the Derek Henry thing sounded great to me. I’m the guy I wanted they win the Super Bowl. I’ll say I told you so. Eric Decosta, I have a lot of things to tell him this weekend, but I the offensive line. I it was worse than I thought it was going to be. How about that? I, you know, like, I just sort of, sort of had the confidence that it’ll be okay when it’s not okay, nothing’s going to be okay. Yeah,
Luke Jones 07:41
well, and that’s really where it begins. And look, when I was making the comment about Lamar, when I push back on you, it’s when I don’t think you’re seeing the game in the sense that Lamar is not taking as many hits as you’re making it out to be. Thursday night, he took a lot of hits. I mean, he lowered his head. He was
Nestor Aparicio 07:59
trying to win the game on his own, because they’re 10 point and that’s just, that’s who the kid is, and that’s how he went. But
Luke Jones 08:06
8I disagree. I disagree he hasn’t taken nearly as many hits in recent years. That what he what we saw on Thursday night, reminded me of his first year. I mean, that really reminded me of his first year. That was the point I was making. Look, when it comes down to it if you’re not able to move the ball in other ways. And let’s be clear, this offense has had plenty of success over the last five years. It has not been Lamar running the ball this many times every single week. It just hasn’t I’ll continue to reject and push back you saying that, because that just inherently has not been true. He has run significantly less, even Thursday night. It was so much scrambling. There were some design runs early in the game that I think caught Kansas City up by surprise. But by and large, when you look at the final rushing total, 16 carries, most of that that was the product of scrambles. But the point I was trying to make in recent years, it feels like Lamar was doing a much better job of getting down, avoiding contact. He wasn’t avoiding contact at all.
Nestor Aparicio 09:06
Would send him into it. Greg, Roman would use him as a hat. George, right, like that. They stopped that, I mean, and there he got hurt. He wasn’t going to do that anymore. I’m sure our voters went into he’s not our running back, and we’re not going to use him that way.
Luke Jones 09:18
And that’s the point I was trying to make, more than anything here. Look Derrick Henry did not find much running room. I mean, he just did, and his longest run was nine yards. I mean, he carried the ball 13 times they were down most of the game. Go, look at the Tennessee Titans and usage when they’re trailing. Derrick Henry’s not on the field as much because he’s not offering a whole lot as a receiver. He’s not someone who does much in pass protection. I mean, give Justice Hill a lot of credit. My goodness, he’s blocking Chris Jones at the end of the game, which, you know, is it, it’s quite a choice in terms of sliding protection. But Well,
Nestor Aparicio 09:52
Chris Jones is making the choices. That’s how good their defense is. He decides, I want the six foot nine, 400 pound guy that shouldn’t be playing golf. Record, and I’m gonna go beat his ass Well, you know? And that’s, that’s where Kyle Hamilton could really be effective in various ways, because of his all the speed, strength, agility, moves, all that kind of stuff that when you play an elite defender and you have any weakness on the offensive line, and they’re multiple and they have spagnolo, making $6 million a year being a coordinator there, there’s, you’re going to be in for a challenge on every single snap, because you have, because they have Ray Lewis, they have a wrecking machine,
8Luke Jones 10:35
yeah, I mean so. And I think specifically with the offensive line, I think the left side now, Ronnie Stanley with the illegal formation penalties and how that was being called, which was wild. I mean, it was wild especially, you know, I’m not someone who complains about officiating very much. I hate that, quite frankly. But you do have to wonder, what when the Ravens being called for that, and you see Jawan Taylor the way he’s lining up on the opposite side. It did not feel like it was being called the same way. Ronnie Stanley probably going to be getting a a FedEx from the league, you know, with some of his comments after the game. However, point I was trying to make, I think the left side of the line held up. Okay. I think Ronnie Stanley, you know, from a blocking standpoint, I did not see him have major issues. Now, lining up is another thing, the right side of the offensive line, and you alluded to it with Daniel Fowle at right guard. Whether it was McCarry Rosengarten did not play a whole lot, but he really struggled when he was out there that right side of the offensive line. They’ve got to figure that out, because, I mean, it’s Kansas City has good defense to your point. Chris Jones is one of the best players in the in the in the league. You know, he’s an absolute wrecking machine at the defensive tackle slash move out and play defensive end position. But they’ve got to figure this out, because what they did on Thursday night, I’ll agree with you. You’ve talked about this a lot, how they had to play on Thursday night, and look again, they were a toe away from potentially stealing one, stealing one, that they were down 10 through much of the second half. But that is not how you want to have to play every week. I mean, you don’t want to be in a position where Lamar has to run that much and is taking that many hits. I mean, it’s just, it’s just the truth. You want Lamar to I’m the first to say I don’t want to take that away from Lamar, but I don’t want to have to rely on it to that degree every single week. And I think private, you know, they would say that as well. So, you know, with Derek Henry, and this is one of the reasons why I wasn’t over the moon thinking this was dramatically transforming them. Here we go,
Nestor Aparicio 12:42
week one, and you’re already right now I’m wrong. Here we go, Oh no,
Luke Jones 12:46
that’s not what I’m saying at all. But what I’m saying is, for what he does, you’ve got to be on schedule like he’s not going to be much of a factor when you’re trailing in a football game. You
Nestor Aparicio 12:55
8know he wasn’t even on the field at the end of the game. He’s not going to be a factor at the right side of your lines getting pushed backwards, and sure if the left shot of your line is misaligning and putting in first and 15, first and 20. If that’s not going to work for this offense.
Luke Jones 13:08
I mean, I I have to think at this point that the illegal formation thing is going to sort itself out one way or the other. We see this every year, or not every year, but every so often. You know, I remember a few years back, it was illegal contact was a major point of emphasis. They called a whole bunch of them around the league first few weeks, like hand checking in the NBA. Yeah, they all have it right, baseball, beginning of the year, and then it kind of regresses back to the mean. And, you know, you kind of forget about it out. But
Nestor Aparicio 13:40
where is the line? What’s the freaking rule? Well, for what we’ve seen to be this flying V formation for years, where every outside lineman is trying to get a step back to give themselves more room in a passing down. Well, I
Luke Jones 13:54
think what’s happened is it’s become a Flying V. It was always, you know, it was never a perfectly at least for years and years, it hasn’t been a perfectly straight offensive line. We understand that. But when you’re when you’re looking at it, and you’re seeing the tackles in recent years, not, and I’m not saying the ravens, just in general, you’re seeing the tackles are kind of like half backs who yards behind the ball, two yards behind the center, that’s what they’re trying to cut out. I know that was a point of emphasis with officials going around the league. I know Ronnie Stanley talked about it after the game, and you know, the thought was that what they were told, how they were being instructed, how the officials were talking to them in Owings Mills, did not align with how it was being called on Thursday. What they’re going
8Nestor Aparicio 14:39
to do is tell you, get up on the line. Get up on the line. I gotta try to help you right? Like that was part of the idea. Yeah, I think so. When I was a kid, I win the batter’s box. I would always try to move back. And he umpired to get back in a box, move back up. You know, like they don’t call a ball or a strike, they move you back. But in if they’re gonna try to change rules in week one, and this is where John would just burr up and. Be if they had let me into the owners meetings back in March instead of you. This is where he talks about that stuff, where they try to change rules, and then you have to go into your building. And Harbaugh would always say, how do you want me to teach it? How do you want me to teach it? And I’ll teach it that way. And then once we get out of the field, you have to adjudicate it that way. And that’s fair. That’s fair.
Luke Jones 15:19
Yeah, absolutely. And that’s why I said, let this play out. Let’s see what it looks like around the league come Sunday. You know, are we seeing these being called all over or is this an early season point of emphasis and no more, or was this specific crew and look again, I’m not someone who wants to talk about officiating for for an entire morning post game by any stretch of the imagination. However, there are crew there are statistics, and you can find tendencies for these different officiating crews that will call certain things more frequently than others. Was this a crew that was much more zealous about calling this than what we’re going to see around the league? I don’t know, but it was clearly a major problem, and it really gummed up their operation. To put it kindly, on Thursday night when you’re giving away five yards over and over and over, or losing five yards over and over and over. So we’re going to see. But I think when you’re talking about an offensive line that is already gelling, already has three new members, already playing in a very hostile environment, right off the bat in arrowhead and trying to new running back, obviously, Derrick Henry, the way he ran the ball in Tennessee did not really align with how the Ravens offense and their running game operated. From the standpoint of the Ravens being much more of a shotgun pistol team, and Tennessee not really using that a whole lot with Derrick Henry. So that doesn’t mean it won’t work, but I you can go back and find some of my writing, even at Baltimore positive.com leading into this opening game, that I wasn’t going to be surprised if it was choppy and if it was up and down, and if Derek Henry didn’t look like peak Derrick Henry, right off the bat. So again, I’m not shocked by these things, but it is disappointing when you are playing Kansas City and you have those kinds of problems, and it gets you to the point where just to be able to find, I mean, put rhythm aside just production, moving the ball, sustaining drives, getting points that they had to really kind of just have Lamar do his thing, which, again, if it’s the AFC Championship Game, let me, let me put it this way, if we solve them having to play like this, and Lamar running to this degree back in January, you’d say it’s the AFC Championship game. You know, you leave nothing. You can’t leave anything on the field, right? But yeah, when you look at this and knowing that Lamar slimed down a little bit, and he did look he looks quicker. He definitely he looks like he has breakaway spine again. That said, he also has less insulation and padding to take more hits. So it was almost counterintuitive in that way, for him not to get down and run out of bounds at times like we’ve seen him do with more frequency the last few years. So again, not his instinct. I mean, it’s not coaching
Nestor Aparicio 18:11
against his instinct in any in space. The kid’s been doing this since he was eight years old. Nobody could ever catch him like literally at
Luke Jones 18:19
8but at the same and again, this is where you and I have differed. I have constantly rejected the notion that he takes a ton of hits because he avoids contact very, very well. He took quite a few hits on Thursday night, and that’s where I looked at it again. It
Nestor Aparicio 18:35
was late in the first not giving himself up. He’s sinking an extra yard because they’re not using by 10 points well, a team he can’t beat on the start of the season on the road, the pressure, I can’t be on one for the next 10 days. I need to get to this. I can beat that guy. I can I can make that guy like, that’s Lamar EIGHT minutes into the third quarter. I’ve watched it for six years. You’re never going to coach that at him when they’re losing you’re not going to say, calm down, stay back. Let’s stay in the offense. Let’s pass the ball. They did at the end, which was, you know, heartening. I even been able to do that in 2018 or 19. But I don’t know that he’s got the best personnel around him that he’s had. You know, he came into this with Marshall yonda and a whipper snapper, you know, Ronnie Stanley and other guys, Orlando Brown. I mean, I don’t know. I mean, Linder bombs, good, you know, he’s in, he’s in the hall. He’s really good. Yeah, yeah, he’s in the Hall of top five centers in the league right now. But the rest of this, this is, you’re taking a $50 million car out with tires that may or may not hold up for the trip, right?
Luke Jones 19:35
I mean, it’s we’re going to see. And again, it’s one game. It’s one game. And our tone, everyone’s tone would be different if Isaiah likely caught that football. That’s why I said it’s important for the team itself, players and coaches to be process oriented here, and not just hey, we were only a toe away. Yes, they were only a tow away, but all these things we’re talking about still. Would have applied, even if Isaiah likely scores a touchdown there, and it’s a much happier Friday, Saturday, Sunday in Baltimore, and certainly a much happier football team getting, you know, the back end of a Thursday night game where you get the couple extra days of rest. So, you know it, there was a lot of good there was, I mean, Isaiah likely. How many times over the years, Nestor, have you heard me talk about the Ravens having the need for a number three receiving option to really emerge early on, it was Hollywood Brown and Mark Andrews, right? And then Marquis Brown was traded. They had the year where Bateman was the guy for the guy for the first three weeks, until he got hurt, and then they had the wide receiver crisis the rest of the year. Now they have zay flowers, Mark Andrews, who was very quiet on Thursday night, but he’s still Mark Andrews, right. I’m not writing off, not jumping to major conclusions there, but what we had seen the in his first two years for Isaiah, likely was someone who was really a non factor in their offense when Mark Andrews was upright, healthy and on the field, Mark Andrews played 59 snaps. Likely played 53 so it’s not as though likely was on the field when Mark Andrews was not this great degree, they were on the field a ton. They ran 12 personnel, and we saw Isaiah likely be the be the star. So I was heartened by that. I was encouraged by that, because something that I have been saying from a passing game standpoint is an whether it was another tight end or another wide receiver behind zay flowers, you need a consistent impact number three pass catching target to emerge, and Isaiah, likely, was certainly that on Thursday night. So I like seeing that. I very much like seeing that. But, yeah, the pass protection, the overall lack of rhythm of the offense, time management, was a major problem. I thought their clock management at the end of each half was horrible. I to the point where, you know, it really short changed them at the end of the first half, where they could have potentially scored a touchdown rather, rather than settling for a short Justin Tucker field goal. I mean, obviously he had the Miss on the drive before that, and throughout the fourth quarter, now, they moved the ball and they got the field goal to get themselves within seven. But, boy, they just talked. Took so much time, and then when you factor in the fact that they flew two timeouts early in the second half. I mean, you just really put yourself behind the eight ball to the point where, when Patrick mahomes caught his own pass, and that allowed the clock to run down to the two minute warning, at that point, you knew the Ravens were really going to be behind the eight ball clockwise. And look, they got down the field. Give them credit for that. They made the pass protection work as much as it possibly could, I suppose, given where they are in Lamar, doing his thing, and they made, they made it work, but again, the degree they made things tough on themselves, most of the night, with a lot of self inflicted mistakes. And you know, I mean, give Kansas City credit, they were the better team. But it’s frustrating, because you saw, even with everything we’ve laid out, they had a chance. If they had just done a couple things better along the way, they could have put themselves in it, in an even better position to win a football game than, you know, a toe being on the line with no time remaining.
Nestor Aparicio 23:19
Luke is writing. I am writing. It is a weird weekend. We got football weekend on Sunday, and we’re trying to we’re going to figure things out next week, long week, next week, the Orioles are going to play 10 more times, nine more times before the Ravens get after. You have an opportunity to do that. We’re doing oysters every day. It’s all on behalf of our friends at Liberty, pure solutions, one 800 clean water we I will be talking a lot about liberty, pure solutions, and about oysters and oxygenating the bay. Uh, John shields hosted me for oyster one at gertrudes on Thursday. Uh, there’s going to be a litany place you can follow along on social media. The hashtag is MD, oyster tour.com. Meanwhile, crab cake tour still rolling. We are at Cooper’s next Friday for the oyster festival. Vanna Fells Point, uh, we’re going to be at state fair on the 24th with Angela also Brooks 27th we’re going to be acostas all month long. We’re getting out and about, eating crab cakes, chatting with folks. John Sarbanes going to join us at Faith Lee’s Angela also Brooks is going to join us. I’m working on Larry Hogan. I don’t know when he’s going to join us. Wes Moore chasing governors down. And Luke’s going to be covering some baseball this week, as well as some football. So we have a lot of things going on around here, all of it. Brought to you by France at the Maryland lottery, conjunction with Jiffy Lube MultiCare and our 26th anniversary. And I just gotta get an approval on the oyster and the crab and the candle by next week, and we’ll have all that stuff up at the front of the website, all of that as well. Brought to you by curio wellness and far and daughter. He is Luke. He is Baltimore, Luke. I am Nestor. We are in the midst of a very significant six to eight, maybe nine week period here of of sports over the next two months. We are, you know, he’s shaved and rested. I’m shaved, unrested. I’m writing a whole bunch of stuff. He’s writing a whole bunch of stuff. We are Baltimore. Positive.com Stay with us. We got plenty more football ahead. You.
