Ravens defeat 49ers in a memorable Super Bowl XLVII

Now when I mean “memorable” like I did in the title, i’m talking purely from a football standpoint. Let’s set aside the abundance of non-football shenanigans that surround the big game. Most of the time during commercials I was busy checking Twitter for football related reactions so the only one I remember seeing is the “Leon Sandcastle” one but it was excellent. I didn’t see much of Beyonce (am I the only one who did a beer run?) but apparently she killed it so congratulations to her. It ended up being football heavy for me, just how I prefer it. Here’s what stood out the most for me:

A lot of people predicting the game pointed out that things would start out slow for the 49ers once again due to their inexperience and it’s pretty much exactly what happened. The Ravens looked like a veteran team with offensive firepower that had their eye on the prize. It was all Ravens the first half, led by the ELITE play of Joe Flacco (3 TDs) and all of a sudden the game looked like it was going to be a blowout in favor of the Ravens. The Ravens continued their momentum with a TD off a kickoff return and the game looked over until, well, the all mighty black out. The black out was probably the greatest time to ever be on Twitter as a sports fan.

Conspiracy theories were being tossed around during the wait. Clearly the stoppage of play was going to favor the 49ers, giving them time to take a breath and figure out what was going on while halting the momentum of the Ravens. For a while it looked like the teams had literally switched, the Niners having a furious rally to get within one score late in the 3rd quarter. The game got even closer on a Kaepernick TD halfway through the 4th and when it looked like the Niners were going to score to take the lead, the Ravens held on to force a turnover on down. The final play on the drive for the 49ers had some controversy because of an apparent hold but it’s still questionable whether or not the pass was close enough to be caught either way.

It was a game not of two halves but one of post and pre-black out. Ravens win 34-31 and the story lines among the team are plenty. Can Joe Flacco finally be labeled as “elite”? Yes, he was the best quarterback last night and the best throughout the playoffs. Now he has the hardware to back it up. I know it’s tough right now but 49ers fans shouldn’t be too down because they have a very young and talented team that will contend for a spot in the Super Bowl for a long time to come.