RAVENS MAKE SUPER BOWL STATEMENT IN MONDAY NIGHT UPSET AGAINST THE SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS
The Baltimore Ravens might just be the best team in football following the convincing beat down they put on display for a national audience against the San Francisco 49ers on Monday Night. The final result, a 33-19 win for the Ravens, didn’t do justice to how dominant Baltimore was against what was deemed to be the best team in football by numerous analysts across the league.
Baltimore, the AFC’s current no.1 seed, came into the game as 5-point underdogs, despite having the same 11-3 record as the Niners, who also held the top seed in their conference entering the contest. The Ravens told reporters all week they felt “disrespected” by the narrative that the San Francisco 49ers were clearly the better team, and they played like it on Monday.
“I think internally we don’t feel that way,” said Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton on Wednesday last week. “Externally, I don’t know what it is, whether it’s the lack of primetime games or whatever, I think the 11-3s are not created equal right now. In terms of the 49ers versus us, and we feel a little disrespected by that. I feel like we are the best team in the league and we’ve got an opportunity in front of the country to show it.”
For the first time this season, the Ravens played a complete game, with the team firing on all cylinders in all three phases of the game. The defense made key stops in their own territory and forced turnovers, which the offense capitalized on and scored points, and when the Ravens needed to punt or kick field goals, they executed perfectly and seamlessly.
The game began with exchanged jabs between both teams and after a back-and-forth first quarter in which Baltimore conceded a safety to their hosts when Lamar Jackson tripped over an official and was flagged for intentional grounding, the game started to open up. Both defenses made key plays and came up with much needed stops but the Ravens defense quickly separated themselves by contributing three takeaways in the first half, picking off second-year quarterback Brock Purdy a record three times for the first time in his career.
Purdy conceded after the game the turnovers were too costly and he needed to take better care of the ball, especially after the first interception by Kyle Hamilton.
“That starts it off,” said Purdy. “Obviously, we were rolling, we had the momentum, had some really big play on that drive. And then I throw the ball like that to end the momentum that we had. So, for me, yeah, that definitely hurt. [I] wish I had it back, I wish I would have progressed and just checked it down and kept the drive alive, definitely have to learn from it.”
The former Iowa State Hawkeye would turn over the ball to All-Pro CB Marlon Humphrey and Hamilton again before throwing his fourth interception of the game to Ravens’ fourth-year linebacker Patrick Queen, who is quietly becoming one of the top linebackers in the NFL.
Purdy was then benched in the fourth quarter after a resurfacing of the stinger he first felt last week against the Arizona Cardinals, with Sam Darnold taking over the reins at quarterback. The 2018 third overall pick played well after coming in and finished off a huge drive in the fourth quarter, which ended in a touchdown from Niners rookie wide receiver Ronnie Bell.
Both Purdy and Darnold would combine for a total 308 passing yards, completing 26 of 46 passes, and throwing 1 touchdown, along with 5 interceptions. Darnold’s own fourth quarter interception came at the hands of Ravens S Marcus Williams with a minute left to play in the game.
The Ravens defense has reiterated all year that they’re the best defense in the league and did so again on Monday night. But the main point of conversation may just be Lamar Jackson and the Ravens offense, who seem to be peaking at just the right time.
Despite the loss of JK Dobbins, Mark Andrews, and Keaton Mitchell last week to season-ending injuries, Baltimore was ruthless offensively, taking advantage of the turnovers handed to them by their defense. Lamar Jackson and the Ravens scored on 7 consecutive drives, putting up 33 points and a 21-point cushion between themselves and the Niners in the middle of the game.
The upset pulled by Baltimore in Santa Clara and Jackson’s knack for creating plays to move the sticks placed the sixth-year quarterback at the top of all MVP conversation by night’s end. Jackson’s teammates, Roquan Smith, rookie receiver Zay Flowers, and Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, echoed the sentiment of most of the country after the game.
“I thought Lamar had an MVP performance tonight,” said Harbaugh. “It takes a team to create a performance like that, but it takes a player to play at that level – to play at an MVP level – it takes a player to play that way. And Lamar was all over the field doing everything.”
“Lamar Jackson is the MVP, hands down,” Smith said. “Anyone that watches football and knows football and can see the type of impact he has on the game – not even stat-wise, but just individually, the plays that he makes quarter in and quarter out, play in and play out. Compare his film to anyone else in the league. Then, I would love to hear what anyone else has to say after that.”
Flowers was Lamar’s top target once again in a game in which Jackson distributed the ball to eight different receivers for 252 passing yards, and 2 touchdowns, all the while completing 23 of 35 attempted passes. Jackson added 45 more yards on the ground and finished with an 86.3 QBR and a 105.9 passer rating.
“He can do everything. You [saw] it tonight,” said Flowers. “He ran it, he threw it, he led the team. That’s the MVP.”
If Jackson wins the award this season, it’ll be the second of his career, following his record-breaking 2019 season. The 26-year-old, however, isn’t concerned by any individual awards at this stage in his career, and has his eyes set on taking care of each game, with the long-term goal of playing in the Super Bowl in February in Las Vegas.
“We got the ‘dub.’ I really don’t care about [my] performance,” Jackson said. “I just want to win, and that’s what happened tonight. On Christmas, that was my gift.”
“We know what it was in 2019 when we were playing against [teams] like this [and] winning regular season games. When the time came, we didn’t finish the season. We’re just going to keep taking it a day at a time, a practice at a time and a game at a time. That’s all I’m focused on right now.”
The former Louisville Cardinal is now 20-1 against the NFC in his career, a statistic that bodes well for the Ravens if they get to the big dance in February. Jackson will also feel confident based off of his improved 6-0 playing career record against top 5 scoring defenses on the road, defenses that he’s more than likely to face in the postseason, and is averaging an impressive 26.5 points per game in those games.
The Ravens have already punched their ticket into the playoffs, doing so with a win against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday Night Football last week, and have the opportunity to seal the no.1 seed with a win on a short week against the Miami Dolphins this week. Miami currently leads the AFC East with an 11-4 record and also has a shot at clinching the top seed in the conference.
The Ravens have the toughest road to end their regular season schedule after their Week 13 bye and will need another great performance against yet another good team on Sunday. Despite much angst about the game slot, the NFL chose not to flex out of the Packers vs Vikings game on Sunday Night Football, and will play the Dolphins vs Ravens game on CBS at its original 1pm EST kickoff time.
-Maher Abucheri
Twitter: @pabloikonyero
Photo: Alexander Jonesi. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.