Super Bowl preview? Ravens offer 49ers tough test thanks to Lamar Jackson’s brilliance

If you spent Monday night traveling to see family or at the grocery grabbing a turkey, stuffing and potatoes, you missed quite an impressive football game from the Baltimore Ravens, the 49ers’ opponent Sunday in what looks like their toughest test of the season.

Quarterback Lamar Jackson continued to cement himself as the MVP front runner by tossing five touchdown passes in a 45-6 dismantling of the Los Angeles Rams on the road. He was named offensive player of the week by the league.

It came eight days after the Ravens (9-2) beat the Houston Texans at home, 41-7. Baltimore became the first team in history to beat winning teams by more than 34 points in back-to-back weeks, according to ESPN Stats and Information.

Jackson enters the week tied with Seahawks star Russell Wilson for the NFL lead with 24 touchdown passes, and he’s on pace to set a new single-season record for quarterbacks with 1,280 rushing yards. He’s the only quarterback in history to have at least 2,000 passing yards and 800 on the ground during the first 11 games of a season.

So, yes, the talk of him as a transcendent star in just his second NFL season is absolutely warranted.

And if Baltimore’s offense looks familiar to 49ers fans, that’s because coordinator Greg Roman is pulling the strings, as he did for Alex Smith and Colin Kaepernick earlier this decade under former head coach Jim Harbaugh the brother of Ravens head coach, John.

Roman has the Ravens going against the grain with a run-centric offense as most of the league is more heavily geared toward the pass. Baltimore leads the NFL in rushes per game (37), yards on the ground (210.5) and yards per run (5.7) thanks to the versatility Jackson gives the offense with his legs.

“They do some real cool stuff, stuff that’s real interesting,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said Monday. “I know Greg’s always been creative with that stuff and the tools he has with it along with the tight ends that they have and how physical they are, I’ve got a pretty good idea of how it’s going to look.”

Ravens have more than Jackson

Jackson won’t be the only challenge facing the San Francisco (10-1), the current No. 1 playoff seed in the NFC.

It will mark just the third 10 a.m. start on the West Coast this season. The last early body-clock start was Oct. 20 in Washington in a rain-soaked game against one of the worst teams in the league. The sloppy 9-0 victory is the only time the 49ers failed to score a touchdown. Speaking of rain, early forecasts for Sunday are calling for a 90 percent chance of showers at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.

Back to Monday night’s shellacking, the Rams had no answers trying to defend Jackson on the ground or through the air. By completing 15 of 20, he had as many touchdown passes as incompletions and beat L.A.’s longtime defensive coordinator Wade Phillips against both zone and man-to-man coverages.

Jackson has the NFL’s third-best passer rating at 111.4 and his yards per attempt (8.1) ranks seventh, just a sliver above the more traditional passing quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo.

“It’s tough,” Rams cornerback Troy Hill said of Jackson, according to the Los Angeles Times. “He’s elusive. He’s a different player back there. When you think about it and look at it, if you do play man and have your back to the ball, then he’s got the ability to take off and run and make you pay that way. When you play zone, he’s throwing the ball and finding the zones. They’re making it easy on him to find the reads.”

49ers on a roll after Packers game

The 49ers are coming off a big prime-time performance of their own.

They pounded Aaron Rodgers and the Packers, 37-8, in their most impressive performance of the season. The league’s top-ranked passing defense sacked Rodgers five times, without its highest-paid player Dee Ford, and leads the NFL with 44 sacks.

San Francisco got strong performances from all over its defense. Arik Armstead continued his career year with two sacks to give him 10 for the year. Jimmie Ward broke up two passes giving him seven on the season, tied for the most among safeties, according to scouting service Pro Football Focus.

Linebacker Fred Warner was everywhere with 11 tackles and a game-defining forced fumble on a sack on the first series — immediately leading to a 49ers touchdown.

The second-year pro has taken a massive step forward after earning the starting “Mike” linebacker job as a rookie last season after being drafted in the third round from BYU. Warner is known for his study habits and preparation, constantly studying film on his iPad and getting his teammates in position before each snap. He’ll be one of San Francisco’s most important players if the 49ers are going to slow the NFL’s best rushing attack.

“Sometimes guys have a real good first year and they relax a little bit thinking they figured it out and then you get extremely humbled the second year,” Shanahan said Monday. “Fred got to play a ton and exceeded expectations, I think, with everyone his first year. Then he was just even more hungry, came back like a 10-year vet and came back better mentally, better physically and I think it’s shown to everyone in every game.”

Coordinator Robert Saleh’s defense ranks second in scoring (14.8 points per game) and first in yardage (248). The Ravens, meanwhile, are the top-scoring team in the league (35.1 points per game) and have the fifth-ranked scoring defense, allowing 18.4 points per game.

And if there’s good news from the 49ers’ side, they appear to be getting healthier. Star tight end George Kittle returned to the lineup to make six catches for 129 yards including a 61-yard touchdown against the Packers. The team is hopeful left tackle Joe Staley (finger), Ford (hamstring), running back Matt Breida (ankle) and kicker Robbie Gould (quadriceps) could make their returns after missing time.

The Ravens, meanwhile, could be without starting center Matt Skura, who will have season-ending knee surgery after being carted off the field Monday, according to multiple reports. Skura is regarded at one of the best centers in the NFL and a key component to Baltimore’s running game.

Sunday’s game will offer a rare opportunity at a possible Super Bowl preview in December that should offer a telling measuring stick for both teams.

“They look great,” Harbaugh said of the 49ers. “They’re killing people. They’ve got a great football team who you as coaches, we’ve gone to work on them already. We know what we’re up against. We’ve got to get back, we’ve got to get rested and we’ve got to get to work.”

This story was originally published November 28, 2019 at 4:00 AM.