What must 49ers do to beat Ravens?

Posted By on November 30, 2019

San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel (19) runs toward the end zone to score against the Green Bay Packers during the first half of an NFL football game in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Nov. 24, 2019. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar)

SANTA CLARA — Lots of well-intentioned, reasonable people expect the 49ers to lose this game.

Nothing against the 49ers, but they’re playing in Baltimore against the Ravens, who are 5½-point favorites. They have the MVP frontrunner, quarterback Lamar Jackson. And the Ravens played on Monday Night Football just a few days ago and won 45-6. Lots of well-intentioned, reasonable people remember that game. It’s fresh in their minds. That’s why they’re picking Baltimore.

The Ravens have the NFL’s No. 1 offense, but the 49ers have the NFL’s No. 1 defense. They’re two elite teams on the way up, possibly the two best teams in the league. This could be the most important game of the season. Something very important will happen.

Here’s what the 49ers must do to beat the Ravens, and prove those well-intentioned, reasonable people wrong:

This article has 43 Comments

  1. Defense wins championships.
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    I think the Niner Offense will be able to sustain drives against the Ravens defense, thus keeping Jackson on the side line.
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    The Niner front 4 will be able to contain Jackson, and collapse the pocket, for several sacks. Saleh will dial up some exotic blitzes, to keep them guessing.
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    The Niners, so far, have channeled Bill Walsh, and have become road warriors.
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    This rain will slow the Ravens down. The Niner defense plays fast. Now, they just need to play disciplined, with sound fundamental football, with few mistakes. Ingram will be neutralized, so the Raven run game will struggle.
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    Breida may play, so the Niner run game should be effective, and productive.
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    The Ravens will not be able to stymie Kittle.

    1. Naah. Kaep is a completely different body type and runner. Maybe they should have brought in Terrelle Pryor. It might have saved him a stabbing and an arrest.

  4. The 49ers need to dominate the time of possession and keep the Ravens offense off of the field. We need to have 35+ minutes to increase our chances at victory. I think you start there because schemes don’t matter if you don’t have the ball.

  5. How is this the most important game of the season? I’d much rather we lose to the Ravens than the Saints, Packers (who we beat) or the Seahawks. We can afford to lose to an AFC team, As a matter of fact I would say this is the one game left on our schedule that we CAN afford to lose. Atlanta Falcons notwithstanding.

      1. I agree with that. But are you telling me you’d prefer to beat the Ravens and lose to the Saints? I’d rather lose to Baltimore than New Orleans. Any one with a lick of sense knows that beating the Saints and Seahawks is WAY more important than beating the Ravens. Grant Cohn said this is the most important game of the year. No. It isn’t.

        And if you’re only counting games we’ve played, losing the Seahawks game was STILL more important than this game.

        1. In other words we can lose to the Ravens, win the rest and have home field advantage. Lose to the Hawks or Saints and guess what? On the road in playoffs, at minimum, and likely a wild card, which makes for a tougher road

        2. The reason this game is bigger is because this Ravens team is better than Seattle and NO. You could argue that Baltimore will be our toughest test all year including playoffs. Definitely the biggest measuring stick imo.

          With that said, the Saints don’t stand a chance. My GF is a Saints fan so I have seen almost every Saints game over the past 4 years. I’m not impressed with this years team at all.

          1. You clearly don’t know how the playoff seeding works. We could totally lose this game and if we win the rest, we have home field advantage. You need to understand how the playoffs work. If we lose this game it doesn’t hurt us at all if you do the math, as long as we beat SEA and NO

            1. I clearly give 2 sh!ts about the Saints and we will be resting our guys week 17 against sea. So that game doesn’t even matter if we win today. Remove your head from you ass. You clearly don’t understand the talent level of the NFL. Or have a pulse on the league as a whole.

              1. The Seattle game doesn’t matter. OK. You definitley proven your point.

                If you think this game is more important than SEA or NO. You clearly are talking out of your ass

                And PS you think NO isn’t any good, you havent been paying attention and don’t have YOUR finger on any pulse. I’ve been watching, coaching and playing football for over 35 years. Probably longer than you’ve even been alive.

              2. We still have a one game lead over sea. If we lose today, we go from a 1 seed to a 5 seed and no first round bye. I don’t think you know what you are talking about.

                We clinch playoffs with one more win and a rams loss. That’s it…

                Dude you are a Moron!

              3. If we lose today we STILL play the Seahawks to win the tiebreaker. Dumb ass

                Just Explain to me how beating the Ravens makes week 17 vs SEA an unimportant game where we rest starters.
                That’s the dumbest logic ever.

              4. Because we will win our next 3 against the Saints, Falcons and Rams. Seattle is losing to the Vikings tomorrow. If not they will drop another one. They are not a 14-2 team. Wilson’s heroics won’t last forever.

                Like I said it’s obvious you don’t have a good grasp on the NFL.

              5. Oh I see. You’re correct. If you are gonna ASSUME that we win those games. BUT The NFL isn’t decided on “assumption”

                I’m done talking to you dude. You live in a world of “assumptions” not mathmatical facts.

              6. And you are assuming Seattle wins every game. They can but we can’t? Talk about stupid logic.

                The moron prevails again. Go cheer on Seattle bum.

              7. I’m not assuming a damn thing, I’m looking at the standings today AS Well AS our remaining schedule. Again, if we lose to the Ravens, and everyone else keeps winning, we control our destiny STILL. now you can call me all the names you want. But this Ravens game is not a more important game for us than the others. I repeat, it is LESS important than the NO and Definitely. the SEA game. You can keep beating the drum on your broken logic, but it doesn’t make you right.
                Just answer this for me to prove your point. If we beat the Ravens, which games become unimportant. Tell me that. Tell me how.

              8. Beating my drum? We are in first place today. If we lose and sea wins tomorrow we drop to a 5 seed. So why does NO or sea even matter at that point? We will end up a 6 seed at worst with only one more win.

                Today is the most important game and it’s not even close.

            2. I love how you conveniently haven’t answered my questions to back up your logic. Mathmatically this is the least important remaining game on our schedule. Argue all you want
              If the season ended today you would be right. But we have games against other CONFERENCE SEEDS REMAINING. therefore if we fall to 5th after today, we can still recover by beating NO and SEA.. WIN OR LOSE TODAY. WE STILL MUST BEAT THE OTHER CONFERENCE TOP SEEDS. DUDE DO THE MATH!!

              Say all you want, call me every nasty thing you can think of. You’re wrong

              1. Mathematics only matter if you are trying to get in the playoffs. We get a win and we are in. You act like we aren’t making the playoffs.

                The most important thing is keeping the number one seed.

              2. Beating NO next week with a Baltimore loss would still keep us at a 5 seed unless sea loses. To your point the game is meaningless.

              3. Mathematics DO matter for playoff SEEDING as well as among the playoffs. Dude I am not talking about MAKING THE PLAYOFFS. I am talking about SEEDING. it is virtually impossible for us NOT to make the playoffs. That’s a forgone conclusion.

                Dude just tell me what happens if we win today, and all of the other seeds win. Can we then lose to NO or SEA without consequence? no.

                Again. Whether we win OR LOSE. We STILL GOTTA BEAT NO AND SEA

                Listen. Go to 49ers Webzone and start a poll. What is our most important remaking game, BAL, NO or SEA.
                I GUARANTEE that the Ravens will be 3rd in that poll. While we’re at this logic thing, the FALCONS game is more important than the Ravens game. Because it’s all based on conference. Surely you are aware that The Ravens aren’t in our conference

                Someone PLEASE enter this discussion with your opinions
                What’s more important, besting BAL SEA OR NO?

  6. The Ravens game definitely is not the biggest game of the season. Saints next week will be the biggest game of the season so far and then the Seahawks in a few weeks will be even bigger. Having said that, this game is huge in terms of confidence for the team. Go into Baltimore and beat the Ravens and the 49ers will know they are the best team in the NFL. Confidence may be the most important characteristic in athletic success. The 49ers will likely get the #1 seed and home field throughout the playoffs if they beat the Ravens today. Still possible if the 49ers lose but home field is a bit more difficult.

    1. Houston i implore you to do the math. This game, while exciting, is almost meaningless for the standings. No matter if we win or lose, we STILL control our destiny. Period.
      Let’s say we lose to the Ravens, we’re tied with Sea and No, with SEA having the tie breaker. We beat the Saints and Hawks? Right back to home field advantage.
      Beat the Ravens? If we then lose to No and SEA the win is meaningless. My whole point is that this is possibly, the least important game left, since all other games are NFC. and in tiebrekaers it goes to common opponents and CONFERENCE RECORD.
      This game is great measuring stick. But Win or lose, we STILL have to beat NO and SEA if the standings stay the same.

  9. 1. Richie James played the role of Lamar Jackson during practice this week. RJ is a former High School QB.
    2. Hoping RJ gets more targets. How about a RPO on an end around ?
    3. RJ along with Mostert, Brunskill and Dwelley have been unsung heros this year.
    4. According to Maiocco we are camped out in Sarasota FL the week between the Ravens and Saints.
    5. Let’s get ready to rumble.

    2. This is gonna be a great game. But I’m a little worried, Lamar Jackson looks absolutely unstoppable at times. Our pash rush has got to stay in their lanes and not over penetrate. Once a d-lineman has penentrated to the backfield they have to squeeze the pocket shut and not pursue from behind the quarterback. You WANT to form a pocket then collapse it. Over pursuit will get us absolutely killed. The conditions should favor the D. I think our defense is gonna bow up and make some big plays.
      Niners 27 Ravens 24
      GO NINERS!!

  12. Would have liked to see this matchup in better conditions. I guess we’ll have to wait ’till the SB. I stay away from betting on “rain” games so I skipped this one this week but if I had to wager I’d go with the No. 1 defense vs the No. 1 offense. The defense usually prevails in those matchups. I think that will happen today.
    I’ll take the Niners +6 and the under (45 1/2)

    SF 19 BAL 17

    Go Niners. Should be a good one. Have a great day folks! Similar day here in Nor Cal. Light a fire, pop a cold one and enjoy!

    1. Wouldn’t this be a great SB preview. However if we win, I’d rather face the Pat’s in the SB, since we will have beaten the Ravens. I like that we are underdogs today. THAT might be the difference today, the RESPECT FACTOR. The Niners thrive on this chip on the shoulder thing.
      Lighting fire, popping cold one….
      GO NINERS.

  13. I am not going to speculate on the rest of the season. One game at a time, and the Ravens deserve all the Niners attention.
    .
    This game is a daunting challenge, but the Ravens have not gone against this Niner defense.
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    Niners 24-23.
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    GO NINERS !!!!!!

    1. One game at a time, and the Ravens deserve all the Niners attention.
      Agreed. They ALL matter.

      A close one SEB?

      1. I hope the Niners score TDs, instead of settling for field goals.
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        The Ravens may score more times than the Niners, but if the Niners score more TDs, they may win.

        1. Yes we have got to convert RZ trips to TDs. That and Jimmy (and everyone else) CANNOT turn the ball over.

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