San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk spent his first four NFL seasons with the Baltimore Ravens and returned to M&T Bank Stadium on Sunday in what was being touted as a heavy-weight bout between two of the NFL's best teams.
"It was a weird feeling (coming back), for sure," Juszczyk told Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area after the game. "I've got a lot of memories, a lot of teammates over there that I played with, but as soon as the ball got snapped, all that stuff went away. It was just about the game."
The Ravens entered the matchup averaging 35.1 points per game, the best in the league, but were held to just 20 on Sunday against the top-ranked 49ers defense. The rain-soaked matchup lived up to expectations for the casual NFL fan. 49ers players, however, felt like they let one slip away.
"Yeah, definitely we felt like we should have won this game," Juszczyk said. "but big picture, we're gonna be fine. We're gonna bounce back. We're excited. We've got another big game, a big NFC opponent this next week, so if we take care of business, we'll be right back to where we wanna be."
That NFC opponent is the New Orleans Saints, who, like the 49ers, exit Week 13 with a 10-2 record. That means next weekend's matchup between the two teams in New Orleans could be for the top spot in the conference.
I say "could" because a win by the Seattle Seahawks on Monday night against the Minnesota Vikings would make them the NFC West leaders and drop San Francisco from the No. 1 seed to No. 5.
Sunday's battle in Baltimore was hard-fought, which is exactly what most predicted.
"It was exactly what we expected," Juszczyk said. "It was a dogfight out there, and that's really what we expected this whole week, and they gave it to us. They came out on the right end of it this week, but we feel good about what we're doing. We feel good about where we're at, and we know that things are gonna bounce back."