The Game that’s More Than a Game

Every Sunday for five months of the year, millions of people sit in their living rooms and at sports bars across the country to watch the sport that has now consumed a day that was once known for going to church.

Sunday night was the final night of the 2012-2013 National Football League season as Super Bowl XLVII was won by the Baltimore Ravens when they defeated the San Francisco 49ers 34-31.

This game was supposed to be a defensive one with the 49ers having the second best scoring defense and the Ravens having the twelfth, but in the end both teams ended up scoring over 30.

Coming in to this game most of the talk about the game was centered around Ray Lewis. This game was Lewis’ last game of his career as he told his teammates and the media that this would be his “last ride.” Lewis had an alright game, finishing with seven total tackles, but how many tackles he had won’t be what he remembers, it will be walking out a Super Bowl Champion for the second time in his career.

When the game was over Joe Flacco was awarded the game’s MVP. Flacco finished the game completing 22 of 33 pass attempts for 287 yards and three touchdowns. The more impressive number was that Flacco didn’t throw an interception in this game or at all this entire postseason and finished with 11 touchdowns in the playoffs.

Two other players that you could argue for possibly taking the Super Bowl MVP are Anquan Boldin and Jacoby Jones. Boldin finished the game with six catches for 108 yards and a touchdown with most of his catches coming in crucial times where Boldin made a play over the defense. Jones had only one catch during the game but it was for 56 yards and for a touchdown to go along with his 108 yard kick return for a touchdown that started the second half.


During the third quarter of the biggest game of the year, the unexpected occurred as the lights in the Superdome went out. The stadium managed to lose power for 34 minutes during the Super Bowl. The most watched television event year after year manages to have 34 minutes of blackout with analysts and players not knowing what to do in the time off.

When the lights eventually came back the score at the time was 28-6, but it wasn't long before the 49ers started putting up points. By the time the third quarter had ended the 49ers had brought the score to within five and it finished with the Ravens up 28-23 heading in to the fourth.

The Ravens won the game, but this game will be remembered for a lot of refereeing controversy in the fourth quarter especially the last two minutes. When the 49ers brought the score to within two after Colin Kaepernick’s touchdown run early in the fourth, the following play had an offside’s call that was clearly missed that led to Kaepernick throwing the ball away once it was snapped.

As much as that play hurt the 49ers chance of tying the game up it was the two calls in the final two minutes that will be remembered more. The 49ers had the ball at the five yard line on fourth down when Michael Crabtree was interfered with by Ravens cornerback Jimmy Smith, and no flag was thrown on the play. This appeared to be a good no call as Crabtree initiated the contact, to go along with the ball looking very uncatchable.

After turning the ball over on downs the Ravens took a safety in their own endzone on fourth down to waste time. While it appeared that some of the Ravens offensive line players were committing holding penalties on the 49ers, the infraction was never called. If a flag had been thrown for holding the safety still would have happened, but more time would have possibly been put back on the clock.

This left the 49ers with only the kick return to score on after the safety. The 49ers were unable to score, but if more time had been put on the clock they would have likely had enough time to get an extra offensive play off after the kick return.