The Baltimore Ravens played some championship football in Week 13, defeating the San Francisco 49ers 20-17. Both teams slugged it out on the ground and through the air but Baltimore managed to pull out a win as time expired.
It’s a time to celebrate as the Ravens make it eight-straight wins this season, with several being against top competition. But it was far from a perfect win, with several players not playing their best football. Let’s take a look at the stud Ravens who helped win the game and the few duds that made it harder than it needed to be.
Stud: K Justin Tucker
As if Tucker needed any more credit for being the best kicker in the league, he answered Baltimore’s call. A 49-yard game-winning field goal as time expired on a field that had been rained and iced on all day long is about as amazing as it gets.
There are 31 other teams in the NFL that wished they had a kicker they knew was going to nail that through the uprights. When the Ravens called Tucker out onto the field, there was little question they had already won the game.
Dud: LB Patrick Onwuasor
Onwuasor was clearly dealing with an injury in this game, going down two separate times and having to miss some time with what the Ravens called a knee injury. But with San Francisco pounding the football down Baltimore’s throat, Onwuasor was slow to find the football and slow in getting to it far too often.
Running back Raheem Mostert was left unchallenged in the hole regularly, allowing him to get into the second and third levels on a number of his runs. He finished the game with 146 rushing yards and a touchdown on just 19 attempts, including runs of 40, 19, 18 and 16 yards.
Onwuasor isn’t the only Ravens defender to have struggled against the run but he’s the face of their failure in this game. It continues his steep decline this season after being expected to lead the defense this year as their top inside linebacker.
Stud: S Chuck Clark
Clark has been playing great football this season and it’s time it gets called out. In this game, Clark was a star, albeit one that won’t make a massive splash on the stat sheet.
He got an early strip-sack of San Francisco quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo — Baltimore’s only takeaway of the game. He also did a great job helping shut down tight end George Kittle, limiting him to just two receptions for 17 yards. Considering the Ravens won by just three points, those two things were absolutely key to Baltimore’s victory.
Dud: Wide receivers
Even in poor weather where no one expected the wide receivers to do much, they still managed to be underwhelming.
In spite of the consistent downpour all game long, offensive coordinator Greg Roman still opened up the passing attack, seeing 23 passing attempts. However, the wide receivers just failed to get open. It ultimately led to stalled drives and quarterback Lamar Jackson taking punishment for having to hold onto the ball for a long time.
The only wide receiver to catch a single pass in the first three quarters was Marquise Brown on a pitch that was effectively a rushing play that counted as a completed pass instead. It took until the fourth quarter for a wide receiver to catch a pass and even then, the corps finished with just three completions for 20 yards total.
Stud: Special teams
In a close game, special teams can very well be the deciding factor. The Ravens got everything they could from their special teams units, coming up with big plays at the end of the first half and later in the game.
Baltimore cornerback Marlon Humphrey getting the block on a 51-yard field goal attempt at the end of the first half had the Ravens go into the locker room with a three-point lead.
Then with the game all tied up at the end of the third quarter, Baltimore’s special teams made two huge plays. A perfect punt by Sam Koch had the ball bouncing around inside San Francisco’s five-yard line. A combined effort by Levine and Moore that downed it at the one-yard line. Then on the subsequent punt return, De’Anthony Thomas weaved through would-be tacklers to get 18 yards and start the Ravens on the 40-yard line.
With the game close and on the line, the lack of three points was clearly critical to the win. The great play in the second half helped the defense out and ultimately gave the offense much better field position, giving them the chance to go for the win at the end.
Stud and Dud: QB Lamar Jackson
Jackson has routinely been our player of the game this season and he’s been stellar. But this wasn’t a very good game from the MVP frontrunner in a number of ways.
He picked up plenty of yards on the ground, rushing for 101 yards and a touchdown. His legs helped keep drives alive but it was his arm that detracted from what was a great effort otherwise.
On a day when the 49ers defense tested Jackson to be accurate and thread passes into tight windows, he wasn’t and didn’t. Big incompletions on third downs that were behind their relatively wide-open intended receivers stung and stuck out. Had he hit guys like Mark Andrews and Willie Snead when they were wide open, Jackson could have continued drives and they might have been able to get out to a nice lead over San Francisco instead of playing it close for all 60 minutes.
His fumble was also costly and at a terrible time. Though it was a great play by the defender to get his hands around the ball and yank it out, it’s another ding against Jackson’s day. And the fact it came on a third-quarter drive that had been going really well and looked primed for points only stings even more.
Jackson redeemed himself in a big way at the end of the game, however. When the Ravens needed him to drive down the field with his arm to win the game, he was a perfect 3-for-3, including some tight squeezes in traffic. It doesn’t completely make up for his awful throws earlier in the game or his fumble but Jackson got his team into the win column and ultimately, that’s all that actually matters.
Without Jackson’s unique talents, Baltimore doesn’t win this game. He was able to put the offense on his back several times and especially at the end of the game to win it. It’s part of what makes him such an exciting player even when he has a pretty awful game otherwise.
