Another NFL season is in the books, and we congratulate the Baltimore Ravens on a hard fought season, and well played final game, as they will go down as the winners of Superbowl XLVII. Anytime you win a Championship, it’s a team effort, and the Ravens are all deserving. There were a few individual standout performances, however. They got it done with the work of Joe Flacco, who won Superbowl MVP; Jacoby Jones, who in my mind should have won Superbowl MVP, Anquan Boldin, who had a huge night through the air including the Ravens first touchdown; Ed Reed who tied the record for career postseason intercptions, and of course the inspirational leadership of surefire Hall of Famer, Ray Lewis.
As always with Game Changers, let’s look to the big plays that changed momentum and had a huge effect on the final score, and the winner of the big game.
4th Quarter, 7:14 remaining, Baltimore 3rd and 1 on their own 45 yard line: Early in the third quarter the Ravens led 28-6 and it appeared that the game was over. Then the lights went out, delaying the game for about 45 minutes, and killing Baltimore’s momentum. The San Francisco offence woke up and scored three straight touchdowns (with a missed 2-pt convert thrown in) and had cut the lead to 28-26. The 49ers appeared to have all the momentum and Baltimore got the ball back needing a long drive to kill some clock and swing the pendulum of momentum back their way.
Facing a 3rd and 1 at their own 45 (more like a 3rd and half a yard), everyone assumed that the Ravens would power forward and try a short running play to extend the drive. Instead Joe Flacco audibled at the line, throwing a 7-yard out pattern to Anquan Boldin. Boldin made a remarkable catch with a defensive back draped all over him (Chris Culliver), and extended the drive. The Ravens would end up running three more minutes off the clock, and would kick a Field Goal to go ahead by 5 points. This was important as it forced the 49ers to score a touchdown to win the game, and led to our dramatic late goal-line stand. It was a clutch catch by Boldin, who had a great day with 104 yards recieving and a touchdown, to cap off what was an outstanding postseason run for the Ravens wideout.
Game Changer #2 – 1:46 remaining, San Franscisco 4th and goal, Baltimore 5 yard line: I’m sure by now we’ve all seen the controversial ending to this game. The attempted Colin Kaepernick pass to Michael Crabtree, for what would have been a go-ahead touchdown in the final two minutes fell incomplete, basically sealing the victory for the Ravens. What will be debated here, is did Baltimore corner Jimmy Smith commit a penalty on Crabtree on the play. The answer? Yes!
Let’s remember that in the NFL the rule is that contact is allowed by the defensive player on a receiver within the first five yards of the line of scrimmage. Now some have argued that Smith was within that zone when he was “jamming” Crabtree and prevented him from getting to the Kaepernick pass. This is easily seen not to be the case. The ball was on the 5-yard line, and Smith was still holding on to Crabtree two yards deep into the endzone (plus the ball was in the air meaning the contact should end anyways for that reason). Clearly this is 7 yards past the line of scrimmage. This is a pretty easy call to make because the goal line is a natural 5 yard barrier from the line of scrimmage in this case. The referee had two options here:
a) he could have called defensive holding, giving the 49ers first and goal at the 2 and a half yard line.b) he could have called pass interference, giving the 49ers first and goal at the 1 yard line.
Personally I think that holding would have been the right call, and the 49ers should have been given a fresh set of downs to try and win the game. This non-call is our Superbowl game changer.
Thanks for reading and I hope you have enjoyed my column this season. Check back often as we’ll continue to have all the off-season news and notes from around the NFL, as well as coverage of the NFL draft.
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Main photo credit: Phil Romans via photopin cc
