How do you stop Ravens quarterback and MVP candidate Lamar Jackson, the best dual-threat quarterback this league has seen in decades?

The short answer is that you don’t.

Thanks for reading. Good luck to the Niners Sunday.

No, no, seriously — in the words of the great Dan Patrick: you can’t stop him, you can only hope to contain him.

Ok, so try No. 2 — how do you contain Lamar Jackson?

From my perspective, here are the three things Robert Saleh and his defense need to do to stand a chance of slowing down the MVP frontrunner in Baltimore:

1. Dimes and dollars

(Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group) 
Jackson came onto the scene in Week 11 of last season, and to date, I’ve only seen one defense that has come close to truly “stopping” the Heisman Trophy winner.

It showed up in last year’s playoffs, when the Chargers — who had played the Ravens only a few weeks before in the regular season — ditched their linebackers and deployed a seven-defensive back defense on all but one snap, a strategy I’d venture to say no one in the history of the NFL had tried previously.

It worked. And it showed that the key to slowing down Jackson is to match his and the Ravens’ versatility, speed, and savvy.

That’s easier said than done, of course. Perhaps that’s why no team has tried a seven-DB package since the Chargers.

Of course, it must be noted that the Chargers had the personnel to pull it off. Their defensive backs were big and physical, led by do-it-all safety Derwin James.

But I think the 49ers have the personnel, too.

That Chargers’ defense and that of the 49ers’ have so many similarities beyond having a Bosa at defensive end.

Both come from a base Cover-3 system, which is the reason that the defensive backs are bigger and more physical than most around the league. And while James is a one-of-a-kind player — capable of not just playing, but dominating, at all three levels (yes, including defensive end) — the Niners have two shape-shifting safeties in Jaquaski Tartt and Jimmie Ward and, effectively, a third in nickel back in K’Waun Williams.

But I don’t think the Niners need to match the Chargers and go with a full “dollar,” seven-DB package to be successful against Baltimore.

Six defensive backs — a dime — will do.

That’s because Niners’ linebacker Fred Warner is as versatile a player as there is in the league, outside of James. He might play middle linebacker at an All-Pro level, but he’s really a hybrid safety/weak-side linebacker playing up a position because he can hit so hard.

The Niners have experimented with a base dime in the past, so if they use it Sunday, that shouldn’t be a big transition. In 2017, they played safety Eric Reid as a weak-side linebacker and I thought it worked well (as well as anything can work on one of the worst defenses in the NFL, that is).

And last Sunday, against the Packers, Saleh showed that look again, playing third-string safety Tarvarius Moore as a weak-side linebacker.

Whatever look gets the best defensive athletes on the field behind the ferocious front four gives San Francisco its best chance to match Jackson’s speed.

But those extra defensive backs need to hit like linebackers for this plan to work like it did for the Chargers. So the Niners’ trademark “pop” must travel with them cross-country for a 10 a.m. body-clock game in the rain.

Again, easier said than done.

But that’s the best personnel for success.

2. Covert ops

(AP Photo/Ben Margot) 
Inside that six defensive-back system, the Niners have to play a zone scheme with a variety of exotic blitzes, particularly on running downs.

Again, the Ravens’ option-heavy offense is built on speed, physicality, and confusion.

The Niners’ defense can match the first two aspects as well as anyone in the NFL, but the confusion must be there as well. Otherwise, it’s all for naught.

Let there be no confusion about this, however: the Niners cannot play man-to-man at any level of frequency against the Ravens.

I don’t care how good Warner is — and I think he has been great this season — he is not good enough to “spy” Jackson, taking him on one-on-one. Only the aforementioned Derwin James is possibly good enough to do that, and I seriously question if he could pull it off.

No, to beat a running quarterback, you have to play zone coverage, allowing defensive backs to have one eye in the backfield while playing in coverage. Everyone must spy to stop Jackson.

While the Niners have played much more man-to-man this season, with last Sunday’s win over the Packers being the most significant example — Richard Sherman said they played almost exclusively man-to-man — they are a team that was built on zone principles.

But their Cover-3 base won’t work much, either.

A single-high safety — the trademark of the Cover-3 — splits the field in half. Against a mobile quarterback like Jackson, you must defend sideline to sideline. Giving him one half of the field is asking to be torn apart.

No, the Niners should go with split safeties — a Cover-2 look — to pair with the four other defensive backs on the field.

That’s three defensive backs on one side of the field. Three defensive backs on the other. Four men rushing and a versatile linebacker stacked behind them.

That kind of defense can cover the full width and length of the field while attacking — a must against a quarterback as threatening as Jackson — in covert ways.

They won’t know what hit ’em.

3. The DeFo show

(Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group) 
The strength of the 49ers’ defense is its defensive line, and we’ll find out exactly how strong it is ASunday.

The first key for the defensive line is to not over-pursue on the edge, something Nick Bosa has done all too frequently in his rookie season. Over-pursuit gives the quarterback a gap in the line that he can step into to either pass or run.  Bosa has gotten away with over-pursuit against non-rushing quarterbacks — he’s able to chase down slow QBs from behind and the Niners’ coverage has given him that kind of time — but we’ve seen competent runners like Kyler Murray and Russell Wilson burn the Niners by exploiting it.

You can bet Jackson is going to take that running lane every time it’s made available, and it’s going to take two or three defenders working together to bring him down in the open field.

But even if Bosa is a sound rusher Sunday, the most important player for the Niners’ defense will be defensive tackle DeForest Buckner. The Ravens will start a second-string center against San Francisco and when given the opportunity, Buckner needs to make undrafted rookie Pat Mekari’s day a nightmare.

Mekari hasn’t started a game at center since high school, having played guard and tackle at Cal.

The Ravens will likely get exotic to cover for Mekari. They have been more of an option team over the last four games, and they ran a few trap options last Monday against the Rams and all-world defensive tackle Aaron Donald.

Trap blocking double-teams one defensive tackle while pulling an offensive tackle or guard around to block the opposite side defensive tackle. It leaves a defensive end unblocked, but by the time that’s made apparent, the play is already past them. Some might consider it basic football, but it works because the Ravens offensive line is so sound.

I wouldn’t be shocked if Buckner receives similar treatment to Donald and sees plenty of traps. And whether he’s being double-teamed or blindsided by a pulling offensive tackle, he’ll have the ability to blow up the play with his strength and athleticism.

If he doesn’t — if he’s neutralized — the Niners don’t stand much of a chance.