Bryan Holmes
Sports Editor
In a tale of two halves, the Baltimore Ravens defeated the San Francisco 49er’s 34-31 to win Super Bowl XLVII.
Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis told his team before the postseason started that this would be his “last ride.” The Ravens’ last Super Bowl victory was in 2000 and the only player who returned as a part of their 2013 team was Ray Lewis.
The controversial linebacker was the inspirational plug that the Ravens needed as it seemed that few believed the Ravens could win the Super Bowl. Some people didn’t like having to hear about Ray Lewis. Junior Jordan Chambers said “With a murder charge under his name, I find it very hard to cheer for him.”
The Ravens’ run to the Super Bowl started with the Indianapolis Colts where they suffocated Andrew Luck and that young offense. Then they arrived in Denver as underdogs, and won in what some are claiming was the best NFL playoff game of this century.
After defeating the Broncos, a lot of people started calling the Ravens a team of destiny and the Ravens carried that momentum into the next round as the dominated the Patriots.
The 49er’s road was much different than Baltimore’s. San Francisco had a first round bye then easily beat the Packers. The 49ers were faced with adversity when they fell behind to the Falcons in the NFC championship game. San Francisco rattled off an amazing second half comeback to nip the Falcons and snatch a Super Bowl berth.
The 49ers almost repeated that act against the Ravens too. To start the second half Ravens wide receiver, Jacoby Jones, ran back kickoff 109 yards for a touchdown to give the Ravens a 28-6 lead.
It seemed as if the Ravens had all the momentum and the game was getting away from San Francisco when the power went out in the stadium. Half of the lights went out from what the NFL is calling an outside power source. This scared Senior Ben Vogelwede, “I could have sworn Bane was going to come out just like in the Dark Knight Rises.”
After the lights came back on, San Francisco was seemingly a new team. The 49er’s scored 17 unanswered points to cut it to a one possession game.
Baltimore responded with a field goal to extend the lead back to 8. But on the next drive, San Francisco Quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, added a touchdown of his own to break the lead down to two.
Joe Flacco wouldn’t allow Kaepernick to outshine him as Flacco led the Ravens back down the field for another field goal. That drive proved to be the major blow to the 49ers as they were unable to get the ball across the goal line in the final minutes.
Joe Flacco’s contract expired after the game, but he earned himself a big pay day as he won Super Bowl MVP and likely is getting an even bigger contract.