Super Bowl XLVII

[njmeadowlanders]

I'd rather have a QB who plays great when the pressure is on and in the postseason then having great or good regular season numbers (trust me, I know the difference because Romo is my teams QB). But, to me, by putting on the performance he did to win the title, he's earned the elite status. That's the difference between a good quarterback and an elite one. One who plays best when his team needs it the most.

Yeah man, those two field goals when San Francisco's in the process of potentially staging the biggest Super Bowl comeback ever. That's great play there.

Oh stop it. Look at his body of work in the playoffs the past couple of seasons. He's money. Simple as that. And that's even with Lee Evans dropping that gimme TD/Stover shanking one to send it to OT.

And now he never has to answer a question again about this. Just hold up his ring finger.

[rams80]

I'd rather have a QB who plays great when the pressure is on and in the postseason then having great or good regular season numbers (trust me, I know the difference because Romo is my teams QB). But, to me, by putting on the performance he did to win the title, he's earned the elite status. That's the difference between a good quarterback and an elite one. One who plays best when his team needs it the most.

Yeah man, those two field goals when San Francisco's in the process of potentially staging the biggest Super Bowl comeback ever. That's great play there.

Oh stop it. Look at his body of work in the playoffs the past couple of seasons. He's money. Simple as that. And that's even with Lee Evans dropping that gimme TD/Stover shanking one to send it to OT.

And now he never has to answer a question again about this. Just hold up his ring finger.

Let's see here. 2008-Defense keeps the Ravens in 2 games (arguably wins it outright against Miami) before the Ravens can't complete the comeback against the Steelers. (PROTIP-Don't throw the ball to Troy Polamalu in that situation)

2009-Ravens defense puts Patriots behind the 8 Ball before the Colts overwhelm them in the next round.

2010-Curb stomp Chiefs, lose to Steelers on last minute TD drive. Gagged up 14 point halftime lead in the process.

2011-Defense dominates Texans, then Brady pulls the win out.

2012-Gaudy numbers, but seriously dude, way to not put the Super Bowl away.

Not seeing a lot of those epic 4th quarter finishes there out of Flacco.

[Kramerica Industries]

Flacco helped put the Ravens in that 28-6 spot in the first place. And, of course, he helped put the Ravens in that game in the first place, thanks to the season-saving touchdown in Denver.

I'm not going to put him in the ranks of the elite, no. I've ridiculed Flacco too many times in the past to jump on that bandwagon. But it's hard to deny that his play in these past four games was probably the best he has ever looked.

[DC in Da House w/o a Doubt]

Yeah Flacco looked awesome... There were a few times it looked like San Fran had all the momentum when they cut it to a one score game. But Flacco answered with long drives that led to points. That throw to Boldin on the 3rd and inches I believe was on one of those drives. It was a ballsy but veteran call for any QB and he made a terrific throw.

I was really pulling for San Fran in this one, but tip of the hat to the Ravens and specifically Flacco. Would have been nice to keep the toilet seat collars off the podium for Nike's entire reign over the NFL, but so much for that I guess.

7 days til pitchers and catchers! Woooo!

[tBBP]

Yeah...if nothing else, I think it's safe to say that your boy Flacco is above game-manager status. He's now proven he can be counted on to win games, particularly the big ones. On that merit, I think that moves him up a good couple rungs on the NFL QB ladder...just not the elite ones. Yet. But if this performance serves as a harbinger of things to come from Cinco De Flacco going forward, he may get there soon enough.

And it couldn't have come at a better time for the Ravens, as that defense ain't what it used to be (top 10, that is), so it's good to see that they have proven that they can now win with offense and just enough defense, when for the longest time it was was the other way around. And especially since they're about to lose their undisputed emotional leader in Ray Lewis—and not to be lost in all this is the fact that Ed Reed is also a free agent (if I remember correctly), so this is a huge transition time for that organization right now.

As for the Niners, I'd like to think that they'll be back in contention next season, but now that NFL defenses have a body of work with which to study that pistol, it remains to be seen how well it will work—and/or if Harbaugh and Kaepernick make any adjustments to it—next season and beyond. We saw this same thing happen when Miami busted out the Wildcat...it spread like wildfire through the NFL until defenses adjusted to it. May be the same thing next year...and I can already see some team out there adopting some form of SF's pistol (it's a copycat league, after all).

Should be fun...now how 'bout them pucks??

[Kramerica Industries]

Niners still have one of the best defenses in the league, and I think that experience at the NFL level can only help Kaep. It also helps that San Fran has a very athletic offense, and that Kaep has helped make Michael Crabtree worth the high draft pick the Niners used on him back in 2009. Where Kaepernick needs more work is on not being a one-read kind of QB. On two different situations inside the ten last night, there was a third down play where he was looking for Crabtree, didn't throw to him when the brief window was there, and then didn't look for something else. Those ended up being costly in the end.

[Sport]

Thoughts:

- I don't have that many warm fuzzy feelings regarding this game. I guess I'm happy that San Francisco is finally experiencing what it feels like to lose a Super Bowl.

- The blackout was weird and poorly covered by the CBS crew.

- Remember when the Ravens weren't good at the end of the year?

- I thought we were going to see a Super Bowl blowout like we haven't seen since the Buffalo Bills were making the big game every year

- The last team to beat the Baltimore Ravens was the Cincinnati Bengals.

- Ray Lewis is finally done playing. I'm sure some of you will be agitated at his ESPN desk job, but I avoid pregame shows like they're a disease so I'm finally finished with Ray Lewis.

- It'll be interesting to see how the AFC North plays next year. The Ravens defense is aging and retiring, the Steelers aren't the team they used to be, the Browns will have to get better at some point, and the Bengals are right there waiting to explode towards their potential. I like my team's chances in 2013.

[NJTank]

Thoughts:

- I don't have that many warm fuzzy feelings regarding this game. I guess I'm happy that San Francisco is finally experiencing what it feels like to lose a Super Bowl.

- The blackout was weird and poorly covered by the CBS crew.

- Remember when the Ravens weren't good at the end of the year?

- I thought we were going to see a Super Bowl blowout like we haven't seen since the Buffalo Bills were making the big game every year

- The last team to beat the Baltimore Ravens was the Cincinnati Bengals.

- Ray Lewis is finally done playing. I'm sure some of you will be agitated at his ESPN desk job, but I avoid pregame shows like they're a disease so I'm finally finished with Ray Lewis.

- It'll be interesting to see how the AFC North plays next year. The Ravens defense is aging and retiring, the Steelers aren't the team they used to be, the Browns will have to get better at some point, and the Bengals are right there waiting to explode towards their potential. I like my team's chances in 2013.

CBS looked like a deer caught in the headlights during the power outage.

There is an open door for the Bengals.

[Kramerica Industries]

In fairness, a blackout like that is kind of sudden and unexpected. I can't even remember the last time there was a black out in an NFL game.

[TheOldRoman]

In fairness, a blackout like that is kind of sudden and unexpected. I can't even remember the last time there was a black out in an NFL game.

Steelers at Niners in a MNF game last season.

[Kramerica Industries]

Even then, that was before the game began. ESPN was still doing their pregame show. It's not quite the same thing.

[dfwabel]

Even then, that was before the game began. ESPN was still doing their pregame show. It's not quite the same thing.

November 14 2010 SNF (Cowboys @ NYG)

[HedleyLamarr]

Hence, why I think Jacoby Jones was screwed out of the MVP by Flacco.

Yeah, umm...Jones created 2 TDs that ended up being very critical. Flacco couldn't get game-sealing TDs on any of those late-game drives; which is something Elite QBs do.

Here's another measuring stick: in one of the other New Orleans-Super Bowls, Desmond Howard clinched MVP honors on a kickoff TD. Jacoby does the same to open the 2nd half, this after scoring a TD after noticing he's not touched; giving Flacco's inability to get a red zone TD late, Jones did him a favor by evading two 49ers for that TD.

Put it another way, if SB 31 was played today, Favre would have grabbed the MVP because he was the winning QB.

I completely agree with your point. Either the voters' standards have changed, or 41 passing yards makes a heck of a lot of difference!

Brett Favre in XXXI: 246 yds, 3 TDs, 0 INT.

Joe Flacco in XLVII: 287 yds, 3 TDs, 0 INT.

And FWIW, Reggie White and his 3 sacks were more worthy of SB31 MVP more than Favre and especially Desmond Howard. Green Bay still wins going away regardless of Howard's performance. Never understood how he walked away with the award.

Desmond Howard won the MVP because of when his kickoff return happened. It was the turning point in the game.

Jacoby Jones' return TD occurred when the Ravens were up by 15 points. Flacco, to his credit, helped build the 21-6 lead, as well as led the Ravens on two important 10+ play, 5-min+ drives in the 4th quarter (well, add in the last couple minutes of the 3rd quarter) when the Ravens needed to extend the lead. I've no problem with Flacco winning MVP honors.

[BlueSky]

Channel 11 here in Atlanta did something last night I'd have expected to read on this board, not see on TV...a "what if?" segment on how the Falcons would have matched up really well with the Ravens had they made the SB.

[HedleyLamarr]

Needed something to fill time during the sports segment of the news, since no local teams were in action.....

[vmd9]

A lot of my Browns fan friends are grumpy about the Ravens winning saying it's now the second super bowl that belongs to Cleveland.

Can we put that to bed? It's been over 15 years since they left. At this point, the timelines between what is actually happening versus the universe where the Browns stayed in Cleveland have diverged completely.

No one around here has said that so why even bring it up? If you hate Cleveland so much why do you repeatedly bring them up? Seems like you just use this as a place to vent your frustration.

I honestly don't care that they moved or won 2 championships in Baltimore. Cleveland has a team and I'd rather spend my time rooting for them as opposed to hating the Ravens for no reason.

[BlueSky]

Something I meant to mention re the SB and all the ifs and buts...I don't know who the 49er was without watching the play again, but on the TD when the Raven receiver fell down then got up and scored, a third 49er defender comes flying in at the last second. Watch the all-22 replay and you'll see that guy was covering a receiver who ran a deep out to the far (from the viewer's POV) sideline. He waits several seconds and doesn't head for the goal line until Jones gets up and starts running. Had he reacted immediately (aka "hustled") he would have easily been in position to tackle Jones short of a TD or maybe even punch the ball out from behind.

Maybe he thought Jones was down or he couldn't get there or whatever else blah blah...but guys that hustle (Jason Pierre-Paul comes to mind) always seem to make more than their share of great plays. This guy might have made a play for the ages in the biggest game of his life had he just hustled to the ball.

[Kramerica Industries]

1) That was Chris Culliver who was the CB originally covering Jones, no?

2) Bernard Pollard is one tough MoFo. He takes just as well as he gives.

[BlueSky]

1) That was Chris Culliver who was the CB originally covering Jones, no?

2) Bernard Pollard is one tough MoFo. He takes just as well as he gives.

No, I checked the replay and it was #25, Tarell Brown. He was around the SF 35 covering another receiver when Jones made the catch. Had he sprinted towards the play immediately he'd have gotten there, but he waited until Jones got up and ran.

[BlueSky]

Okay, I guess it's a dead horse but I saw this as I watched the NFL Replay edition of the SB. Before you read on, understand that I 1) hate the 49ers, 2) was rooting for Baltimore and 3) believe that ticky-tack penalties should not be called in any game much less the Super Bowl.

Check out the two Ravens bear-hugging Bruce Miller (#49 but you can only see the 9) of SF on the big kick return. Again, don't call the small stuff, but a guy being mauled and blatantly held right at the point of attack on a huge play in the biggest game of the season? That has to be called.

On a lighter note, the way Vonta Leach tosses Akers aside like he's an American Girl doll is pretty damn funny.