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November 26, 2024 • 37 mins
Team insiders Ryan Mink and Garrett Downing discuss the Ravens' 30-23 win over the Chargers, including Baltimore's improved playoff positioning, John Harbaugh's third win against his brother, his bold fourth-down call, what got the Ravens offense going, another strong game for a defense without Roquan Smith, and much more.

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome into the Lounge presented by DraftKings. I'm Ryan Mink
here with Garrett Downing to give you our initial reaction
to the Ravens Big bit thirty to twenty three win
over the Los Angeles Chargers on Monday Night Football. Just
a huge win for the Ravens, getting them to eight
and four. Their half game back the Steelers sets them

(00:27):
up really well in the AFC North Race. This is
a race, let me tell you, it's a tight one,
and just a big win, bouncing back from that loss
in Pittsburgh against a very good Chargers team.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah. I think that this was significant on multiple levels.
The playoff seeding piece is one kind of obvious component
of it. You're going up against a team that you're
competing with for AFC playoff positioning and especially that wildcard
element of it. And I also think that just really
big picture for this team. They're coming off that difficult
loss against Pittsburgh, and then everyone starts whatever. You lose

(01:02):
a game, especially when you have the hopes and the
expectations that the Ravens do. The sky is falling every Monday,
every whatever. After a loss, the sky is falling, and
so to be able to weather that storm and to
go on the road to face a red hot team,
against a ton of guys, you know, the hardball ball,
all those things like, to be able to weather that

(01:23):
storm and go there and win pretty convincingly, I think
is just another sign that this Ravens team is one
of the best in the league. And they showed it
again tonight.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, I definitely agree. I think that. Yeah, like you said,
I think there can be a lot of questions coming
off such a stinker in Pittsburgh, and it's all right,
are the Ravens for real? Are they real Super Bowl contenders?
And this proves once again that yes, absolutely are. When
you can go on the road to win a game
like this against a really good team, yeah, you're among

(01:57):
the cream of the crop in the AFC. And hey,
the Ravens still gotta keep getting better and they have
a lot of tough games to win, but this one,
like I said at the beginning, it's a big win
for where they stack up in the playoffs because this
had the chance to be kind of a split in
the road, I think, kind of game. Right, if you

(02:19):
drop this one, you fall drop two in a row,
and all of a sudden you're like, ye, this is
getting dicey for making the playoffs, you know. And now
the Ravens are in good position with five games remaining,
you probably need to win two of them to ensure
you're spot in the playoffs. And oh, by the way,
you're a half game back of the Steelers. Now you
both have eight wins and you still got a game

(02:40):
at Mt. Bank Stadium against them coming up.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah, it is kind of crazy. And the whole it's
a week to week league. Everyone says it. It's cliche.
It gets tossed out after every really win or loss.
Everyone says that. But man, how different you feel a
week later after the Steelers fall on Thursday Night Football
in the snow Globe game to the Browns, And now
the Ravens beat the Chargers and they're just they're knocking

(03:03):
on the door. For the Steelers, you got the bye
week looming. Of course, you also got the Eagles before
the bye week, who are one of the hottest teams
in football. But anyway, we're we'll talk about the Eagles later.
Tonight's about I just think I think that like a
week can make a world of difference in the NFL,
and we're seeing that with this team, and to your point,
like this not that like the season. I didn't feel

(03:24):
like the season was was teetering on a nice edge,
but it was a little bit of a fork in
the road. And Lamar Jackson kind of made that same
point after the game. He said, you know, after that game,
we kind of looked at it and said, this thing
could go either way. You know, you win some games,
you win several games in a row, but then you
drop a game you feel like you should have won
against the Steelers. They drop a game they felt like
they should have won against the Browns or the Raiders,

(03:46):
and so felt like this thing was could go either
direction and for them to write the ship and deliver
a really convincing win against a tough team I think
says a lot about this Ravens group.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
Yep. And of course we spent a lot of time
talking about the harble. John Harball, Big bro is now
three and oh against little Bro. I'm little Bro. So
you know this is big Bro vibes. It's Big Bros
only right now on this podcast, I'm gonna have to
take a back seat. So and and quite honestly, I
thought John coached a hell of a game and a

(04:21):
lot of this game came down to a gutsy fourth
down call that he made in the second quarter, after
right after the two minute warning, where he and the
Ravens went for it on fourth and one from their
own sixteen. This is a historically aggressive call. No team
Garrett had converted from that deep in their own territory

(04:41):
in the first half of a game since twenty twelve. Hey,
what else happened in twenty twelve? Harball two and and
on that one, by the way, it was on a
fake punt, So it wasn't just you know what, we're
gonna line up and just go for this. It was
a trick It was a trick play. And so that
pays off. Five plays later, the Lamar Jackson throws a

(05:03):
bomb to a shot baiting for a touchdown. The Ravens
take the lead and they never relinquish that lead, and
so you talk about turning points in the game. That
was it, and John Harball delivered on a play that
Lamar Jackson, even as aggressive as Lamar always is, he
was coming off the field thinking we're punting, and John
was like, how about we actually go for this?

Speaker 2 (05:21):
Yeah, Well, I think that a lot of people because
it was leading into the two minute warning. They do
the whole thing where they come to the line. You're like,
and Buck and Aikman are saying, Okay, they're gonna just
try to jump them, try to get them to jump
off side, which they tried that, and then you go
to the two minute warning. You think, okay, they're gonna
come out of commercial break and the punt team's gonna
be on the field. And then they come out of
commercial break and they're lined up in this weird formation

(05:43):
with Mark Andrews a quarterback. You're like, wait, what, what's happening?
They're going for that? This is real, This is actually
happening here at the sixteen.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
Like I actually kind of had the vibes that they
were gone to and you get you gotta attest to this.
In our slack discussion, did I not? While they're in commercials?
I said, I think I go for this.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
Yeah, you did, And it's kind of crazy, And I
think this probably speaks to the culture of I guess
going forward on fourth down that the Ravens have built
over the last seventeen years, but really over the last
like five years with Harball and Lamar is that it
was kind of remarkable to me. After the game, John

(06:21):
and even Lamar like they were kind of unfazed by
that play, like, yes, it was, but John was just
like I felt like we were going to get it.
I felt like that we were going to get it.
And Lamar and talking about it like no one was
talking about that play, like, man, that was crazy. We
were really worried about that one. They were just like, yeah, hey,
he said you want to go for it, let's go

(06:41):
for it. I was all about it. We only needed
to get a half yard Yeah, it sounds pretty good.
Like that was their mindset and they were not, I guess,
scared of the fact that if you give this thing
up sixteen yard line and the game could really get
out of hand, Like that wasn't the way.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
And not just that, I mean, you don't convert that.
You get lamb acid in the media for that. You
go for it on your I mean they're in the
building of former Charges head coach Brandon Staley, who was
on the wrong end of that a number of times
and it didn't work out well for him. Like you
you get stopped on fourth and one from your own
sixteen going for it in the second quarter in a

(07:16):
close game. It's gonna be a bad Tuesday in this case. Yeah, yeah,
And like, but Harvees isn't John Harbes isn't a really
aggressive coach. I mean, Jim Harball was in this game too,
and John proved it later in the game too, went
for it twice on fourth down in a on a
key drive in the third quarter and beginning of the

(07:37):
fourth quarter. The Ravens converted on both of those and
finished with a touchdown on that drive as well. And
so I think, really, I think it's mostly this is
who John Harball is. And then secondarily, you're going against
your brother, and and you have a lot of respect
for the team that your brother has built. The charge

(08:00):
are good, they can eat up. I think John Harball
thought it could be a very high scoring game, especially
the way it started out. Chargers on their opening drive
march down the field for a touchdown. Thought it could
be a high scoring game. And by the way, the
Chargers also run the ball a lot. They can eat clock.
You're without your middle line, your middle linebacker, Roquan Smith,
so like you might have limited possessions. All those factors

(08:23):
combined I think went into John Harball saying, yeah, let's
do this.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yeah, and it obviously turned out to be Now, I
think even when you make that decision, you're not thinking
all right, and then and then four players later you
you draw up the crazy bomb to Rashaw Bateman where
he makes a great catch with the defender, you know,
jumping all over him, committing a PI in the end zone.
But I think that it was a statement. I do
believe that it was a statement at that point of

(08:49):
the game to say we're going to be aggressive. We
want to be that, we want to let we want
to dictate this game. We don't want to just punt
it away and let him bleed the clock and then
maybe kick a field goal or just build on their lead.
We want to dictate this game and we want to
put it in the hands of our offense. And the
Ravens have the best offensive football. Betting on your offense

(09:11):
has been a pretty good thing for this group, and
they did it throughout this game. You go for it
three times on fourth down to go three for three,
and I thought that I just thought it was it
was a pretty it was aggressive, yeah, but it was
it was obviously aggressive aggressive. Well.

Speaker 1 (09:27):
The other thing about it too, that that I think
kind of gets lost is the time factor. You know,
like even if you convert on fourth and one from
your own sixteen, you had two minutes two minutes left. Right,
you're at the two minute warning. I don't I don't
recall how many timeouts the Ravens had, but like you're
not guaranteeing yourself points necessarily.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
Yeah, congra, congrats, you got it. Now you got to
go ninety three yards or whatever, eighty three yards or touchdown.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
Or you got to go another fifty you get in
field goal range even right, So it's like it's a
two minute you're in two minute drill. So that's the
other component that makes it particularly wild.

Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah, and and of course that drive ends with a
Versaw Bateman touchdown, and the Versat Bateman has come on
in a big way this year obviously, and for him
to come up with that catch in that moment, I thought,
it just speaks to his development and also the trust
of Lamar Jackson has in him throwing that ball and
giving him a chance to make a play. It's not
like he was throughout Bateman's career. There's been plenty of

(10:26):
times where people look at the tape and they say, man,
this guy's getting wide open and he's a great route
runner and all that is true. That was a play
where it's not like he was wide open and Lamar
through the ball. He was covered pretty tight. But but
this is like the evolution of the game. It's not
just about getting open now, it's making a contested catch
when the game is on the line. And he's added
that element to his game this year, which is awesome

(10:48):
to see. And that that play, it starts with the
fourth down on the drive, but then that play really
turned this game.

Speaker 1 (10:55):
Yeah, totally agree. And you know, Bait had a chance
at another long one earlier in the first half and
didn't come up with that one, and Lamar Jackson went
to him on the sideline and said, hey, hey, Maan,
I expect you to make that play, like you got
to make that catch, and Batsal like I got you,
and he did. He had him and uh yeah, I mean,

(11:16):
I think really good job by him. Kind of looked
like fast hands, like he just kind of got turned around,
got his hands and just made the quick had really
quick hands to go down and pluck that ball as
he went down to the turf. So yeah, very impressive.
Impressive play by Rashad Bateman. But let's be honest here,
it was Derrick Henry who got this offense going because

(11:36):
it was not good at the start of this game.
And the Ravens punted on their first two drives, the
second of which was a three and out. The first
drive they pick up a quick first down, run the
ball well and then oh, here we go another penalty.
You know, we got a leg whip first time, the
first time I heard of that one. The leg whip

(11:57):
on the pack.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
Even when the ref makes the signal for that one,
You're like, wait when he started to say, when he
said personal foul, I was like, okay, they must hit
the quarterback late tack on fifteen here because that play
took away of seventeen yard game.

Speaker 1 (12:09):
And Nelson ag what is this taekwondo? We got a
leg We've sweeping the leg year, what's going on? And
I mean, you know, we can we can talk about
We'll talk about the penalties later. That one was kind
of a you blink twice to the TV and you know,
might have a few choice words on that one. And anyway,
Ravens punt punt three and out on their next drive,

(12:31):
and Lamar Jackson after the game talks about this. He
is not happy about the way they're starting games. The
past three weeks, they have not started hot offensively at all.
After that was really a strength of theirs at the
beginning season. I think it was the first seven games
that they scored on their opening drives every game, and
so you know, Lamar was not happy. But got Derrick

(12:54):
Henry Rowland on their third drive carries of nineteen and
fourteen yards to start it off, and Derrick Henry ends
up didn't get in the end zone. First game this
season for Derrick Henry where he did not touch pay dirt,
but he rumbled for one hundred and forty yards today.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yeah, he did what you you really expect him to
do and what he's been proven, he's proven all year long.
Twenty four carries, one hundred and forty yards.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
Se I mean, let's just be you can't just be like, yeah,
he's expected to put up one hundred buck forty. I mean, day,
that's a high bar.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
That's kind of the bar that he set. I mean,
that's that's just what he's done this year and that's
what he is. That's how good he is and how
good this offense is when he's rolling and they did
turn to him and he hit some big chunk plays there.
Then also got going like Zay Flowers helped jump start
this offense with some nice gains in that second quarter there,
when the offense finally started to start clicking there in

(13:49):
the second quarter on his back to back touchdown drives.
But I understand, like it's not a whole hum day.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
You're You're like, you're like, oh, well, Saquon Barkley put
up two fifty five, there might be four on this
in the same stadium.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
Oh that's the bar for those two guys incredible seasons
and it's like, okay, yeah, nice, nice average day there
for Derek hundred forty yards.

Speaker 1 (14:15):
Well, you sound like Khalil Mack. You see the Khalil
Mack quote after the game.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
What did he say?

Speaker 1 (14:19):
Oh, Khlil Mack said talking about Derrek Henry said, that's
the thing, man, I don't think it's hard to play
against that guy. And hopefully we'll see this team again.
That's all.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
I'm surprised that place. Yeah, that that surprises me. I'm
not I'm not going that far. I'm just saying I
think that Derek Kennry has been so good that one
hundred and forty yards is kind of almost what you
expect for him with this offensive role, and especially in
a game that you're up to scorers in the second half.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
Yeah, I mean really, he had another really big play
in this game was the double the double stiff arm
on a third key I think it was third and
one where it looked like he might be tackling for
a loss third and one, thirty three something like that,
and uh, to stiff arm two dudes and then convert
that to move the chains was a huge play in
the second half of this game as the Ravens offense

(15:11):
really kind of grind grinded it out. I mean after
those first two punts, We've been talking about this all
season long, this offense. All it takes is a spark
and then they're off and running. And Derrick Henry was
that spark tonight, right. So after the two punts to
begin the game, it's touchdown, touchdown, field goal, touchdown, touchdown.

Speaker 2 (15:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (15:32):
Yeah, that's good.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
Yeah, Yeah, that's pretty good. And also on that third
down that you're talking about where he stiff armed two guys,
that's a tackle in the backfield for most running backs
in the end, absolutely like maybe maybe Derrick Henry is
sake one of the two guys getting out of that. Yeah,
it's that's a tackle for lost there. So he breaks
off two tackles there and gets the first down. And

(15:53):
then just as Hill delivers the knockout blow with the
fifty one yard touchdown. So you see the compliment there
to those two guys. They've been working to other great
all season long. Derrek Henry obviously is the bell cow
and he moves the chains there and then Justice Hill
rap rips off the longest run of his career fifty
one yards, and that really put the game out of reach.

Speaker 1 (16:10):
Yep, yep. The Ravens ran for two hundred and twelve yards.
That's the most the Chargers have given up all season
this year. This is a Chargers defense that entered the
game number one in scoring, giving up the fewest points
allowed per game in the league. They were the number
two red zone defense in the league. The Ravens took
care of business in both regards.

Speaker 2 (16:31):
They said on the broadcast, this is the first time
ever in Jim Harbaugh's ten years a head coach that
a team has rushed for two hundred plus yards on
his defense. So that just speaks to.

Speaker 1 (16:42):
With Greg Roman in the booth. In the other booth
you out roaman the Romans.

Speaker 2 (16:45):
Yeah, they were. They were able to control that game,
control this on the ground, and it was just efficient.
It was a really efficient game once they started going
there in the second quarter, they hit some big plays.
That's the thing. It was like they were moving the
ball consistently on the ground, getting some chunk plays. But
then they also hit the big shots. It was the
just Hill big play. It was the big play. TI

(17:06):
were shot Babman right before half. So it was once
this offense got into a groove, all the things that
you want to see from the Ravens, different guys being involved,
Derrick Henry rolling deep shots down the field like they
hit all of them. They did. They did all of
those things and it was really pretty to see.

Speaker 1 (17:21):
I mean, it wasn't Lamar's hottest performance. I mean he
said even at at the beginning of the game, he
was pretty teed off at himself. You know, he came
out and he was kind of sailing the balls high.
Just wasn't very accurate early in this game. And then
but he also can just you know, obviously just turn
it on at the snap of his fingers and finishes

(17:42):
the day highly efficient sixteen to twenty two, two touchdowns,
but you know, only one hundred and seventy seven passing
yard so it wasn't like they were hitting a lot
of big plays in the passing game. I mean, Zay
Flowers long was twenty five yards. I think that was
that was maybe Lamar's best throw, rolling out to his right,
escapes the act, hits Zay Flowers of the dime. But

(18:02):
there's underneath stuff that they made work. Uh, you know,
the sixteen yard pass to Mark Andrews. They didn't have
a lot going through the air, but it was still
a clean performance. No turnovers from the offense, no turnovers
at all, and so that was that was impressive. And
and I thought that it was a step forward for

(18:25):
the offense, even though they shot themselves some in the
foot with penalties. I thought it was a cleaner game,
certainly than what we saw in Pittsburgh.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
Yeah, and the war also had the nice touchdown run. Yeah,
that was the first touchdown of the game. And then
he paid tribute to his high school step back, the
iconic high school play there when he did the step
back going into the end zone.

Speaker 1 (18:46):
So almost pulled it off. It wasn't quite as as
it wasn't as clean as the high school and yeah,
he kind of got touched. I know he was ticked
off about that.

Speaker 2 (18:54):
I bet guys in the NFL a little faster than
they are in high school. So it's tougher to pull
that playoff.

Speaker 1 (19:00):
More challenging, yep, but still obviously a very good game
for Lamar. And Hey, this offense, you do this against
a very good Chargers defense. Uh, that's another statement for
what is one of the best offenses of the league.

Speaker 2 (19:14):
So we're gonna take a break before you before you
move to the defense. You gotta give market. We gotta
give Mark Andrews a shot.

Speaker 1 (19:19):
That's true.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
I mean, this guy comes up with another touchdown. He's
I just love what I'm seeing from Mark. When you
need things, when you need a big play, he seems
like he's always there, which is what has been the
case for him all throughout his career. But he's found
his I think he's really found his groove over the
course of the last month. And we spent all this
time talking about Baitman's great catch. Mark Andrews equally as

(19:43):
impressive with the guy right in his face as well,
to come down with that ball, get his feet and bounds.
Initially when they ruled that out of bounds, I was like, really, like,
I thought that was pretty clearly in showed it was obvious.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
Obvious. Obviously I was that was shocking.

Speaker 2 (19:56):
I miss something.

Speaker 1 (19:58):
I mean, I just knew that, Like as soon as
looked at that, it was clearly two feet down. He
got two feet in his butt.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
I know, I know it was. Anyway you looked at it,
that was a catch and then some just a great
play by Andrews.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
Well, I think we're gonna have to nickname a Moss
Andrews after that one. It's no longer Mark Andrews. It's Moss.

Speaker 2 (20:16):
And whenever you're talking about a guy getting Moss, it's
always a good thing for your receiving.

Speaker 1 (20:21):
My eight year old knows what it means to Moss somebody.
So that's impressive Mark Andrews, just continuing Randy Moss's legacy.

Speaker 2 (20:30):
Well done for Andrews. He's finishes the game five catches,
forty four yards and that Randy Moss like touchdown. So
we'll take quick break when we come back. We'll dive
into the improved performance on the defensive side of the football.
You're listening to the Loune Podcast. We are coming to
you from the Sea Geek Studio. We also want to
mention our partners with Draftking Sportsbook. They are an official
sports betting partner of the Baltimore Ravens Draftking Sports Book.

(20:51):
The crown is yours. So the Ravens obviously win the
game thirty to twenty three. Chargers get a late touchdown,
but overall, I think the you gotta be pleased with
the improved performance of this defense, especially considering they were
without their leader in the middle of the defense, Rokwans,
missing the game with a hamstring injury. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:09):
Absolutely, I thought this was definitely you know, you follow
up what was a strong game for the defense in
Pittsburgh with this, and now you're like, all right, we're
onto something here. This isn't this. There wasn't a flash
of the pan. It was at an anomaly, like maybe
this defense has turned a corner. And I do think
that the secondary changes they've made were the right changes.

(21:31):
They're clearly paying off. Uh, And you know it didn't
feel that way early in this game. First first drive
for the Chargers, they march.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
That's what you're saying after the first drive.

Speaker 1 (21:40):
No, that's not what I was saying. After the first drive,
nine plays seventy yards for a touchdown, and you know
they on that drive, they were just attacking the Ravens
on the ground over the middle of the field, through
the air. I mean, it was kind of like, oh boy,
this could be a long night without Rokwan Smith here.
They're just going right down the gut and then and
the Ravens defense responds after that, the Chargers after that

(22:03):
went punt, field goal, punt, field goal, field goal, punt, punt,
and then the touchdown late in the game. It didn't
really matter, but impressive turnaround for the Ravens.

Speaker 2 (22:16):
D Yeah, and I just I agree with you in this.
On the secondary front, just kind of recapping what they've done.
Kyle Hamilton's playing more traditional safety, our Darius Washington has
now gone into the starting lineup replacing Marcus Williams, and
then you have Kyle Hamilton back layer, and then from
that nickel role, Marlon Humphrey was playing a lot in
the slot tonight, Nate, A lot, yeah, a lot, a

(22:39):
lot of action against lab McConkey Nate Wiggins. I don't
know what the snap shower was, but he was getting
a lot of work tonight. He was out there a
tonamesh had a very good game. Tradaswite has been inserted
into the lineup, not playing one hundred percent of snaps
right anywhere close, but you know he was added as
a trade deadline at peace and he's involved in this defense.

(22:59):
So I agree with you. Yeah, I agree with you.
I'd like the moves that they've made from a personnel standpoint,
from a scheme standpoint, and it seems to be working
out well. And then gosh, I got the guy that
we got to give a lot of credit.

Speaker 1 (23:12):
I want to before we turned the page for the
big picture. Look, yeah, get let's give perhaps to zach Orr. Okay, yeah,
let's get prohaps the zach Orr. And he got some.
I was happy to hear the Monday Night Football crew
Joe Buck giving him some because it's been tough sledding
for zach Orr. And you're going against the Chargers offense
with Greg Roman and Jim Harbaugh. Right. Justin Herbert, who

(23:36):
we saw a week ago, was just on fire, like
this is a talented offense, and I thought that the
Ravens and Zach had the answers and they came after
him like they came after him they did.

Speaker 2 (23:51):
I've said many times that even though this defense has struggled,
I still have a lot of belief in Zach Orr's
defensive coordinator, and I think that he's going to figure
it out and write the ship. And I think that
we're seeing this thing trend in the right direction. Two
games in a row where the defense has played a
lot better. It's really encouraging, especially this game, as you're
talking about against one of the hottest teams in an
offense that was rolling, and a week ago, the conversation

(24:14):
is like, hey, is justin Herbert in the mix for
the MVP conversation? Could he be in that conversation? Like
that was what there was? There was talk of that
after the performance last week, and so I think that
it's for them to have that kind of showing.

Speaker 1 (24:28):
Is uh.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
It says a lot about this defense.

Speaker 1 (24:30):
We're gonna have this conversation in a week by the way,
against the Eagles and that hot offense too.

Speaker 2 (24:35):
Yeah, it does.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
It's like it's just it's gonna keep coming.

Speaker 2 (24:37):
It's gonna keep coming on coming.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
Yeah, totally. But yeah, I think you were about to
give Malik Harrison his props and and he deserves them,
you know, with without Rokwan Smith, it was a committee
approach for the Ravens, as zach Orr said it would be. Uh,
Malik Harrison and Christian Welch both started this game along
with Trent and Simpsons, so three inside linebackers first out,

(25:01):
and then Malik seemed to play. We'll see the snapcounts later,
but he played a lot of the snaps and then
it looked like Christian Welch and Chris Board kind of
rotated in there a little bit to a lesser degree
as well. But you know, look, Malik's Malik has his
limitations and like it's he's a big dude, and but

(25:22):
he played his butt off and I thought he brought
a physical element to this game. And he was hitting
out there and he finished with thirteen tackles. That's more
than twice the amount of anybody else on the team made,
and so props to him for a heck of a night.

Speaker 2 (25:41):
Malik got a game ball deservedly, so after the win,
happy for him to be able to do that. And
I also just even within the game, when the Chargers
march down the field on the opening drive, there was
a play where JK Dobbins had a nice run of
the leak looked like he took the wrong gap there
and he's getting credits. You look at people are criticizing him.
And he even said after the games like, I know

(26:02):
there are people doubting me going into this game. Yep,
it was good for me to be able to go
out there and show that I can play, that I
can play at a high level that I belong And
I thought that he absolutely showed that tonight. And I
also thought that like this game the Hardball Bowl, like
these these two teams, they play a similar style. They're physical,
they want to control the line of scrimmage like they're tough,

(26:24):
and I thought that you need in order to play
in that kind of a game, you need guys on
defense who can who can stand up to that type
of physical game for sure.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
Yeah. I mean that's a big offensive line, uh that
the Chargers have, and they're physical and you got you
got JK, you got Gus coming downhill like there's gonna
be some hitting going on, and Malik Harrison is well
suited for that kind of game.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
Yeah, exactly, He's perfectly suited for it, and he showed
it tonight. You mentioned JK. Dobbins that it's disappointing that
he had to leave the game early with a knee injury,
and hopefully it's not too bad. He was on the
field after the game talking with some former Ravens, so
that's at least a good sign that he was out
there on the field at the end of the game.
But disappointing. You know, he started, He started the game,

(27:08):
He looked pretty good, and I do think their offense
changed when he left.

Speaker 1 (27:13):
I don't think.

Speaker 2 (27:14):
I think that took certainly an element away from what
they wanted to do, and they were not as effective
with him on the sidelines. But again, hope that he's okay,
and I'm sure they can't hit a lot of him.
So disappointing from oh for sure.

Speaker 1 (27:28):
Early on, I mean, he was yapping with Marlin Humphrey
after a tackle. He was he was juiced up, as
JK always is when he plays. But I think there's
even a little little dash of something extra in this game,
for sure. The Ravens run defense, though, held the Chargers
to eighty three yards on twenty carries. It's four point
two a run against Greg Roumans offense. That's a win

(27:49):
without Roque, without Roquon, that's a that's a big, big
win now. And obviously again JK, had JK not left,
that might not have looked so rosy, but still I
think an impressive note there.

Speaker 2 (28:02):
Yeah, you know, fourth quarter it kind of became very
very pass heavy as they were trying to climb the
way back into him. But still don't take anything away
from it. That's that they came into the game. The
Chargers came into the game wanting to run the football.
They wanted to establish it. They did it early on.

Speaker 1 (28:16):
To stop it, well, I'm not just able to stop it,
but the Ravens, I mean, a big story in this
game was the Ravens ran the ball better and more
effectively than the Chargers did. Right. This is two hardball
coach teams like we've been talking about, that are physical,
want want to control the clock, want to run it
down your throat and beat you with physicality and all

(28:37):
that stuff. They're two teams cut from the same cloth,
and the Ravens just did it better.

Speaker 2 (28:41):
Right.

Speaker 1 (28:42):
They ran for two hundred and twelve yards the Chargers
ran for eighty three. That's your game in a nutshell
right there. And neither team killed each other with turnovers.
The Ravens still had a bunch of penalties that that
almost cost them, but uh, the Chargers had some penalties too.
And so I think the Ravens in a game of
similar teams, because not only in personnel are they similar,

(29:04):
but in their head coaches and the way they're built
and all those things, the Ravens just outravened them.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
Out harballed them.

Speaker 1 (29:10):
And maybe that's the their they out harballed them.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
Yeah, you could be onto something there. I think that
I think that there's truth in that statement, and I
think that I said it earlier. I felt like these
teams when I was watching them, they just want to
play the same style of football in terms of how
they're built in so many ways. Absolutely, and the Ravens
won that battle and.

Speaker 1 (29:34):
The Chargers also the Chargers offense also, you know, we
talked about the sloppiness of the Ravens offense in Pittsburgh.
The Chargers dropped some some big passes too. Right, It
was a tough day for Quinton Johnston. Quentin Johnson their
their former first round pick, who by the way, they
picked one pick before his Flowers was picked by the Ravens.

(29:54):
I think we know who made the right choice on
that one, and so yeah, I think also you have
to keep that in mind, like when evaluating the Ravens
defensive performance, the Chargers also had some sloppiness similar to
what we saw the Ravens having Pittsburgh a week ago.

Speaker 2 (30:12):
Yeah, that the drops hurt the Chargers. Quinn Johnson didn't
have a good night. I mean it was it was
a struggle for him, and he dropped one in particular
on third down that was that was a really that
was a really big miscue for him and that hurt
them in this game. And so that was part of it. Certainly,
I think that if you catch those passes, it could
be a little bit different. And in terms of the

(30:33):
penalties the Ravens, it does continue to be an issue
for this team. The Ravens finished this game with nine
for one oh two and some significant ones. We talked
about the recard one, but Caerry was called for a
hold late in the game. Those penalties kind of racked
up on that final drive for the Chargers where you
had some big chunks there, so they finished with nine

(30:55):
for one oh two, and there were something that certainly hurt.
We talked about the record one Wigans was called on
a special teams one, but they also had back to
back ones on that final drive for the Chargers offense.
P I calls could have gone either way. Marlon was
called for one, Jalen armor Davis was called for one,
set up a touchdown for the Chargers. Obviously, those didn't

(31:17):
hurt the Ravens because they had a two touchdown lead.
They just tilted the stats a little bit at the
end of the game.

Speaker 1 (31:24):
I'll give the referees credit for picking up the one
on Brandon Stevens that even though Troy Aikman tried to
go back and revisit and say, blah blah blah, I
think that was a good flag to pick up. And
I'll give him credit for forgetting that Mark Andrews touchdown
right before we even had to go to replay, really
coming in and just being like, no, no, no, you didn't.

(31:46):
You didn't see that one, buddy, And yeah, so are
the penalty like the bad luck penalties starting to swing
in the Ravens favor, Like, I mean, I don't want
to speak too soon here, but I'm just kind of saying,
like they're picking up flags.

Speaker 2 (32:01):
Now, Yeah, that was on the on the Brandon Stevens one.
When they pick up you almost never see him pick
up a flag a PI, right, And I don't know
if they it's unclear if they ruled that unketchable. It
just didn't feel like it was a PI. Either way,
it went in the Ravens favor.

Speaker 1 (32:18):
They didn't say that it was uncatchable.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
They did not say it. It's always tough to tell, honestly,
when you look at the camera angles like, it's hard
to tell with if it's catchable or uncatchable. But either way,
that one went in the Ravens favorite, and I think
it was the right call. I think it was the
right decision to pick up that flag there. But it
was good to be on the receiving end of a
call that seemed like it was going the wrong way
and then a huge call. I would have put the

(32:42):
ball in the one yard line in that situation and
it would have been huge.

Speaker 1 (32:45):
They ended up huge, huge call. Tyler Linderbaum got called.
I mean the Ravens might have run the ball out.
I think they would have run the game out. Uh,
you know, before the Chargers last touchdown, had Tyler Linderbaum
not got called for a holding penalty that he certainly
seem to disagree with. So still some things to clean
up overall, I think that, And I thought this with

(33:09):
the Patricard leg whip is like the Ravens have a
penalty issue that they need to clean up, Like they
they just they're committing too many penalties. Also, I think
penalties being called can be a self fulfilling prophecy in
that once officials know that you're the highest penalized team,
they expect more penalties from you, right like the rep

(33:31):
they know this going into the game, who's penalized at
a higher rate and whatnot. And so then you start
to you see more of the penalties that happen on
every play or whatnot. And and I just think a
bunch of judgment calls and the analytics kind of prove this.
Like I don't remember what week it was or if
this still is the case, but deep into the season,

(33:51):
very recently, the Ravens had by far the most judgment
calls penalties against them in the league. And so like,
I think that that is kind of a convergence of
factors that have led to the Ravens being so highly penalized,
being the most penalized team in the league. All that said,

(34:12):
they do need to clean these up because at times
when you're watching them, even tonight, watching them, you're like,
just get out of your own way, like you're still
holding yourself back, and that was part of their issue
offensively and defensively.

Speaker 2 (34:28):
Yep, I'm with you on that across the board. The
one other point that I wanted to make in this
game tonight is justin Tucker. It's good to see him
knock down a forty five yard field goal. Only had
one field goal attempt in this game, but it was
nice to see him knock that down, and a lot
of talk this week about his struggles. Of course, this
is a dome, so it's, you know, a bit of
an easier atmosphere. But still forty five yards is not

(34:51):
a total gimme and it.

Speaker 1 (34:52):
Was not at all the pipe. Yeah, not at all.

Speaker 2 (34:54):
That was a big kick in that moment. Ravens needed that,
and so it's encouraging to see him deliver it and
still liver the commercial night, the Craven commercial.

Speaker 1 (35:02):
Yes, that was good stuff. As well. I mean, I
think most importantly about that kick. Not only did he
make it, but I didn't see it kind of turn
left like so many of his kicks have been right.
It wasn't like. It wasn't like the last kick that
he made in Pittsburgh where he's like, you know what,
this thing just keeps turn and left. So I'm just
gonna like bank on it, turn and left, so I'm
gonna aim for the right. It was just true, And

(35:25):
that's what I want to see out of Justin Tucker.
Like they've been saying all the week, just kick it straight,
Just kick it straight. And that's what he did on
that So I think hopefully that is a moment where
he can kind of turn the corner and get over
this recent slump. And we mentioned him briefly earlier. I
thought Nate Wiggins is gonna continue to be a bigger
and bigger player in this secondary, especially as he gets

(35:47):
more snaps with this new secondary alignment. I thought he
had a really strong game. His pass breakup on third
down when he came downhill and popped the receiver, got
the ball out early in this game to force a punt.
That was a big for him. You know, he's talked
about he needs to get less gravvy, and I see
him making strides in that regard and to hold justin

(36:08):
Herbert's the two hundred and eighteen passing yards for this secondary,
that's an accomplishment. Not that the Chargers have racked up
a ton of passing yards, because that's just not the
kind of offense that they run with Greg Rouman. But still,
you know, not super efficient twenty one to thirty six
for two to eighteen, and they're in comeback mode, like
claw from behind mode. That's that's an impressive showing. And

(36:29):
I thought the pass rush kind of got cranked up
a little bit. Yeah. Van Ney now is up to
eight sacks this year. O Way got another sack, Stevens
even Tubo got a sack. I love it. So I
thought the Ravens pass rush showed something tonight too.

Speaker 2 (36:45):
Yeah, just across the board. Really big win for this team. Exciting.
The Ravens are now eight and four on the season,
really good position from a wildcard standpoint, just getting into
the playoffs, and they're knocking on the door in the
AFC North. So this is a big win. John Harbaugh
has now improved to three and oh against his brother Ravens.
Get this one and it's an exciting Monday night football victory.

(37:06):
So Ravens fans enjoy this one. It's a short week
the Ravens. We'll get back to Baltimore bright and early
in the morning. Yeah, right to the office to get
ready for the Philadelphia Eagles coming to town this week.
So enjoy this win and we will be back with
you later this week.
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