Sports

Ravens’ Dixon in role of 49ers’ QB

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Dennis Dixon hasn’t played one down this season, but he may be the Ravens’ most important player heading into the Super Bowl.

The 28-year-old practice squad quarterback is playing the role of 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick in Ravens practice, trying to imitate the read-option phenomenon that can’t seem to be stopped.

“It’s great. I’m trying to give my defense as good a look as possible,” Dixon said yesterday after the Ravens final practice before the team heads to New Orleans tomorrow. “I’m trying to look at tape and see what Colin does well and trying to exploit that in practice.”

Dixon, who was the Steelers backup for three seasons after being selected in the fifth round in 2008, was an extremely effective option-quarterback at Oregon, finishing fifth in the Heisman voting in 2007 after running for 583 yards and nine touchdowns during his senior season.

Coach John Harbaugh used Dixon in the same role leading up to the team’s meeting with the Redskins and Robert Griffin III and thinks Dixon’s role can’t be understated as the quarterback for the scout team.

“Dennis will be a big part of that for us,” Harbaugh said on Thursday. “He understands the scheme and the reads and things like that. He’s very valuable for us.”

Dixon said the Redskins and 49ers offenses are similar, with both running a pistol and a zone-read, but there are differences. The most glaring distinction is in the personal styles of each quarterback, leaving Dixon studying running strides and arm-motions.

Sometimes, the coaching staff will give Dixon an indication what they want him to do, to throw or run, to let a play develop slowly or quickly, but just as often, Dixon is improvising, trying to prepare the defense for the unpredictability that Kaepernick creates.

From watching Kaepernick on film, Dixon said he’s already picked up specific ways to emulate a player whose skills can’t fully be translated.

“The way he runs, the way he hands off the ball, the way if he tucks it running to see what lanes he has,” said Dixon, on what he’s been able to learn from film. “I’m slowly, but surely progressing into what he does best.”

So far, the Ravens defense has been impressed.

“It’s helping out a lot,” said defensive end Arthur Jones. “Dixon’s the mastermind of it. I’ve never seen anyone run it better at the college level than that guy. He’s a great team player. He goes to our defensive line room a lot and it helped us going up against the Redskins.”

In the Dec. 9 meeting with Washington, the Ravens knocked Griffin out of the game near the end of regulation, in a 31-28 overtime loss, after he threw for 246 yards and one touchdown and ran for 34 yards, while Albert Morris ran for 122 yards and a touchdown.

Ravens defensive coordinator Dean Pees wouldn’t discuss what the team needs to focus on against the option, but he did say that part of the problem previously was asking players to do too much.

“I thought we were asking guys to do maybe some things that they weren’t particularly good at,” Pees said on Friday. “But, I also felt like we weren’t as disciplined as a football team defensively as we needed to be early on either. There were some times that we had chances to make plays, and our eyes weren’t in the right spot, or we weren’t in the right position – not as good of a discipline. We corrected that and got a lot better at that.”

The challenge is monumental, and in the NFL, still unique, but Jones seemed strangely energized by the tough task ahead.

“I don’t want to give away too much of our game plan, but I’m real excited for our game plan,” Jones said.

howard.kussoy@nypost.com