San Francisco was hurt by penalties and turnovers early in the game as the Ravens built a 21–6 first-half lead. On their first play of the opening drive, tight end Vernon Davis' 20-yard reception was called back by an illegal formation penalty. The team ended up punting after three more plays, and Jacoby Jones returned the ball 17 yards to the Ravens 49-yard line. Baltimore then drove 51 yards, scoring on Joe Flacco's 13-yard touchdown pass to receiver Anquan Boldin. Flacco had previously thrown a third-down incompletion, but an offsides penalty against linebacker Ahmad Brooks gave him a second chance.
San Francisco responded on their next possession, moving the ball 62 yards in a 12-play drive, with quarterback Colin Kaepernick completing a 19-yard pass to Michael Crabtree and a 24-yarder to Davis. David Akers finished the drive with a 36-yard field goal to cut the score to 7–3. Baltimore responded with a drive to the 49ers 37-yard line, featuring a 30-yard catch by Boldin. Flacco was sacked on third down for a 5-yard loss by defensive tackle Ray McDonald, pushing the Ravens out of field goal range and forcing a punt into the end zone from the 42-yard line.
Five plays into the 49ers next drive, linebacker Courtney Upshaw forced a fumble from running back LaMichael James, and Baltimore's Arthur Jones recovered it on the Ravens 25-yard line. Baltimore drove 75 yards on 10 plays, 42 of those came from a 23 yard and a 14 yard pass to tight end Ed Dickson, the second followed by a 15-yard facemask penalty. Dennis Pitta caught a 1-yard touchdown catch on the final play of the drive and the extra point made the score 14–3.
On the first play of the next drive, Ed Reed intercepted a pass by Kaepernick and returned the ball 6 yards to the 49ers 38-yard line. This was the first interception thrown by San Francisco in any of their Super Bowl appearances. Unnecessary roughness charges were called after the play on players from both teams so the charges offset. Baltimore reached the red zone on their next drive, but was unable to score. Following a one yard run by Bernard Pierce and two incomplete passes, Baltimore elected to attempt a fake field goal on fourth and nine from the 14-yard line. Justin Tucker was tackled 1 yard short of a first down.
San Francisco was forced to a three-and-out on the drive. Jones muffed the punt, but recovered the ball and returned it 11 yards to the Ravens' 44-yard line. Two plays later, Jones made a falling catch deep down the field, then got back up and eluded two 49ers defensive backs en route to a 56-yard touchdown reception, making the score 21–3 with less than two minutes to go in the first half. On the second play of San Francisco's next drive, Delanie Walker caught a 14-yard pass from Kaepernick, which was extended by a 15-yard roughing the passer penalty against Haloti Ngata. After an incomplete first down attempt, Walker received another 28-yard pass, putting San Francisco on the Baltimore 17-yard line. San Francisco reached the 9-yard line, but were unable to convert on three plays. On the last play of the half, Akers kicked his second field goal to cut their deficit to 21–6.
On the second-half kickoff, Jones received the ball in the back of the end zone and raced down the field for a 108-yard touchdown return, increasing the Ravens lead after the extra point to 28–6. It was the longest kickoff return in the history of the Super Bowl, it broke the previous 102-yard record for the longest kickoff return in the playoffs, and it tied an NFL record already held by Jones and shared with Ellis Hobbs and Randall Cobb for the longest kickoff return.
Shortly into the 49ers next drive, a power outage due to equipment failure at the stadium caused play to be suspended for 34 minutes.
After play resumed, both teams punted once. Then San Francisco drove 80 yards, with Kaepernick rushing for 15 yards and completing an 18-yard pass to Davis before finishing the drive with a pass to Crabtree, who broke through two potential Ravens tacklers on the way to a 31-yard touchdown reception. Then Baltimore was forced to punt from their own 9 yard line following Brooks' 8-yard sack of Flacco on third down, and Ted Ginn, Jr. returned the ball 32 yards to the 20 before being shoved out of bounds by punter Sam Koch. Kaepernick completed a 14-yard pass to Davis on the next play, and Gore followed it up with a 6-yard touchdown run, cutting the score to 28–20.
On the second play of the fourth quarter, Baltimore lost their first turnover when defensive back Tarell Brown forced and recovered a fumble from Ray Rice on the Ravens 25-yard line. Three plays later, Akers missed a 39-yard field goal attempt, but Baltimore's Chykie Brown was penalized for running into the kicker, and Akers' second attempt was good from 34 yards, trimming the lead to 28–23.
The Ravens responded on their ensuing possession, moving the ball 77 yards and scoring to the San Francisco 1-yard line, with Boldin catching two passes for 39 yards. But they were unable to get into the end zone and settled for Tucker's 19-yard field goal to put them back up by 8 points, 31–23. San Francisco stormed back, scoring in just five plays. Following a 32-yard reception by Randy Moss and a 21-yard burst by Gore, Kaepernick took the ball across the goal line on a 15-yard run, the longest touchdown run by a quarterback in Super Bowl history. However, the two-point conversion failed, so the 49ers were unable to break the deficit, still trailing at 31–29.
On the Ravens ensuing drive, Boldin caught two passes for 22 yards and Rice rushed for 11 yards as the team moved the ball 55 yards and scored on Tucker's 38-yard field goal, making the score 34–29 with 4:19 left in Regulation. San Francisco used up two timeouts on their next drive, but managed to move the ball to a first and goal on the Ravens 7-yard with with a 24-yard catch by Crabtree and a 33-yard run by Gore.
With four chances to take the lead, San Francisco started out with a 2-yard run by James to the 5-yard line. Then Keapernick threw two incompletions, bringing up fourth down. On their last chance, Kaepernick tried to throw the ball to Crabtree in the end zone, but it was too far ahead and the pass fell incomplete. Defensive back Jimmy Smith had made contact with Crabtree prior to the ball arriving, but no penalty was called and the 49ers turned the ball over on downs with 1:46 left in the game.
San Francisco managed to force a three-and-out on the Ravens next drive, but by the time they reached fourth down, only 11 seconds remained. Then Koch ran the clock down to 4 seconds before giving up an intentional safety by running out of the end zone. On the final play of the game, Ginn returned the free kick 31 yards, but was tackled at midfield as time expired.
Boldin was the Ravens leading receiver with 6 receptions for 106 yards and a touchdown. Jones returned 5 kickoffs for 208 yards and a touchdown, two punts for 28 yards, and caught a 56-yard touchdown pass. He was the first player ever to score a touchdown on offense and special teams in the Super Bowl, and his 292 all-purpose yards were also a Super Bowl record. Paul Kruger had three tackles and two sacks, while Reed had five tackles and an interception. Reed's interception gave him 9 career postseason picks, tying the NFL record. Dannell Ellerbe had nine tackles, while Ray Lewis had seven tackles in the final game of his 17-season career.
For San Francisco, Kaepernick finished 16/28 for 302 yards and a touchdown, with one interception, while also rushing for 62 yards and another score. His 62 rushing yards were the second highest total by a quarterback in the Super Bowl, behind Steve McNair's record of 64. Gore rushed for 110 yards and a touchdown. Crabtree caught 5 passes for 109 yards and a touchdown, while Davis caught 6 passes for 104 yards. His 104 receiving yards tied Dan Ross' record for most the ever by a tight end in a Super Bowl. Patrick Willis was the top tackler of the game with 10, while Brooks had five tackles and a sack.
So there you have it. A thrilling football game to decide the best team in the NFL this season. With this game being as exciting as it was, there were also a few records broken during the ball game. Take a look. Jacoby Jones tied an NFL league record and set a Super Bowl record for longest kickoff return in a Super Bowl with a 108-yard return to open up the second half. He also set the record for most combined yards in a Super Bowl game with 290, and tied the record for most touchdown plays of 50 yards or more, with 2. Colin Kaepernick set a super bowl record for the longest rushing touchdown from a quarterback for his 15 yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. This beat the previous 6 yard record held by Joe Montana achieved in Super Bowl XIX. The Ravens scored the same amount of points (34) in both of their Super Bowl appearances. Meanwhile, the 49ers became just the second team to lose the Super Bowl and score more than 30 points after the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl XIII; in both cases, the losing team scored 31 points. The two Super Bowls are also the only two times in NFL history (including both pre-Super Bowl and post-Super Bowl eras) where both teams scored over 30 points in a Championship game. Both teams combined for 312 kickoff return yards, a Super Bowl record. Owing to the power outage in the third quarter, the game running time of 4 hours, 14 minutes was also a record.
With that in mind we close the book on the 2012 NFL season and the career of Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis. Lewis had 41.5 sacks during his 15 seasons, playing in a total of 228 regular season games. He played in 21 more playoff games, recorded 2 sacks and won two superbowl titles in his career. Ray Lewis will go down in the books as one of the more feared middle linebackers in the history of the NFL and will no doubt be inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame when his playing career is over!
No comments:
Post a Comment