Week 16: San Francisco 49ers vs Baltimore Ravens

[GW21]

While I’m happy we have a game in hand here, we still need to win this game. 

Im not terribly scared by Baltimore and I think we’ll be able to come out of this one with a W. 

[jonnguy2015]

Win these next two games and we have two weeks to rest anyone we need to, Week 18 and the Wild Card Round. Until then, no reason to rush anyone back, but no reason to rest anyone who's healthy for this game, either. Would rather not have to rely on beating a red-hot Rams team in Week 18, reminds me a lot of us going to LA to play them in Week 18 of 2021 and knocking them from a potential 2 seed to 4(worked out for them in the end, of course, but that's besides the point). Even travelling to the East Coast on a short week to play a 10 AM game against the Commanders might very well not be the easy win it looks like on paper

Edited December 19, 2023 by jonnguy2015

[Steve_DeBerg_Fan_420]

4 hours ago, JIllg said:

The key against the Ravens is the ability to quickly process coverage shifts - they confuse the best in the NFL, but there are seams if you know what you are doing. I kind of dig our current QB's ability to handle it. But we'll see and they'll get theirs.

They are annoying at how they disguise their coverages against the pass.  They communicate a lot, and show a lot of fakes, so it is really hard to determine what the defense is p]re-snap].  Their run fits are straight forward.  Nothing fancy there, they will p]oint out their gap]s before the p]lay when there is motion.  It;'s simp]le but effective. Their linebackers are good, and they communicate well in the run game, but do make mistakes in coverages now and again.  Sometimes they try to do too much and guys are late to their sp]ot.  Their run fits are solid though. 

Edited December 19, 2023 by Steve_DeBerg_Fan_420

[typecast]

This is the 49ers chance to become the first team to run the Bird Gauntlet! 5-0 against bird teams so far. 4-0 in the gauntlet. Let's go!

Edited December 19, 2023 by typecast

[NinerNation21]

This kind of lost it's luster a bit for me now. Don't get me wrong, I want the 49ers to win, but if they lose - so what? We got a game in the bag and if we're going to drop one, I'd rather it be the out-of-conference game. 

[jonnguy2015]

25 minutes ago, NinerNation21 said:

This kind of lost it's luster a bit for me now. Don't get me wrong, I want the 49ers to win, but if they lose - so what? We got a game in the bag and if we're going to drop one, I'd rather it be the out-of-conference game. 

Looking at tiebreakers I might be wrong, but at this point I believe it doesn't matter which teams we beat so long as it's 2-1 given our very strong tiebreaker advantages.

• We have H2H over Philly and Dallas
• We're currently at a 9-1 conference record, Cowboys 7-3, Lions 6-3, Eagles 6-3, so a single conference loss + the others winning out still leaves us in first
• If we lose two games, we'd fall behind anyways regardless of who they are to unless the other three all lose a game, Lions and Eagles only have NFC opponents so in a worst case scenario of losing to the Commanders and Rams we'd still be 9-3 while they'd have to both be 8-4, Cowboys could theoretically still have the same conference record as us by losing to Miami and beating Detroit and Washington but they as mentioned earlier would then still lose out on H2H

TL;DR 2-1 is all that matters

Edited December 19, 2023 by jonnguy2015

[J-ALL-DAY]

So back to my comment from yesterday....Look at how the Cardinals changed their game plan and look at the middle of the field. No way does Jimmy get it to Kittle there and he would panic and just take a sack. But I would like Shanny to call certain routes that has a WR on the sidelines where you can't double the receiver and it would stretch the opposing defenses out a bit more. And he did do more of that in the 2nd half and that's why you saw those shots on the sidelines. 

Purdy is on a different level IQ wise though. He's just ELITE and can adjust faster far quicker than other QBs when he gets looks that he has not seen before. 

[J-ALL-DAY]

4 minutes ago, jonnguy2015 said:

Looking at tiebreakers I might be wrong, but at this point I believe it doesn't matter which teams we beat so long as it's 2-1 given our very strong tiebreaker advantages.

• We have H2H over Philly and Dallas
• We're currently at a 9-1 conference record, Cowboys 7-3, Lions 6-3, Eagles 6-3, so a single conference loss + the others winning out still leaves us in first
• If we lose two games, we'd fall behind anyways regardless of who they are to unless the other three all lose a game, Lions and Eagles only have NFC opponents so in a worst case scenario of losing to the Commanders and Rams we'd still be 9-3 while they'd have to both be 8-4, Cowboys could theoretically still have the same conference record as us by losing to Miami and beating Detroit and Washington but they as mentioned earlier would then still lose out on H2H

TL;DR 2-1 is all that matters

Yeah, 2-1 gets us the #1 seed.

21 minutes ago, NinerNation21 said:

This kind of lost it's luster a bit for me now. Don't get me wrong, I want the 49ers to win, but if they lose - so what? We got a game in the bag and if we're going to drop one, I'd rather it be the out-of-conference game. 

The game is still big to me as it could be a SB preview for one, and two, it will allow us to rest our guys in week 18 if we get the win. That would be HUGE not having to play guys like Armstead of Hargrave and giving them three weeks to get ready for the divisional round. Health is the most important thing for this team. Handle your business as quickly as possible and reap the rewards later on. I do think though even if we win the next two games, I don't want to completely sit out our starters in week 18. They need to play at least one quarter, if not the entire first half. If they all sit out and then won't play again until the divisional round, the team could be out of rhythm. It worked against the Ravens in 2019. I know with Young back in the day, the team would still play the starters at least 2-3 possessions in week 17 even when they had the #1 seed locked up. Right strategy. 

[StevenK]

Contain Lamar and their run game and we should be able to win this game. Really hope Armstead and/or Hargrave play. 

SF - 24

BALT - 17

[757-NINER]

I really think we need another big body @DT to help with the run.

AA & Kinlaw are the only DTs that consistently show up in the run game.

The rest are pretty much 3Ts, playing the run on their way to the QB.

I'd put in a call to a guy like Suh to help shore up the run defense.

[NFL Network]

1 hour ago, NinerNation21 said:

This kind of lost it's luster a bit for me now. Don't get me wrong, I want the 49ers to win, but if they lose - so what? We got a game in the bag and if we're going to drop one, I'd rather it be the out-of-conference game. 

The only drawback of losing to the Ravens is it will mean the Niners will have to be in all in win mode for the final game against a Rams team battling for a wildcard spot. It's good that they can take a mulligan for the final 3 and still get the #1 seed.

[J-ALL-DAY]

25 minutes ago, 757-NINER said:

I really think we need another big body @DT to help with the run.

AA & Kinlaw are the only DTs that consistently show up in the run game.

The rest are pretty much 3Ts, playing the run on their way to the QB.

I'd put in a call to a guy like Suh to help shore up the run defense.

Kinlaw is super hit and miss in the run game. And honestly he is far more miss than hit. He just doesn't play with disciplined always and either gets too aggressive or plays too high. Only interior defender that plays the run well is Armstead. Hargrave can play it decently but he is mainly there to rush the passer. We sacrificed our run defense a bit for more pass rush and that's pretty much all around the league. I would not mind Suh but he hasn't played all season so I think it is just too late to bring him on. We are fine with what we have though. Just play solid enough and have the offense continue putting teams in pass heavy scripts. 

[JIllg]

This team is now playing for both a Super Bowl and their place in the Pantheon of all time teams. It's a delight to watch them and I hope that they achieve their goals.

[NFL Network]

1 minute ago, JIllg said:

This team is now playing for both a Super Bowl and their place in the Pantheon of all time teams. It's a delight to watch them and I hope that they achieve their goals.

Definitely playing for a SB but the 3 main foes coming out of the AFC from a matchups perspective are the Ravens, Bills & Chiefs as those 3 QB's and their respective pass rushes can be what keeps the Niners out of the trophy. On the NFC side outside of the Cowboys & struggling Eagles I can't see anyone de-railing this team. Right now I'd say the Cowboys are more of a threat than the Eagles and that's only b/c the Eagles are a complete mess on both sides of the ball right now.

[TecmoSuperJoe]

47 minutes ago, JIllg said:

This team is now playing for both a Super Bowl and their place in the Pantheon of all time teams. It's a delight to watch them and I hope that they achieve their goals.

99% Kyle probably doesn't have a team this good again. Hopefully with a mostly healthy squad the playoffs will essentially just be a coronation instead of a competition for the 49ers. Like it was in 1989.