NEW ORLEANS, LA—It was the Super Bowl that had everyone talking. Brother vs. Brother. In one corner you have John Harbaugh of the Baltimore Ravens; quite, reserved, not much known about him. In the other corner you have Jim Harbaugh of theSan Francisco49ers; outspoken, loud and scene stealer. Just which brother in the end would win the prize? It turned out that John Harbaugh was the victor this time around as the Baltimore Ravens defeated the San Francisco 49ers 34 to 31.
The first quarter got off to a huge start asBaltimorescored the first touchdown, sending a clear message that they were in it to win it. The 49ers did not give up as they kicked a field goal with a score of 7 Baltimore, 3 49ers to end the first half. Baltimore continued their domination scoring a second touchdown in the second half, bringing the score to 14 Baltimore, 3 San Francisco.
Baltimore quarterback Joe Flacco was hitting all the right marks in the first two quarters, while 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick had a bit of trouble finding his footing. Flacco launched a hail mary to Jacoby Jones in the final minutes of second quarter for a touchdown that will be talked about for days. Kaepernick countered that touchdown with hail marry attempt of his own that placed the 49ers in field goal range, but the Ravens defense held them at bay, but 49ers kicker David Akers kicked a field goal ending the first half with a score of 21 Baltimore, 6 San Francisco.
The third quarter kicked off with a bang as Jacoby Jones ran 109 yards after kick-off for a touchdown! Absolutely awesome, guy broke a world-record. It took him only 11 seconds to run that distance. Hey,San Francisco 49ers, where was the defense. Baltimore continued to pound the 49ers with a 22-point lead. Jim Harbaugh didn’t look to happy. It was the quietist I’ve seen this guy on the sidelines all season. He knew his team was in trouble and they would need all the fight in time to win this game.
Something unexpected happened during the game, the power went out! This has never happened in Super Bowl history. Power was lost in half of the stadium. I was going crazy trying to figure out what happened as a dark silence took over the telecast. The audience watched the players and the fans wait patiently for the lights to come back on. It took about 35 minutes before the game resumed. Countless jokes were made in the social arena about the lights being knocked out by God who was unhappy with the 49ers performance. Others joked that Beyonce knocked used up all the power and some joked the power failure gave the 49ers a chance to re-group and get themselves back into the game. It appears that a power surge was the culprit behind the outage in the stadium.
The brief hiatus appeared to work in San Francisco’s favor as Kaepernick and the rest of his teammates were able to score their first touchdown of the game, making it a 15 point game, and then manifesting an interception which put them back into the game with another touchdown, giving the Ravens only an 8 point game. The power outage did wonders for the 49ers because the audience was finally treated to a football game that was no longer an onslaught. The 49ers were clawing their way back and the Ravens were starting to feel the pressure.
Shortly after that interception, the 49ers were able to capture another interception on behalf of sloppy play by the Ravens, putting Kaepernick in the position to cut the deficit by 1 point with another touchdown, but the Ravens roared back with defense forcing the 49ers to settle for field goal that was initially no good, but a flag was thrown giving Akers another shot at the field goal. San Franciscoscored a total of 17 points in the 3rd quarter alone. The 49ers kept the pressure on Baltimore who vied for a touchdown, but were held to a field goal at the initial start of the fourth quarter givingBaltimore a 31 to 23 lead.
Colin Kaepernick scored a touchdown making it a 2-point game and decided to go for a two-point conversion that was not successful, but with just 8 minutes in the game the 49ers turned an initial onslaught early on in the game within close reach. With less than five minutes in the game, Ravens kicker Tucker catapulted a field goal giving the Ravens a 5 point lead over San Francisco. The final 2 minutes of the game was indeed a nail-bitter as San Francisco was on the verge of a touchdown which would inevitably give them the lead and perhaps the game. With fourth and goal Kaepernick attempted to get the touchdown, but had no luck, which angered Coach Jim Harbaugh who wanted a holding call, but the refs weren’t having it.
The Baltimore Ravens controlled the final minute and 45 seconds of the game and ran the clock down until the final 4 seconds before turning the ball over to San Francisco. The San Francisco 49ers looked utterly defeated, kinda heartbreaking to watch. Joe Flacco was name Most Valuable Player at the Super Bowl. It was indeed a valiant effort by the 49ers who took some time to get into the game, but once they were in it made it one of the best Super Bowls to watch. The one thing everyone will remember about Super Bowl XLVII is the power outage. It was indeed the game changing moment of one of the most exciting Super Bowl’s in a long-time.
By LaDale Anderson
