Ravens Crash and Burn 49ers Roll Along

Ravens crash in the AFC divisional round of the playoffs.  It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion.  The 49ers took care of business.  The Vikings were no match.  In one of the traditionally most exciting football weekends of the year we were not disappointed in what went on in the Saturday games.  The Ravens fans might be a little disappointed but the Vikings fans more than likely expected the Vikings to get taken out by the 49ers.

49ers 27 Vikings 10

This game was close at the half.   The 49ers had a 14 – 10 lead.  There was actually some hope for the Vikings at half time.  The teams traded touchdowns in the first quarter.  The only thing this did was give the fans of the Vikings hope that there team could win this game.  In the second half that hope was snatched away from them.  It was brutally clear that the Vikings offense was no match for the 49ers defense.  Kirk Cousins actually had a pretty decent game.  He went 21 – 29 for only 172 yards.  Threw a touchdown and an interception.  However it was the 6 sacks losing 49 yards that was the killer for the Vikings.  Dalvin Cook ran the ball 9 times for only 18 yards.  The 49ers defense led by Nick Bosa spent as much time in the backfield as Cousins and Cook.  With the 49ers defense controlling the line of scrimmage there really was not much that the Vikings could do.  The 49ers defense also held the Vikings offense to seven first downs.  The Vikings only had 4 going into the fourth quarter and were on pace to have the fewest first downs ever in a playoff game.  The record was six done twice before.  It is a hollow achievement that they beat that by one first down.

The Vikings should not hang their head in this loss. They got a win in the playoffs which is more playoff wins then the Lions and the Bengals have had in the last thirty years.  LOL.  John Lynch has put together a pretty good team in the Bay area.  Bringing in Kyle Shanahan as head coach is really starting to pay off for them.

Titans 28 Ravens 12

This not far off from the score a lot of people were expecting.  Except that people were expecting the Ravens to have the 28 and the Titans to have the 12.  I really do not think that this was a case of the Ravens playing poorly.  It was the Titans out coaching and out playing the Ravens.  The Ravens crash was set up by the Titans performance.  Players stepped up early for the Titans that led to an early 14 point lead.  Who would have thought that Jonnu Smith and Kalif Raymond would have more touchdown catches than the Ravens team and that Derrick Henry would have the same amount of touchdown passes as Lamar Jackson.  The Ravens played like they had something to lose in this game and the Titans played like their was no tomorrow.  For them there really was no expectations.  After all they used up all the mojo they has last week against the Patriots.  At least that is what people were thinking.

After the regular season the Ravens were the team of destiny.  The Titans were the team that just barely made the playoffs.  In the NFL making the playoffs is all it takes sometimes to set some strange things in motion.  I am pretty sure that most people were expecting this game to go like the first game of the day between the Vikings and 49ers.  When the Titans scored first things seemed a little different.  When they scored the second touchdown things seemed really different.  This put the Ravens in a strange position of playing from behind.  Something that they did not have to do very often in the regular season.

Ryan Tannehill only threw 14 passes in this game.  Two of those passes went for touchdowns.  With the running of Henry the Titans did not have to throw much.  This allowed them to burn time and shorten the game.  On the other side Jackson threw the ball 59 times and he ran the ball another 20 times.   The other Ravens running backs only ran the ball a combined 9 times for 42 yards.  19 of those yards were a run by Gus Edwards.   Take that out and it was 8 rushes for 23 yards.  Not a very good showing.  The Ravens had a good run this year.  The Titans ended that run and probably gave teams next year some ideas on how to handle the Ravens.