Monday, February 04, 2013
Super Bowl XLVII The Aftermath
It is Monday evening,
and the lights are out at the SuperDome in New Orleans. Intentionally.
Yesterday, they lost
power during the game at the Super Bowl, and there was cause for concern.
Fortunately, the lights came on about half an hour later, and the game
continued. A great game, by the way, in doubt right down to the final seconds.
When the clock read zero, the Baltimore Ravens edged the San Francisco
Forty-Niners 34-31.
Fifty years ago, in
1952, the Grey Cup was played in Toronto. Halfway through the game between the
Hamilton Tiger Cats and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, fog rolled in from Lake
Ontario. With nine minutes and 29 seconds left in the fourth quarter, officials
postponed the game. They played the final minutes the following day. When the
fog interfered with play, the Bombers led 28-27. The same score held up until
the end of the game the next day.
Despite the fact that
the Ravens were considered to be underdogs by the majority of football fans,
they dominated the first half. Quarterback Joe Flacco, who was named the game
MVP, outperformed his counterpart from the 49ers, Colin Kaepernick. Flacco
threw three touchdown passes, and led the Ravens into the locker room at half
time with a 21-6 lead.
To complicate things
for the 49ers, the Ravens’ Jacoby Jones took the kickoff deep in his end zone,
and wove his way through the centre of the field to the 49er end zone. The
final determination was that he had covered 108 yards in his journey, a Super
Bowl record. By comparison, he would have covered 128 yards on a Canadian
football field. The field of play is 110 yards in the CFL, and the end zone is
20 yards deep, as opposed to ten in the NFL.
The 49ers were stunned.
At that point, they trailed 28-6. Following the kickoff, the lights went out. I
could almost hear “Dandy” Don Meredith, the iconic Monday Night Football announcer
howling out his patented song , “Turn out the Lights, the party’s over”! I
would not have been a bit surprised if the game had turned out to be a blowout.
Such was not to be
the case. Thirty-five minutes later, the 49ers rallied to score 17 straight
points. With the Ravens ahead in the fourth quarter by six points, the 49ers
headed to the line of scrimmage inside the Baltimore ten yard line, with a
first and goal. Most armchair quarterbacks assumed that coach Jim Harbaugh
would elect to run the ball, either by Kaepernick or by running back Frank
Gore. The 49ers elected to pass, four times, and the Ravens defence, including
Ed Reed, thwarted all attempts. They pressured Kaepernick, and that was “all
she wrote”. Ravens took a safety to end the game harmlessly.
It was the first time
in football history that two coaches who were brothers, Jim and John Harbaugh,
faced each other in a championship. Ravens’ Ray Lewis played his final National
Football League game. He announced his retirement several weeks ago, and many
of his teammates wanted to win one for Lewis. Ed Reed
Twelve years ago, Lewis
led the Ravens to a Super Bowl victory, and was the game MVP. Controversy
surrounded his career; several years ago, he was implicated in a double homicide
that has yet to be solved, and during the past week he was accused of using
deer antler spray to help rehabilitation with a torn bicep muscle. As a
sidelight, golfer V. J. Singh recently admitted to using deer antler spray. I
am sure that would raise a few eyebrows in Bancroft!
Kaepernick made his
debut as the 49ers QB in mid season. His debut has been nothing short of
spectacular. He broke several records with spectacular performances. He is now
25 years old, and has a bright future in the game. But the day belonged to
Flacco, who completed 22 passes out of 33 attempts.
A most entertaining
end to the season.
James Hurst
Sportslices.blogspot.com
# posted by James Hurst @ 6:31 PM 
