49ers Sacked by Ravens,Lose the Har-bowl

The San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens are arguably the best defenses in the NFL right now. In last night’s Raven’s victory, the teams combined for nine total sacks. Unfortunately for the Niners, they didn’t register any of them and lost the game 16-6. This will ensure that Mr. Fredrick P. Soft is nowhere to be found at Niner headquarters this week.

Linebacker Terrell Suggs did the heavy lifting on defense for the Ravens, while Mr. Everything Ray Lewis sat out for the second straight game. Suggs tallied three of the sacks on Alex Smith, and was generally wreaking havoc in the backfield all night long. There was only one touchdown scored in the game, and it came on a Joe Flacco 8 yard pass to tight end Dennis Pita.

Alex Smith ran and ran and ran, and then he ran some more. He didn’t run for yardage, but for his life. People will point to them losing starting right guard Adam Snyder to a hamstring injury before the half, but this was a system wide breakdown that led to the attempted assassination of Sir Alex.

What most Niner detractors have been saying all season, is what will they do when they come up against a great defense, how are they going to keep up? Somehow, this is all going to work out for Head Coach Jim Harbaugh. He will find a way to use this loss as motivational tool for the rest of the year.

Any defensive game plan against the Niners should be simple. Stop the running game and make Alex Smith beat you. The Ravens not only stopped the running game, limiting running back Frank Gore to only 39 yards, but they put on a full frontal assault on the offensive line. Anytime the Niners gained positive yardage, that was like a win. All of their scoring happened early, as David Akers kicked two field goals, one of them from 52 yards. He’s now 6-6 on tries over 50 this season.

That’s part of the problem, they can’t get it into the end zone enough and against a good team like the Ravens, and it will be the death of them. Going 14-2 or 13-3 in the weak NFC West will mean nothing if they can’t perform against the better teams in the conference.

Even if they get a first round bye, they will likely be matched up in the divisional round against New Orleans or possibly the Cowboys, to whom they’ve already lost to this year in overtime. If and when push does come to shove, are the Niners going to be able to shove back hard enough on the scoreboard? It remains to be seen.

If you are a fan of offensive football and big play touchdowns, this game put you to sleep faster than the tryptophan in the turkey you just ate. The biggest play of the game was a 70 yard TD pass to Ted Ginn, but it was called back for an illegal chop block. Watching the game I called it out as it happened before the flag even flew, Ginn was at the 40 and I knew it was coming back. That is where the excitement ended for this game.

Both teams racked up 423 yards, total. Multiple quarterbacks have thrown for more than that amount in a single game this year. The defenses on these two teams are completely legit. With all due respect to Ray Lewis and company, there is no better defensive player in the NFL right now than Patrick Willis. Willis seems to be the only thing that previous Niner regimes got correct. Teaming him up with “Mini Willis” NaVarro Bowman is sheer terror for any offense.

After traveling three time zones east and playing a quick turnaround game, I thought the Niners played pretty well. They will at least get 10 days to recover and get ready for the next challenge which will be at home against St. Louis. In two weeks after that they will play a Monday Night home game against the Pittsburgh Steelers which is the biggest test they will get before the playoffs.

They have two games with St. Louis, one against Seattle, and another one against the Cardinals. If you like counting wins by reading the schedule, then the Niners should finish the regular season no worse than 13-3, but the only win they should be worried about is the one they will try for in January.


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