NFL Week 16 -- The Legend of the Christmas Raven

It seems like every week there is a new "That QB who everyone thinks is great really sucks" debate. If you watched the game, you'd notice that three of the four Purdy were deflections off of the receiver or his arm was hit as he threw. Not saying he should be MVP - hell, the Ravens seemed pretty dialed in on the "throw to the back/receiver behind the line of scrimmage and let them run" play the Niners love so much.

 

Lamar is 20-1 against the NFC. At some point, that's not a weird, coincidental stat.

I thought the Ravens did an excellent job of taking the Niners' receivers out of the game. Aiyuk ended up with a good stat line, but a lot of his catches and yards came with his team already down three touchdowns. Baltimore was willing to give up big chunks to Kittle and McCaffrey but they essentially erased Aiyuk and Samuel when it mattered.

The Ravens have been really good all season and now have pretty handily defeated two of the NFC's best teams in Detroit and San Fran. Their only losses were to the Colts when Matt Gay hit four 50-yard FGs, the Steelers on the road and the Browns. That game against Miami next week should be a banger.

 

Good point. Even during that great 1994 season, the Niners had a 40-8 stinker against the Eagles.

 

The Rich Kotite-led Eagles, who started that season 7-2 before losing seven straight which led to Kotite's firing. Somehow he landed the Jets heading coaching job where he went 4-28 in two seasons.

 

The only real negative out of last night's game for the 49ers is Trent Williams' injury. He's probably really the Niners' MVP, because we just saw what happens when the rush can get to Purdy.

 

That's why it's called The Catch. Montana's game to that point was too pedestrian to give him credit and call it The Throw.

Clark, however, had a fantastic game (8 catches, 120 yards, 2 TDs).

 

Which dropped their record to 3-2. Then their only loss the rest of the way was a meaningless Week 17 game against the Vikings when they rested a bunch of starters.

 

I read that the 49ers have had trouble with mobile quarterbacks and that certainly showed up again last night. The Ravens' offense can be tough for defenses that don't see them often. I think that is why you see teams that have faced Lamar Jackson more often like the Steelers and Browns have a little more success against him. I wonder if Harbaugh will sit his guys in the finale against the Steelers if they beat the Dolphins and lock up the bye next week. I would do it just to protect Jackson, but I could see him letting his guys keep rolling.

 

The Browns got their kicker and punter injured in the same game. Their injury report is becoming comical in scale.

Luckily the Jets await.

 

You know, I've been thinking for awhile that for all the "Purdy or McCaffrey for MVP" talk, Williams might have a real case for league MVP, in part judging by the 49ers' results when he was out. Not sure that holds up after last night, but...

 

Especially since they'll have the next week off, too.