To begin, we've made a few changes to the simulations this week. As awesome and hopeful seeing 58 points of offense out of the offense seems, time travel is more believable than that. As such we played with sliders, options, and ultimately decided to cut quarters to eight minutes in length. The results are A LOT more believable even if they are still stretched. Now, let's see how the 49ers did.
Note: Reggie Bush is out for the 49ers. On the Ravens we've removed Chris Canty, Terrance Brooks, Breshad Perriman and Darren Waller. (NOTE: Steve Smith is active)
1st Quarter
The 49ers received and in four plays, Colin Kaepernick threw an interception to Will Hill. The resulting turnover put the Ravens on the 49ers 37 yard line. Luckily, 4 plays later, Antoine Bethea came up with an interception of his own in the end zone to stop any chance of a score. Bethea even took it 30 yards outside before hitting the ground. It's like nothing happened!
The Niners punted anyways. In two more offensive plays, another interception by Tramaine Brock happened to give the Niners the ball back again. Flacco looks really elite so far. The 49ers offense went into exactly what we're used to, ending the drive with a 36 yard Phil Dawson field goal.
Score 3-0, 49ers
The Ravens hit Steve Smith on their first play from scrimmage for an 80 yard touchdown. Gee, imagine that.
Score 7-3, Ravens
Thanks to a couple of great runs by Carlos Hyde, the 49ers made it into field goal range. The 3 dropped passed from Vernon Davis left them with another field goal. This is actually seeming very accurate.
Score 7-6, Ravens
The Ravens took the field again and Joe Flacco basically told me to stop making fun of him. One pass to Kamar Aiken for 19 yards was followed two plays later by a pass to Steve Smith for 56 yards and another touchdown. Ugh.
Score 14-6, Ravens
The Ravens kicked the ball back and the 1st quarter ended.
2nd Quarter
Thanks to another Colin Kapernick interception, The Ravens got the ball back on the 50 yard line. They were unfortunately stopped by the 49er defense and missed a 56 yard field goal with Justin Tucker.
The 49ers deployed rushing focused drive (only one pass play) that put them into the 10 yard line. And gave them another field goal.
Score 14-9, Ravens
Joe Flacco again wanted to get at me for making fun of him earlier in the article and threw the ball around, nailing his wide receivers perfectly. The drive in only two minutes ended with a Justin Forsett touchdown.
Score 21-9, Ravens
A pair of sacks to Colin Kaepernick ended the drive, but once the Ravens got the ball back, Flacco threw another interception to Tramaine Brock. The turnover put the Niners on the Ravens 40 yard line. Thanks to a pass interference penalty that put ht e49ers near the goal line. Carlos Hyde finished the job.
Score 21-16, Ravens
Both teams exchanged three and outs several times to end the half.
3rd quarter
The 49er defense held Baltimore's first possession to a 3 and out. From there, the Niners did a very balanced drive. Colin Kaepernick connected with Torrey Smith for a 13 and a 16 yard pass play, while Hyde and Hayne kept the ground game going. Thanks to a two 12 yard passes to Quinton Patton, the Niners came to the goal line again, and Carlos Hyde finished things off.The 49ers elected to go for two and succeeded with a Colin Kaepernick rush.
Score 24-21, 49ers
A 27 yard run by Justin Forsett to start things didn't look good, but the stalled offense certainly helped the 49ers out. Once getting the ball back, Colin Kaepernick went between Bruce Ellington and Quinton Patton, while using Jarryd Hayne to chip away yards. The drive ended with an 11 yard touchdown pass to DeAndrew White of all people.
Score 31-21, 49ers
The Ravens received the kickoff and ran two plays before the quarter ran out. They didn't go anywhere.
4th Quarter
Joe Flacco threw yet another interception that allowed Carlos Hyde to lead a drive all by himself (heh, imagine that) to the goal line. Mike Davis finished things off to put the 49ers on top. Belive it or not, I do see things going this way.
Score 38-21, 49ers
Both teams didn't really get anything going following the touchdown, punting it back and forth in 3 and outs. With 3:30 to go, Joe Flacco started to mount a nice drive with a 20 yard pass to Steve Smith, putting them to the Ravens 40. The offense stalled and the 49ers got the ball back.
Carlos Hyde again put the team on his back and put them within field goal range, but Phil Dawson missed the kick. The Ravens offense again tried to make something work, but were smothered by the Niners defense, and nothing more could have happened.
Final Score: 38-21, 49ers
Despite the 49ers' offensive woes, I DO see how the game could go like this. The Ravens defense has been decimated and if I learned anything in my own game, they aren't very good against the run. I do see them trading touchdowns with the 49ers. Just not too sure about THAT many Joe Flacco turnovers. In any case, it will be interesting to see how we play given the Ravens' own struggles.