49ers vs Ravens

Super Bowl XLVII

Sunday, Feb. 3
CBS, Kickoff at 6:30pm ET 

Who’s singing the national anthem?: Alicia Keys
Who’s performing at halftime? Beyoncé

But which shall walk out of the “Big Easy” with a perfect Super Bowl record still intact?
Well, it’s time for me to make one final pick of the season, and see if it can be as drastically wrong as most of my others have been throughout the year. It just appears as if no matter how much you know about the game, you can’t always tell what will happen in such an unpredictable entity like the NFL.
It is time then to move on to, the Har-Bowl aka the Bro-Bowl aka…you get the idea.
Super Bowl XLVII – San Francisco 49ers vs. Baltimore Ravens
The San Francisco 49ers have had a great season and are being led by Colin Kaepernick, a quarterback that has a mere nine starts in his NFL career. Now, that is no reason to look at him and think this phenom of a player can’t handle everything that comes his way, and play to utmost of his abilities. The one thing that may be concerning for Niners’ fans is that this is a grand stage like no other, and yes, that will make a difference.
Pressure gets to everyone at one point or another, and the full amount of stress is going to be weighing down on the shoulders of Kaepernick. How he handles that, may very well determine the outcome of this game.
Another thing that could drastically help the 49ers though, is for them to get out to a big lead and early. They’re facing a defense like they haven’t seen yet this postseason, and the Ravens aren’t going to just allow any type of comeback to happen should the 49ers fall behind. Getting into a shootout with the Ravens won’t work either, because that is where experience will come into play, and Joe Flacco has more of it.
Baltimore can win this game just by playing the type of football they know how to play.
The Ravens need to come out and let Flacco lead the offense by hitting Torrey Smith and Anquan Boldin at will. Toss in a little bit of the workhorse in Ray Rice to make it a balanced attack, and the Ravens can prove to everyone that they’ve got just as much explosiveness with the ball as anyone else.
Looking at the other side of things though…that’s where the Ravens will be able to truly win the game. It’s going to be with players like Ed Reed, Bernard Pollard, and Ray Lewis. Let’s not forget the fact that this will be the exit dance for Lewis, and there is no shame in the Ravens using his retirement as motivation to pile it on Jim Harbaugh and the 49ers.
It’s not going to be a blowout by any stretch of the imagination, but the game could end up looking extremely lopsided in the stats’ department. If San Francisco can stay in it through the first quarter and a half, then expect a much closer contested game. If Baltimore gets a decent and early lead, then consider Sunday to be a day that Ray Lewis ends his career and goes out on top.