November 11, 2025 • 40 mins
Team insiders Ryan Mink and Garrett Downing discuss injuries to Marlon Humphrey and Rashod Bateman, why Malaki Starks is breaking out, changes in the running back rotation, what Joe Burrow's return to practice means for the Ravens, 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, and we have broken down the
film from the Ravens twenty seven to nineteen win over
the Minnesota Vikings out in Minnesota. Big road win for
the Ravens that pulls them one game behind the Pittsburgh
Steelers now and the standings Steelers lost the LA Chargers.
Harball Brothers got it done this week. Yeah, okay, so
(00:27):
Ravens are only one game back. They're in good position
right now. But Garrett, coming out of that game, I
think one of the messages obviously the Ravens are feeling good,
feel like they've turned this ship around and they're heading
in the right direction. Won three straight games. Of course,
people look ahead of the schedule and the challenges of
the different opponents, and I think a lot of people
(00:49):
see the Ravens going on an extended run here. But
one of the messages coming out, despite how good you
feel about that win from the Ravens, it and then
John Harwall reiterated on Monday, is ain't done anything yet?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah, totally, And Hardball made that point on Monday and
saying like the question was essentially, like have you turned
this thing around? That's the point, and that's what everyone's
saying right now. We said it in our immediate reaction
after the game on Sunday, and his point was we'll see,
Like that remains to be seen, That final story remains
to be written. And I think that there's a lot
(01:24):
of reason for optimism about around this team and the
schedule that's on the horizon, and this team's ability to
go and have that extended run and make the playoffs
and win the division. I think that all of those
things are certainly realistic for this Ravens team, but they
also know that nothing is going to be handed to them.
I thought Kyle Hamilton summed that up about as well
(01:45):
as possible. Let's go ahead and play his quote after the.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Game, starting to hit our shrud. You know, it's not
a surprise to us. I think we're playing to our
potential now and that's gotta be sustained. You know this,
We're not We're happy we got the win, but we're not,
you know, ecstatic about what our record still is. You know,
we still have stuff to do and people to prove wrong,
(02:10):
people to prove right. So you know, this is a
good building block to going forward in season. You know,
we could be undefeated and still feel like we have
stuff to do. But you know, I think what got
us not trying to bring out the past. I think
what partially, partially what got us to one in five
was the fact that we came into the season maybe
thinking I'm not speaking for everybody, but we're the Baltimore Ravens.
(02:31):
We're gonna do this, We're gonna do that. Teams are
just gonna lay down and let us win games, and
that's not how it is in this league. So we
got punched in the mouth early in the season, but
now I think we're responding well, and you know, we'll
just have that car tissue going forward when we just
start stacking wins.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
So I think that speaks to the focus of the seam,
like they're not going to get caught up and believing
the hype right now. They're not gonna say, hey, we've
won three straight, let's get the parade plans, let's go
ahead and book Like that's not the way this team is.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Thinking, saying it's a victory for them.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yeah, like the Ravens are. There will be no size
of up victories until the size of up victory for
this team. Like, that's the way that this team is
looking at things, and I think that is the right
approach to have.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Yeah, I absolutely agree. So we're going to dive into
the film, but before we do that, we have some
news updates to discuss from head coach John Harball's Monday
press conference and news around the league and Garrett. It
always starts with injury updates, and the Ravens have been
in a really good position injury wise. The past two
weeks had a completely everybody on the fifty three was healthy. Well,
(03:31):
actually it turned out not to be the case because
Marlon Humphrey suffered a finger injury late last week and
popped up on the injury report.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
But still of course played in the game.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Still played in the game, right, so the whole fifty
three played there or was healthy, they were available to
play exactly, it was healthy enough to play and so
the Ravens now come out of this game and unfortunately
it hasn't lasted. Uh So Marlon Humphrey, John Harball said
that there's the possibility that he has as surgery to
(04:01):
repair that finger, which would sideline him potentially for no games,
potentially one game maybe two. That's that's what's on the
table right now for Marlon Humphrey. Yeah, that's he played
the right he or he could play with it with
the it wrapped up heavily. Yeah, and just I don't
know the season with that rap kind of.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Under sells the Yeah, Like and that's that's tough, especially
with the way he plays the game.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
But he did make a pick.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
He did make the pick, and and like he deserves
a lot of credit for making that interception with that
on his hand. And he even he joked about it
after the game and made the point that, like, if
I had both hands, I probably would have dropped it.
But I give him a lot of credit for making
that interception. But the other part of it that was
interesting is that he said, if you're wondering, like why
did he wait so long to return that ball, because
(04:53):
he was setting up the blockers. In reality, he didn't
want to get hit on that hand and didn't really
feel like he had a firm rip on the football
as he needed to to try to like truly return
that ball, So he was kind of looking to get
some yards, get down, get out of bounds because he
was not in position to return it. And he made
the point as well with it that like it was
uncomfortable to play with the hands I'm guessing from a
(05:16):
pain standpoint, and just having that on his arm.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Well you can't. You know, like when you're making tackles,
you're using your fingers a lot.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Exactly what came to my mind was on the one play,
there's a big play where he got he got beat
and then kind of rolled off the tackler, and I'm
guessing that part of the tackling attempt. I think that
part of that probably was the inability to use both
hands to try to make that play. And so so
if he ends up having surgery here.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Like dragging people down you're not with one hand is
not great. You can hit people, but like with your
shoulder and your body, but like if you have to
drag somebody down with your hands after they make catch,
you're to this advance.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
You don't want to be one handed exactly, And like
the Ravens have had guys play with one one hand
to one arm, like Marcus Williams did that previous two
years ago, and like.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
It wasn't a great situation.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
It's not great when you have to be playing with
one hand out there, and so I don't know what
he will ultimately decides to do. He and the Ravens
will decide to do. But let's just say he were
to miss some time. You know, the Ravens are going
up against the Browns this weekend. Then the Jets like
those have not been prolific passing offenses, and so the
Ravens have a good secondary even if Marlin's not out there.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
These would be the weeks if you were gonna miss time,
These are the weeks you want him. You want him
back against the Bengals, Let's say for Thanksgiving night, right
with with Joe Flacco, those wide receivers come to town.
You want to make sure you have Marlon Humphrey on the.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Field, Joe Flacco or Joe Burrow. We'll get to that
a little.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
We'll get to that. Yeah. But so if yeah, I
agree with you, if he's gonna have hand surgery or
finger surgery or whatever it is, I think now is
the time.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
And maybe he'll elect to try to play through it
and just see, like the Ken, this thing he on
its own. We'll see. I think we'll get a better
sense on that on Wednesday, when the Ravens of course
go out to practice. Is he out there? Is he not?
Is he wearing the brace the club?
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Knowing Marlon, we might get the search that's truly before Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
You know, listen to his podcast. Yeah, that's that's a
fair point. We might get an update prior to Wednesday's
injury for it, But that is a big thing, and
Marlin has been playing good football of late, and so
it would be it would be tough to lose him
for any amount of time. But you also, like what
he and the Ravens will have to decide is like,
do you want to bite the bullet and miss time
(07:25):
now to get the thing right for the stretch run
or do you want to just try to gut it
out and hope the thing heals on its own and
it's not too burdensome. And that could go either way.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Well, and you know, if it takes another hit and
you know, worse exactly, I think that's all on the table.
The other injury was shot bateman John Harball said he
had an ankle sprain, but it remains to be seen
how serious of a sprain it is. That play happened
on Bait nearly scored a touchdown got taken down from
behind in what was pretty clearly a hip drop tackle
(07:59):
that didn't get flo and John Harball was very clear
he felt like it should have been flagged, but it wasn't.
Rashat Baiton was also clear that he thought it should
have been a penalty. We've seen this with hip drop tackles.
So just you know, the NFL really after Mark Andrew's injury,
instituted this rule to try to get hip drop tackles
out of the game, but you just don't see it
(08:19):
enforced very much.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
You don't see it penalized a lot, but you see
it fined. A lot of guys have been fined for
hip drop tackles. I mean Frankie Loua from the Commanders
actually was just suspended for one game for hip drop tackles.
So it's been enforced in that way a lot of times.
And for Bateman again, that is gonna be one that
bears watching over the course of this week. I think
that that's like, is he practicing on Wednesday Thursday? Is
(08:42):
he limited?
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Is he full?
Speaker 2 (08:44):
What's his status out there? And that's one that I
think is very much up in the air at this point.
John Harball said, we'd have a better indication of that
on Wednesday when the Ravens go out there for full practice.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yep. Then the third injury is to rookie linebacker Jay Higgins,
and that one we don't know what the injury was, unspecified,
but John Harbwall said that's going to be a little
bit longer a few games for the undrafted rookie. He's
really been playing on special teams. But you know that
hurts too. Guy's been active on game days. Yeah, it's
been uh, and so you have to find a replacement there.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Yeah, that's that makes me wonder about roster movement at all.
Does that become an IR situation where you bring somebody up?
Can you could he be back soon enough that you
don't want to use an IR spot. If the Ravens
have everyone healthy as they've had, those roster spots are
are just hard to come by, and so you there's
just some roster decisions that the Raves will have to
(09:37):
make there, depending on the severity of that injury and
how long he's going to be sidelined.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Yeah, it's being a roster decisions. If Batman is sidelined,
does devontees Walker get another shot. You know, he's been
a healthy scratch.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Yeah, that's a question like what does how does that
change the offense if Rashad Bateman were to miss any time,
because it's been him and him and Zay have in
the top two receivers, and Davonte's walked has been a
healthy scratch. Uh well, he initially was hurt, but then
he was.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Back in health and then yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Uh so he's missed. He's not played much over the
course of the last month, and so I would think
he just gets activated. But to me, the question becomes
like is he taking Bateman snaps or is it DeAndre
Hopkins who's taking Bateman snaps? And then devontees Walker moves
into the role that DeAndre Hopkins previously played, Like what
does that look.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Like to you? I expect that it's probably a shared
situation with de hot I don't think that de hop
is gonna play all of Bateman snaps. I would expect
that that would probably be a shared role and Tyler
Wallace don't forget about him also, But I do think
that it would probably lead to Tes being active and
taking a shared responsibility there.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, and I've I've been saying it all year, Like,
I really like DeAndre Hopkins, and when he gets on
the field, like and the Raves throw his direction, good
things tend to happen. He's still he's still making tough
catches and still moving the chains, like I think.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
The way devontees Walker is playing around No season two
guy played it scored two straight touchdowns.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
I know it's kind of a there's the Ravens have
a lot of talent on offense and it's hard to
find ways to get everybody involved, but I could like
seeing DeAndre Hopkins get more snaps is not a terrible idea,
just based on the production that that he's been able
to have this year. And tes Walker too, like I
think that he's got He's got that potential and we
saw flashes of it. I'm sure he's itching for his
(11:24):
opportunity to get back on the field. So hopefully this
is not an injury with bait that that keeps him
out at all or lingers. But if it does sideline
him for any period of time, I think the Ravens
have good, good options to step into that role.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Yeah. Another piece of news from John Harball's press conferences.
He was pretty clear that he wants to keep Mitchell
more involved in this offense.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
We keep talking about how many different guys we want
to get more involved. We want to get Hopkins more
of all we want to get we don't really want
to get involved. Everybody involves injury.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Really, I don't want Bateman.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
I know, I'm saying you everybody. You want everybody to
get the ball. Now, Keaton too. There's just that's there's
a lot of talent and a lot of guys you
want to get involved.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Yeah, But John Harball was very clear about this. You know,
Keaton's been getting kind of a handful of carries the
past three weeks and so but you know, explodes for
a twenty two yard run in which he hit nineteen
point nine miles per hour, and John Harball said, feels
like he has his legs back underneath him and he's
just earning those snaps. Because you can you can see
(12:25):
it with your own eyes, you know, fancy it, Coaches
see it, everybody sees it. Like he's adding, He's injected
another dynamic into this rushing attack.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
I love what I've seen from Keaton. I'd like the
way he plays a game. I like the energy that
he brings and I endorse that idea of finding more
ways for him to get the ball in his hands.
Now the caveat, of course, and John Harball talked about this,
like the challenges you have Derreck Henry, who's who's such
a great player, who who one of the greatest strengths
(12:55):
about him is that he gets better as the game
goes on. He gets better, he wears down defense. Is like,
all those things are true, and we've seen that, and
so there's this balance of like do you pull him out?
And like there were games earlier this season where we
were all saying, why is Derek Henry not on the
field in this situation? Give him the ball in that spot,
like make sure that he gets his touches, and so
all that remains true, and so like there's this fine
(13:17):
line of especially in that backfield, trying to spread the
workload around. But with all that said, Keaton has brought
some juice and and I think that the way that
the Ravens operate offensively, like with Derek Henry running down
hill at you and like just wearing down defenses, and
(13:38):
then you mix in and you sprinkling Keet Mitchell and
he's got this speed and he's a much different runner.
Smaller guy can like slip through those cracks in the
defense and he's gone for twenty two yards. Like you mentioned,
I just think it's like this, you get it's a
hammer of the hammer of the hammer, and then all
of a sudden, Keith Mitchell zips through there, and it
(13:58):
can really help just provide a different element to the offense.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Yeah, I absolutely agree with that. You know, Derrick Henry's
yards per carry is down this season. Was five point
nine last year. It's four point eight this season, so
down more than a yard per carry. It's on pace
for thirteen hundred and thirty rushing yards this year after
flirting with two thousand last year. Now that's not you know,
(14:22):
certainly there's the run game production is you have to
look at it holistically. The blocking is a major part
of that. All of that that's not just I don't
think you can say, oh, well, Derek's just having an
off year. And by the way, thirteen hundred yards is
not a bad season. It's just not like last year.
(14:42):
He ripped off so many big games. And I think
we said this in our our or maybe I said
this in our season prediction pod, was that, you know,
the Ravens had so many long runs. They just broke
so many big ones last year and it was gonna
be hard to replicate that. And I think that that's
what we've seen so far this season, is they haven't
had as many long gallops. And when I was looking
(15:06):
at the rushing attack in this game in Minnesota, you know,
they just haven't. It hasn't been consistent. And when I
look at it, there's not a consistent issue that you
can easily point to. Also, I know fans are you know,
have been very critical of the Ravens guards, you know,
Alele and Andrew Voorhees and before he's had some a
(15:29):
couple of good better games. This you know, it's been
hit or miss with those guys, uh for sure. But
it's not just them, you know, I see other miss
blocks and guys just losing their one on ones in
the run game in some of those situations. And so
it just hasn't been consistent enough across the board in
the in the run game and in the run blocking.
(15:52):
It hasn't been bad. You know, the Ravens are still
among the NFL's leaders in yard rushing yards per game,
but it just hasn't been as prolific as last year,
and I think that that's why you're seeing some of this.
All right, let's sprinkle in some Keaton, let's let's bring
in a different dynamic to kind of try to get
this going a little bit.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Well, look at first of all, and Derrick Henry. It's
he's got seven hundred and four rushing yards right now,
and as you mentioned, he's on pace for over thirteen hundred.
It's a pretty quiet seven hundred yards by his Standard's
like when you do the math and you look at
what he's on pace for, like, that's an excellent season.
That's a that's a great season. But he set the
bar so high with nineteen hundred rushing yards last year
(16:35):
that that seems like a fall off. I also think
on the big runs thing, while the Ravens haven't had
as many this year, that can change, like all of
a sudden, you're not getting a big run every single game,
Like that's just not the way that it realistically works.
But if he rattles off three in the next two games,
then we're having a much different conversation about the long
runs and the big plays and so like, I absolutely
(16:57):
still think that that big, big run, those big runs
are out there.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
He is one thousand percent very capable of ripping one
of those off at any time.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Yeah, even like when you dive into the next gen
stats on him, like his speed numbers are very similar
to what they were last year too, So it's not
like that at all.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
That is definitely not the case. Derrick Henry is just
as capable as he was last year.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Yeah, And so I think that, like you need the opportunity,
it needs to get blocked up well in front of him.
There's a lot of things that needs, like the second
receivers blocking down the field, the position where you are
on the field, like the right call at the right time.
There's a lot of things that play into that.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
But also honest that Lamar Jackson missed three and a
half games and that dramatically impacts your rushing game as well.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Yes, all that is a part of the part of
the equation. So I think that, like I just think
we could be having a different conversation about those explosive runs.
But I also think Keaton is capable of those explosive runs,
no doubt about it, like he's and so both guy
are capable of of hitting those long runs. I think
the Ravens are gonna are. I think the Ravens are
(18:05):
going to have some of those over the course of
the next month. I really think that that is something
that's gonna be an added element to this offense. As
Lamar Jackson kind of gets settled back in at quarterback,
he continues to get healthier from the hamstring, and that
just opens up so many other things. And maybe it's
a little bit of a Keaton, maybe it's a little
bit of Derek, but I think that those long runs
(18:26):
are coming for this Ravens offense.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Well, we all know the Cleveland Browns defense. It likes
to play aggressive downhill football, shoot gaps, those kind of things.
So that does leave you sometimes sometimes you get Dereck
Henry for a three yard loss on those and sometimes
you might be galloping for a thirty yard or more game, right,
so you know he has a chance. Yeah, on Sunday,
(18:48):
he'll have opportunities. I thought one of the more interesting
things was, you know they gave Justice Hill the one
yard touchdown plunge on the goal line that you're used
to thinking, Derrick Henry the big guy. Give it to
the big guy. You know, they were in a spot
where they needed to kind of seal that game, and
Justice Hill ran out a shotgun and got the job done.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
I kind of what I liked about that is it's
all about keeping the defense off balance. And this isn't
the case one hundred percent of the time, but and
the Ravens are very conscious of tendencies and trying to
have tendency breaking plays. That was a tendency breaking place.
Generally speaking, when Justice Hill is on the field, it's
(19:28):
a passing play like that's just generally how it goes.
And so at that part of the point of the
field in the shotgun, you think the defense thinks, okay,
this they're going with the lighter packets, they're spreading it out.
This is probably some pass play or Lamar goes on
the run and can run or pass like that's probably
what they're going with here, and so then you can
catch them off guard. And I think that's what the
(19:49):
Ravens were able to do in that spot. There was
a couple of plays in this game I thought, we're
Todd Mulkin and the offensive coaching staff did a nice
job of catching the defense off guard. That was one
I thought the pitch play on the fake tush push
where the Ravens line up and Mark Andrews is under
standard he pitches it to Lamar Jackson. That was something
the Ravens had been working on over the past few weeks,
uh several weeks in practice, making sure that thing was
(20:11):
ready to go at the right moment, and they called
that at a perfect time and definitely called the defense
off guard. Lamar Jackson just made that look so easy
on catching that ball like above his head. Mar Mark
came in hot with that pass.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
That game up there.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
That was that was really well done. But that was
another one. And then the third that I thought did
a really nice job of catching the defense off guard
was the pass play to Mark Andrews. They faked the
play before they ran Lamar left, and.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Well that was that in and of itself. I want
to stop you right there. That was creative. And this
is gonna you're starting to dive into the red zone
conversation that I want to have because that was one
of the takeaways from the game is like what happened
in the red zone. The Ravens were not as effective
as they wanted to, but part when they were effective,
part of it was this creativity that you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Yeah, so just again, that was one of those plays.
But then there's also on one Lamar Jackson runs left,
he picks up a nice game and then basically the
runs looks like he's running right. Defense all sucks up
and it's so much attention on Lamar Jackson and his
ability as a runner that they forgot Mark Andrews.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
And Charlie Coler. Yeah, they were both wide o.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Like Mark Andrews, who's caught more touchdown in a Raven's
uniform than anybody else, He's wide open in the back
of the end zone and that was pitching catch. He
made a nice play to go up in sky for
it to make sure he kept his feet in bounds.
But you forget about eighty nine around around the end zone.
That speaks to the attention and the creativity that Lamar
Jackson and the play call created.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
It was it was also I think created confusion because
of the Ravens formation and alignment in that play. I
mean they had Charlie Kohler out playing wide receiver out wide,
and Mark Andrews kind of in the slot, and then
Isaiah likely also not in line. But also you had
your three tight ends out wide right with Charlie Kohler playing.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Like X yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
And so basically, you know, the Ravens had some early
red zone struggles and then they got into it and said,
Todd Monkins said, all right, I'm gonna to borrow Greg
Roman phrase. I'm gonna open up the vault a little bit.
And and so a creative alignment on that play with
the tight ends, even the run left to with Lamar.
(22:21):
The play before that you reference another very creative alignment,
especially with the three tight ends. Mark Andrews started under
center on that. It was it was another fake toush
push to Mark Andrews. He ended up being he kind
of moved moved out to the left, and then you
get this quick speed you know, Lamar run left, sprint left,
(22:42):
and you have all three tight ends out blocking, Derrick
Henry out why blocking, and Tyle Linerbaum out likely cracked
down on it, but you had four blockers out wide
in front of Lamar Jackson ye and so creative stuff
there from Todd munkin two and and honestly, I think
that that's what it often takes the red zone. That's
when you have to go dial up some of these
(23:03):
more creative plays that you've been working on for weeks
and things, because you know, the Ravens first two trips
the red zone did not work out well. And the
first one specifically, that was really just a it was
a third and two key third and two just didn't
get it blocked up at all. Derek Henry ran into
pat Ricard's back, didn't block it up well at all.
(23:25):
Second trip, nobody opened. Nobody opened to basically lamar throwaways
on second and third down after you know wore he's
lost his block on first and goal from the four
that got run got blown up. Now they throw two
straight and it was just covered up. And so then
I think Todd Monkins said, all right, let's we got
we gotta get a little more creative down here. Yeah,
and next two trips got touchdowns on both this well.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
You talk about the Mark Andrews touchdown too. You said
all three tight ends were on the field. You kind
of short changed. There's really four tight ends on the
field because pat Riccard was out there too, shrined up
at tight end, so you was he in line he
was in line on that play on the right side
or he was on the left side.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Yeah, it was three. The other three tight ends were
all right.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Yeah, but I mean there's it's in the same personnel package.
You have three tight ends and a fullback or fight
four tight ends, however you want to call it.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Yea.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
And so they've got the bits the big package out there,
and they but.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Then they got Charlie Cohler out wide.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
But yeah, they got him out wide like he's he
and then again it looks like that's a classic. It
looks like it's going to be a run and it
was the play before. And so that's that's part of
the Lamar Jackson effect, and it's part of.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
The Ravens tight end effect.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
It's it's it's all of it. Honestly, it's Lamar Jackson
effect because he his ability as a runner creates so
much focus on him that you can just forget about
the guy who's caught more touchdowns in a Ravens uniform
than anybody. Yeah, and then it also speaks to the
talent of the tight ends and the creativity from the
coaching staff, like there's all three levels at play there.
And I'm with you, I think that those are the
(24:56):
types of things that that you need to do in
that part the field. And John Harwall talked about that
pitch play to Lamar, and he made the point there
that like, these are the kinds of things that you
need to do in those win you games.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
And and the fact that the Ravens put some of
that creative stuff on tape, on the fake Toush push
and on these sweet plays with Lamar one running, one passing,
it just gives defenses more to think about. And and
they're gonna have variations of these plays, like that's what
that's what the Mark Andrews touchdown was. It was a
(25:29):
variation of the play right before it. And the Toush
push was a variation of the toushbush. Like They're gonna
have variations of these and that just gives defenses more
and more things to think about. And I also think,
like using that Toush push example, now, I think teams
are gonna be a touch more hesitant.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
To be to react to the Tousch push to the
actual touch push.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Yes, I think that that like you got to take
a second work of Lamar in the backfield and make
sure that like let's make sure they're really running this
with the tight end in this situation. I think all
of it helps moving forward for how defenses are gonna
play you.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
I absolutely agree with that. John Harbaugh was clear that
they need to improve in the red zone in order
to achieve what they want to achieve. That I'm sure
will be a continued focus this week for Todd Munkin
in the offense. One last thing I want to talk
about with the offense is the way we talked about
it a lot leading into the game. Was the Vikings
blitz with Brian Flores and They're gonna blitz a lot,
(26:21):
and how are the Ravens and Lamar Jackson gonna handle it?
And well it came to fruition. Yeah, the Vikings blitz
fifty eight point eight percent of the time. The Ravens, however,
took just one sack against that. Lamar Jackson was twelve
of nineteen for one hundred and eighteen yards on his
quick passes. And that's really how the Ravens neutralized that
blitz was get the ball out of Lamar Jackson's hands. Fast,
(26:43):
quick decisions, quick execution. So this was his two point
five to nine seconds to throw. Was the sixth fastest
time of his career. You know it was the fastest time.
Tell me Dolphins game against Brian Flores back in twenty
twenty one, and so the Ravens knew they had to
get the ball out of Lamar's hands fast, and they
(27:04):
did that.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
I thought that this is kind of speaks to like
the evolution of the offense that we talked about coming
into the game. The Ravens have got so much better
at having answers for those types of that approach on
defense where they're bringing the house yep, and defenses are
going to continue to try to do that. Like, Okay,
you got the Browns coming up this week. They're an
aggressive defense and now they got an all world pass
(27:27):
rusher of Miles Garrett who can win one on one
battles in a way that you don't necessarily need to
blitz in the same way. But Jim Schwartz is still
going to bring it like that's the way that they
play defense. And so I would expect the lessons learned
from the whole Brian Flores challenge and that type of
defensive scheme will apply this week as the Ravens move
(27:49):
forward against Cleveland.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Yeah, absolutely agree with that. Lamar threw a quick pass
that's under two point five seconds on sixty five point
five percent of his attempts. That's the second highest rate
of his career. So maybe against the Browns that'll be
the highest rate, yeah, of his career.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
It certainly could be. So it's a similar approach that
Jim Schwartz and that Browns defense brings. And we'll see
how that plays out this week. So let's take a
quick break and then when we come back, we'll talk
about one of the breakout players on this defense and
also take a look around the AFC North. You're listening
to the Lounge podcast. We're coming to from the Sea
Geek Studio. We want to mention our partners at Draftking
sports Book. They are an official sports betting partner of
(28:24):
the Baltimore Ravens DraftKings Sports Book. The Crown is yours.
So a player who is coming on really strong right
now is the rookie first round pick Malachi Starks. And
when the Ravens drafted him and we did our initial
draft recap conversations and you're looking at the highlights from
this guy. What we hoped he would become is what
(28:46):
we have seen these last two weeks. Like a player
who flies around the football, who's in the right spot
at the right time and can come up with playmaking
type moments, and that's what he's done with picks and
back to back games.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Yeah. Absolutely, I think I predicted Malachi to lead this
team in interceptions, did I not? Oh, he's climbing up
the light now he's tied with Nate Wiggins too. Two.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Well, Nate was my pick, So I need my guy
to come up and make a few more interceptions here.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Also, I will give you credit. You did say you
predict him to have an interception in this game. So
are you gonna go three for three? Are you calling
that put on the spot right now?
Speaker 1 (29:19):
I mean Dylan Gabriel? Yeah, why not? Yeah? I think
that Malachi is playing really well. So according to Pro
Football Focus, he is the highest graded safety in the
league over the past two weeks. He's been the Ravens
highest graded player offense or defense the past two week weeks,
(29:41):
and he's he's beating out some very good company right now.
Malachi starks as the past couple of weeks some of
the top safeties in the league. So I actually bumped
into Chuck Pagano down in the cafeteria and was telling
him about that about Malchi's strong grades and he said, man,
this guy is really coming on and just the range
(30:02):
that he's showing, the smarts that he's playing with that
it's he's very impressed with what he's seeing from Malachi.
And I agree. Part of it too for me is
the physicality he just he's he's playing. He's not overthinking now,
is what it looks like to me. And he's coming
up and taking on blockers, he's making hits. He just
(30:22):
seems to be playing with so much more assurance. Yeah,
I think he's always been a confident guy and the
work he puts in and all that stuff, but now
he's not thinking as much on the field and he's
just playing and you're seeing the natural playmaker that he
is come through.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
One of the things that struck me about Milchai Stars
from the very first day I met him was just
how studious he seemed and smart and had an understanding
of everything that happened on the defense of Georgia and
would be happening at the NFL level. And I think
that that's that's an asset. However, with that, I think
you also so probably saw early on, is that he's
(31:03):
like processing everything that's happening because he's like so aware
of the of the calls and what should be happening,
and like you're thinking, like he's a thinker, and like
you want to have a safety that has like this
great feel and knowledge of everything happening in front of him.
But like that can slow you down a little.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Bit, and you don't want to make a mistake when
you're a rookie and all those things, especially you know
he's playing center field. You can't let it get it
past him, and so you're really cautious of not making
a mistake.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
And the word that he used when I asked him
about this was trust. He's trusting himself that he knows
what he's doing and he's going to be in the
right spot and he can just play, and he's trusting
his teammates. And so if you trust the entire system,
that does allow you to play free. Because if you're
not worried about trying to cover up a mistake or
make up for a miss assignment, or make making a
mistake yourself, Like if those are not things that are
(31:54):
at the front of your mind, then you can go
out there and play with instincts. And and I like
the other thing, I really like is when he's in
a position to make a play, he's making it, like
coming across the field and going up and making that
catch and.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Get justin Justin Jefferson, Justin Jefferson like that.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
That's that is a tough play to make, and I
really like his his ability to finish the play when
he has the opportunity. So yeah, it's like I've always
felt this year, like for the Ravens to be a
team that that gets over the hump, goes deep into playoffs,
all those things. A lot of it is going to
come down to the play of this rookie class because
(32:33):
they've got They've got a number of players in this
rookie class playing significant snaps. Malachi at the top of
the list, Mike Green, Teddy Buchanans.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Gives back to my predictions. I was hot, very high
on the rookie class coming into the year, and it
got off to a slowish start, I think it's fair
to say. And they were getting a lot of playing time,
So it's not surprising when you that many rookies get
thrown into the deep end. You're gonna have some guys
that need swimming. Yeah, it's tough to keep keep your
(33:03):
head above water and so, but the Ravens are seeing
that payoff now, all that experience that they've gotten, now
they've just seen that they're not rookies anymore. They've played
nobody's played more snaps than male guy Starks has on
this entire team. Mike Green's playing the most snaps of
any of the outside linebackers. Yea, Teddy Buchanan is playing
(33:27):
a ton and just he also had his best game
of the year in Minnesota according to Pro Football Focus.
And so I think that's all paying off now.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Yeah, if those guys can continue that trajectory that we're
seeing is ken j Jackson. Kendre Jackson is another one. Like,
if those guys can continue that, then I think that
this team is going to be in a really good position.
One other guy wants to.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Feld goals.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Yeah, one other guy I want to mention on defense,
not a rookie, but a new addition to Draymond Jones.
The Ravens traded for him.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
He steps in and plays right away. It was a
really good debut for Draymond Jones. He had four quarterback pressures,
pressure the quarterback on twelve percent of his pass rush snaps.
That's what the Ravens need. They need somebody who can
can create havoc, get after the quarterback, create disruption, and
he can play inside, he can play outside along that
defensive front, so.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
As they use the versatility lined up left outside linebacker
and right and I believe it was left defensive end
for thirteen snaps. Yeah, so you saw some of that versatility.
What in just his first game.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
He a little note on him. This is going to
be a big game for him. He grew up in
Cleveland and so he's got a bunch of family there,
lives there in the off season. So this is definitely
a game that he's got circled on his calendar, and
he's excited about the opportunity to go home and make
an impact in this game. So maybe he gets his
first sack as a Raven back home in Cleveland.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Yep. Absolutely. And speaking of Cleveland and the AFC North,
there is news coming out of the division A. As
we mentioned before, Dylan Gabriel will remain the Browns starter.
After another loss, Kevin Stefanski has asked are they going
to consider making the quarterback change to Shadora Sanders, which
has been much talked about around the league. That will
(35:11):
not happen this week. It's going to be Dylan Gabriel again,
and so the Ravens will get another rookie quarterback. And
then as well, speaking of quarterbacks, Joe Burrow has returned
to practice for the Cincinnati Bengals coming off his major
foot surgery. He is well ahead of schedule in his rehab,
according to him and Jay Glazer, and it's looking like
(35:35):
playing on Thanksgiving Night here at M and T Bank
Stadium is not out of the question.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
He was asked after practice on Monday, yeah, about what
would it mean to be back for that game on
Thanksgiving Night, and he said it'd be very meaningful. Like
he he kept it. He didn't have too much to say,
but he said a lot in few words. And then
when you add to the reports, Jay Glaizer saying that
(36:03):
the return table timetable was Thanksgiving Ish, Thanksgiving Ish, and
there happens to be a game on Thanksgiving Night, which
is in the Thanksgiving Ish timeline. And I think that look,
Burrow and the Ravens have had some battles over the years,
and he wants to be on the field against the Ravens.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
And I suffered a season ending injury. His risks.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
I even go back to, like when the schedule came
out of this year and he made some gripes about
having to play another primetime game on the road in
Baltimore on Thursday night, Like, so that game was kind
of on his radar immediately immediately, and so like, you know,
he wants to be out there. And again, these teams
have had some battles against each other, so I think
that he is going to do everything he can. And
it's interesting though, because Joe Flacco is operating that offense
(36:52):
at an incredibly high level, like he's been awesome, and.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
That offense hasn't been the problem, has not been the
problem in Cincinnati the past couple of weeks.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Joe fla is putting up like thirty five to forty
points a game for that offense.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
And so what this boils down to is it seems
like the Ravens are gonna have to prepare for the
possibility at least that Joe Burrow plays. I still think
it seems like a long shot to me, especially he
has a twenty one day practice window. That Thursday night
thanks Giving game will be day seventeen. No, so you
be kind of cutting it short a little bit. It's
a short week, you're gonna rush him back, especially if
(37:26):
the Bengals what happens the next two weeks? For two
weeks for the Bengals, that's the key thing is they're
out of the playoff chase by that point. Are you
going to rush back Joe Burrow your franchise quarterback with
a foot? You don't want to make it worse, But
who knows. We'll see where they're at. I think that
it's safe to say that the Ravens are going to
(37:46):
have to go into that game preparing for the possibility
that Joe Burrow plays. However, is that that much different
for preparing for the possibility that Joe Placo plays. I
don't think Joe Burrow is gonna come out and start
running all over over the field on you scrambling in
this first game back.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
But also it doesn't like the style of play correct
even him.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
The pocket quarterbacks, you were going to get it out
to those big time wide receivers.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Right. The structure of the offense remains no matter who
is playing at quarterback, and as I just mentioned, Flacco's
got that offense humming and playing at a really high level.
I think that like, you're gonna have to contend with
a lot on that offense and the weapons who are
on the outside, no matter who's a quarterback. But yeah,
the next two weeks I think are going to go
a long way. And it turning that the Bengals are
three and six right now. They play the Steelers this game.
(38:31):
If they were going to be three and eight at
that point, I think it's a much different conversation. However,
if it goes the other direction and they win these
next two games and they're five and six coming in
at that one, and they feel like Joe Burrow's healthy,
then I think they're having a much different conversation. So
these next two games are going to go a long way.
And we talked about the division. It's kind of a there.
(38:52):
There's two division games EFS North games this weekend, Ravens
and the Browns and the Steelers and the Bengals play
each other. So this is an important weekend. We're getting
into the territory now where this division is going to
be decided. You mentioned off the top, the Ravens are
one game out of first place, and so the Steelers
are certainly within their sights but you got to win
these games. These you have to win these division games,
and and we'll we'll see what happens for both teams
(39:16):
on both games on Sunday. But this is a big
opportunity here, and it's kind of crazy considering where we
were a month ago that there's a possibility that we
end Sunday night and the Ravens are coming home from
Cleveland sitting in first place in the division.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
Certainly yeah five first place.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Like that possibility is on the table. If the Steelers
losing the Ravens win, they would be tied at that point.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
The records standpoint North record, and it's it's a lot
of the season is going to come down to three
straight AFC North games starting a Thanksgiving Night Bengals, Steelers Bengals,
and so the Ravens. But the Ravens got to take
care of the Browns first land, which is never an
easy tat.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
Yeah, we're we're talking about Thanksgiving Night. There's two games
between now and then Sunday against the Browns and then
the next week against the Jets. And and I do
think as much as we're talking about that that Thanksgiving
Night and Joe Burrow's return and all that stuff. I
think that the Ravens are They're very much taking the
one game in our timeline set like we talked about earlier.
So as always, you can email us at the lounge
at Ravens dot NFL dot net. We always love hearing
(40:21):
your emails. Thank you so much for listening. We will
be back with you later this week.
Welcome into the Lounge presented by DraftKings. I'm Ryan Mink
here with Garrett Downing, and we have broken down the
film from the Ravens twenty seven to nineteen win over
the Minnesota Vikings out in Minnesota. Big road win for
the Ravens that pulls them one game behind the Pittsburgh
Steelers now and the standings Steelers lost the LA Chargers.
Harball Brothers got it done this week. Yeah, okay, so
(00:27):
Ravens are only one game back. They're in good position
right now. But Garrett, coming out of that game, I
think one of the messages obviously the Ravens are feeling good,
feel like they've turned this ship around and they're heading
in the right direction. Won three straight games. Of course,
people look ahead of the schedule and the challenges of
the different opponents, and I think a lot of people
(00:49):
see the Ravens going on an extended run here. But
one of the messages coming out, despite how good you
feel about that win from the Ravens, it and then
John Harwall reiterated on Monday, is ain't done anything yet?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah, totally, And Hardball made that point on Monday and
saying like the question was essentially, like have you turned
this thing around? That's the point, and that's what everyone's
saying right now. We said it in our immediate reaction
after the game on Sunday, and his point was we'll see,
Like that remains to be seen, That final story remains
to be written. And I think that there's a lot
(01:24):
of reason for optimism about around this team and the
schedule that's on the horizon, and this team's ability to
go and have that extended run and make the playoffs
and win the division. I think that all of those
things are certainly realistic for this Ravens team, but they
also know that nothing is going to be handed to them.
I thought Kyle Hamilton summed that up about as well
(01:45):
as possible. Let's go ahead and play his quote after the.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Game, starting to hit our shrud. You know, it's not
a surprise to us. I think we're playing to our
potential now and that's gotta be sustained. You know this,
We're not We're happy we got the win, but we're not,
you know, ecstatic about what our record still is. You know,
we still have stuff to do and people to prove wrong,
(02:10):
people to prove right. So you know, this is a
good building block to going forward in season. You know,
we could be undefeated and still feel like we have
stuff to do. But you know, I think what got
us not trying to bring out the past. I think
what partially, partially what got us to one in five
was the fact that we came into the season maybe
thinking I'm not speaking for everybody, but we're the Baltimore Ravens.
(02:31):
We're gonna do this, We're gonna do that. Teams are
just gonna lay down and let us win games, and
that's not how it is in this league. So we
got punched in the mouth early in the season, but
now I think we're responding well, and you know, we'll
just have that car tissue going forward when we just
start stacking wins.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
So I think that speaks to the focus of the seam,
like they're not going to get caught up and believing
the hype right now. They're not gonna say, hey, we've
won three straight, let's get the parade plans, let's go
ahead and book Like that's not the way this team is.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Thinking, saying it's a victory for them.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yeah, like the Ravens are. There will be no size
of up victories until the size of up victory for
this team. Like, that's the way that this team is
looking at things, and I think that is the right
approach to have.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Yeah, I absolutely agree. So we're going to dive into
the film, but before we do that, we have some
news updates to discuss from head coach John Harball's Monday
press conference and news around the league and Garrett. It
always starts with injury updates, and the Ravens have been
in a really good position injury wise. The past two
weeks had a completely everybody on the fifty three was healthy. Well,
(03:31):
actually it turned out not to be the case because
Marlon Humphrey suffered a finger injury late last week and
popped up on the injury report.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
But still of course played in the game.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Still played in the game, right, so the whole fifty
three played there or was healthy, they were available to
play exactly, it was healthy enough to play and so
the Ravens now come out of this game and unfortunately
it hasn't lasted. Uh So Marlon Humphrey, John Harball said
that there's the possibility that he has as surgery to
(04:01):
repair that finger, which would sideline him potentially for no games,
potentially one game maybe two. That's that's what's on the
table right now for Marlon Humphrey. Yeah, that's he played
the right he or he could play with it with
the it wrapped up heavily. Yeah, and just I don't
know the season with that rap kind of.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Under sells the Yeah, Like and that's that's tough, especially
with the way he plays the game.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
But he did make a pick.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
He did make the pick, and and like he deserves
a lot of credit for making that interception with that
on his hand. And he even he joked about it
after the game and made the point that, like, if
I had both hands, I probably would have dropped it.
But I give him a lot of credit for making
that interception. But the other part of it that was
interesting is that he said, if you're wondering, like why
did he wait so long to return that ball, because
(04:53):
he was setting up the blockers. In reality, he didn't
want to get hit on that hand and didn't really
feel like he had a firm rip on the football
as he needed to to try to like truly return
that ball, So he was kind of looking to get
some yards, get down, get out of bounds because he
was not in position to return it. And he made
the point as well with it that like it was
uncomfortable to play with the hands I'm guessing from a
(05:16):
pain standpoint, and just having that on his arm.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Well you can't. You know, like when you're making tackles,
you're using your fingers a lot.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Exactly what came to my mind was on the one play,
there's a big play where he got he got beat
and then kind of rolled off the tackler, and I'm
guessing that part of the tackling attempt. I think that
part of that probably was the inability to use both
hands to try to make that play. And so so
if he ends up having surgery here.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Like dragging people down you're not with one hand is
not great. You can hit people, but like with your
shoulder and your body, but like if you have to
drag somebody down with your hands after they make catch,
you're to this advance.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
You don't want to be one handed exactly, And like
the Ravens have had guys play with one one hand
to one arm, like Marcus Williams did that previous two
years ago, and like.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
It wasn't a great situation.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
It's not great when you have to be playing with
one hand out there, and so I don't know what
he will ultimately decides to do. He and the Ravens
will decide to do. But let's just say he were
to miss some time. You know, the Ravens are going
up against the Browns this weekend. Then the Jets like
those have not been prolific passing offenses, and so the
Ravens have a good secondary even if Marlin's not out there.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
These would be the weeks if you were gonna miss time,
These are the weeks you want him. You want him
back against the Bengals, Let's say for Thanksgiving night, right
with with Joe Flacco, those wide receivers come to town.
You want to make sure you have Marlon Humphrey on the.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Field, Joe Flacco or Joe Burrow. We'll get to that
a little.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
We'll get to that. Yeah. But so if yeah, I
agree with you, if he's gonna have hand surgery or
finger surgery or whatever it is, I think now is
the time.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
And maybe he'll elect to try to play through it
and just see, like the Ken, this thing he on
its own. We'll see. I think we'll get a better
sense on that on Wednesday, when the Ravens of course
go out to practice. Is he out there? Is he not?
Is he wearing the brace the club?
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Knowing Marlon, we might get the search that's truly before Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
You know, listen to his podcast. Yeah, that's that's a
fair point. We might get an update prior to Wednesday's
injury for it, But that is a big thing, and
Marlin has been playing good football of late, and so
it would be it would be tough to lose him
for any amount of time. But you also, like what
he and the Ravens will have to decide is like,
do you want to bite the bullet and miss time
(07:25):
now to get the thing right for the stretch run
or do you want to just try to gut it
out and hope the thing heals on its own and
it's not too burdensome. And that could go either way.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Well, and you know, if it takes another hit and
you know, worse exactly, I think that's all on the table.
The other injury was shot bateman John Harball said he
had an ankle sprain, but it remains to be seen
how serious of a sprain it is. That play happened
on Bait nearly scored a touchdown got taken down from
behind in what was pretty clearly a hip drop tackle
(07:59):
that didn't get flo and John Harball was very clear
he felt like it should have been flagged, but it wasn't.
Rashat Baiton was also clear that he thought it should
have been a penalty. We've seen this with hip drop tackles.
So just you know, the NFL really after Mark Andrew's injury,
instituted this rule to try to get hip drop tackles
out of the game, but you just don't see it
(08:19):
enforced very much.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
You don't see it penalized a lot, but you see
it fined. A lot of guys have been fined for
hip drop tackles. I mean Frankie Loua from the Commanders
actually was just suspended for one game for hip drop tackles.
So it's been enforced in that way a lot of times.
And for Bateman again, that is gonna be one that
bears watching over the course of this week. I think
that that's like, is he practicing on Wednesday Thursday? Is
(08:42):
he limited?
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Is he full?
Speaker 2 (08:44):
What's his status out there? And that's one that I
think is very much up in the air at this point.
John Harball said, we'd have a better indication of that
on Wednesday when the Ravens go out there for full practice.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yep. Then the third injury is to rookie linebacker Jay Higgins,
and that one we don't know what the injury was, unspecified,
but John Harbwall said that's going to be a little
bit longer a few games for the undrafted rookie. He's
really been playing on special teams. But you know that
hurts too. Guy's been active on game days. Yeah, it's
been uh, and so you have to find a replacement there.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Yeah, that's that makes me wonder about roster movement at all.
Does that become an IR situation where you bring somebody up?
Can you could he be back soon enough that you
don't want to use an IR spot. If the Ravens
have everyone healthy as they've had, those roster spots are
are just hard to come by, and so you there's
just some roster decisions that the Raves will have to
(09:37):
make there, depending on the severity of that injury and
how long he's going to be sidelined.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Yeah, it's being a roster decisions. If Batman is sidelined,
does devontees Walker get another shot. You know, he's been
a healthy scratch.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Yeah, that's a question like what does how does that
change the offense if Rashad Bateman were to miss any time,
because it's been him and him and Zay have in
the top two receivers, and Davonte's walked has been a
healthy scratch. Uh well, he initially was hurt, but then
he was.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Back in health and then yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Uh so he's missed. He's not played much over the
course of the last month, and so I would think
he just gets activated. But to me, the question becomes
like is he taking Bateman snaps or is it DeAndre
Hopkins who's taking Bateman snaps? And then devontees Walker moves
into the role that DeAndre Hopkins previously played, Like what
does that look.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Like to you? I expect that it's probably a shared
situation with de hot I don't think that de hop
is gonna play all of Bateman snaps. I would expect
that that would probably be a shared role and Tyler
Wallace don't forget about him also, But I do think
that it would probably lead to Tes being active and
taking a shared responsibility there.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, and I've I've been saying it all year, Like,
I really like DeAndre Hopkins, and when he gets on
the field, like and the Raves throw his direction, good
things tend to happen. He's still he's still making tough
catches and still moving the chains, like I think.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
The way devontees Walker is playing around No season two
guy played it scored two straight touchdowns.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
I know it's kind of a there's the Ravens have
a lot of talent on offense and it's hard to
find ways to get everybody involved, but I could like
seeing DeAndre Hopkins get more snaps is not a terrible idea,
just based on the production that that he's been able
to have this year. And tes Walker too, like I
think that he's got He's got that potential and we
saw flashes of it. I'm sure he's itching for his
(11:24):
opportunity to get back on the field. So hopefully this
is not an injury with bait that that keeps him
out at all or lingers. But if it does sideline
him for any period of time, I think the Ravens
have good, good options to step into that role.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Yeah. Another piece of news from John Harball's press conferences.
He was pretty clear that he wants to keep Mitchell
more involved in this offense.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
We keep talking about how many different guys we want
to get more involved. We want to get Hopkins more
of all we want to get we don't really want
to get involved. Everybody involves injury.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Really, I don't want Bateman.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
I know, I'm saying you everybody. You want everybody to
get the ball. Now, Keaton too. There's just that's there's
a lot of talent and a lot of guys you
want to get involved.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Yeah, But John Harball was very clear about this. You know,
Keaton's been getting kind of a handful of carries the
past three weeks and so but you know, explodes for
a twenty two yard run in which he hit nineteen
point nine miles per hour, and John Harball said, feels
like he has his legs back underneath him and he's
just earning those snaps. Because you can you can see
(12:25):
it with your own eyes, you know, fancy it, Coaches
see it, everybody sees it. Like he's adding, He's injected
another dynamic into this rushing attack.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
I love what I've seen from Keaton. I'd like the
way he plays a game. I like the energy that
he brings and I endorse that idea of finding more
ways for him to get the ball in his hands.
Now the caveat, of course, and John Harball talked about this,
like the challenges you have Derreck Henry, who's who's such
a great player, who who one of the greatest strengths
(12:55):
about him is that he gets better as the game
goes on. He gets better, he wears down defense. Is like,
all those things are true, and we've seen that, and
so there's this balance of like do you pull him out?
And like there were games earlier this season where we
were all saying, why is Derek Henry not on the
field in this situation? Give him the ball in that spot,
like make sure that he gets his touches, and so
all that remains true, and so like there's this fine
(13:17):
line of especially in that backfield, trying to spread the
workload around. But with all that said, Keaton has brought
some juice and and I think that the way that
the Ravens operate offensively, like with Derek Henry running down
hill at you and like just wearing down defenses, and
(13:38):
then you mix in and you sprinkling Keet Mitchell and
he's got this speed and he's a much different runner.
Smaller guy can like slip through those cracks in the
defense and he's gone for twenty two yards. Like you mentioned,
I just think it's like this, you get it's a
hammer of the hammer of the hammer, and then all
of a sudden, Keith Mitchell zips through there, and it
(13:58):
can really help just provide a different element to the offense.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Yeah, I absolutely agree with that. You know, Derrick Henry's
yards per carry is down this season. Was five point
nine last year. It's four point eight this season, so
down more than a yard per carry. It's on pace
for thirteen hundred and thirty rushing yards this year after
flirting with two thousand last year. Now that's not you know,
(14:22):
certainly there's the run game production is you have to
look at it holistically. The blocking is a major part
of that. All of that that's not just I don't
think you can say, oh, well, Derek's just having an
off year. And by the way, thirteen hundred yards is
not a bad season. It's just not like last year.
(14:42):
He ripped off so many big games. And I think
we said this in our our or maybe I said
this in our season prediction pod, was that, you know,
the Ravens had so many long runs. They just broke
so many big ones last year and it was gonna
be hard to replicate that. And I think that that's
what we've seen so far this season, is they haven't
had as many long gallops. And when I was looking
(15:06):
at the rushing attack in this game in Minnesota, you know,
they just haven't. It hasn't been consistent. And when I
look at it, there's not a consistent issue that you
can easily point to. Also, I know fans are you know,
have been very critical of the Ravens guards, you know,
Alele and Andrew Voorhees and before he's had some a
(15:29):
couple of good better games. This you know, it's been
hit or miss with those guys, uh for sure. But
it's not just them, you know, I see other miss
blocks and guys just losing their one on ones in
the run game in some of those situations. And so
it just hasn't been consistent enough across the board in
the in the run game and in the run blocking.
(15:52):
It hasn't been bad. You know, the Ravens are still
among the NFL's leaders in yard rushing yards per game,
but it just hasn't been as prolific as last year,
and I think that that's why you're seeing some of this.
All right, let's sprinkle in some Keaton, let's let's bring
in a different dynamic to kind of try to get
this going a little bit.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Well, look at first of all, and Derrick Henry. It's
he's got seven hundred and four rushing yards right now,
and as you mentioned, he's on pace for over thirteen hundred.
It's a pretty quiet seven hundred yards by his Standard's
like when you do the math and you look at
what he's on pace for, like, that's an excellent season.
That's a that's a great season. But he set the
bar so high with nineteen hundred rushing yards last year
(16:35):
that that seems like a fall off. I also think
on the big runs thing, while the Ravens haven't had
as many this year, that can change, like all of
a sudden, you're not getting a big run every single game,
Like that's just not the way that it realistically works.
But if he rattles off three in the next two games,
then we're having a much different conversation about the long
runs and the big plays and so like, I absolutely
(16:57):
still think that that big, big run, those big runs
are out there.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
He is one thousand percent very capable of ripping one
of those off at any time.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Yeah, even like when you dive into the next gen
stats on him, like his speed numbers are very similar
to what they were last year too, So it's not
like that at all.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
That is definitely not the case. Derrick Henry is just
as capable as he was last year.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Yeah, And so I think that, like you need the opportunity,
it needs to get blocked up well in front of him.
There's a lot of things that needs, like the second
receivers blocking down the field, the position where you are
on the field, like the right call at the right time.
There's a lot of things that play into that.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
But also honest that Lamar Jackson missed three and a
half games and that dramatically impacts your rushing game as well.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Yes, all that is a part of the part of
the equation. So I think that, like I just think
we could be having a different conversation about those explosive runs.
But I also think Keaton is capable of those explosive runs,
no doubt about it, like he's and so both guy
are capable of of hitting those long runs. I think
the Ravens are gonna are. I think the Ravens are
(18:05):
going to have some of those over the course of
the next month. I really think that that is something
that's gonna be an added element to this offense. As
Lamar Jackson kind of gets settled back in at quarterback,
he continues to get healthier from the hamstring, and that
just opens up so many other things. And maybe it's
a little bit of a Keaton, maybe it's a little
bit of Derek, but I think that those long runs
(18:26):
are coming for this Ravens offense.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Well, we all know the Cleveland Browns defense. It likes
to play aggressive downhill football, shoot gaps, those kind of things.
So that does leave you sometimes sometimes you get Dereck
Henry for a three yard loss on those and sometimes
you might be galloping for a thirty yard or more game, right,
so you know he has a chance. Yeah, on Sunday,
(18:48):
he'll have opportunities. I thought one of the more interesting
things was, you know they gave Justice Hill the one
yard touchdown plunge on the goal line that you're used
to thinking, Derrick Henry the big guy. Give it to
the big guy. You know, they were in a spot
where they needed to kind of seal that game, and
Justice Hill ran out a shotgun and got the job done.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
I kind of what I liked about that is it's
all about keeping the defense off balance. And this isn't
the case one hundred percent of the time, but and
the Ravens are very conscious of tendencies and trying to
have tendency breaking plays. That was a tendency breaking place.
Generally speaking, when Justice Hill is on the field, it's
(19:28):
a passing play like that's just generally how it goes.
And so at that part of the point of the
field in the shotgun, you think the defense thinks, okay,
this they're going with the lighter packets, they're spreading it out.
This is probably some pass play or Lamar goes on
the run and can run or pass like that's probably
what they're going with here, and so then you can
catch them off guard. And I think that's what the
(19:49):
Ravens were able to do in that spot. There was
a couple of plays in this game I thought, we're
Todd Mulkin and the offensive coaching staff did a nice
job of catching the defense off guard. That was one
I thought the pitch play on the fake tush push
where the Ravens line up and Mark Andrews is under
standard he pitches it to Lamar Jackson. That was something
the Ravens had been working on over the past few weeks,
uh several weeks in practice, making sure that thing was
(20:11):
ready to go at the right moment, and they called
that at a perfect time and definitely called the defense
off guard. Lamar Jackson just made that look so easy
on catching that ball like above his head. Mar Mark
came in hot with that pass.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
That game up there.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
That was that was really well done. But that was
another one. And then the third that I thought did
a really nice job of catching the defense off guard
was the pass play to Mark Andrews. They faked the
play before they ran Lamar left, and.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Well that was that in and of itself. I want
to stop you right there. That was creative. And this
is gonna you're starting to dive into the red zone
conversation that I want to have because that was one
of the takeaways from the game is like what happened
in the red zone. The Ravens were not as effective
as they wanted to, but part when they were effective,
part of it was this creativity that you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Yeah, so just again, that was one of those plays.
But then there's also on one Lamar Jackson runs left,
he picks up a nice game and then basically the
runs looks like he's running right. Defense all sucks up
and it's so much attention on Lamar Jackson and his
ability as a runner that they forgot Mark Andrews.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
And Charlie Coler. Yeah, they were both wide o.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Like Mark Andrews, who's caught more touchdown in a Raven's
uniform than anybody else, He's wide open in the back
of the end zone and that was pitching catch. He
made a nice play to go up in sky for
it to make sure he kept his feet in bounds.
But you forget about eighty nine around around the end zone.
That speaks to the attention and the creativity that Lamar
Jackson and the play call created.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
It was it was also I think created confusion because
of the Ravens formation and alignment in that play. I
mean they had Charlie Kohler out playing wide receiver out wide,
and Mark Andrews kind of in the slot, and then
Isaiah likely also not in line. But also you had
your three tight ends out wide right with Charlie Kohler playing.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Like X yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
And so basically, you know, the Ravens had some early
red zone struggles and then they got into it and said,
Todd Monkins said, all right, I'm gonna to borrow Greg
Roman phrase. I'm gonna open up the vault a little bit.
And and so a creative alignment on that play with
the tight ends, even the run left to with Lamar.
(22:21):
The play before that you reference another very creative alignment,
especially with the three tight ends. Mark Andrews started under
center on that. It was it was another fake toush
push to Mark Andrews. He ended up being he kind
of moved moved out to the left, and then you
get this quick speed you know, Lamar run left, sprint left,
(22:42):
and you have all three tight ends out blocking, Derrick
Henry out why blocking, and Tyle Linerbaum out likely cracked
down on it, but you had four blockers out wide
in front of Lamar Jackson ye and so creative stuff
there from Todd munkin two and and honestly, I think
that that's what it often takes the red zone. That's
when you have to go dial up some of these
(23:03):
more creative plays that you've been working on for weeks
and things, because you know, the Ravens first two trips
the red zone did not work out well. And the
first one specifically, that was really just a it was
a third and two key third and two just didn't
get it blocked up at all. Derek Henry ran into
pat Ricard's back, didn't block it up well at all.
(23:25):
Second trip, nobody opened. Nobody opened to basically lamar throwaways
on second and third down after you know wore he's
lost his block on first and goal from the four
that got run got blown up. Now they throw two
straight and it was just covered up. And so then
I think Todd Monkins said, all right, let's we got
we gotta get a little more creative down here. Yeah,
and next two trips got touchdowns on both this well.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
You talk about the Mark Andrews touchdown too. You said
all three tight ends were on the field. You kind
of short changed. There's really four tight ends on the
field because pat Riccard was out there too, shrined up
at tight end, so you was he in line he
was in line on that play on the right side
or he was on the left side.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Yeah, it was three. The other three tight ends were
all right.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Yeah, but I mean there's it's in the same personnel package.
You have three tight ends and a fullback or fight
four tight ends, however you want to call it.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
Yea.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
And so they've got the bits the big package out there,
and they but.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Then they got Charlie Cohler out wide.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
But yeah, they got him out wide like he's he
and then again it looks like that's a classic. It
looks like it's going to be a run and it
was the play before. And so that's that's part of
the Lamar Jackson effect, and it's part of.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
The Ravens tight end effect.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
It's it's it's all of it. Honestly, it's Lamar Jackson
effect because he his ability as a runner creates so
much focus on him that you can just forget about
the guy who's caught more touchdowns in a Ravens uniform
than anybody. Yeah, and then it also speaks to the
talent of the tight ends and the creativity from the
coaching staff, like there's all three levels at play there.
And I'm with you, I think that those are the
(24:56):
types of things that that you need to do in
that part the field. And John Harwall talked about that
pitch play to Lamar, and he made the point there
that like, these are the kinds of things that you
need to do in those win you games.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
And and the fact that the Ravens put some of
that creative stuff on tape, on the fake Toush push
and on these sweet plays with Lamar one running, one passing,
it just gives defenses more to think about. And and
they're gonna have variations of these plays, like that's what
that's what the Mark Andrews touchdown was. It was a
(25:29):
variation of the play right before it. And the Toush
push was a variation of the toushbush. Like They're gonna
have variations of these and that just gives defenses more
and more things to think about. And I also think,
like using that Toush push example, now, I think teams
are gonna be a touch more hesitant.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
To be to react to the Tousch push to the
actual touch push.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Yes, I think that that like you got to take
a second work of Lamar in the backfield and make
sure that like let's make sure they're really running this
with the tight end in this situation. I think all
of it helps moving forward for how defenses are gonna
play you.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
I absolutely agree with that. John Harbaugh was clear that
they need to improve in the red zone in order
to achieve what they want to achieve. That I'm sure
will be a continued focus this week for Todd Munkin
in the offense. One last thing I want to talk
about with the offense is the way we talked about
it a lot leading into the game. Was the Vikings
blitz with Brian Flores and They're gonna blitz a lot,
(26:21):
and how are the Ravens and Lamar Jackson gonna handle it?
And well it came to fruition. Yeah, the Vikings blitz
fifty eight point eight percent of the time. The Ravens, however,
took just one sack against that. Lamar Jackson was twelve
of nineteen for one hundred and eighteen yards on his
quick passes. And that's really how the Ravens neutralized that
blitz was get the ball out of Lamar Jackson's hands. Fast,
(26:43):
quick decisions, quick execution. So this was his two point
five to nine seconds to throw. Was the sixth fastest
time of his career. You know it was the fastest time.
Tell me Dolphins game against Brian Flores back in twenty
twenty one, and so the Ravens knew they had to
get the ball out of Lamar's hands fast, and they
(27:04):
did that.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
I thought that this is kind of speaks to like
the evolution of the offense that we talked about coming
into the game. The Ravens have got so much better
at having answers for those types of that approach on
defense where they're bringing the house yep, and defenses are
going to continue to try to do that. Like, Okay,
you got the Browns coming up this week. They're an
aggressive defense and now they got an all world pass
(27:27):
rusher of Miles Garrett who can win one on one
battles in a way that you don't necessarily need to
blitz in the same way. But Jim Schwartz is still
going to bring it like that's the way that they
play defense. And so I would expect the lessons learned
from the whole Brian Flores challenge and that type of
defensive scheme will apply this week as the Ravens move
(27:49):
forward against Cleveland.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Yeah, absolutely agree with that. Lamar threw a quick pass
that's under two point five seconds on sixty five point
five percent of his attempts. That's the second highest rate
of his career. So maybe against the Browns that'll be
the highest rate, yeah, of his career.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
It certainly could be. So it's a similar approach that
Jim Schwartz and that Browns defense brings. And we'll see
how that plays out this week. So let's take a
quick break and then when we come back, we'll talk
about one of the breakout players on this defense and
also take a look around the AFC North. You're listening
to the Lounge podcast. We're coming to from the Sea
Geek Studio. We want to mention our partners at Draftking
sports Book. They are an official sports betting partner of
(28:24):
the Baltimore Ravens DraftKings Sports Book. The Crown is yours.
So a player who is coming on really strong right
now is the rookie first round pick Malachi Starks. And
when the Ravens drafted him and we did our initial
draft recap conversations and you're looking at the highlights from
this guy. What we hoped he would become is what
(28:46):
we have seen these last two weeks. Like a player
who flies around the football, who's in the right spot
at the right time and can come up with playmaking
type moments, and that's what he's done with picks and
back to back games.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Yeah. Absolutely, I think I predicted Malachi to lead this
team in interceptions, did I not? Oh, he's climbing up
the light now he's tied with Nate Wiggins too. Two.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Well, Nate was my pick, So I need my guy
to come up and make a few more interceptions here.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Also, I will give you credit. You did say you
predict him to have an interception in this game. So
are you gonna go three for three? Are you calling
that put on the spot right now?
Speaker 1 (29:19):
I mean Dylan Gabriel? Yeah, why not? Yeah? I think
that Malachi is playing really well. So according to Pro
Football Focus, he is the highest graded safety in the
league over the past two weeks. He's been the Ravens
highest graded player offense or defense the past two week weeks,
(29:41):
and he's he's beating out some very good company right now.
Malachi starks as the past couple of weeks some of
the top safeties in the league. So I actually bumped
into Chuck Pagano down in the cafeteria and was telling
him about that about Malchi's strong grades and he said, man,
this guy is really coming on and just the range
(30:02):
that he's showing, the smarts that he's playing with that
it's he's very impressed with what he's seeing from Malachi.
And I agree. Part of it too for me is
the physicality he just he's he's playing. He's not overthinking now,
is what it looks like to me. And he's coming
up and taking on blockers, he's making hits. He just
(30:22):
seems to be playing with so much more assurance. Yeah,
I think he's always been a confident guy and the
work he puts in and all that stuff, but now
he's not thinking as much on the field and he's
just playing and you're seeing the natural playmaker that he
is come through.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
One of the things that struck me about Milchai Stars
from the very first day I met him was just
how studious he seemed and smart and had an understanding
of everything that happened on the defense of Georgia and
would be happening at the NFL level. And I think
that that's that's an asset. However, with that, I think
you also so probably saw early on, is that he's
(31:03):
like processing everything that's happening because he's like so aware
of the of the calls and what should be happening,
and like you're thinking, like he's a thinker, and like
you want to have a safety that has like this
great feel and knowledge of everything happening in front of him.
But like that can slow you down a little.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Bit, and you don't want to make a mistake when
you're a rookie and all those things, especially you know
he's playing center field. You can't let it get it
past him, and so you're really cautious of not making
a mistake.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
And the word that he used when I asked him
about this was trust. He's trusting himself that he knows
what he's doing and he's going to be in the
right spot and he can just play, and he's trusting
his teammates. And so if you trust the entire system,
that does allow you to play free. Because if you're
not worried about trying to cover up a mistake or
make up for a miss assignment, or make making a
mistake yourself, Like if those are not things that are
(31:54):
at the front of your mind, then you can go
out there and play with instincts. And and I like
the other thing, I really like is when he's in
a position to make a play, he's making it, like
coming across the field and going up and making that
catch and.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Get justin Justin Jefferson, Justin Jefferson like that.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
That's that is a tough play to make, and I
really like his his ability to finish the play when
he has the opportunity. So yeah, it's like I've always
felt this year, like for the Ravens to be a
team that that gets over the hump, goes deep into playoffs,
all those things. A lot of it is going to
come down to the play of this rookie class because
(32:33):
they've got They've got a number of players in this
rookie class playing significant snaps. Malachi at the top of
the list, Mike Green, Teddy Buchanans.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Gives back to my predictions. I was hot, very high
on the rookie class coming into the year, and it
got off to a slowish start, I think it's fair
to say. And they were getting a lot of playing time,
So it's not surprising when you that many rookies get
thrown into the deep end. You're gonna have some guys
that need swimming. Yeah, it's tough to keep keep your
(33:03):
head above water and so, but the Ravens are seeing
that payoff now, all that experience that they've gotten, now
they've just seen that they're not rookies anymore. They've played
nobody's played more snaps than male guy Starks has on
this entire team. Mike Green's playing the most snaps of
any of the outside linebackers. Yea, Teddy Buchanan is playing
(33:27):
a ton and just he also had his best game
of the year in Minnesota according to Pro Football Focus.
And so I think that's all paying off now.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Yeah, if those guys can continue that trajectory that we're
seeing is ken j Jackson. Kendre Jackson is another one. Like,
if those guys can continue that, then I think that
this team is going to be in a really good position.
One other guy wants to.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Feld goals.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Yeah, one other guy I want to mention on defense,
not a rookie, but a new addition to Draymond Jones.
The Ravens traded for him.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
He steps in and plays right away. It was a
really good debut for Draymond Jones. He had four quarterback pressures,
pressure the quarterback on twelve percent of his pass rush snaps.
That's what the Ravens need. They need somebody who can
can create havoc, get after the quarterback, create disruption, and
he can play inside, he can play outside along that
defensive front, so.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
As they use the versatility lined up left outside linebacker
and right and I believe it was left defensive end
for thirteen snaps. Yeah, so you saw some of that versatility.
What in just his first game.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
He a little note on him. This is going to
be a big game for him. He grew up in
Cleveland and so he's got a bunch of family there,
lives there in the off season. So this is definitely
a game that he's got circled on his calendar, and
he's excited about the opportunity to go home and make
an impact in this game. So maybe he gets his
first sack as a Raven back home in Cleveland.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Yep. Absolutely. And speaking of Cleveland and the AFC North,
there is news coming out of the division A. As
we mentioned before, Dylan Gabriel will remain the Browns starter.
After another loss, Kevin Stefanski has asked are they going
to consider making the quarterback change to Shadora Sanders, which
has been much talked about around the league. That will
(35:11):
not happen this week. It's going to be Dylan Gabriel again,
and so the Ravens will get another rookie quarterback. And
then as well, speaking of quarterbacks, Joe Burrow has returned
to practice for the Cincinnati Bengals coming off his major
foot surgery. He is well ahead of schedule in his rehab,
according to him and Jay Glazer, and it's looking like
(35:35):
playing on Thanksgiving Night here at M and T Bank
Stadium is not out of the question.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
He was asked after practice on Monday, yeah, about what
would it mean to be back for that game on
Thanksgiving Night, and he said it'd be very meaningful. Like
he he kept it. He didn't have too much to say,
but he said a lot in few words. And then
when you add to the reports, Jay Glaizer saying that
(36:03):
the return table timetable was Thanksgiving Ish, Thanksgiving Ish, and
there happens to be a game on Thanksgiving Night, which
is in the Thanksgiving Ish timeline. And I think that look,
Burrow and the Ravens have had some battles over the years,
and he wants to be on the field against the Ravens.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
And I suffered a season ending injury. His risks.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
I even go back to, like when the schedule came
out of this year and he made some gripes about
having to play another primetime game on the road in
Baltimore on Thursday night, Like, so that game was kind
of on his radar immediately immediately, and so like, you know,
he wants to be out there. And again, these teams
have had some battles against each other, so I think
that he is going to do everything he can. And
it's interesting though, because Joe Flacco is operating that offense
(36:52):
at an incredibly high level, like he's been awesome, and.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
That offense hasn't been the problem, has not been the
problem in Cincinnati the past couple of weeks.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Joe fla is putting up like thirty five to forty
points a game for that offense.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
And so what this boils down to is it seems
like the Ravens are gonna have to prepare for the
possibility at least that Joe Burrow plays. I still think
it seems like a long shot to me, especially he
has a twenty one day practice window. That Thursday night
thanks Giving game will be day seventeen. No, so you
be kind of cutting it short a little bit. It's
a short week, you're gonna rush him back, especially if
(37:26):
the Bengals what happens the next two weeks? For two
weeks for the Bengals, that's the key thing is they're
out of the playoff chase by that point. Are you
going to rush back Joe Burrow your franchise quarterback with
a foot? You don't want to make it worse, But
who knows. We'll see where they're at. I think that
it's safe to say that the Ravens are going to
(37:46):
have to go into that game preparing for the possibility
that Joe Burrow plays. However, is that that much different
for preparing for the possibility that Joe Placo plays. I
don't think Joe Burrow is gonna come out and start
running all over over the field on you scrambling in
this first game back.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
But also it doesn't like the style of play correct
even him.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
The pocket quarterbacks, you were going to get it out
to those big time wide receivers.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Right. The structure of the offense remains no matter who
is playing at quarterback, and as I just mentioned, Flacco's
got that offense humming and playing at a really high level.
I think that like, you're gonna have to contend with
a lot on that offense and the weapons who are
on the outside, no matter who's a quarterback. But yeah,
the next two weeks I think are going to go
a long way. And it turning that the Bengals are
three and six right now. They play the Steelers this game.
(38:31):
If they were going to be three and eight at
that point, I think it's a much different conversation. However,
if it goes the other direction and they win these
next two games and they're five and six coming in
at that one, and they feel like Joe Burrow's healthy,
then I think they're having a much different conversation. So
these next two games are going to go a long way.
And we talked about the division. It's kind of a there.
(38:52):
There's two division games EFS North games this weekend, Ravens
and the Browns and the Steelers and the Bengals play
each other. So this is an important weekend. We're getting
into the territory now where this division is going to
be decided. You mentioned off the top, the Ravens are
one game out of first place, and so the Steelers
are certainly within their sights but you got to win
these games. These you have to win these division games,
and and we'll we'll see what happens for both teams
(39:16):
on both games on Sunday. But this is a big
opportunity here, and it's kind of crazy considering where we
were a month ago that there's a possibility that we
end Sunday night and the Ravens are coming home from
Cleveland sitting in first place in the division.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
Certainly yeah five first place.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Like that possibility is on the table. If the Steelers
losing the Ravens win, they would be tied at that point.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
The records standpoint North record, and it's it's a lot
of the season is going to come down to three
straight AFC North games starting a Thanksgiving Night Bengals, Steelers Bengals,
and so the Ravens. But the Ravens got to take
care of the Browns first land, which is never an
easy tat.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
Yeah, we're we're talking about Thanksgiving Night. There's two games
between now and then Sunday against the Browns and then
the next week against the Jets. And and I do
think as much as we're talking about that that Thanksgiving
Night and Joe Burrow's return and all that stuff. I
think that the Ravens are They're very much taking the
one game in our timeline set like we talked about earlier.
So as always, you can email us at the lounge
at Ravens dot NFL dot net. We always love hearing
(40:21):
your emails. Thank you so much for listening. We will
be back with you later this week.
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