I have to say that I have been pleasantly surprised by the lack of frivolous Super Bowl stuff that has been (or should I say that hasn't been) reported on. Outside of the Ray Lewis Antler Spray accusation and whether Beyonce will lip sync the half time show there hasn't been any other stories that aren't related to the game. I haven't even heard too much on the fact that there are actually three Harbaugh's involved in Sunday's game. Jay Harbaugh, Jim's son and therefore John's nephew, is a coaching intern for the Ravens. Jay will have one of the coolest seats of any spectator Sunday. He'll be in the booth with the Ravens offensive coaches....wouldn't be great to hear those guys discussing strategy during the game.
My take on the Brother vs. Brother angle...it has to effect the game in some way. I know if I was competing against my brother I would want to win...bad, but at the same time I wouldn't want to embarrass him either. I would think he would feel the same way. For instance, if I somehow was up 14-0, I think I would lean toward the conservative side so as not to let the score get too out of hand. It would be a tough balance between protecting the lead and not wanting to run up the score. Would that cause me to leave the window for a possible comeback open longer? I think it would.
If anything, there isn't enough SB coverage out there. Go to Google news and click on "Sports." Sure, the top story is a Super Bowl one, but for the Friday before the big game I would have expected the majority of stories on the page SB related. Of the 14 stories on the page, only 2 are directly related to the SB. There's another on New Orleans, but it's about the cities comeback, so it's indirectly related. I just did a search on "Super Bowl" on Google News and the top story is one about hating SB parties...posted 5 hours ago.
It's been interesting to see the sports predictions on this Super Bowl. The majority are picking the 49ers. Most of those are the "stats" guys. They are the ones that see that the 49ers are clearly the better team on paper...and for the most part they look the part too. But the sportscasters that pick with their gut (of note, both Mikes of Mike-n-Mike in the Morning and Steven A Smith) are picking the Ravens. The What If Sports simulation had the 49ers winnning 55.4% of the time with an average score of 20-18. That's pretty close for a team (the 49ers) that is viewed to be statistically better in almost every category.
Personally, I think the Ravens will win. It's more of a "what I've seen lately" thing with me. Colin Kaepernick has been great in the playoffs, but Joe Flacco has been pretty good himself. I know Flacco has the reputation of a bomber, but check what he did against the Pats in the AFCC game. 21-36, 240 YDS, 3 TDS, 0 INTS. That's not the stat line of a "I can only throw deep" QB....that's very efficient, almost Bradyesque. Flacco hasn't thrown an INT all playoffs and was cool under pressure in Denver. While many would give the 49ers the QB edge, in my book, the QBs are pretty equal and cancel each other out.
I know the 49ers' defense is seen as the more dominate one, considering how the Ravens' defense faltered during the season I can't fault that line of thinking. But check the playoff scores. The Ravens allowed 9, 35, 13 in their 3 games...the last against the highest scoring team in the league in the Pats (and Denver was #2). The 49ers allowed 35 and 24. Yea, I know Packers and Falcons, but still the Ravens average ppg allowed is less despite facing the #1, #2 offenses in the league. Remember also that the Pack-49ers game was a shoot out and the 49ers had to come back from 2 TDs down to beat Atlanta. While big props has to go to Kaepernick and the offense, it's not exactly a great resume for the defense. In the playoffs, the Ravens have played better defensively.
I think the Ravens will make the least mistakes and that's why they'll win. I'm not necessarily talking turnovers. Maybe the 49ers defense makes some coverage mistakes allowing Flacco to get a deep touch down or misses an assignment allowing the Ravens to keep a drive going. Maybe Kap misreads a defense and misses an open WR on a cruicial 3rd down and the drive stalls. Maybe the safeties concentrate too much on not letting Flacco beat them deep and Ray Rice has a lot of open space to break a few big ones. That kind of mistakes. From what I've seen in the playoffs, the Ravens have taken advantage of those kind of defenses lapses and haven't made the same lapses with their defense. Yes, they gave up 35 against Denver, but if you watched that game it was more Manning being efficient than the defense allowing big plays...and Manning threw two INTS, the 2nd setting up the winning score.
The one thing that I believe can change what I wrote in the last paragraph is the 49ers offensive line. If they just dominate the line of scrimmage (and they are considered the best o-line in the league) then the 49ers could control the game and cut down on those mistakes. That means Gore has a big game and Kap has all the time in the world to make the right reads, reducing the possibility of mistakes. It also will lessen the amount of offensive possessions by the Ravens, thus reducing the 49ers' chances of blowing a coverage.
It still may come down to an David Akers FG though...and I think he misses it.
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