How the Ravens forced 49ers QB Brock Purdy into the worst playoff game in the NFL – NBC Sports Bay Area & California

Before the 49ers' Christmas Eve showdown against the Baltimore Ravens, Brock Purdy led the NFL in most metrics for a quarterback this season and was the front-runner for the NFL MVP award.

But Baltimore's dominant defense forced the quiet signal-caller to the worst game of his young career Monday at Levi's Stadium, including throwing four interceptions in San Francisco's 33-19 loss.

After the game, Ravens players and coaches explained how they were able to eject Purdy from the game in the highly anticipated game.

“The rush and coverage work together, and we all understood that. “We just understood that we had to stop the run, and we were going to be able to make plays,” Ravens linebacker Patrick Queen said. “We took advantage of the plays we were able to make And we just went from there. We've seen several times where the rush wasn't working with coverage. They had a few plays here and there [where] We didn't deal, or we missed the cover assignment.

“When we see players working together like that, like my interception or Kyle's [Hamilton]The interceptions, the plays everyone made, our front line and our back lines were working together.

The 49ers were riding a six-game winning streak into the pivotal “Monday Night Football” game, before defeating the Arizona Cardinals 45-29, Seattle Seahawks 28-16, Philadelphia Eagles 42-19, Seahawks 31-13, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 27 -14, Jacksonville Jaguars 34-3.

Quinn shared his opinion on why he believes the 49ers were able to beat other teams by such a large margin, and why their matchup was a different story.

“We're playing a kind of football that people don't want to play. Everyone wants to be here,” Quinn said [being] Nice, we play basketball on the grass and other things, and we [are not] With all that. You can do all those things. We'll punch you in the mouth on every play, honestly. We couldn't care less about all the beautiful things you do, and the deceitful things you do. You still have to line up and play football. You still have to be touched, that's our mentality. “This is the way we want to go out and hit people in the mouth.”

“They definitely do, but they have an aggressive mentality to them,” Quinn added when asked if he thinks the 49ers play basketball on grass. “I can honestly say they're probably the most aggressive team out of us.” [have] Played so far.”

Ravens coach John Harbaugh believes getting the win was a team effort.

“Defensively, it was on all three levels. We had pressure. We controlled the run game,” Harbaugh said. [and] This helped us a lot. But we had pressure. I thought our coverage was great, we covered for a long time, so we made them hold the ball, forced them to make some bad throws, and got our hands on the balls.

“We threw punts, we had balls in the air, and guys picked them off, so that helps, too. It was just a total team effort on defense to get those interceptions.”

Baltimore defensive end Jadeveon Clowney attributed the unit's success defending Purdy to the rush and coverage working together, and praised defensive coordinator Mike McDonald for putting them in “good positions to go out there and make plays.”

Entering the night, Purdy had seven interceptions in 14 games. In Monday's game, he had four.

Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey acknowledged they understood the challenge Purdy presented and wanted to do their best to limit it, before ultimately doing more.

“We've tried. He reads everything right,” Humphrey said. “It was really hard to embody [out]. We felt that if we could make progress, this might be our best chance. We were able to get the lead and try to get it going, but it's hard to stop that guy. It kind of makes all the right reading. Even though he made mistakes tonight, he usually doesn't make a lot of mistakes.

“[We were] Really just flying to the ball. One of Kyle's [Hamilton]'s [interceptions], he went to rush the quarterback and then got a pick — so things like that, just running to the ball. “B Steve” [Brandon Stephens] Inverted. A lot of things bounced our way tonight, but it was a total team effort, just running to the ball, rushing, trying to get the fire going. This team… I think everyone is feeling a little bit hurt. There are a lot of teams that want to be physical. This team is a real physical team [and] A really good team, so for us to come out and put on a show was really good for us.

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