Things I Noticed: Super Bowl XLVII

This is it!  The big game, the big dance.  This one's for all the marbles.  Find any other cliche you like and throw that in too.  It's Super Bowl Sunday!

The Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers meet in the Superdome in New Orleans to crown a champion for this season.  Regardless of which team you pledge your allegiance to, every football fan watches the Super Bowl.  It's a time for friends to gather for a night of wings, beer and football!  It's practically a national holiday in this country (which is why I still stand behind the idea that everyone should get the next day off from work.  Seriously, Obama claims to be a big sports fan, but hasn't figured out a solution to this yet?). 

Oh, and for those that only watch the Super Bowl for the commercials, don't worry.  I noticed some of those too!

Here are some things I noticed this week:

• This year's match up features the first ever Super Bowl battle between two head coaches that are brothers.  Harbaugh Bowl grabbed most of the headlines heading into this week.  Well, most of the ones that didn't involve Ray Lewis anyway.

• In case you didn't hear, Lewis plans to retire after this season.  He announced his impending retirement prior to the postseason, fueling Baltimore's improbable run to the Super Bowl.  Each week this postseason the Ravens have played without knowing if this would be the last game of Lewis' illustrious career.  Finally now we know, win or lose, this is it.
• Lewis missed most of the second half of the season with a torn triceps injury.  Knowing this was his final season, Lewis was determined to get back on the field just in time for the postseason to join his team for their playoff run.  An injury that typically takes at least 6 months to recover from, Lewis was amazingly able to return from in only about 2 months.  Wait, that actually sounds a little suspicious...
• Before we kick things off, this year's inductees into the Football Hall of Fame are introduced on the field.  This year's group includes Warren Sapp, Chris Carter, Larry Allen, Jonathan Ogden, Bill Parcels, Curley Culp, and Dave Robinson. 
• Baltimore wins the coins toss and elects to defer to the second half.  Anyone that bet heads on a prop bet is already excited about how this game is going!
• I thought I saw a homeless man on the side of the field.  Turns out it was just Ed Reed.
• Colin Kaepernick finds Vernon Davis on the first play of the game, but the completion is called back by an illegal formation penalty.  The Niners end up going three and out on their first possession.
• Jim Harbaugh was under a lot of scrutiny for his bold decision to switch from Alex Smith to Kaepernick mid-season, but the decision has paid off.  Smith had played well the past year and a half, but Kaepernick's ceiling is far higher.  He's played great in the postseason so far, but given that it's only his 10th career start, will the pressure of playing on the big stage rattle the first year starter?
• You can almost see the deer antlers poking out of Ray Lewis' helmet.
• Joe Flacco completes his first two passes, the second of which was a 20 yard strike to Torrey Smith that quickly put the Ravens into the red zone.
• The Ravens spread it out on 3rd and 4 and find Anquan Boldin over the middle for a 13 yard score.
• Boldin only had 4 TDs all season, but now has 4 in the playoffs.
• So driving an Audi gives an awkward teenager the confidence to kiss the prom queen?  The kid ended up with a black eye, but apparently it was worth it.

• I guess they are sticking with the theme of the geeky kid getting the hot girl.  Go Daddy just showed us that a chubby nerd can get a girl like Bar Rafaeli.  I guess they were trying to show that their company is more than just sexy commercials.  They bring together beauty and brains!  Still have no idea what their company actually does though.
• Michael Crabtree has exploded since Kaepernick took over as the starting QB for the Niners.  He averaged 107.6 receiving yards over the last five games of the regular season, then added 176 total receiving yards in the first two postseason games. 
• David Akers made a FG!  So that's a relief.  Akers has a long history of being one of the most accurate kickers in the league (81% for his career), but struggled badly this year, making only 29 of his 42 attempts (69%).
• Flacco gets chased out of the pocket and looks to be throwing the ball away on 3rd down as he launches it high and deep down the sideline.  Somehow, Anquan Boldin makes a spectacular grab for a 30 yard gain.  Not exactly how they drew that one up, but they'll take it.
• Flacco just misses Torrey Smith on a deep route that would have been an easy score if it hadn't been overthrown by a step or two.  Hard to overthrow a guy with Smith's speed.  Flacco gets sacked on the next play to force a punt to end the 1st quarter.
• They're seriously making another Fast and the Furious movie??  This franchise will never die.  Apparently neither will Michelle Rodriguez's character, who they killed off in an earlier installment of the series, but brought her back for this one.
• How I Met Your Mother advertises this week's episode, which features the return of Robin Sparkles!  I'm excited.  Although I'm starting to get concerned over the amount of commercials we'll have to see for CBS shows.  I know a lot of their shows are highly rated, but how is it that every show they advertise is somehow the #1 show?
• The game's first big momentum shift comes on a LaMichael James fumble.  After nearly being tackled for a big loss, James showed off a few nice moves to evade defenders to at least get back near the line of scrimmage.  Once he was wrapped up, a hit by Courtney Upshaw knocked the ball out.
• Baltimore takes advantage of the turnover by driving down the field for another score - a 1 yard pass to Dennis Pitta, who found himself open after a play action fake.
• A cat stuck in a tree, bank robbers... a family trapped in their car by a Lion?  A city is in chaos, but there's no time for that now.  The Rock needs his milk! 

• The Niners attempt to counter the Ravens last scoring drive begins with... another turnover!  This time it's a badly overthrown pass by Kaepernick that is picked off by Ed Reed.  That's the 1st INT by a San Francisco QB in the Super Bowl.  In four previous appearances for this franchise (by Joe Montana and Steve Young), they've never thrown a pick.
• Ed Reed just got his 9th career postseason INT,  tied for the most all-time.
• The Ravens surprise us all with a fake FG on 4th and 9 in the red zone.  The rookie kicker took a direct snap and sprinted to the outside, but was stopped a yard short.  You can question the logic of having your rookie kicker try to pick up 9 yards, but had they scored a TD on the drive it would essentially have put the game away by halftime.  As it is, the failed attempt still forced the Niners to have to start their drive backed up against their own 6 yard line. 
• Roger Goodell is shown in his luxury box along side 9 year old QB sensation Samantha Gordon, the young girl dominating a league of boys.  Maybe he thought the fans couldn't boo him if he had a little girl on camera with him.
• Of course they will still boo him anyway.  Don't you know that in the wake of Bounty Gate, New Orleans hates Goodell?
• Is it too early to be looking for Alex Smith to come in this game?  Kaepernick just came dangerously close to throwing another pick.  They'll end up giving the ball back to the Ravens with just over 2 minutes left in the half after another three and out.
• Jacoby Jones burns the secondary to get wide open for a deep catch.  Not only that, but the defense fails to touch him when he's on the ground, so Jones gets back up and runs into the end zone to give the Ravens a 21-3 lead.
• Chris Culliver was burned badly on the play.  He drew a lot of heat last week for foolishly making some homophobic comments.  So I guess you can say he deserved to look foolish again on that play.
• Kaepernick has such a strong arm.  They could really take advantage of that if Randy Moss were still alive.
• The Niners get one last chance to find the end zone in the first half.  They drove all the way inside the Ravens 10 yard line, but Kaepernick can't find anything and gives himself up by diving to the ground.  They credit Ray Lewis with the sack, even though he wasn't the one who touched Kaepernick.  I guess it was because he was the closest one to him?  That and because this game has to be all about Lewis.  Did you hear this is his last game?  The Niners have to settle for another FG to end the half.
• For all the criticism David Akers has gotten this year, he's been the Niners best player so far.  That's not a good thing for the Niners.
• NCIS is TV's #1 show?  I find that hard to believe.  Partly because I don't think I know anyone that actually watches it.  Also, I'm pretty sure I've seen CBS call at least three other shows the #1 show on TV so far.
• Beyonce comes out for the halftime show.  They have fans run out on to the field to surround the stage.  As they were running out of the tunnel, I kept expecting to see a streaker running through the crowd, but sadly it didn't happen.  On second though, I'm glad we didn't have to see that. 
• When the flames starting firing in the background behind Beyonce, I was pretty sure she was about to do the Ray Lewis intro dance.  Or maybe Ray would jump on stage and do it himself, since he probably thought Beyonce was getting too much attention during his game.
• Did anyone else forget who the other two women from Destiny's Child were until they appeared on stage?  What ever happened to them?  Their careers really fell off after Beyonce split to become more famous on her own.  Clearly those two girls haven't forgotten about that, since neither of them so much as cracked a smile during their performance.
• When Beyonce knelt near the edge of the stage, I was hoping a fan in the front row would grab the microphone away from her to see if the singing would still continue without it.
• Jacoby Jones runs the opening kick-off of the 2nd half back 108 yards for a score.  That ties the longest kick return in Super Bowl history.  Jones is the first player with an offensive TD and a kick return TD in a Super Bowl.
• Early in the 3rd quarter the lights in the dome went out.  In a related story, the lights went out on the Niners early in the second quarter.
• Someone in New Orleans will blame Roger Goodell for this blackout.
• So what do coaches say to their teams during a long delay like this, considering the half just started a minute and half ago?  So, everything we just talked about during halftime... let's stick with that.
• Every five minutes it seems they give an update that the power will be back on in about 20 minutes.  This same update has happened at least three times now.  Maybe they should pick another number for their next update, because 20 minutes is starting to sound less and less believable every time they say it.
• The Niners had 32 minutes during the blackout to plan for how to convert on a 3rd and 13.  They ended up throwing a 7 yard pass that led to a punt.  Did they not have enough time to come up with a better play?
• In case people are wondering what Stevie Wonder is up to these days, he's holed up in a shady building in New Orleans, placing voodoo curses on people.  So if the team you are pulling for in this game ends up losing, it's probably because of him.
• Baltimore punts the ball back after a short drive and the Niners finally put together a TD drive.  Crabtree bounces off two defenders and sprints to the end zone to get the Niners back in the game.
• Not to take anything away from Crabtree, but that score was just as much the result of poor tackling by the Ravens.  Once again, Bernard Pollard goes for the big hit, trying to level his opponent rather than wrapping him up.  At least Crabtree wasn't injured on the play.  I hear Pollard is infamous for injuring players.
• So not only is CBS listing all their #1 shows (apparently they have the #1 drama, comedy, news program and new show), now they are taking credit for the NFL?  Yes, the NFL broadcasts games, including the Super Bowl, on CBS.  But the NFL shows games throughout the season on several other networks as well.  Football isn't solely their sport!
• Baltimore goes three and out on a drive ending with a sack by Ahmad Brooks.  A terrible punt goes for only about 30 yards and is returned back to the Ravens 20 yard line.  That gave the punt a net of only 3 yards!  The Ravens might as well have gone for it on 4th down from their own 17.

• Frank Gore picked a great time to make his first useful run of the day - a 6 yard TD run.  The Niners faked having Kaepernick run it to the left, then handed it off to Gore, who ran it to the other side of the field.  A great block by Delanie Walker freed the edge for Gore to burst into the end zone untouched.
• Haloti Ngata was injured (sprained knee) on the play and is doubtful to return.  That's not a good sign for the Ravens defense, given that he's their best run defender.
• Ray Rice has lost three fumbles in the past two regular seasons combined.  He now has lost three fumbles in this postseason!
• As we'll surely hear plenty of times for the rest of this game, the power outage in the third quarter shifted the momentum in this game.  The Ravens have struggled to find energy ever since.  No, that wasn't meant as a pun.
• David Akers misses a 39 yard FG, but the defense runs into him for a 5 yard penalty.  Akers nails the do-over.
• The Ravens are lucky to only be hit with a 5 yard penalty.  Could easily have been a personal foul for 15 yards and a 1st down, but they escape with only giving up three points on the drive.  But it's now only a five point game!
• If the Ravens defense blows this game, Ray Lewis will be so ashamed it may force him into retirement.  Oh wait...
• Randy Moss was thinking about retiring after this season, but didn't want to be overshadowed by Lewis.
• The Kansas City Chiefs are desperately scrambling to find out if they can draft Leon Sandcastle with the top pick.
• Baltimore gets all the way down to the Niners 1 yard line, but fail to punch it in.  Very tempting to go for it on fourth and goal from the 1, but the field goal puts them back up by 8.  The Niners have one of the league's stingiest run defenses, while Ray Rice has struggled this postseason to hold on to the ball.  They needed points to prevent the Niners from driving with a chance for the lead, as well as to try to get some momentum back.
• And the award for the strangest commercial goes to... Dodge!  For making a long, pointless commercial about why God created farmers.  It was dull, a little depressing and had nothing to do with trucks.  Except, I guess farmers drive trucks... so there's that.

• Baltimore's defense is too old and slow to stop Kaepernick when he finds room to take off running.  He out races everyone on his way for a score.  That 15 yard run is the longest scoring run by a QB in Super Bowl history.
• ‎The 49ers fail on their attempt to tie the game with a 2 point conversion. Wait... so you mean this game might actually come down to a David Akers field goal?  San Francisco fans just threw up in their mouths a little.
• Boldin picks up a key first down... or did he? After a coaching challenge, the call is overturned with Boldin being marked down just short of the marker.  San Francisco may have been right, but it was still pointless to challenge.  If they had lost the challenge, they'd only have one time out left for the game.  They won it, but Baltimore easily picked up the first down on the next play anyway.  Did Harbaugh think that play came on 3rd down?
• On 3rd and a foot, the Niners expected a run.  Flacco dropped back and threw a completion to Boldin to get the first down.
• Dennis Pitta lets one slip through his hands on 3rd and 2, leaving the Ravens to add a field goal.  Missed opportunity to run more clock and potentially come up with a game sealing TD.
• Vernon Davis JUST misses a deep pass down the sideline, as the ball slips through his fingers.  Good thing Crabtree makes up for it by following that play with a big catch over the middle for a gain of 24 yards.  That puts Kaepernick over 300 yards passing for the game.  The Niners are moving down the field, needing a TD to win, as the clock continues to wind down.
• Gore rips off a 33 yard run to put the Niners inside the Ravens 10 yard line.  Gore is now over 100 yards for the day after a slow start.

• I like how Paul Rudd made fun of Seth Rogan for never being in a movie that got good reviews, considering many of his best roles have been in movies that also starred Rogan (such as 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked up).
• The Niners march all the way down to the Ravens 5 yard line, but can't get those extra few yards for a game winning score.
• The Ravens brought a big blitz on 4th and goal to force Kaepernick to throw it up early.  The ball sailed just over the head of Crabtree, who was blatantly held by the defense.  No flag, no call.  Game over.
• It's fitting that a season that started with replacement officials ends with a questionable officiating decision.  By questionable, I of course mean terribly blown call.  Late in games, officials tend to let players be a bit more physical and are reluctant to through a flag in that situation, but that was... pretty obvious.  Niners fans must be rioting right now.
• The Niners would get one last shot after forcing a three and out with 12 seconds left.  Brilliant play call by the Ravens to fake the punt and have their punter run around in the end zone to run more time off the clock. They conceded the safety, but by the time they lined up to punt again, there was only four seconds left.  Why didn't the Niners see that coming and send someone after the punter sooner?  Actually, they did, but the defender that got the closest was blatantly held (because one terrible non-call isn't enough). 
• That left the Niners with a kick return as their last chance.  You would expect a team in that situation to try a series of laterals in hopes of a miracle return.  Is that what the Niners did?  Nope, they ran right into the defense at mid-field to end the game.
• The final score is Baltimore 34 - San Fransisco 31.  The Ravens are Super Bowl champions!  Joe Flacco (22/33, 287 yards, 3 TDs, 95.1 QBR) is named the Super Bowl MVP for his impressive performance, which capped a sensational playoff run (11 TDs, 0 INTs).
• For only the second time in Super Bowl history, both teams scored over 30 points.  Pittsburgh beat Dallas 35-31 in 1979, making the Niners tied with the Cowboys for the highest scoring team to lose a Super Bowl.  Silver lining!
• During the trophy presentation, Kanye West runs on the field and grabs a microphone: "Hey Joe, I'll let you celebrate in a minute.  But Beyonce had the best performance of the night!"  Ok, that may not have actually happened.

• Flacco picked a great time to break out with his best season, resulting in a Super Bowl win.  With his contract running out after this season, there had been talk prior to the start of the postseason that an early playoff exit could lead to Flacco being let go by the Ravens to allow another QB needy team to overpay for him (you know Arizona would do it).  He's not going anywhere now.  Is Flacco now an elite QB now that he's won a Super Bowl?  That all depends on how you define elite.  By some standards, half the starters in the league could be considered elite.  He's not one of the top 5 QBs in the league, but he's certainly going to get a lot more respect now.  One other thing he'll get - he's going to get paid.
• So Ray Lewis' Hall of Fame caliber career is officially at an end.  Prior to the 2011 season, when the league was locked out during labor negotiations, Lewis claimed that if NFL games ended up being cancelled it would lead to a drastic increase in crime (which he calls "Evil").  You know, because if millionaire athletes are prevented from playing football, they have nothing better to do than commit crimes.  So now that Ray is retiring and can't play football anymore, does that mean he'll go back to committing crimes again?  Sorry, had to!  Might be my last chance for a Ray Lewis murder joke!
• Congrats to the Baltimore Ravens on their Super Bowl victory.  With Flacco due for a big raise and the Ravens already over the cap for next season (even with Lewis' salary coming off the books), it'll be tough for Baltimore to keep this team together, but those are concerns for another day.  For now, they'll enjoy this victory.  They earned it.