Super Bowl Preview: Baltimore Ravens vs. San Francisco 49ers
Santino Vitelli
Sports Editor
There are plenty of headlines to go with Super Bowl XLVII. The great career of LB Ray Lewis is at its final game in the biggest stage. The Harbaugh brothers will be coaching against one another in the Super Bowl, making history. First year starting QB Colin Kaepernick, who started the first 9 games as the backup quarterback to Alex Smith, has led his team to the super bowl. These are two of the best and hard-hitting defenses in the league. This should make for a great Super Bowl.
The Baltimore Ravens are coming off two road upsets. They knocked off Peyton Manning and the Broncos 3 weeks ago, 38-35 in double overtime. Two weeks ago, they beat Tom Brady and the New England Patriots 28-13. It was a dominant performance by the Ravens in every aspect of the game. The Ravens shut out the Patriots in the second half, while Joe Flacco threw for 3 touchdowns.
The San Francisco 49ers had a rather tough time with the Atlanta Falcons last week. They came out slow and Atlanta jumped out to an early 17-0 lead. The Niners fought back into the game to take the lead late in the fourth quarter. They stopped Atlanta in their own redzone with a turnover on downs to seal the deal. Kaepernick threw for 233 yards and Frank Gore ran for two touchdowns.
This is the first time the Super Bowl will feature two quarterbacks who never made the Pro Bowl before. These two teams are offensive powerhouses by any means. With the league revolving to an offensive fire-powered league, this shows that hard-nosed defenses can still thrive in this league. Defenses can still win championships.
This will be the first time that two head coaches facing off in the Super Bowl are brothers. Jon Harbaugh, the older brother, is 54-26 in the regular season and 8-4 in the playoffs in his 5th season coaching the Baltimore Ravens. His younger brother, Jim Harbaugh, is 24-7-1 in the regular season and 3-1 in the playoffs in his second year coaching the San Francisco 49ers.
The two brothers met once in the regular season last year. The 49ers traveled to Baltimore on Thanksgiving Day. It was a dominating performance by the Ravens defense. Baltimore won the game 16-6 while recording a franchise high 9 sacks on the 49ers then-QB Alex Smith. Terrell Suggs accounted for 3 of those sacks. They also only allowed 170 total yards the entire game and recorded an interception. The game didn’t feature Ray Lewis, who was ruled out due to a toe injury.
Game Prediction
I am so excited to watch this Super Bowl. It should be a great, hard-hitting, tough, close football game. I expect the Baltimore Ravens will continue their magical momentum run and ride it through this game. I think Joe Flacco has a very solid game and Baltimore wins it 24-20.