Harbaugh Bowl

Written by: KDA



Just a mere 7 weeks ago, on their home turf at M&T Bank Stadium, that the Baltimore Ravens had all the appearance of a team going nowhere. If you believe in teams of destiny, step right up and meet the Baltimore Ravens. 

The team that finished the regular season by losing four of its final five is going to the Super Bowl. When that day came to face the almighty Patriots, AT FOXBORO, which is extremely difficult to come out of their with a win, he ended up badly outplaying Tom Brady.


            


The Harbaugh brothers, John of Baltimore and Jim of San Francisco, will give the Super Bowl a name for themselves. “The Harbaugh bowl.” It just slips off the tongue. It was no great surprise that Flacco would have his way with the Patriots, particularly when their top cornerback, Aqib Talib, was injured early and did not return. After watching the first half, it was extremely shocking to see the aging and recently mediocre Baltimore defense shut down Brady. 
The golden one (Brady) was reduced to dump off passes to either Ridley, before he got knocked out and forced out of the game, or to Shane Vereen and couldn’t even do that particularly well against a Ravens defense that has found new life since Ray Lewis returned to the lineup. Brady completed 29 of 54 passes for 320 yards. For Brady, that’s a semi-par game. A team can never be successful when their quarterback has to throw for 54 passes and can’t establish a run game. He did not throw a touchdown pass and was intercepted twice. His passer rating was 62.3. 
By comparison, Flacco was 21 for 36 for 240 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions and a passer rating of 106.2.

After a lackluster first half, Flacco pretty much had his way most of the time with the Patriots secondary. By rallying from a 13-7 deficit, Baltimore became the first team to beat Brady and the Patriots after trailing at halftime at home. Brady had been 67-0 in identical situations in his past. No one other then the riskiest of gamblers and the Ravens themselves actually believed they had a chance to beat the unstoppable patriots. It’s surprising that the team is led by Joe Flacco. I say “surprising” because earlier in the season, Flacco stated in the media that he believed he was the most elite quarterback in the league. To many people, this was a subject that was highly criticized. Throughout the past 5 seasons, Flacco has led the ravens to playoff appearances in all 5 seasons he has been in the league, 2 AFC championships, and now a Superbowl. 
It’s actually crazy. No one could have predicted this matchup.

The arising of Colin Kaepernick is astonishing in the way he could take a team from his first start as a professional, and take them to the Superbowl. All it took was an Alex Smith concussion and a good first impression and the job was his. Kaepernick is a second year star out of Nevada. He played baseball as well as football in college. He becomes a social media sensation every time he flexes his bicep and kisses it, as this is known famously as "Kaepernicking."  He ended up throwing 16 of 21 for 233 yards, including a 4-yard touchdown to Vernon Davis, and had them so worried about his running ability out of the spread option that Gore and LaMichael James, had plenty of room. Gore scored a pair of touchdowns, including the game-winner for San Francisco's first lead of the day. Davis scored the first TD for the 49ers on a 15-yard run. The 49ers came out on top with the final score being 28-24. 

The Super Bowl will be a matchup of two highly successful coaches. Jim Harbaugh, who succeeded to the highest potential with a Standford team, is 24-7-1 in two seasons. He has made the playoffs both years and is 3-1. John Harbaugh is 54-26 in five regular seasons. That record doesn't show his teams true ability. He’s been to the playoffs every year and has a pretty decent postseason record of 8-4. The Harbaugh brothers are two coaches that deserve every bit of respect and responsibility for making these teams into what they are today.

PREDICTION :

49ers – 28

Ravens-20