Rob Long | 105.7 The Fan Baltimore Host

Some fans gear up for game day, but some fans follow their team every day. That's why the Locked On Podcast Network has a daily podcast for your favorite MLB team.

Every trade, every overtime win, every game. Our local experts cover the biggest stories around your team every day. Search Locked On plus your favorite MLB team on the Odyssey app or wherever you get podcasts. The Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. We're pleased to welcome Rob Long from our Baltimore affiliate, 105.7 The Fan. He's getting set for his big bad morning show that starts at the top of next hour. All right, Rob, this is a simple question.

I'm sure you have the answer to it and the keys to unlock the mysteries of the universe. What the heck? First of all, my team has to do bad for you to get me on the show. I noticed that. I noticed the cut. Hold on. We got you on when the Orioles were playing really well a couple of months ago. I have selective memory.

Like most men, yes. What's going on is, I've told you this before, I'm not a Greg Roman fan. You can't get shut out the second half at home on offense.

The same thing happened a couple of weeks ago. It wasn't the shutout, but the offense gets the lead and it's like the other team, your opponents make an adjustment and you don't. I mean, why does Mark Andrews in this game have five targets and two touches? And don't tell me because everybody knows you're going to Mark Andrews, you know. I mean, C.D. Lamb gets eight targets and six catches.

You saw last night with Cooper Cupp, everybody knows you're going to Cooper Cupp. He puts up numbers. How do you not give Mark Andrews the football?

And that's exactly what happened. He was taken away in the second half by the Buffalo Bills and the entire offense sputtered because that's your number one target. That's just one example to me of how Greg Roman cannot scheme them into and out of situations and is really killing the offense. I mean, I get that, but it's just crazy how stark the difference, where they'll go from run up and down the field and Lamar Jackson moving at will and then all of a sudden it's three and out, three and out, three and out, three and out, or it's, you know, an interception here.

I mean, they certainly talk about the choice at the end of the game, but it's just such a drastic difference. I don't understand how they fall off the map when you have Lamar Jackson as your QB. Because the other team makes adjustments and your offense is going in and does not. I mean, you go in half time, they make adjustments, okay, what are you going to do based on what they did? They shut up, they shut in the gap between the guards in the second half, okay, you run outside then.

You know, it's just simple things. They took away the short passing game, so throw intermediate routes. It's just the basic things when you're sitting up top and you're watching and you watch the all 22, you're like, okay, they're open.

There's nobody in those spaces where defenders are occupied. They make no adjustment. They run the same plays in first half and second half and the defense doesn't run the same defense.

It's that, Amy, it's not mind boggling, it's that basic. Other teams make adjustments, he doesn't. All right, well then why doesn't John Harbaugh step in? He's ultimately in charge. That is the million dollar question and that's why John Harbaugh, as far as the fans are concerned in Baltimore right now, are under fire.

He's under fire for that. He's also under fire for that fourth down decision where the offense has been shut out the entire second half. You don't say, I don't have faith in the defense who, by the way, hadn't given up any points in the fourth quarter yet. I have faith in the offense. The defense had been playing okay. The offense shut out for more than two quarters, so you say, I'm going to ask for a touchdown when I'm not even getting in the red zone, instead of kicking a field goal to take the lead at home and allow your crowd to get your defense in. Again, the defense hadn't given up any points in the fourth quarter, so why show a lack of confidence in them when the offense hadn't scored in over two quarters?

And that's a big question that a lot of fans in Baltimore and the media is asking John Harbaugh, and it has happened before. You've got the best kicker in the game on the sideline, and again, Amy, your offense hasn't scored. Why are you asking them to get a touchdown when they haven't even gotten in the red zone?

Well because you're there, you're close, and it's so tempting and so tantalizing. You have Lamar Jackson. I'm not sure why you're asking him to throw when Lamar Jackson is two yards away from punching it in himself. Well the first three plays, what did they try to do?

Yeah, you're right. They didn't get it in. They didn't get it in. So to me, that's why you don't try on fourth down. We did what we could do best. We tried to do what we did best.

And it didn't work. Okay, so now I gave you three downs to get in. Okay, now this fourth down is mine. We're getting points. And we're going to make Josh Allen drive the length of the field to beat us or take the field goal and we'll overtime at home. That's what I'm doing. The first three downs, if you try to pass two downs and realize, you know what, we're being stupid.

Let's run a third down to get it closer and punch it in on fourth down. I understand that. But that's not what they did. Right.

They tried to do what they do best and it didn't work. Okay, now kick the field goal and take the lead. How confident are you that, barring any changes at the top, that they can still be a competent team, a playoff team, a team that doesn't keep suffering these collapses?

I'm not very confident. Amy, this is not, and anybody in Baltimore will tell you, this is my opinion about Greg Roman. It isn't new. It didn't start Sunday.

True. It started a year and a half ago. It's been on offense for a long time. I just don't feel, I think he's a one trick pony. You know, he can run that one offense, when that one offense doesn't work, they are confused. John Harbaugh, for the first time on Sunday, to me, when they missed that fourth down situation, looked like a man without answer, if you look on his face. When you saw Marcus Peters go after him, to be continued on that, that's not over with. Marcus Peters is a man, number one, who has a lot of weight in that locker room. So if he's doing that, then people are going to ask him, well, what's up, Marcus? And he's going to tell them, there's other people with that same opinion.

And then they're going to go to the, I'm telling you, this to be continued on that whole scene with Marcus Peters on the sidelines after the game. And I thought it was somewhat comical, too, when he kept saying the analytics will bear that out. Almost like, hey, it's way over your head to ask me these questions.

The analytics, you don't understand, but the analytics will support my decision. That's the arrogance, Amy. That's the arrogance. To me, the analytics, giving me that answer says to me, really, I mean, you're fine. You can disguise it in the arrogance, but you can't talk over my head. So what you're saying to me is, you don't have an answer, so you'll point to something that I can't quantify.

I can't argue. You don't have an answer. Analytics don't tell you you have the best kicker in the game. Analytics don't tell you your offense hasn't scored in over two quarters. Analytics don't tell you that your defense up to that last second field goal hasn't been scored upon in the fourth quarter. Analytics don't tell you that. Analytics don't give you a feel for the game. Let's go to baseball analytics. Baseball analytics may say, it's time to punt, but what if this guy at the plate can't punt?

You don't punt, you understand? Analytics are to assist you, not to dictate to you. Right.

No, they're to frame some of the options, but I would agree with you. Analytics also don't measure human heart, human desire. They don't measure situations where maybe a crowd is really into it or the opposite, the crowd could be booing.

Absolutely. They don't measure how humans perform under pressure. Not everybody performs the same way under pressure. They don't take into account weather all the time either.

And so there's a lot of that, right, where the analytics don't tell you the whole story. Rob Long is with us from Baltimore in 105.7, the fan, joining us here on our morning show before his morning show that comes up at the top of the hour. So yes, the Ravens are certainly in a division where these teams are going to cancel each other out in a lot of cases. And right now you've got everybody but Pittsburgh sitting at two and two. What are your impressions of the rest of the North right now?

I don't think it's very good. Once upon a time, not long ago, it was the best division in my opinion in football. That might be the NFC East as we sit right now, but I don't think it's very good. I think Cincinnati, I said it last year after the Super Bowl, I'll say it again, their team that got hot at the right time, I don't think they are as good as they were on their run last year. I don't. We'll see how good Cleveland is when Deshaun Watson gets back. But you know, it's going to reset, doesn't scare me, just that you're not going to beat me with him. And the Ravens are who they are right now.

I don't know who they are. Pittsburgh, whenever you have a quarterback controversy because you have an NF starter, veteran rather than a rookie, you're not going to be very good. I love Mike Tomlin, but this may be the end of that 15 consecutive years of winning seasons or non-losing seasons, so this might be it. I don't think the AFC North is very good.

You might get one playoff team out of it, but it's not a very good division right now. All right, so then what does Baltimore have to do in order to establish itself now? And I get it, you want the adjustments on offense, but that's just a crazy problem.

I can't believe it's happened once, forget twice. What does Baltimore have to do as you look ahead to the next month? Stop making the same mistakes, largely with going forward on fourth down and taking points off the board and telling me analytics, that's the one thing you can't control. You're not going to get rid of Greg Roman right now, I get it, but Greg Roman, along with you, can't say he lost that game. You know, you pick the field goal there, then what if? What if your team gets a big stop? What if, you know, I think Josh Allen had five or six batted balls in a lot of scrimmage. What if one of those happens again and you get the turnover?

You know, there's a lot of things that can happen that's in your favor because you're at home. I think, to be honest with you, they need to make better decisions. They can't be this gambling team that does whatever they want to do because the defense, quite frankly, in my opinion, is not that great. You know, they're bad at inside linebacker with Patrick Queen, the company. They have a very talented outside linebacker in O-Way, but he's young and he's going to be inconsistent. And they have age with JPP and other guys on the outside part, so you have to take points when you can get points you get. You're not the team of Lamar Jackson's MVP season of 2019 where you're putting 40 points up every week. You're not that team.

So you have to defraud a little bit and take points when you can get points. Is there anything you like about the team right now, Rob? Lamar Jackson. I love Lamar Jackson.

No, I do. I think the receiving core is a lot better than I thought it would be. I think Bateman is sensational and Devin DuVernay has really grown up. His organization was really patient with him and now he's blossoming. He's becoming that receiver that I thought he could be.

I love Mark Andrews. I think the passing, you know, the receivers are unbelievable. I think the passing attack on his team could be good, but it could be better if the running game was a little bit better. And I also love the fact that Justice Hill, talking about another guy I've been patient with, he left the game with a hamstring injury. I hope that's not serious because he's really shown some progress on what he was the first couple of years.

He's an explosive bat that could add some real dynamics to this offense. So I do. There's some things I do like about this team. I know I'm risking your wrath, but I would just like to make the point that Greg Roman didn't actually throw the interception in the end zone. No, you're not risking my wrath. That was a horrible decision because, now let me say this, even though I don't like the decision to go for it, I love the play because Lamar Jackson had Davis open on his plant route early, and then he had DuVernay open in the back that he didn't seek.

He said he had hands in the face, and I believe that. But even though they didn't like the decision, the play call actually was a good play call. Before I let you go, the Orioles don't make the playoffs. They fall short. But it was a lot of fun to see that team this year.

You and I had talked about them. Going back a couple months, how would you assess their 2022 campaign? Unbelievable. 82 wins right now to make a guarantee to winning season, 14. I was optimistic. People laughed at me when I said it won 70.

But I thought that was just 73. I didn't think they were capable of much more, but again, you're talking about what you can't measure on paper. I didn't know Attlee Washington was that much of an impact. I didn't know Gunnar Henderson was that good. And these rookies have come up, you know, Kyle Stowers, you know, they've had rookies come up, Batista, and not only just kind of be in the moment, but kind of add to what they did. You take those rookies off the team. They're not winning 82 games.

They weren't carried. Those rookies did a lot this year. I think the future's bright. I think that what you see, I think Brandon Hyde to get strong consideration for manager of the year. No, he's not going to the playoffs. But ask me this, Amy. Did you just call me Eddie?

I didn't say Eddie. All the teams that are in the playoff hunt in the American League, and I know they're out of it now, everybody was expected to be there except the Orioles. And I mean, Seattle won 90 games last year. They were supposed to be in the playoff hunt. Everybody was supposed to be there. Toronto, New York Yankees. The Orioles weren't supposed to be there, and up until last week, they were in it. I think Brandon Hyde is a strong consideration for manager of the year. You cannot measure chemistry, hope, youthful exuberance, energy.

You can't measure that kind of formula of corporate synergy, which is the fact that the sum is very often greater than the individual parts. Absolutely. Rob Long is part of O's Extra on Massen and getting set for his morning show on our Baltimore affiliate, 105.7 The Fan.

You can find him on Twitter at Rob Long Sports, and I will talk to you in a few minutes, Rob. Absolutely. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Some fans gear up for game day, but some fans follow their team every day. That's why the Locked On Podcast Network has a daily podcast for your favorite MLB team. Every trade, every overtime win, every game. Our local experts cover the biggest stories around your team every day. Search Locked On plus your favorite MLB team on the Odyssey app or wherever you get podcasts. The Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.