With the Ravens’ defense, it’s the little things that matter the most

Monday night’s game between the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers was billed as a few things: The game of the year, a game between the NFL’s two best teams, and a Super Bowl preview. All possibly true, but the one thing it was not billed as was a total domination on the Ravens’ part. But in the 33-19 beatdown that was not as close as the score indicated, a Baltimore Beatdown was exactly what happened. Lamar Jackson was amazing against a 49ers defense that had risen from 12th to first overall in DVOA, completing 23 of 35 passes for 252 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 105.9. Jackson also had 45 rushing yards on seven carries, which bolstered his Most Valuable Player candidacy.

What else bolstered Jackson’s Most Valuable Player candidacy was what the Ravens, and defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald, did to the 49ers’ offense and quarterback Brock Purdy, another possible MVP. That discussion seems to change from week to week this season, but Purdy did himself no favors, completing 18 of 32 passes for 255 yards, no touchdowns, four interceptions, and a passer rating of 42.6. Running back Christian McCaffrey, another MVP candidate, gained 103 yards and scored a touchdown on 14 carries and might have done even more on the ground had the score not gotten out of hand in the third quarter, but this was really about how Macdonald’s defense got after Purdy both with pressure and coverage.

The coach was clearly fired up about this one, and for good reason.

Macdonald has said before that he likes his defense to lie to the quarterback as much as possible, and he expounded on that last Wednesday as he was preparing for this game.

“[Someone] in my introductory press conference asked about aggressiveness. You’re trying to put pressure on the offense. That’s something that’s seminal to hear. That’s a Raven principle on how we want to operate. I think the way that you see the game has evolved, being so pass heavy – especially in critical situations – and the offenses are so good, and the quarterbacks are so good, how do you consistently put pressure on them to make them make grave decisions in real time? I think that’s what the thought process was.”

Macdonald also discussed last week how the 49ers’ use of motion throws so many defenses off, and how he was not going to fall for the banana in the tailpipe.

“A lot of the formations are condensed. How you count, and who you relate to – and things like that – [are] definitely testing your eye discipline, definitely testing your communication – which is obviously one of the reasons why they do it – [and] changing the run fits. Every play [and] every motion really should have a rhyme or reason why they’re doing it, based on what they’re trying to achieve. You just don’t know in real time until after the play. But yes, having the condensed formations make it easier, because the numbers change faster, rather than being spread out. You have longer to react.”

Lying to the quarterback.

Early on, it looked as if running motion against man coverage would work like a charm for the 49ers. With 13:17 left in the first quarter, San Francisco had third-and-7 at its own 14-yard line, and Kyle Shanahan’s offense was in line for yet another big play.

The 49ers undoubtedly knew that the Ravens like to play man coverage on third down — they’d done so on 53 opponent passing attempts through Week 15, one of the higher rates in the league. And the motion created a problem for Macdonald’s defense in this case. When Deebo Samuel moved from wide left to inside the bunch left formation, it was three-on-three man to that side, George Kittle got open over the middle pretty easily with safety Marcus Williams catching up a hair late in Cover-1, and the 49ers had a 58-yard gain right out of the gate.

“Yeah, I mean, that starts it off,” Purdy said of that interception. “Obviously we were rolling, we had the momentum, had some really big plays on that drive. And then I throw the ball like that to end the momentum that we had. So, for me, yeah, that definitely hurt. Wish I had it back. I wish I would’ve progressed and just checked it down and kept the drive alive. So, definitely have to learn from it.

“I saw Deebo flash a little bit. And in that play, if we had Quarters with two-high safeties, Deebo wasn’t necessarily a thought. I’m supposed to progress. And so, I thought I saw some space early on and I threw it late, and then the safety made a play and picked it off. So clear as day on me, I’ve got to progress.”

That was another play with pre-snap motion, and it didn’t matter. McCaffrey motioned to present a three-strong look to the backside, but as the Ravens had it zoned off, there wasn’t an easy read. Purdy is a spot thrower because his offense creates so many spots for him to hit, so he went with the one he thought he had.

As has been the case for many quarterbacks facing the Ravens this season, Purdy was the victim of a lie.

Tying pressure to coverage.

If there was one common refrain from the defensive players in the Ravens’ locker room after this game, it was the need to tie pressure to coverage — to make sure that the defense was aligned front to back.

Edge-rusher Jadeveon Clowney: “It was our rush and coverage working together. [We were] in disguise. Mike Macdonald put us in good situations to go out there and make plays, and we executed today. We went out there and did our job.”

Cornerback Marlon Humphrey: “It was a total team effort. You have rush and coverage working together, guys getting back there to the quarterback and the gameplan we had coming in. So, it was big a turnover night, so [it’s] just a testament to everybody working together.”

Linebacker Patrick Queen: “The rush and coverage work together, and we all understood that. We just understood that we had to stop the run, and we’d be able to make plays. We capitalized on the plays that we were capable of making, and we just took off from there. We saw a few times where the rush wasn’t working with the coverage. They had a few plays here and there – [or] whatever – [where] we didn’t tackle, or we just missed the assignment on the coverage. When we see players working together like that, like my interception or Kyle [Hamilton]’s interception, everybody’s plays that they made, it was just both of our front line and back lines working together.”

Linebacker Roquan Smith: “I think that’s just getting back to what we do – rushing the coverage. I think it was just guys stepping up at the end of the day. We have the utmost respect and the utmost trust in every single person on this defense. The way [defensive coordinator] Mike [MacDonald] called the game is second to none in this league. I just love playing in this defense. It’s very hard to do what you need to do for four quarters on this defense.”

The Ravens tied pressure to coverage on multiple occasions, but Kyle Hamilton’s second interception was tough to top. Hamilton came in late on a blitz from slot depth — something they’ve done with him before — and Hamilton really earned this pick. First, McCaffrey chop-blocked him, for which McCaffrey was penalized. Then, left guard Aaron Banks sat on Hamilton for a good three seconds. Somehow, Hamilton got out of all that, got to the other side of the field, and picked off the Marlon Humphrey deflection on Purdy’s scramble-drill throw to George Kittle.

If you don’t think that’s impressive, well… here are the dots to tell you the story. It’s insane to keep a defense set through a play that takes over nine seconds to complete.

Luck is the residue of design.

Three of Purdy’s four interceptions came off of some kind of tipped pass or affected pass by pressure, and those don’t mean as much to some people because they weren’t pure bad reads, or a situations where the defense won schematically. You tend to think that Purdy just got unlucky, and those things will even themselves out. But in this game, the Ravens’ luck often happened because things were designed so well.

Marlon Humphrey’s interception with 14:22 left in the first half did come from cornerback Brandon Stephens deflecting a Purdy pass to Deebo Samuel on a quick stick route happened because both Stephens and Humphrey blitzed off either edge. Based on the Cover-2 defense, Samuel might have had an explosive play or a house call had those blitzes not paid off, but they did, and the Ravens were once again on top of the ledger.

I think John Milton would have been a Ravens fan.

All I want for Christmas is a rematch.

It’s a bit late, but if there’s one thing I’d like for the holidays as an NFL analyst is a rematch of this game. Since the only way that happens this season is in Super Bowl LVIII… well, sorry, all those other NFL teams, but I want another go at Kyle Shanahan vs. Mike Macdonald before Macdonald becomes a head coach next year, which he undoubtedly will. And I want Lamar Jackson and his targets operating at the level they’ve been operating at against a 49ers defense that has proven to be as good as just about any other in the NFL.

Except, in this case, for Macdonald’s Ravens defense. Throughout the season, and certainly on Christmas night, that defense has proven to be the class of the NFL.

Story originally appeared on Touchdown Wire