With two corners out and two linemen going down in the middle of the loss to the Browns in Cleveland, there’s no question that the defense of Zach Orr is depleted. But the lack of a pass rush is glaring and Luke Jones and Nestor address the needs of a leaky defense after losing to Jameis Winston and lowly Browns.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Ravens defense, leaky defense, Jameis Winston, Browns offense, Marlon Humphrey, Nate Wiggins, Travis Jones, Michael Pierce, Brent Urban, Marcus Williams, special teams, Justin Tucker, Roquan Smith, Kyle Hamilton, trade deadline
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
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Welcome home. We are W n, s, t te, Baltimore, Baltimore, positive. We are positively into what’s going to be an interesting week here. I used to take phone calls for a living around here. We’re going to be doing the Maryland crab cakes. We’re presented by our friends at the Maryland lottery, beginning two weeks from now. We got all sorts of places. I’m wearing my Coco shirt. We’re going to be there. We’re going to be a cost. We’re going to be a Pappas. We’re going to be I’m going to be at State Fair. We’re going to be at Faith leagues. We’re going to be at all of our place. We’re going to be Cooper’s north as well. All of it brought to you by our friends at Jiffy Lube MultiCare. They power Luke up and get him out to Owings Mills, where, I have a feeling some things are going to be said this week in Owings Mills. Where do you want to begin? Other than you and I warned everybody on Thursday and Friday. Not that it was a trap game, like that word trap game that I’ve seen all over my my timeline, but injuries, new quarterback, road game, division game, memorable loss, if there’s such a thing,
Luke Jones 00:57
yeah, I mean, infamous loss. I’d say still, even with some of those circumstances, look, let’s be clear, and as you alluded to, we discussed some of these elements going into Sunday’s game. New quarterback, the Browns offense had been so bad under Deshaun Watson that there was really no place lower for them to go. It was only really a situation where there was one way to go up Jameis Winston, we know his history. He hadn’t started the game in two years. He’s played very little over the last five years, but we know he’s someone who’s capable of having a 30 plus touchdown season. He’s also had a 30 interception season. That’s why he’s no longer a starting quarterback in the National Football League. But we talked about that. We talked about Ken Dorsey becoming the play caller with this being his system, and how it never really felt like Kevin Stefanski had a feel for this new system and calling plays. I mean, they made these changes to try to, if appease Deshaun Watson is the right word, but to try to get him going in a way that Cleveland hadn’t seen, but they saw it with Joe Flacco at the end of last year. So you have that. You have the fact that Marlon Humphrey didn’t play. You had the situation with Nate Wiggins over the weekend, dealing with an illness, dealing with the shoulder. He ended up not traveling with the team, and he’s rolled out on Saturday afternoon. Other guys banged up, as I mentioned to you, Travis Jones had not looked good in practice, even at the end of the week. I was surprised he was even active, let alone he was going to play. And he didn’t play a whole lot, and that’s before they even lost Michael Pierce and Brent urban during the game. So with all those elements, by no means should anyone I certainly wasn’t expecting the Ravens defense to have an elite performance. However, you give up three second half touchdown passes to a quarterback who hasn’t started a game in over two years. You give up over 300 passing yards. You give up 29 points to an offense that or to a team had scored 20 points in a game all year, a team that had eclipsed 300 yards of offense only once all year, and you give up over 400 that’s below the bar, to quote John Harbaugh, way back when, when the Ravens were probably in a similar spot, ravaged by some injuries and and just not playing very well defensively. So I know we haven’t I didn’t even make mention yet of the fact that Marcus Williams was benched. He was healthy. He had a D in the NBA world, he had a DNP, CD, did not play, coach’s decision, and he’s got the third highest cap number on the team. So at some point in time, we can’t keep just chalking this up to, well, you know, it was garbage time or Well, they’ve played a tough schedule of quarterbacks early in the season. Now, the defensive problems are getting to be too great to ignore. And as I wrote at Baltimore positive.com, and on a day when the Ravens offense came back to earth a little bit inevitably, it was going to at some point in time. And that doesn’t mean it’s not still a great group, but it wasn’t great on Sunday, on a day when they had special teams issues, specifically Justin Tucker again, when we thought that that problem was behind him, their defense stunk. It really stunk. And I’ll hear that, yeah, it’s a great run defense. But even in the second half, Cleveland kept chucking the ball. You know, they had Nick Chubb and and they even, you know, they didn’t run great, but they ran enough to think, oh, maybe they’ll lean into their running game with the Ravens banged up up front. They ran through
Nestor Aparicio 04:30
the ball. They ran better than anybody else did. I mean, they Tampa ran well last week. Gander at it, at least early in the game. It sort of put the things up. And then Winston, to me, was gun slinging, and it’s everything in a bag of donuts. He throws five passes. Four of them are amazing. The fifth one sales and it’s going to get picked, or he just throws it at the wrong guy, and then you have to catch the ball. That’s been a big issue defensively all along, that if they just caught a couple of the interceptions, they escape. This. We’re giving them a happy grade this morning because they won their sick dude, six and two sounds a lot different than five and three. Wake me after the Pittsburgh game. We’ll talk more about what the record is and where they are and all of that. But there is a point where they’ve lost three games. All three of them have been because of the defense, really.
Luke Jones 05:17
Yeah, and they could have lost the Cincinnati game came down to their kicker missing a field goal, right? I mean, I mean, we could play this game all day, right? The ifs, ifs and buts and all of that, which, again, the offense having an off day. And we’ll get into that in another segment. Weird short yardage play calls, you know, whether they go for it or not, but the play call to take Lamar Jackson out of the equation. Why? Why
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Nestor Aparicio 05:41
are these plays even in the playbook? And I mean, I’ll start with that, and I’ll bitch about it later, but like, I don’t, I don’t get what’s going on, and I really don’t get the defensive disarray with well, or peas, the players themselves and the general notion that they’ve real. They’re really struggling on the coaching side of things. I think after McDonald and after Anthony Weaver and the guys that they left, roquan Smith looks like a different ball player with that Patrick queen, right? I mean, like, even the guys we thought Matt abike, fine. I mean, gave a lot of money, a lot of money, like, he better look like a factor on every play, and they all can’t look that way. And Kyle Hamilton to be the goat and dropping the ball, I don’t mean goat, the other goat, not and not the every goat, the, you know, the drop the ball goat, I’m I’m perplexed. I’m not blown up that they lost, because I think any given week in the league, so I’m not going to crush them based on that. I am just a little concerned. Now there’s, there are four games behind Kansas City in real terms, you know, where any notion that they’re playing AFC Championship games here starts to go out the wayside. And now it’s like, Well, you better make sure your playoff team, you better make sure you hold your division in line here, and you better get guys back out on the field. You better get healthy.
Luke Jones 07:05
Yeah, I mean, none of these injuries are, I mean, we’ll see about Michael Pierce, you know, he was ruled out pretty darn quickly with that calf injury. So that’s, that’s cause for concern. You know, Brent urban concussion, not making light of a concussion, but generally, we don’t expect that to be a season ending kind of situation. Marlon Humphrey was even on the field before the game. I mean, he was doubtful. He was never going to play, but he was working out late last week. I don’t think he’s going to be out very long. Same goes for Nate Wiggins, I assume. So it’s not as though they’re dealing with these long term injuries, but, I mean, at some point in time, you got to start showing progress defensively. I mean, we made mention of it. I cited it in my article last week. I cited in my column at Baltimore positive.com I went back and watched the Manning cast, you know, during the Ravens bucks game, and in the fourth quarter, they had Ed Reed on. And you know, one thing about Ed Reed, he’s not going to mince words. He’s not going to BS you. And he flat out, said, this team still learning how to finish and becoming a championship team. And I think I saw a few people react to that kind of thinking that was a little harsh, especially thinking how the Ravens were won the game that they did against the box. And I get it, it was a 10 point game, but we know it wasn’t that close, but he made that point, and that point, I don’t think Ed Reed said that without truly believing that, and it’s hard to argue with him, especially on the defensive side of the ball, we continue to see second half issues, specifically fourth quarter issues. And you’re right. I don’t think this is the end of the world. Let’s be clear. And I’m I’m still not concerned about their ability to make the playoffs. Let’s say, right? I’m not concerned about that. I still think they’re easily one of the best teams in the conference. But that’s not what this team’s goal is. We know that this team’s goal is a Super Bowl or bust. It’s nothing else at this point. They’ve done, you know, they’ve had regular season success. I’ve called them regular season royalty the last couple years. Well, that’s
Nestor Aparicio 08:59
not just for Lamar. I mean, you know, that’s for Ronnie Stanley, that’s for Marlon Humphrey, that’s for roquan, that that’s for all, not roquan as much. But there are a lot of guys around here that were around here when they lost to San Diego in Tennessee. They were part of the Lamar machine that have made a lot of money here and made a life here, and they haven’t. They haven’t done it. What everyone has done, right? Yeah,
Luke Jones 09:20
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right, right. So you know, when he makes that comment, whether it sounds harsh at the time or not, it’s tough to argue specifically with what we’re seeing on the defensive side of the ball at this point. And you just made the point, just a matter. BK got a lot or nom de Mata, BK got a lot of money in the off season. And look, I don’t think he’s been bad this year, but has he been elite? I think that’s debatable. You mentioned roquan Smith. I think roquan playing the run. It still looks like roquan, but he hasn’t looked a lead in pass cover. It’s not even close. He’s been he’s looked closer to liability than elite. He’s looked picked on. Yeah, he’s
Nestor Aparicio 09:56
looked picked on. He’s
09:57
that area
Nestor Aparicio 09:58
for he. Looks scheme for based on his aggression, right? You know what I mean? Like, he’s a very aggressive player. If he finds you, he’s going to blow you up. It looks like professional wrestling when he hits guys and stuff like that, but he’s been out of position when the ball is going across the middle of the field. There’s just been a problem. And I don’t know it’s just a problem, right? I mean, if Marcus Williams isn’t the solution, Eddie Jackson’s not. The solution, Kyle Hamilton can’t be that solution. I don’t think he’s that player. I mean, I think you want him wreaking havoc with the quarterback, not wreaking havoc with the tight ends, but that’s just, well, that’s the way we’ve seen him play. Well, Kyle Hamilton
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Luke Jones 10:36
can be that guy, but then it’s you don’t have him rushing the passers of Blitzer. You don’t have him playing the nickel, right? I mean, and you don’t have Genevieve clowning rushing the passer anymore, either, and that’s a big part of this. And I’ve talked about it, I haven’t talked about it a lot. Going into week eight, the Ravens were, I think, tied for fourth and sacks, right? So at face value, you’ll take that, right? But at the same time, you also know that this team has faced more drop backs than anyone in the NFL because of the they’ve been playing with leads, and we know they can’t stop the pass and all that. So when you look at the opportunity set compared to the number of sacks, they have less impressive but then when you dig deeper, and you can use next gen stats, you can use ESPN pass rush win rate. You can use pro football reference with their pressure rate, all of their pressure rates with those multiple resources there that are tracking this kind of stuff. And we know their subjectivity built into that, but it’s mediocre or worse, so they’re not getting to the quarterback nearly enough. And specifically in third and long situations. I saw Jonas Schaefer, you know, I think it was true media that that was keeping track of that when they’re in third and long, meaning third and seven or longer. I mean, quarterbacks are having like, four seconds to to throw. I mean, it’s way much, way too much time and tracked at a level that it’s really below the bar, not just for this year, but even go back to last five or 10 years. So they’re not getting pressures. Forget sacks. It’s a problem. Yeah. I mean, it’s a problem. It absolutely is. Even we spent a lot of time talking about Marcus Williams, and I’m not trying to pick on the kid. He’s dealt with a lot health wise, but they, they talked up David ajabo going into the season, he was a healthy scratch on Sunday when they already had the injuries that
Nestor Aparicio 12:29
they had. I mean, he can’t help you. They, they believe he can’t help you. That tells you that
Luke Jones 12:32
he’s not there right now. Now that doesn’t mean he can’t help you at some point, but right now, they don’t feel he’s good enough to really help you. So Marcus
Nestor Aparicio 12:40
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Williams, same thing, right? You’re paying him all this money. Yeah, and the coach says he’s not good enough to help us. On Sunday, we’re gonna sit him down against Brent’s, teach him a lesson, or just coach him up, or what, what he can’t help us, whatever it is
Luke Jones 12:52
that that’s a weird situation, and I’ll tell you why. And I spelled this out a little bit at Baltimore positive.com but Zach Gore in what the Friday before the Tampa Bay game. So this was less than two weeks ago. Was asked about Marcus Williams. He acknowledged him wanting to play better, him needing to play better. But he also made comment that it was Marcus Williams arguably his best week of practice of the season. And look, I’ve been doing this long enough to know that comments like that typically are empty platitudes, but it was still said, you know, it wasn’t a situation where at times they’re trying to send a message to a player, where sometimes they’ll allude to the fact that like Ben Cleveland, we’ve heard this that he needs to play better in practice to get more opportunities, right? We’ve heard that with players also.
Nestor Aparicio 13:38
John horrible said, I like Ben, right? Many sharks, I’m liking a guy thing. It’s like he’s on the team, John. We know that. Why is he playing well?
Luke Jones 13:47
But this was very recently that Zach or had made mention that Marcus Williams was practicing so well the Tampa game. Do I think Marcus Williams was one of their best players on the field? No, do I think that was anywhere close to his worst performance of the year. No. I mean, I could probably, off the top of my head, say three or four other games this year that I thought he was markedly worse than he than he was in that Tampa game, the Raiders game, specifically, right, right, right. So, so you go back to that’s that sequence. And then this is the game where he doesn’t play at all when they’re missing two of their top three corners, when Eddie Jackson still isn’t getting the job done, and their other safeties other than Hamilton, look, Hamilton dropped the interception. Kyle Hamilton played really well overall. On Sunday, we saw him make plays, including the play late in the first half that set an offense that wasn’t going so hot at the time, put them up on a short field that they were able to score a touchdown and had the lead in and had the lead at halftime. So you know, I’m not including Hamilton in this group, but you just said it when you mentioned Mata BK, when you mentioned roquan Smith and certainly Marcus Williams, I mean, it slaps you in the face. Now it’s so obvious that’s a that that is elite money at each level. Uh, that’s they’re paying someone elite money at each level that they’re not getting elite production from. I mean, roquan against the run, he still looks like roquan Smith, but $20 million linebackers, and this goes back to the conversation I had with you a couple years ago in terms of paying an off ball linebacker a $100 million contract you better be able to cover, because otherwise, then that becomes a value concern. Roquan Smith, right now, right now, I’m not saying the bulk of two and a half years with the ravens, but what we’ve seen over the first eight games of the season, it’s a value concern. I mean, it is so and then when you have a safety who’s carrying the third highest cat number on your team, and he’s a health not, not even a healthy scratch. He was active and didn’t play, you know, didn’t play a defensive snap, didn’t play on special teams. I mean, that’s, I’m not saying
8Nestor Aparicio 15:53
that’s a dog house, right? That’s a dog house, is what that I mean, it’s not, well, sure, it
Luke Jones 15:57
is sure. I mean, and, you know, horrible after the game. You know, I can read you his quote it. It offered no clarity. And look, I don’t expect John to throw someone under the bus. And I can
Nestor Aparicio 16:09
tell it what it is we do on the radio. I mean, I call it a dog house when you need help on the back end, and you’ve got an $18 million guy, and you won’t put him in the game, and he’s got shoulder pads on and allegedly healthy. But I might be the loudest thing we say today, quite frankly. I mean, he was a huge offset season acquisition. He was big money, and there’s a problem there of some kind. There’s a problem there. Aside from what we’ve seen on the field, there’s a problem there,
Luke Jones 16:32
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yeah, and John Harbaugh’s quote, he was asked about it. He was asked if he was healthy, like all of the those things. And, you know, they were coming off a short week, and they played a ton of snaps defensively in that Tampa Bay game. So you never really know. But John Harbaugh’s comment when asked about Marcus Williams, he said it was a personnel decision. We’re kind of working through some things there. I feel very confident Marcus is going to be out there playing great football the rest of the season. I’ll just talk about it being an internal type of situation. So when you hear that, when you understand that he was healthy, he wasn’t on the injury report all week, he practiced, I didn’t think he was, you know, I certainly didn’t look at the Tampa Bay game and say, Oh, Marcus Williams is really bad again. I wasn’t great, but he I didn’t see him like, have these major breakdowns individually, as maybe he did in some other games. It feels and smells like there’s more to that in some way, doesn’t it doesn’t feel like
Nestor Aparicio 17:26
you’d be late for work one day or have some and they wouldn’t play him. You know what? I mean? Like they needed him. They needed something on the field. Maybe they didn’t need him on Sunday. If they don’t need him on Sunday, they don’t need him ever. They should get rid of me if they’ve
Luke Jones 17:38
needed him. Well, I mean, you can’t just automatically get rid of it. No, no, no. I’m
Nestor Aparicio 17:44
just saying, like, no, no, I
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Luke Jones 17:45
hear you. Well, you better be playing against Denver on Sunday, given the circumstances. Well, if he’s not, then he’s gonna be inactive. Because you can’t have your your backup quarterback not playing and being active. That’s That’s expected, but you can’t have players active on game day and not contributing in any way, right? I mean, you have your starters, you have your key reserves who play some special teams, and then you have your core special teams players. I mean, that’s how this works, because you only get 48 players active on game day. So, you know, it’s, it’s, I don’t want to say it’s puzzling, from the standpoint of, we know he hasn’t been playing well, but it’s not as though they they went out and acquired an upgrade at the safety position, and maybe they will over the next week, right? I mean, we know the trade deadline is looming next week. In fact, Nestor, I was, you know, kind of joking with, you know, my best buddy, who is someone that whose opinion I value, and he’s very knowledgeable about the ravens and everything. I mean, he joked and said, Wow, they could go out and get a defensive player at any position, basically, at this point, and it would help them. And it’s tough to argue with that. I mean, you know, maybe not the
Nestor Aparicio 18:54
pass rush, pass rush will be the thing. But you’re always throwing darts at some 35 year old Yannick and gawk way, kind of, you know, I What zedar Smith’s going somewhere, probably, right? I mean, for all the Browns hubbub and their excitement stuff, they’re still going to parcel things off in the next week, I would think, I mean, they don’t think they’re a playoff team. I
Luke Jones 19:13
mean, they’re still two and six, and they’re not, they’re not like the Bengals right now, where the record’s not good. But you look at it and say, Okay, is there a pathway? I mean, what you think you’re going to win out? You think you’re going to win all but one game the rest of the way? I mean, that’s what you have to do. So, so yeah, you would think that zanarius Smith specifically, are the Browns going to trade to AFC North team? I mean, they’re the kind of team that would have that kind of thinking, which I think is dumb. You take the best deal, regardless of who you’re trading with but they need had edge help. They absolutely do. I mean, Kyle van Noy, go look at how many snaps he played on Sunday. I mean, played. He’s 33 years old. He’s playing really well. This isn’t about him specifically, but you know, Kyle van Noy, if he has to play 51 snaps, he’s playing 74 Of the snaps, as he did Sunday, that’s too many for someone that you’re still talking about nine more regular season games, and even if you get the first round by three more games you’re thinking of in January and early February. I mean, again, that’s the goal. You know, you’re
Nestor Aparicio 20:15
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not getting any buy. I mean, let’s, let’s, that’s crazy. I’m not
Luke Jones 20:19
saying they are, but I’m saying even if they were, that’s still three more games. So now you’re talking four more games, and I agree. They’re, they’re four out well, they put
Nestor Aparicio 20:26
themselves now in a position where all the cushy, cushy we talked about last year, and let’s be honest, this franchise hasn’t done go with cushy, cushy back in 2006 didn’t do well with cushy, cushy, right? Take a time off couple years ago with Lamar, so I don’t know, but they’re not going to get they’re they’re not. They’re not an elite team, they’re a good team, they’re not a very well balanced team, but they’re not an elite team. They’re not going to be one seed. They’re not. I mean, look at them. I mean, we’re talking about them losing to Cleveland at this point. We’re worried about playoff games. You’re talking playoffs, you know, you better start getting some guys healthy, and you better figure out the defense. And I know that’s what you wrote about at Baltimore. Positive,
Luke Jones 21:02
you positive. I mean, I’m not these injuries aren’t a set of injuries that are season altering in the sense that you have multiple guys out for the year, right? Again, we’ll see about Michael Pierce that’s concerning when it’s a calf and he was rolled out as quickly as he was, but that still doesn’t mean it’s a season ending injury. But I mean, at some point I’m just tired of of coming up with the explanation why their defense, their past defense stinks. I mean, it stinks. They’re 32nd and passing yards allowed. I mean their bottom, their bottom 10. Now, when you’re talking about points and, you know, third down and red zone, I mean, all these, it’s not a good defense. It’s a good run defense. Good run defense doesn’t take you very far in 2024 just doesn’t it. Also
8Nestor Aparicio 21:45
time of possession for Lamar too. I feel position and
Luke Jones 21:48
it’s all related, right? And again, I I’m harping on the defense right now. We’ll get to the offense. There were things wrong with the offense on Sunday. There were things wrong with the special teams on Sunday, but the offense and Lamar Jackson, specifically, they’ve been outstanding. I don’t think Lamar was that bad on Sunday. I thought he was I thought he was actually good in the second half. I thought he threw some passes in the first half that he was fortunate that didn’t come away as interception. So it wasn’t the best version of Lamar that we saw, but his players dropped passes. You know, his receivers dropped passes on Sunday, but so. But my point with that was the offense has been humming at such a high level, and I agree with you, this is not an elite team at this point in time. It’s still an elite offense. I mean, it’s an elite offense. It wasn’t elite on Sunday, but they still scored 24 points. They didn’t get held to 10, right? But the defense is just, I mean, we’re talking about this every week. When have we not talked about the defense the Buffalo game? We praised them in the Buffalo game. They were excellent in the Buffalo game, but Kansas City wasn’t good enough. Vegas, they had to collapse in the fourth quarter. Dallas, almost another collapse in the fourth quarter at Cincinnati, they were a sieve. I mean, Joe burrow threw the ball all over the field on them. Washington, they stopped the run. Brian Robinson was out that game. They actually, and I even said it to you at the time, statistically, it didn’t look great. I actually thought that was one of their better defensive performances. And Jaden Daniels shows what he’s capable of doing, even in a week, what he doesn’t practice right throw in the Hail Mary, which is unbelievable. I mean
Nestor Aparicio 23:21
by the way, I want to say this, you know, I’ve been on Facebook. What about 1617? Years we’ve been on Facebook? I don’t know. Maybe during the Robert Griffin era there, you know, a couple of the burgundy, gold people came out of the woodwork. Did I wake up on Monday morning? My whole timeline is like I was at the game. I was at what game, Cleveland. No Northwest Stadium, where the hell they’re calling it, there are more burdening gold. I got more people south of Columbia than I thought I had in my life, and they all appear when hail and Mary in gets chucked up in the air. It wasn’t a that was an amazing thing that happened to them. It’s kind of an amazing thing that’s happened to that franchise. I mean, you’re getting to be an old fart like me over 40 at this point, and you think of them as just being God awful most of your adulthood. You don’t have memories of John Riggins and and Joe Gibbs and all that, but the fact that they get up off the carpet a little bit. I just want to say this out loud, because you might not mention it again, three, four more segments, you and I be tearing up the offense, talking about the Broncos and all that. They’ve never been a factor here. They’ve been a punch line, right? And this is where Katie Griggs, if you’re listening, on the eve of the, you know, perhaps a Dodger suite before, who knows, with Showa at this point. But the the notion that the Orioles have been this dormant franchise for 20 years, and the Nationals had just gone and sold advertising and won championships, and had Bryce Harper and had strat had players, you know, and and won and won a lot they want. They they were in the playoffs enough for that period of time. I do shudder for what would happen here if the Ravens were to go into a couple of those seven and 10s and six and elevens, and they have a generational thing. There. I’m not saying we don’t or can Lamar signed, God bless all of us. But I have never, in this century, since I’ve had this radio station, since Daniel Snyder zoned the team, had to think, what if they get up and walk or run as a franchise, financially, as a franchise in this area? What if they get a stadium built? What if? What if? What if? Football’s different with salary caps and all of that and revenue, you can still compete that. Thank God for that, and that’s why Bucha bought into it. But they are the sleeping giant down there, and it’s that kind of play and this kind of player that does make me for the first time in my adulthood, they play in Maryland too, you know, like there isn’t. I haven’t thought about going to a Redskins game in 20 years. I know where they play, I know what time they play. I laugh at it. It might as well be on Mars. But other people are waking up to it a little bit. That’s all I’m going to say. That was an awakening for that franchise in this region that showed up on my timeline. I’m like, I didn’t realize I had so many of those. Well,
Luke Jones 26:05
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I mean, I don’t, I don’t have any concern about it in the context of it impacting the ravens, because of what you just said, and knowing what the evidence that the NFL is revenue set up and structure and model and all that is. But I mean, it’s they think they have their Lamar Jackson now, I mean, it’s that simple, right? I mean, Jaden Daniels looking like he looks as a rookie, and understanding how Lamar improved as he got more experience, how Patrick mahomes got better and better as he got more experience. Same with Josh Allen. I mean, he’s going to be in that tier the way it’s looking. I mean, he’s
Nestor Aparicio 26:37
not there running a bumper car offense either after seeing them two weeks ago, he he’s, I
Luke Jones 26:42
mean, he scrambled through this. And let’s keep in mind he almost missed this game because of Bruce ribs or whatever the issue is. So like that can still happen. And you made mention of it, and I think it’s fair to point it out. We tend to forget these things over time. I mean, that town was nuts over RG three, and in a very quick period of time, too. And he got hurt at the end of his rookie year. Of course, against the Ravens is when the beginning of the end, when he loaded nada, you know, hit him and all that. But, but, yeah, so, but to go back, you know, and I don’t want to dwell on that too much, but just to go back to where the the ravens are. And again, my point in bringing up, we brought up Jaden Daniels, was this defense. I mean, they buffalo is the one complete performance they have all year defensively when, when you really kind of look at it, that’s not to say they’ve been playing bad in every other game, but there’s been something that you’d point to and say they weren’t good in the fourth quarter, they weren’t good in the second half or or they didn’t tackle Well, or they had coverage breakdowns. And, I mean, it’s everything, I want to be clear. It’s not just the coaching it’s not just Zach or it’s not just the coaching staff, but they absolutely have some of the blame here, and they might have a big part of the blame when you consider how often they’re having issues getting lined up or getting guys in the right place, or having missed coverage assignments, and, yeah,
Nestor Aparicio 28:02
running vertically along the line of scrimmage when the ball’s getting snapped. I never seen that, not the NFL. I’ve been watching this. I’ve been watching this a long time. I saw that that play, and I’m like, I mean, I’ve seen quick snaps and Tom Brady and Peyton Manning were, you know, adept at doing all that and making you not substitute or catch you in a substitution to get a penalty or whatever, but snapping before you’re set because you don’t know where to line up, and you got defensive linemen running like in motion, looks like a running back across the back. I’m like, This isn’t good. Yeah.
8
Luke Jones 28:33
So, so yes, it’s coaching, and yes, the players on the field have to take accountability. It’s a lot going on right now with that group, and I can’t keep just chalking it up to Garbage Time in the games prior to this one. Of course, I can’t just keep chalking it up to well, you know, they they face Jaden Daniels and they face Joe burrow and they face Patrick mahomes and they faced Dak Prescott. I mean, at some point in time, like Matt abika said it, you know, I included the quote in my column. I mean, they’re the Ravens. No, this offense is so great. They don’t need it to be the 2000 defense. They don’t even need to be the 2023 defense. It doesn’t have to be that. But it can’t be this. It can’t be giving up 300 plus yards and three second half touchdowns to Jameis Winston and a passing game that just traded their best wide receiver two weeks ago. So it’s below the bar, like I said, and they’ve got to get this thing fixed, because they have Lamar Jackson and they have this great offense that didn’t play great Sunday, but is a great offense. The numbers don’t lie, but you got to have more balance than this. You know, it can’t be your offense does everything, and your defense is pitiful. I mean, that was pitiful on Sunday from this defense, and they’d be the first to tell you that. So and I get it. Kyle Hamilton catches that interception that was pill. Always soft, and is a ball that any defensive back should catch in their sleep. You know, there was no degree of difficulty on that play for a defensive back, he dropped it. He knows that
Nestor Aparicio 30:11
dropping a ball in the sun. I mean, you know, we’ll get to the
Luke Jones 30:14
offense. Yeah, again, the offense did things that the special teams. I mean, Justin Tucker, even the field goal he made, looked like I’m wondering Was he hurt? I mean, that looked really bad. So, so there are other things, but we’re talking about the defense every single week, right? Aren’t you tired
Nestor Aparicio 30:29
of talking about the same it’s the lead story when they lose. And you know, Lamar is the lead story when they win. Luke Jones is here. He’s Baltimore, Luke, we’re going to continue on. We just did a defensive iteration of what we’re doing, but we’re gonna talk about Jim Schwartz on the other side our Bucha zone. And you know, we predicted all week that it was gonna be a struggle. I wrote on Sunday morning, you know, I said, Don’t bet on this game, I said, and if you do, don’t bet on the Ravens. So I did everything I could do last week. Luke can be found at Baltimore. Luke’s all brought to you by friends at Jiffy Lube MultiCare, as well as the Maryland lottery. Put us out on the road for our crab cake tour. The oyster tour is in progress. My man, Ray Bachman, was day six. Shout out to him. I’ve been in communication with Ray. Ray can’t speak right now, but he’s typing. He’s online. Throw him a note, and if you want to contribute. My friends, Acosta, I had dinner Acosta the other night. And they’re like, Hey, we did a little something for Ray. And I’m like, good. We’re going to do a little something for Ray around here too as we get him back up. So the oyster Tour is brought to you by our friends at the Oyster recovery partnership. Of course, lots of education out there. One 800 clean water, and our friends at Liberty, pure solutions. I talked to Doug workman last week. We’re going to talk some water with him around here, as well as our friends at curio wellness and far and daughter did a great piece with Wendy bronfen About turpa, liens, terpenes, cart, car, fill, I stole how to say that word, limonene. All the the terpene profiles, all of that is up at Baltimore positive. It’s a big week around here, Denver, in town, World Series going on, Shohei and and the Dodgers and the Yankees and Juan Soto and baseball every night as the Broncos come to town without John Elway. I’m Nestor. He’s Luke. We are wnst am 1570 Towson, Baltimore, we never stop talking defense and offense and the Ravens and what the hell happened? Yeah.
