12/10/25: Mo Egger with Jonas Shaffer of The Baltimore Banner

Jonas Shaffer covers the Ravens for The Baltimore Banner. He joined us on ESPN1530.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Twenty six from six. This is ESPN fifteen thirty onm Oeger.
Bengals just played the Ravens on Thanksgiving night, which means
we just talked with our next guest does an awesome
job covering the Baltimore Ravens for the Baltimore Banner. You
could read his work at the Banner dot com. Jonah
Schaeffer is with us. It's good to have you again, Jonas.
How are you no?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
I just spell like I was talking to yesterday? Are
you doing that? I'm well.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
I think a lot of folks have, you know, went
into that Baltimore Bengals game on Thanksgiving Night and thought,
this is the Ravens chance to put the Bengals away.
That didn't happen, and then they lose at home to
the Pittsburgh Steelers, And I think folks have walked away
from that going okay, this team that it felt like
they had a chance to run away with the division
is now cooked. Is that an overreaction?

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Man? I don't know. I just every time I try
to get my finger on the pult of this Ravens team,
I wildly disjudge what exactly situation is that I was
looking at my my record and picking games straight up,
not even against the spread. And I'm five and six
this year, so you know, you expect a normal you know,

(01:10):
predictor to probably fare a little bit better than five hundred.
And I'm a game under five hundred. Ye, just just
like the Ravens. Sorry if you gotta get them six
and seven, just like the Ravens are. So it's it's tough.
I mean, like, you know, you look at this back
half or this back month of the season, the final
four games that they have, and it's a brutal stretch.
But then you consider, well, Pittsburgh is kind of hanging

(01:32):
on by a thread too, like you know, is going
against Miami and Detroit and Cleveland and then Baltimore that
much difficult for them than what the Ravens have coming up,
considering all their deficiencies on offense and defense. So you know,
you could look at this, this next game in Cincinnati
for the Ravens as a potential must win game, and
I think I do think it's probably the most winnable

(01:54):
of the ravens next four games. But you know this,
this Pittsburgh season could spiral out of control just as
easily as the Ravens has over these past two weeks.
So I really don't know how to you know, kind
of what to give you for the mortality of this
of this Ravens team.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Go back to Thanksgiving night. Was it as striking to
you how little they used Derrick Henry in the first
half and really across the entire game. But really in
the first half that night against Cincinnati.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
You know, it didn't really bother me. I know, you know,
Ravens fans were all up in arms about it because
they look at the box score and they see just
how limited his touches were, and his efficiency when he
actually got those touches was so high. But you know,
that second quarter was weird because they should have had
a touchdown on one and they moved into field goal
range on another only to get knocked out by that

(02:43):
you know, third down stack. And then I think the
next two drives were one of them I believe ended
up with the bumble, and the other one was a
two minute drive or a four minute drive where either
Derrick Henry wasn't on the field that often because they
liked to have some of their more pass inclined backs
on the field, or just they knew that he wasn't
match just because they had to move up the field,
up and down the fields quickly. So it didn't really

(03:08):
bothered me that much. But Ravens fans had a very
different story, and they were very much up in arms,
and I do think that the Ravens kind of addressed
those concerns just with the volume of work that that
Henry got on Sunday against Pittsburgh. You know, they went
over two hundred yards as the team for the first
time since Week one, which is unbelievable considering how much
of a force they were last year. So you know,

(03:29):
obviously this this Bengals rushing accusing, this Bengals rushing defense
is still not much to write home about. I don't
miss the Ravens run blocking is anything to write home
about either. But if Lamar's healthier, and you know, this
ton mounketpeals like he has some counter punches for what
you know, sind Nanny showed the first time, then I
do think that it's fair to expect dere Henry to
get more of a you know, get more homework than

(03:52):
he did in Week thirteen.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
Jonah Schaeffer from the Baltimore Banners with us for another
couple of minutes watching that Thanksgiving night game, and even
bits and pieces of the game against Pittsburgh, and I
think you could apply this to his performances since he
rejoined the team after missing a couple of games. You
watch Lamar Jackson and it just doesn't look like Lamar Jackson.
You mentioned his health, obviously that has been the story.
Are his Are his issues solely attributed to the fact

(04:16):
that he's not quite one hundred percent?

Speaker 2 (04:21):
I mean, I think like that's the Olkham Raisers us
the Occomen's razor the conclusion to this. Honestly, you know,
it's just he looks like the best player of the
world in the week one and he got kind of
lit up at the end of that game and was
okay for the next couple of weeks, but not really
able to accelerate as easily as he once had. And
then he gets the hamstring injury, and you know, he's

(04:43):
knocked out for a month, and now he's dealing with
one thing after another. Notable that today he missed practice,
but it was not with an injury designation. It was
just arrest day, which is kind of sort of the
covered they've been using for other practices that he's missed
in a week's past. But you know, I think you
kind of are starting to see some divisions in Rais
fan base because I think Lamar for the most part,

(05:06):
you know, other than one bad interception Sunday against Pittsburgh,
played pretty well against Steelers defense. And then you consider
just how we ended that game with the two minute
drill that barely gets in a field goal range, and
it looked like, you know, he barely got to practice,
you know, that two minute drill, And maybe that's because
he barely got to practice that two minute drill because
he was limited last Wednesday and he missed Thursday's practice.

(05:29):
And here he is again missing today's practice, not even
getting the mental reps in with the team. So it's
it's a bit of a dicey time to be a
Lamar Jackson's fan in Baltimore because of everything that's happened,
and you know, the relative instability that the kind of
his contract situation has has engendered within the fan base
and within the front office. You know, he's not under

(05:51):
contract for two more years after this, but they really
need to get that that cap hit down. So you know,
even though he looks better physically, He's still is flagging
accuracy wise. I think it's five straight games now under
sixty percent, which is by far the longest stretch of
his career. So, you know, the skiel's like a good
time for defenses to kind of get a hunk of
flash from Lamar, especially when you're a Bengals defense that's

(06:13):
really never been able to do with that like that.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
No question one more. Do you mentioned the fan base
and I know I asked you John Harball related question
two weeks ago. They have since lost those games against
Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. What does the the fan base temperature
as it relates to Baltimore's head coach.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
I mean, obviously the loudest people in the crowd are
going to be the ones calling for John Arva's job.
And you know, I think it was notable that you know,
you see on NFL Twitter on Sunday some people saying, well,
we spent all this time talking to how maybe Mike
Tomlin had reached the end of his tenure at Pittsburgh. Well,
should we actually have been talking about the coach on
the other sideline in this game? So I still think

(06:54):
that's a little bit premature. I still think there's too
much equity that he's built up with Charactericasa, GM Fipashati,
the owner. You know, these are guys who he's worked
side by side with for close to two close to
two decades at this point, I think it would take
a just a colossal bottoming now and it's a real
embarrassment for the franchise and perhaps they, you know, a

(07:14):
mismanagement Ulplamar as he goes through whatever injuries he's dealing with.
For John Harbor to be on any kind of shaky ground, like,
you know, what kind of precedent would you be setting
for the next coach If you're saying that two division
titles in three years is not enough, that's just a
you know, a kind of Alabama football level of expectation,
and I don't think the Ravens are in that kind

(07:36):
of verified air.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
Uh. It's a good way to put it. Jonah Schaeffer
from The Baltimore Banner. You could read his work which
is outstanding at the Banner dot com. I appreciate the time, man,
Thanks so much.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
Thanks Mom, appreciate you having me on