Ravens Punk The Big Bad Niners In Their Own Barn On Christmas Night And Stake Their Claim As The NFL's Best
Thearon W. Henderson. Getty Images.WHAT. AN. ASSKICKING.
Man that was fun tonight. We've known for weeks (if not months) that this team is capable of special things this year but this was a game they were not supposed to win. All week we heard from all the national pundits that sure… the Ravens are good and might have a shot to go to Vegas this February… but that the Niners are in a class of their own and were going to flex their muscle on the visitors on Christmas Night.
Game obviously started off with some high level fuckery with a ref tripping Lamar in his own end zone and him having no choice but to throw it into the turf. HOW you don't exercise discretion given the context and eat that intentional grounding flag is beyond me, but had us all feeling like it simply wasn't going to be our night.
Again… WRONG.
Ravens put their heads down and went to work on D and made some big time plays. Kyle Hamilton has been playing at a DPOY level all season and it's time for his name to start getting mentioned in that discussion. It took a bit for him to start making the splash plays this season like the recent INT's, but the impact he has on the game across the board is so impossible to ignore. He's a wrecking ball at the line of scrimmage. He's constantly around the football and I can't think of anybody in my lifetime that destroys screen plays like he does time and time again. The Niners thrive in that game. He (along with Roquan, PQ, Marlo, Stephens, and the rest of the gang) constantly put asses on the turf tonight, like they do every week. But Hamilton is so long and physical in coverage too and he's a menace blitzing off the edge. Every week I'm left in awe that NFL teams passed on him 13 times in last year's Draft and THE BALTIMORE RAVENS of all teams got the opportunity to take him. You are all so stupid @nflgms. (Of course as I write this… Hamilton went down with another knee injury so we are sending up the utmost prayers for him tonight).
Collectively the defense leaked a little oil versus Kittle and then CMC on respective first half drives, but ultimately got their shit together and didn't hurt themselves too bad. The 3 takeaways were obviously huge, and the offense put together a couple big time drives to take that 16-12 lead into half. I was pretty pleased going into half, but acknowledged the Niners were feeling pretty good given that they probably thought as much had gone wrong for them as it could have.
Well sure enough…. the way that 2nd half started was the entire story. Ravens continued to come out talking with their pads. Absolutely battered Brock Purdy time and time again. Anybody and everybody was in the backfield making him uncomfortable and they made him pay for it over and over again. Picks, short fields, and touchdowns suddenly made this game a rout. The Niners had NO answer. The defense continued to put asses into the turf and made them look like little boys. Lamar put the nail in the coffin with a couple red zone strikes and that was that. Last 25 minutes was basically a long formality. Talk to ya.
That's as impressive of a win by any team in the NFL this season. Sure, the Niners had a swoon where they lost a couple bad games earlier this year, but they got a bunch of guys healthy and got their mojo back. They were ROLLING. And they were playing on their own coast in their own barn. The deck was supposed to be stacked against the birds tonight. They didn't care. They shoved. They dominated. They staked their claim as the best team in the NFL.
It's a "what have you done for me lately" league, so things can change quickly if they lay an egg at home in 6 days against Miami. That game has the real #1 seed implications and the Dolphins would have every right to call themselves kings of the mountain if they came into our barn and took it from us… but we'll worry about that tomorrow. This is too damn fun.
Lastly…. what is there left to say about Lamar Jackson that I haven't said a million times already. The guy is special. He's a gamechanger in every sense of the word and it's so so soooo fucking stupid that no team wanted to put their nuts on the line this past offseason to make him their QB. Their loss. Our gain. His stats are very good albeit not stats that typically garner MVP consideration… but he's the straw that stirs the drink on the best team in the league. We'll crown him as the MVP frontrunner for now and there's still some race yet to be run… but I think we can put the Brock Purdy MVP talk to rest right now.
A 2nd MVP for Lamar would be nice, but we're obviously not here for that. We're here to earn ourselves a bye week in the postseason and make the AFCCG come thru Baltimore and MAKE THE BANK GREAT AGAIN FOLKS.
I love this team. Prayers for Kyle Hamilton (and for Mark Andrews continued recovery).
LFGGGGGGGGGGGGG