Crazy crazy game yesterday. No reason to go into the details, we all saw the excitement, the drama, and the coming out of Colin Kaepernick. That being said, the Niners are facing a team that looks somewhat like the Falcons (pocket passer, pounder of a RB, and a dominant WR in Antuan Bouldin), but also like the Niners themselves. Big and strong on both lines, they try and impose their will on every opponent they face.
Flacco reminds me of Matty Ryan, in that I didn’t see him much, but he’s put up solid numbers his whole career. Ray Rice is a force to be reckoned with, and their defense is as fundamentally sound as ours is. Beyond the brother angle, this game is a very good matchup. Old school hard nosed football. Power running with some dramatic flair thrown in by the emergence of Colin Kaepernick and his running ability. Deep shots on both sides. All in all, a pretty good deal.
We’ve got forever before gametime but the wait starts now.
Forty Niners Forever 
Yeah, the base D was a mess yesterday. There was no pressure and Goldson was beaten like a drum early and often. Once the Niners stopped their run game they brought in more DB help, which slowed their passing game. .
I fear the base D having the same problems in the Super Bowl. Flacco is a deep thrower, and we need help deep.
Much like everyone else on this blog, I watched all the Ravens’ playoff games this year. I thought the Colts could have beaten the Ravens if Bruce Arians wasn’t in the hospital. The Colts’ red zone attack was terrible, and the QB coach turned OC wasn’t nearly aggressive enough. Then the Broncos returned two against the Ravens, John Fox went conservative with a Ferrari at qb, and Peyton coughed it up in crunch time. The Ravens then went to Foxborough and knocked Talib and Chung out of the game, and put a Donte Whitner-like hurtin’ on the Patriots’ running back. So who are the Ravens (by virtue of who they played in the playoffs)?
First off all, the Ravens don’t give up sacks, and that’s important because of their deep passing game. If you’re going to throw the ball deep, you need to protect Flacco. Rob Nickovich got two sacks on Flacco, Mathis got one, and Von Miller (the guy who beat out Aldon for Rookie of the Year honors last year) got a half sack in five and change quarters of football. It’s not impossible to get to Flacco, but the Ravens’ line is tough. And the 49ers just had a tough time getting pressure on Ryan. I did just watch the Niner / Falcons game again, and Fangio did have Aldon chipping Gonzo a lot so that took away Aldon’s ability to get to the qb. I hope Fangio has Aldon pass rushing all the time. Having Aldon chip is a lot like Mike Singletary keeping Brian Westbrook on the sidelines because Westbrook couldn’t run block. But I respect Fangio a lot more than Singletary, obviously. And we did win. I don’t think Dennis Pita demands the same attention, so Aldon should be attacking Flacco a lot more. Have the 49ers pin their ears back all game and attack Flacco.
And actually, I shouldn’t say Aldon was chipping Gonzo. Aldon was “jamming,” Gonzo, and it almost completely took Aldon out of the pass rush game when Aldon did jam.
It is not just about sacks though. Ahmad did not get a sack on the key play of the game – he just busted Ryan’s shoulder. A hit after the ball is away is not a sack, but it can pay dividends down the line. If you can’t sack him, at least knock him on his ass and give him something to think about about on his next drop.
I completely agree with you. I think the 49ers should rush 5 all the time and then have a linebacker spy Ray Rice. Rice loves to pass block and then squirt out into a passing route. I say rush five, keeping Rice defending Flacco, then have a linebacker spy Ray Rice. If Bowman or Willis are guarding Rice as a spy, one of them could get an INT because Flacco looks for Rice when the pocket breaks down. Commit six to Flacco and Rice. If you get after them both, Torrey and Boldin won’t be as good.
And if I was Fangio, I’d blitz liberally. We all know Justin isn’t Justin and that we’re having trouble getting a pass rush. So don’t go down like a chump. Get after Flacco with unrelenting pressure all game long. If he bets the blitz, don’t hang your head. But make him beat the blitz.
Spit, that scenario is utter crap. Send 5 all the time, plus a spy and blitz liberally? Taking a chance in spots is one thing, selling out to get Flacco down at all costs is crazy.
Wow! It’s utter crap? Well that’s just hurtful but I like a spirited debate full of insults.
So what would you do, 12th? Rush four and give Flacco time to throw deep to Torrey Smith? You do realize Torrey just dominated Champ Bailey, right? So who’s our Champ Bailey? Carlos? No. Brown? No. Culliver? No. So without a guy named Champ in our secondary, and without our once amazing pass rush getting home with four, how do you presume to defend the Ravens? A base D? No frills?
I say blitz early and often and make the Ravens go max protect. Remember when Singletary was worried about Brian Westbook pass blocking? Well, this Super Bowl is about making players do things they aren’t dangerous doing. It’s my contention you want Ray Rice pass pass blocking regardless if Ray stones Bowman or Willis.
So your plan is to rush four and blitz on a occasion? I can honestly respect that. But I’d bring the heat and keep bringing the heat. You don’t win Super Bowls playing conservative football. And that’s exactly why Harbaugh went with Kaepernick over Smith. It’s the same on defense. Balls to the wall until we’re holding Lombardi.
Spit, if the point you were trying to make is the niners need to pressure Flacco of course I agree. Your scenario means doing it at the expense of pretty much anything else and that means a loss.
Niners rushing 5 IS them blitzing, add the 6th blitzer liberally and a spy and the field is wide open, plus if Rice made the second level there is nobody home to stop him because all the DB’s are manned up 1 on 1 or at best 1 man deep.
Defense requires a balanced approach with calculated gambles every now and then.
Pats front 4 does not generate much pressure, Wilfork is a great run stopper and occasionally makes a play in the backfield. Niners are one of the few teams that do get pressure with 4 which gives them a numbers advantage on the back end.
My scenario takes into account that Justin and Aldon aren’t getting home. Steve Young said, “Getting home with four is the magic elixir.” But the 49ers aren’t getting home with four, so blitz liberally and put Flacco back on his heals. When you do that, you make Ray Rice blitz, but he does “squirt” out occasionally so account for that.
And on the whole, I agree with you that defenses need to be balanced with smart gambles, but sometimes you have to set a tone. There is no better team to set a tone against than a team with a deep passing game because it takes time for the receivers to get deep.
Ok a more reasonable approach. Just one thing though, the Niners ARE getting home with 4. Sacks are the stat that jump out but hurries, knock downs batting down are just as important. Niners blitzed a total of 5 times against Atlanta, but all the important plays came from rushing 4. Ahmad put Ryan on the ground and injured him, he also knocked down a pass near the end of the game, Aldon got hurries several times creating incompletions, it takes looking at the whole picture to figure out if your front 4 are getting it done and against the Falcons they definitely did, just a little slow on the whole D for the first quarter.
The x factor is Kap, Ravens are vulnerable to a read option, highly mobile QB, especially on the edges. They will honor the run game and try to take away the deep stuff. If Kap gets to the second level he can be gone. The underneath stuff and play action deep combined with read option run game will overwhelm the Ravens D.
So Kap is superior to Flacco and ILBs Willis and Bowman are better than the Ravens guys- lewis- what else? Their receivers are better? DL? RB Rice? Who has the edge in the various positions?
Man said:
“Niners have 2 far better ILB than Ray Ray and I’m not sure which is better Bowman or Willis, there’s 2new sherriffs in town and Lewis is going down. No fairytale ending for him like Elway had cause Karma is a bitch and his is due.”
“Niners are better than the Ravens across the board. Spit mentioned old slow LB and to an extent he has it right, he didn’t take into account that Brady is a statue and even Ray Ray can pressure given enough time. Kap is no such animal, Niners will be balanced at the QB position, I think we will see him run and throw, a mixture of the Falcons + Packers games mixing it up, add Gore/LMJ and the Ravens are out gunned.”
Phil:
“Amen to that Barley. In the Super Bowl the teams appear to be evenly matched except in the one area of QB. Flacco is good but I think Kap gives us the decisive advantage that gets us the win. IMHO”
Where do we have the edge? Where do we lag? Coaching is a wash right?
Advantage Niners: ILBs, run game, read option/Kap, speed on O? (Sando: …my mind turned to the few players on each team with the raw athletic ability, notably speed, to make game-breaking plays. Quarterback Colin Kaepernick, tight end Vernon Davis and possibly running back LaMichael James are three such players for San Francisco. Receiver Torrey Smith is one such player for Baltimore.)
Advantage da Crows?
It’s not that Kap is superior to Flacco, although he may be, it’s that he has to be accounted for on every play as a possible RB which in theory leaves something else more easily available. What makes it extra hard to defend is Gore, especially from the pistol or andy wide formations because the Ravens are comparatively slow at the first and second level. They rely on experience beating speed but with Kap that won’t work every time and when it doesn’t the kid can gash them for big gains with his arm or legs.
So sayeth I.
Yesterday’s games went about like I called them, the SB teams are who I picked before and after the QB change, they’d be the same teams without the switch. Thiis will work out fine for everybody, no one more so than Smith. Anyway- 17-16, Niners. Hopefully it won’t take Fangio as long to figger out how to defense the Ravens as he did the Falcons or we lose this time. Flacco is an excellent QB with some top receivers.No pressure, no win. Without the pressure towards the end, Niners are home for the rest of the winter again. It would have been a shame for Fangio to fuck up what 2 quarterbacks did to get us here. Here’s some good stuff on both.
So you think Smith would have come back from 17 down? They have a word for that….. “delusional.”
Spit ready to take on Twin?
Spitblood
Kaepernick’s numbers were very Alex Smith like. 16 for 21 1 TD and 226 yards,
Nothing spectacular about his running. It is not clear what the basis of your premise that Alex Smith couldn’t make this comeback. You are full of crap as usual because they came back within the structure of the offense. Foolish to play the speculation game.
Saying that the Colts would’ve won if Arians wasn’t in the hospital is total horseshit..
My biggest fear for the game is if the Niners get a 10-14 point lead is that they go too conservative and let the Ravens back in like they did with the Pats. Would Jim be willing to embarrass John in the SB?
Yes!
He will do whatever is necessary for that victory.
Our OL played really, really well against ATL. We imposed our will running and when we threw, CK had adequate time. But I think all of us predicted that as ATL’s DL is undersized and not very imposing. The Ravens DL front is much, much better. Our OL was smacked around in our last meeting with BAL. That was of course at least one Adam Snyder ago, and the rest of the line, especially Davis and Iupati, are playing much better. So I don’t give much credence to that game because our makeup is different, with Boone and with CK as QB. But our OL will have a more difficult time than with ATL.
I’ve given Flacco shit before and I have to give him some credit. He has an arm and can make great throws — when he has time. NE has a shitty defense. Come on. They suck. Our secondary is better. So we got smoked in the first half against ATL. Against who? Tony Freaking Gonzales, Julio Jones, and Roddy White. Those three might be the best 3 receiver tandem in football. Seriously. Yep, 24 points in the first half. Zilch in the second. As others have pointed out, you have to pressure the qb, it’s a major duh. If we can’t get to Flacco, then it becomes a shoot out. I have some concerns about our pass rush. But our secondary is better than some suggest.
I think Torrey Smith is a great WR right now. Boldin is a beast going up for the ball, but Boldin is not as fast as as White or Jones and Pitta is a far cry from Gonzo. Point is, our secondary will play better against BAL than they did against ATL.
The Ravens have a good OL. But I think when the chips are down, we are the hardest team in football to run against. I have a shit ton of respect for Ray Rice — he’s dangerous. But I think we contain him and keep their rushing mostly snuffed.
This game smells low scoring. The casual fan may be disappointed, for it sets up as a slug fest. I see some big hits, personal fouls, blood, snot and vomit. 21-17, Niners.
Lots of knowledgeable guys here are predicting a low scoring brutal game and that is certainly the reputation of both teams. While I do expect a physical, tough game, I really don’t think the Ravens are built for a guy like Kap on defense, they are a tad slow and that’s all the difference he needs. As long as Kap isn’t overwhelmed by the size of the game he will have a big day and at every level so far he has risen to the challenge so I figure he will again.
12th, Harbaugh/Fangio more than learned their lesson about stepping off the gas in the NE game. They kept the pressure on Rodgers after getting that lead.
If we get a good lead, we’ll keep it. Again, though, the start of this game is important. They can’t go down big again and expect to come right back. They need to NOT go base D and then react to the problems with that defense. We stopped Atl’s run game with and extra DB in there. They have to do the same thing in the Super Bowl. Don’t come out rushing 4 and laying back.
Goldson HAS to be beat over the head with not biting on play action. He’s the goddamned FS, not a linebacker.
I think they do come out in base Chuck, nobody knows if it is effective or not (including coaches) until it is tried and the reality is if base rushing 4 is effective it gives the Niners the numbers advantage in coverage. If base proves to not be enough I hope they don’t wait too long before changing things up. Agree about Goldson, he plays as a tweener which is both good and bad, Flacco is good at moving the safety so Goldson needs to be very disciplined.
We have enough guys who stop the run. Goldson doesn’t need to be one of them. He has to stay home.
I don’t know if I see a low scoring Super Bowl. You can run on the Ravens. Ballard 91, Hillman 83, Ridley 70 (before he was knocked out of the game). Those guys aren’t Gore and James. You setup the run and then it opens up the pass, obviously. I think the 49ers score in the high 30s. The Ravens score comes down to pressure. Aldon not having to chip or jam Gonzo could mean more pressure, but I still think the 49ers will need to blitz Boldin…. a lot. If the 49ers blitz Flacco a lot, 38-24, Niners. If the 49ers rush 4 most of the time, 38-30.
Blitz Boldin? Do you take drugs, Denny?
How do you guys rate BAL’s defense? My take is that they are very physical. We’ve just beat ATL and GB, neither of which IMO have the same physicality (with an F) as BAL. Kaep has played CHI, NO, STL, SEA, ARI, NE, MIA, GB, ATL. The more physical of those really probably were the SEA, STL games. We certainly struggled against those two. Not sure about CHI because I think their D was overrated based on their bevy of TOs.
My sense is that BAL will present a far greater challenge than GB and ATL’s mediocre defenses. 12th — that is why I see this as a closer game.
For me I think our O-line is equally as Fysical as their D and on run plays is superior. Ravens can be run on both between the tackles and on the edges with a good blocking scheme. Niners have just such a scheme. Ravens forte is getting after the QB, hence Brady and Manning having a tough day, but Kap is athletic, a good decision maker and he has probably the best run game the Ravens have faced this year. Incidentally Houston whacked the Ravens easily 43-14 and ran for 183 yds on them in that game, Schaub was 23/37 256yds and 2TD.
That is where I think the Niners have superiority, once the run game is working it opens Kap to throw and run.
oops, it was 43-13
Gotta remember though – they did not have Lewis for that Houston game. They are just not the same team without him.
from an intensity standpoint I agree, but he is not the guy he used to be as a player, Niners can run at or around him, Miller will take him out more often than not.
Props to Wes Welker’s wife Anna,for laying into Ray “The Thug” Lewis!!
Man she is “Smokin Hot”
Right up this Kat’s’ Alley..
I did not go back and read all the posts after the game, but Jed York could be Eddie’s son!. and if that is the case, bring on the next 10 years of greatness
Kappy struggled with StL mainly because they play zone. Chi and GB are both man coverage. Easy to run on, and easy to pick apart given the time. Atl plays underneath zone, and Kappy was able to pick that apart, since he had time.
He had time against ATL. Will he against BAL? A quick cursory look shows them at 37 sacks — we had 38. ATL had 29. I don’t use stats much because they don’t always tell; the whole story. How is BAL’s qb pressures, etc? In short what do they present on the DL that is an upgrade to ATL when it comes to rushing the passer? FWIW, they lead in sacks in the post season, with 6.
I’m not worried that we will won’t find ways to move the ball, I just think it ain’t gonna be as easy as the last two D’s and CK will not have as much time. That’s where play calling and effectively mixing run/pass is on the coaching.
Here’s what Anna Welker had to say about Ray Lewis:
You go, girl.
And, speaking of Ozzie’s crazy train, we get this from Tim Brown:
Yikes. So Callahan threw away a shot to win the Super Bowl just so he could piss off Al Davis and help John Gruden? That’s one hell of a friend. Brown also goes on to say that Callahan entirely changed the game plan from a run-first attack to a pass-first one 36 hours before the kickoff, thus causing Barrett Robbins to go off the deep end and go AWOL in TJ for 3 days and miss the Super Bowl.
I wonder if Tim can see the black helicopters . . .
Wow. Those are some good drugs Timmy is doing for that kind of weapons-grade crazy.
Maybe we ought to invite him to join this blog?
Lol
Word is that Jerry Rice has some insights about what Tim Brown said. Sounds like Jerry’s thoughts are “can’t miss.”
Baltimore’s defense can be had. I think Baltimore’s defense was opportunistic in the playoffs thus far. Here’s how the stack up. Defenses against the run – Baltimore 20th, 49ers 4th. Pass: Baltimore 17th, 49ers 4th. Points: Baltimore 12th, SF 2nd. Yards: Baltimore 17th, SF 3rd.
Sure, Lewis, Suggs and Reed didn’t play together for most of the season, and they’ve got mojo now. The numbers are hard to figure on the defense side because those guys weren’t on the field together for most of the season, but even with those guys, you could run on the Ravens in this year’s playoffs.
It’s my hope that SF goes with more power run plays in the Super Bowl. Remember when Alex Smith was the qb and Harbaugh and Roman would pull the entire student body left and right with Miller leading? That’s what I want to see more of. I like the read option, but it can’t be the only way the 49ers run the ball against the Ravens. They need to do more pulling and trapping with Kaep behind center and the 49ers in I formation with a lead blocker. Then go play action, then go with the read option.
I think we’ll be able to run on them some. And Kappy will get a few big plays in the air. I’m more concerned about keeping Flacco from having the time to connect with his WRs, and avoiding turnovers.
And it is really important that we come out ready to hit and be hit. We looked sluggish the first few minutes of the Atlanta game, on both sides of the ball (though more defensively). Can’t do that with this team.
I wasn’t happy with the 49ers’ coaching staff in the beginning of the Falcons’ game. I thought the game plan lacked balls.
I think the key to the Super Bowl, like you Grump, will be getting pressure on Flacco. You’re right that Brooks hitting Ryan changed the end of the game. But we didn’t get to Ryan until the end of the game. I hope we get to Flacco early and often with a lot of blitzing.
Grump it’s not an east coast game on a travel week this time around. Atlanta was a 9am game for the Niners, I think that does have an effect to some degree. They should be time acclimatized by game day, don’t they travel early for the whole SB week circus? And the game is later in the day.
Hopefully that hall helps a little.
Oh and did I mention it’s the freakin Super Bowl? To come out flat for that game would mean Callahan is calling the plays on both sides of the ball.