The Ravens got off to a roaring start. After causing a quick Niners possession, the bird gang scored quickly with a Joe Flacco to Anquan Boldin connection. Unfortunately while the Ravens were putting up points, safety Bernard Pollard was in the locker room for the first time in this injury plagued Super Bowl. When I talked to Pollard early in the team hotel on Monday he said, "I feel sore, I'm just hurting from the broken ribs. I've been dealing with them all season, I'll be fine though. " I thought to myself, what, this guy has broken ribs? But then again these are the toughest guys in the world and Pollard is one of the hardest hitting safeties in the league. Could his rib situation have led to an uncharacteristic missed tackle on Michael Crabtree's third quarter touchdown, sure, but that comes later.
The scoring was capped by a David Akers 34 yard field goal. I commend Akers on his Super Bowl performance after all the scrutiny he faced leading up to the game. Even though he received a mulligan on one attempt, Akers finished a perfect 3 for 3 on the night. Joe Flacco got the scoring started in the 2nd quarter with a 1 yard pitch and catch to Tight End Dennis Pitta. The real big play in the quarter though came from hometown hero Jacoby Jones.
Now to the 3rd quarter. As I mentioned above, this quarter could have possibly been the most exciting or action packed quarter before the final 15 in NFL history. The excitement began with the beginning kickoff of the 2nd half. Jacoby Jones took Aker's kick 109 later changed to 108 yards right down the middle of a suspect Niners coverage team. It was one broken arm tackle and then the rest was history. (See who it costs $600,000)
After this amazing kick return even more excitement followed including a 34 minute delay caused by the outage in the Super Dome. Had the Ravens not held on, this Super delay would have been the most disputed event ever in football. Why would it have been so disputed? Because this outage clearly changed the momentum and killed all the rhythm the Ravens had going for them. Ravens fans were so loud and the Ravens were rolling but all of a sudden the lights go out and we see a whole new 49er squad. The 49ers eventually went on a 80 yard drive including the aforementioned Michael Crabtree touchdown. As the Niners fans began to get loud, the Ravens had a quick possession and poor punt by Sam Koch leading to a walk in touchdown by Frank Gore. All of a sudden a 22 point lead was down to one score.
Ray Rice coughed up the pigskin only a few plays later but a key stand by the Ravens defense somewhat weathered the storm. An Akers field goal put the game within 5 points. This ultimately raps up the greatest 15 minutes of the game yet we still had 15 more to play. The Ravens really needed to stop the bleeding and Super Bowl MVP Joe Flacco took that challenge under his belt. Flacco led the Ravens down the field but were held to a short field goal by rookie Justin Tucker. The FG at least pushed the lead back to 8 points but Colin Kaepernick wasn't done. He answered quickly including his run down the left sideline in which he scampered 15 yards into the red and gold endzone. Kaepernick did his trademark kissing of the bicep and the Niners had a chance to tie the game. A questionable play call on the 2 point conversion left Kaep zinging the ball over top of Randy Moss' head.
Up 31-29, Flacco answered again. He led the team back into the redzone but Patrick Willis and company held on again. This was the moment that one realized the Niners had stormed all the way back and had implemented the "bend don't break strategy". The Ravens had given up a little over 350 yards per game during the regular season ranking 17th in the league but Baltimore always buckled down in the redzone. The irony seemed to be rising as San Fran came up with 2 key holds and had given themselves the chance to win the game a formula Baltimore had been utilizing all season.
Kaepernick got the ball back and simply marched down the field. A Frank Gore rush sent the Niners down to the 7 yard line. A read option for two yards by LaMichael James sent the clock tumbling down to the two minute warning.As the Ravens prepared for 3 more plays Joe Flacco sat on the sideline wondering if he would get the ball back one more time. "I was sitting there thinking there's no way, there's no way we stop them here. But we did."
While Joe didn't fully trust the defense Ray Lewis knew there was no greater way to go out on his final ride than with a goal line stand. "The most exciting things ever were the conversations we were having on the goal line. Nobody ever panicked. There was no panic. When you have that, when your back is against the wall … for us to stand up like that is just a testament to what we've been through all year."
With Haloti Ngata sitting out the final 20 minutes of the game, San Francisco opted to throw 3 times within the 5 yard line. Kaepernick showed who his favorite receiver was as he targeted Crabtree on all three throws. The final one coming with a minute and fifty seconds as the ball sailed out of bounds. Jimmy Smith grabbed a handful of Crabtree's jersey but the referee's indecision let the play stand and left the Baltimore Ravens as Super Bowl Champions.
Super Bowl MVP-Joe Flacco
