With eight straight wins, including victories over the NFL’s two best defenses, the Ravens have made it clear: They’re the NFL’s best.
The New England Patriots have the NFL’s best defense. The San Francisco 49ers have the NFL’s second-best defense.
And the Baltimore Ravens’ offense have beaten both of those defenses in a coronation that now has John Harbaugh’s team as the best in the game.
Not that the 20-17 win was as pretty or impressive as Baltimore’s 37-20 Week 9 win over New England. In that game, Lamar Jackson had his way with Bill Belichick for the most part. Against Robert Saleh’s defense, Jackson was more limited. The Ravens punted on their first drive of the day, the first time they’d done so with Jackson on the field as their quarterback since the New England game. The 49ers had their moments of containment issues when Jackson was able to run, but they re-designed their hot-pursuit defensive line into more of a mush-rush, minding their gaps and forcing Jackson to stay in the pocket.
Jackson still ran 16 times for 101 yards and a touchdown, but completed 14 of 25 passes for just 105 yards and another touchdown. He did take over the NFL lead in touchdown passes for the time being with 25, but the 49ers had the secondary to keep Jackson’s receivers in check, and he unusually threw his receivers out of completions more than once.
Of course, Jackson was still able to do superhuman things like this on the regular — but far more as a runner on this day.
“You seen the balls? Horrible,” Jackson said after the game of the torrential weather that affected his accuracy. “I was throwing passes behind my receivers. I hit [tight end] Hayden [Hurst] on the corner route behind him. I hit [receiver] Seth [Roberts] on the drive route, behind him. It was ticking me off. Passes were getting away from me. A lot more of those [completions], and we’d have had a lot more success.”
In the end, it was kicker Justin Tucker, one of the most reliable at his position in NFL history, who made the 49-yard field goal with time expiring to win the darned thing.
As for the 49ers, they had this one for a while. Rewarded on their first of two fourth-down attempts when Jimmy Garoppolo hit rookie receiver Deebo Samuel on a 33-yard touchdown pass that put San Francisco up 7-0, San Francisco fought back after Jackson threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to tight end Mark Andrews and ran it in from one yard out for another touchdown that made the game 14-7 with a 40-yard Raheem Mostert touchdown run which reminded everyone that, while the Ravens may have the league’s most diverse and effective rushing attack, the 49ers aren’t far behind — and they were able to prove that without top back Matt Breida, who missed the game with an ankle injury.
But as the game rolled along and started to resemble a heavyweight fight in driving rain as opposed to the point-a-minute game it might have been in more hospitable conditions, the Ravens started to pull away in the fourth quarter. Jackson missed Andrews on a fourth-and-5 attempt with 9:41 left in the game, giving Jimmy Garoppolo the opportunity to break the 17-17 logjam. But Garoppolo responded by missing George Kittle, his own star tight end, on fourth-and-1 with 6:33 left. Defensive end CHris Wormley was the star here, as his deflection ended San Francisco’s drive. .
The 49ers would never get the ball again.
Baltimore went on a 12-play, 34-yard drive that chewed up the rest of the clock and ended with Tucker’s game-winner.
“I was really proud of the team,” 49ers head coach Shanahan said after the game. “All three phases. We definitely played against a really good team, but I was really happy with out guys and how they played. We had every chance to win that game, came up a little bit short there and the end — give credit to them. Hopefully, we can earn the chance to play them again some other time.”
Well, the only other opportunity this season would be February 2 in Miami, when Super Bowl LIV kicks off at Hard Rock Stadium. And if this is the Super Bowl slate, it’s hard to imagine any football fan who would be too disappointed at that prospect.
But for now, the 10-2 Ravens made their statement by beating the 10-2 49ers: They are the current kings of the mountain.
