No.7: Ravens survive comeback after blackout

The last ever match in Ray Lewis' Hall of Fame career.

Number 7 is one of the most entertaining matches it had it all. Two legendary teams in the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers. Two brothers as head coaches. Beyonce as the halftime show and a half an hour stoppage because half of the stadium had a power failure. Oh and a final game for an NFL legend and one of the most respected players in NFL history.

Super Bowl 47 was held in New Orleans 7 years after Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans were hosting its 10th Super Bowl. For the city, it was significant as they were hosting their first Super Bowl in 11 years and the revenues were used to pay back the debt the city accumulated for damage repairs. Another headline was that two brothers were facing each other in the Super Bowl in Ravens Head Coach John Harbaugh and 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh. This was the second contest as they met a year earlier on Thanksgiving night with the Ravens winning 16-6.

LB Terrel Suggs chasing Tom Brady

The Ravens went into 2012 looking to relinquishing the ghosts of the AFC Championship game the previous year when they missed two chances to either win or tie the game and go to Super Bowl 46. In 2012 they got there with a 10-6 record and winning the 4th seed in the AFC. To improve the team, John Harbaugh upgraded their Defensive Backs and signed receiver Jacoby Jones. However, despite being in sight of the playoffs, they fired their offensive coordinator at the time Cam Cameron and brought in Jim Caldwell. Another headline going into the playoffs was that their emotional leader and legend Ray Lewis who had been out for a majority of the season after injuring his tricep announced to the team that it would be his final season.

Batman (Lewis 52) and Robin (Ed Reed 20) for the final time

Their playoff run started with what turned out to be Lewis' final home game defeating the Indianapolis Colts 24-9. The following week they went to Denver to take on Peyton Manning's Broncos and in a dramatic battle with the lead swapping from one side to the other Baltimore ran out 38-35 winners in double overtime. The AFC Championship was between them and the Patriots in a repeat of the previous years game. At halftime, the Patriots were on their way to New Orleans with a 13-7 lead. However, the Ravens scored 3 unanswered touchdowns to win 28-7.

Crabtree sending the 49ers to their 6th Super Bowl

The 49ers were coming back to the Super Bowl for the 1st time in 18 years and after a dismal 2000s compared to the success of their heydays in the 1980s and the 1990s. Jim Harbaugh brought back a historic franchise some playoff ambitions in his first year (2011) taking them to the NFC Championship before losing to eventual Super Bowl winner New York Giants. Expectations were high for 2012, considering how weak the NFC West had been in previous years.  Harbaugh brought in some significant weapons in the Wide Receiver position with Mario Manningham who had just come from the Super Bowl-winning Giants and bringing back Hall of Fame receiver Randy Moss out of retirement.

QB Colin Kaepernick ran and threw 49ers to the big game.

They clinched the number 2 seed in the NFC with an 11-4-1 record. Harbaugh entered the season with 2005 No.1 overall pick Alex Smith as the quarterback and took the team to a 6-2 record going into week 10. However, in that game, Smith left the game with a concussion and was replaced by their backup quarterback Colin Kaepernick. However, since Kaepernick brought a different dimension to their offence, a quarterback controversy ensued between Smith and Kaepernick. Harbaugh decided to keep Kaepernick and evaluate it on a week-by-week basis. Which means if he has a good game, he stays in for the next game, however, if Kaepernick had a bad game Smith was in. Their run in the playoffs started with a home game against the Green Bay Packers. Before the game, Harbaugh made Kaepernick, the quarterback through the playoffs. The doubts that the critics had were heightened when Kaep threw an interception on the first drive. However, he silenced the critics with his standout game with 444 total yards which included 181 rushing yards and the 49ers defeated the Packers 45-31. In the NFC championship, they were 17-0 down at halftime. However, they score 4 touchdowns and limited the Falcons to 1 touchdown in the second half to win 28-24.

WR Anquan Boldin scores the first touchdown. 

The pregame festivities usually include a patriotic song and the national anthem however for America the Beautiful that year they had several students from Sandy Hook Elementary School that was in the headlines for the tragic shooting joining Jennifer Hudson. The Ravens scored the first touchdown with Anquan Boldin scoring off a 13-yard pass. The 49ers responded with a 62 yard 12-play drive with a 19-yard pass to Michael Crabtree and Vernon Davis catching a 24-yard pass, which was capped by David Akers kicking a 36-yard field goal to make it 7-3.

Jacoby Jones diving for a touchdown

The 49ers were three-quarters of the way to scoring a touchdown to take the lead at the start of the 2nd quarter. However, linebacker Courtney Upshaw made LaMichael James fumble the ball which Baltimore recovered. Flacco drove the offence down 75 yards on 10 plays with Dennis Pitta catching a 1-yard pass to make it 14-3. After 3 possessions with both teams failing to score Jacoby Jones started to make a name for himself. He began from mishandling a punt on the Ravens 33 yard line to return it 11 yards. Two plays later Jones made a falling catch then got up (he hadn't been touched) then eluded two defenders to score a 56-yard touchdown pass to make 21-3. The 49ers ended the half with a field goal to make it 21-6 and end a horrible half. The Halftime show that year was Beyonce and featured her Destiny's Child bandmates, but her fans were disappointed that her husband Jay-Z wasn't there.

WR Jacoby Jones ran 108 yards on this kickoff return.

The Ravens received the second-half kickoff, and Jacoby Jones fresh off his 56-yard touchdown pass produced a 108-yard kickoff return, which is the equivalent of receiving the ball near the backline in Rugby then running to the try zone in one play without getting tackled, that made it 28-6. Then a minute later after a sack, the game stopped because the Superdome had a power cut which lasted half an hour. That was actually the turning point in the game.

The 49ers then scored 2 unanswered touchdowns starting from the same drive that featured the power cut. They went 80 yards down to score their first touchdown with Kaepernick himself rushing for 15 yards. After Baltimore punted the ball and Ted Ginn returned it to the Baltimore 20-yard line they only took two plays to score another touchdown with Davis catching a 14-yard pass and Frank Gore running 6 yards to make it 28-20 at the end of the 3rd quarter.

QB Kaepernick rushes for a touchdown.

The start of the 4th quarter was a carry on from the 3rd as David Akers kicked a 34-yard field goal to make it 28-23.  The Ravens then had their biggest drive of the second half in terms of momentum seeing as the 49ers had used the pause to their advantage. They did a 77-yard drive but stopped one yard short, and Justin Tucker kicked a 19-yard field goal to make it 31-23. The 49ers then made a quick response scoring a touchdown in 5 plays with Moss going 32 yards then with Frank Gore running for 21 yards, followed up by Kaepernick running in for a 15-yard touchdown himself. They failed on a 2 point conversion, so the score was 31-29.

After the Ravens kicked a field goal to make it 34-29. The 49ers were driving to win the game and then came one of the greatest goal line stands of all time. The Ravens defence stood up and denied the offence for the four downs even though the 4th down did have controversy. After the 49ers forced a 3-and-out, the Ravens used their last timeout told their punter to hold the ball for as long as they can to take as much time off the clock before taking a safety (NFL version of an own goal) which he did taking 8 of the remaining 12 seconds off. On the free-kick, the 49ers tried to run down the field for a touchdown however they were stopped on the halfway line. It finished one of the most exciting games at 34-31 to Baltimore.

Joe Flacco won the Super Bowl MVP

Joe Flacco won the MVP vote with 22 completions from 33 attempts for 287 yards and 3 touchdowns. It could have gone to Jacoby Jones who had a combined receiving and return yards for 290 throughout the match including the kickoff return at the start of the match. Ray Rice was the Ravens top rusher with 59 yards on 20 carries, and Anquan Boldin was the top receiver with 104 yards and a touchdown on 6 catches. On the defence, Paul Kruger was the top performer with 3 tackles and 2 sacks. Ed Reed had 5 tackles and an interception, meanwhile, Lewis in his final game had 7 tackles.

For the 49ers Kaepernick was the top performer on offence with 16 completions for 302 yards a touchdown while rushing for 62 yards and a touchdown. However, he had 1 interception. Frank Gore was the top rusher for the whole game with 102 yards on 19 carries. Crabtree had 5 catches for 109 yards and a touchdown while Vernon Davies had 6 catches for 104 yards. Linebacker Patrick Willis was the top defender for the team with 10 tackles.

After this, both teams had different fortunes. The 49ers returned to the NFC Championship a year later but were defeated by the eventual champions Seattle Seahawks. Then they spiralled downhill, then in the 2016 preseason Colin Kaepernick started the National Anthem kneel protests, Kaepernick has not played for a team since being cut by the 49ers after that season. The Ravens did make it back to the playoffs but never got close enough to the AFC Championship.

That's all for the game I'll be back with number 6.

KRO Mark