Ravens Pro Bowl linebacker Kyle Van Noy talks about Baltimore’s upcoming game against Joe Burrow and the Bengals, compares Lamar Jackson to Tom Brady and discusses being nominated for the Art Rooney sportsmanship award.
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MAADDI: Welcome to On Football. I’m Rob Maaddi. Ready for week 15, some huge matchups in the NFL. Bills-Patriots, Packers-Broncos, the Eagles are reeling. The Chiefs are, well, they’re on the brink of elimination, and Philip Rivers is back in the NFL. Yes, 44-year-old Philip Rivers is back in the NFL with the Indianapolis Colts. Our special guest this week is Ravens linebacker Kyle Van Noy. Stay tuned for that conversation.
The Indianapolis Colts are desperate to save their season. They lost Daniel Jones to an Achilles injury. Backup Riley Leonard went down with a knee injury, so they reached out to former quarterback Philip Rivers, who’s been coaching high school football for the past five years. Phillip is eligible for the Hall of Fame. He’s a semifinalist, but he won’t be anymore because he’s coming back to play for the Indianapolis Colts. There’s familiarity with him and head coach Shane Steichen. He was the offensive coordinator when the two were with the Chargers. My concern isn’t Philip Rivers’ ability to handle the mental aspect of playing quarterback. He knows the plays, he knows the system. It’s whether or not he can withstand the physicality of playing quarterback in the NFL. After being on a sideline for the past few years, I watched him on television in his news conference. He looked like he gained a few pounds since he last played. I don’t know if Philip Rivers is physically ready to handle this, but I can tell you that the Indianapolis Colts are must-watch TV right now.
Kyle Van Noy is a two-time Super Bowl champion. He was a Pro Bowl linebacker last season. And Kyle does a ton of great work in the community. Kyle, great to have you on the show, man. You guys are coming off a very tough loss to Pittsburgh. How long does it — especially with the way things unfolded there. The catch, no catch, everything, how that transpired. How long, does that sit longer than others, or you don’t really have any time for that? You got to get to the next one with Joe Burrow and the Bengals?
VAN NOY: Yeah, you gotta put one more in there. You gotta pick the Travis Jones where he hits the long snapper in the head, too. That turned into an extra four points. So there was quite a few calls in there. But you know, I think the biggest thing is is you have to accept it. It happened. It’s over. It is what it is. And you gotta do everything in your power, and everybody else has to do their 1/11 when they’re out there to not have those calls even come up because you’re playing so well. And I think that’s the biggest focus for us is like, hey, let’s get back to dominating our 1/11, not worry about what everyone else is doing. The ref says, okay, you get a bad call, line it back up again and dominate your 1/11 job. And I think that’s kind of the main focus that we came with after a loss like that. It sucks, it’s not easy, but we got a tough opponent who’s been playing hot since Joe Burrow’s been back. Their offenses did a good job against us the first game. They also had five turnovers, which helped them with that. Then they go to Buffalo and put up another 30 points. So we got our hands full, and then defensively they did a good job against us in the first game, and then Buffalo, they had a couple highs and lows. You know, eventually losing unfortunately for them. But for us, we just gotta come in with the mindset of one and 0. We’re gonna get their best shot. They’re playing on house money. They don’t have, they they can unload the chamber just like we’re gonna have to unload our chamber because they wanna win. They got pride. They’re not playing for a playoff spot. We are. And for them it’s like, ‘Oh we get to knock the Ravens out of the playoff race.’ Like that’s a, that’s our playoff game. So for us we gotta do everything we can to stop that from happening.
MAADDI: You’ve played with some great teams that’s won some Super Bowls in New England with the Patriots. You’ve been, you’ve seen Tom Brady up close and personal in practice. Lamar is a entirely different player who is a tremendous MVP-caliber player of his own. What’s it like seeing him in practice? How could you compare going going against Tom a decade ago and going against Lamar now? Just seeing him in practice.
VAN NOY: He’s one of one. They’re totally different quarterback, but have the same impact. They put fear into the other teams, offense and defense, puts that pressure on, like, hey, we better get going because if not, this guy’s coming. That’s the type of quarterback you want to have. I’m grateful enough to see Lamar from when I first got here to where he’s at now. And just super grateful to have the friendship that we’ve had over the last couple years. And just to see his leadership growth as well as his playmaking ability. And he’s just becoming more of a passer of the football. And that’s what you want to see in a quarterback, growth coming into the NFL. If that’s not something he’s totally comfortable with as far as like being not quarterbacky enough or being a running back and how he’s proved all the people that were right, like his mom and himself, by saying, Yes, I am, and I’m gonna show you. And he’s done it year and year and year and year. And this year, he’s been doing a good job, even though his, you know, stats aren’t where they need to be. There’s been a lot of drops. There’s been a lot of miscues and mishaps, but you can see it. They’re on the brink of it. You know, I believe in LJ. He’s he’s a really good football player, and I believe in the offense they’re gonna get going, and we’re gonna play a great team football game where we’re gonna look back and say, ‘Hell yeah, this was the turning point.’
MAADDI: Kyle, there’s a lot of accolades and and awards that go to players for what they do on the field. You were a Pro Bowler last year in the NFL and now you’re nominated for the Art Rooney Award, which is for sportsmanship, which I think is one of the coolest things. What does that mean to you, just to even be recognized as a nominee?
VAN NOY: Yeah, I feel really blessed about that. I don’t know if they could say that at the beginning of my career. I used to like to get it in, get talk some trash and you know, all that good stuff. But now I I truly believe in just playing the game the right way, giving me so much on the field and off the field, and I wanna just have my light shine that I’m a all the way sportsmanship myself. I’m gonna try to do the right things on the field and off the field. I wanna be a light to young kids out there, like man, you can have it all. You can have the family, you can have the the good kids and you can still play in the NFL and do things outside of the NFL. You can really do it all if that’s what you really want. And hopefully we can get that award sitting at the Van Noy house at home and I would be honored to have it.
MAADDI: Time for some Pro Picks. The four pack was two and two last week, straight up and against the spread. Overall, 41-14-1, straight up, 34-21-1 against the number. My best bet, Carolina 7-6 at New Orleans 3-10. Panthers are 2.5-point favorites and they control their playoff hopes. They already lost at home to the Saints. They’re not gonna overlook New Orleans after seeing them beat Tampa Bay last week on the road. Bryce Young’s coming off an excellent game in a stunning upset over the Rams before they had a week off. Carolina’s been inconsistent. Some impressive wins over the Packers and the Rams. They had some lopsided losses to the Bills and the Patriots. They’ve lost 11 straight games as a favorite. Not this time. Panthers, 23-17. My upset specials are 11-3 straight up and against the spread. Looking at the Lions, who are 8-5 at LA against the Rams. They’re 10-3. Rams are five and a half point favorites. Jared Goff is 2-1 against Matthew Stafford since they were traded for each other. That includes a playoff win. But the Rams already got their Super Bowl victory out of Stafford. The Lions are still looking to go there with Jared Goff. They’ve got a tough road just to get into the playoffs, and that starts this week in LA. Now Goff and coach Dan Campbell are 23-12 against the spread as underdogs. Meanwhile, the Rams are 16-3 against the spread in December since 2021. Something has to give. I’m taking the more desperate team, Lions, 27-26. Next, I’m going to Baltimore at Cincinnati. Ravens are 6-7. Bengals are 4-9. Ravens are a two and a half point favorite. Maybe facing the league’s worst defense. We’ll finally get Lamar Jackson and the Ravens offense going. They’ve got no margin for error after a tough loss to the Steelers. Some controversial plays, as you heard from Kyle Van Noy. Joe Burrow and the Bengals, they’re playing spoiler. They already won in Baltimore on Thanksgiving. Jackson is 6-2 against Burrow. Make that 7-2. Ravens, 29-24. Lastly, I’ll go to one of those big games. Buffalo, 9-4, at New England, 11-2. Yet the Patriots are home underdogs. Bills are one-point favorites. The Patriots have won 10 in a row. The Bills had opened the season 4-0 before they lost to New England at home in week four. And New England’s kept on winning. It feels like Josh Allen versus Drake Maye is gonna be the headline for the next decade in the AFC East. The Bills rallied last week in a snowstorm to beat Burrow and the Bengals. The Patriots rested. Mike Vrabel’s teams in Tennessee were 6-1 overall and 6-1 against the spread off a bye. He’s in New England. They’re due for a loss. I think Buffalo avenges their week four loss at home. 27-24 Bills.
That’s it for this week. Thank you to Kyle Van Noy. Thank you for listening to On Football. And thanks to Haya Panjwani and Guillermo Gonzalez for producing this episode. Please check out AP News.com for the full Pro Picks, On Football analysis and more NFL News.
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