The NFL’s unstoppable force will meet the NFL’s immovable object in December 1, when the 10-1 49ers travel to M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore to take on the 9-2 Ravens. We tend to overuse the phrase “appointment viewing,” but the term fits here.
No defense has been able to stop Lamar Jackson and the Ravens consistently throughout the 2019 season. If you manage to shut him down as a passer (an increasingly difficult proposition), he will weld your butt to the field as a runner. Baltimore’s defense has also improved exponentially since trading for cornerback Marcus Peters in mid-October; they haven’t lost since Week 4, and they’re coming off a 45-6 shellacking of the Rams on Monday Night Football.
Meanwhile, the 49ers are undefeated in regulation; their only loss on the season came against Seattle in overtime. And they just took the Packers apart on Sunday Night Football to the tune of a 37-8 demolition. San Francisco’s combination of pass rush and secondary play is unparalleled in today’s NFL, and outside of Arizona quarterback Kyler Murray, who’s put up two games with a passer rating over 100 against them, and Russell Wilson, who ran six times for 53 yards in Week 10, things get really interesting when you superimpose Jackson and Baltimore’s preposterous rushing offense into that equation.
Both teams have specific vulnerabilities that could upend them. San Francisco has allowed over 100 rushing yards in each of their last eight games, and as quickly as their fronts move, they are a bit susceptible to misdirection. Baltimore’s run defense might be the only one in the NFL more diverse than San Francisco’s, so there’s that. And if the Ravens continue their trend of blitzing heavily to create pressure (coming into Monday night’s game, Baltimore had a blitz rate of 49.9%, by far the most in the league), that may open things up for Jimmy Garoppolo and an increasingly prolific passing game.
Whatever game you were intending to watch this Sunday, if it’s not this one, you might want to change your plans. Unless you’re under the assumption that you’ll see both of these teams in Miami in February, which seems an entirely reasonable proposition.