Why the 49ers lost the Super Bowl

Feb 3, 2013; New Orleans, LA, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh reacts in the closing seconds of the game against the Baltimore Ravens in Super Bowl XLVII at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

A simple starting note, I am currently out of the country, the internet sucks and I will be here for some time. I hope that you are staying safe during this huge winter storm.

I had predicted the San Francisco 49ers to win the Super Bowl, and I had hoped they would win by a large margin. That did not occur by any means and was not anything close to what I thought would happen. I could talk about the black out and how it changed the momentum of game, but that would take away from the game itself. This game is truly a game of quarters black out or not.  I don’t’ know how many of you wanted the Ravens to win, but from the maps I saw on ESPN, NFL, and Adult Swim, not many people outside the Maryland area wanted the Ravens to win.

Overall the coaching in the game was two different stories. Jim Harbaugh wanted to win the game from the first time the Ravens had the football. Thus their first drive resulting in a touch down.  Jim Harbaugh didn’t trust his quarter back and looked like he wanted not to lose the game, and in doing so he harnessed his QB by not letting him make plays. In the end the John came to win to the Super Bowl and Jim almost rallied his to team win the Super Bowl, and failed. He failed to trust his team. He went for the tie because he felt his team never would be a position to win or tie again. Jim lets Akers kick that extra point, the 49ers are a point away and its a different game.  By failing to score a single touch down in the first half, they lost the Super Bowl.

Starting with first quarter, 49ers received the kick off and immediately chose a standard offensive to attack the Ravens defense. Now if the 49ers had done some sort of film study they would have seen that Ray Lewis is horrible in coverage and does not have the speed to keep up with Running Backs or Tight Ends. The early passes to Vernon Davis was very observable to a football mind.  Talking to other fans of the game, they could not understand why he not targeted more. The first quarter was the 49ers attempting to get into rhythm  and play a decent down of football While the Ravens spreading out the 49ers, and exposing them in zone coverage. At end of the First quarter score is 7-3 Ravens.

The Second quarter again the 49ers keep making some plays in standard formation, with runs not really get them any where with the Ravens nose tackle playing like a beast from another world. Before Ngata went down with an injury, the running game had no chance of working inside or outside of in a standard single back set. Yet in the option plays, the running game seemed to work just fine. The only hick-up we saw with the read option, was a fumble by James and put the momentum definitely on the side of the Ravens who then put 14 more points on the 49ers before they answer with 3 points and 21-6 Ravens.   I don’t think I am alone with you folks, that wanted to be a fly on the wall during the half time intermission.

The start of the third was with an electrifying, a 108 yard return for a touchdown. Wow, that was an amazing way to start the quarter. When the 49ers were facing 3^rd and 13. I knew before that black out that they weren’t going to make it. So when they failed to convert after the black out, I was not surprised, but I was surprised with the 3 and out that occurred, so quickly. The next 12-13 minutes of play completely changed the game as we all saw.  We saw the read option attack that we had been waiting for the entire game, used.  When it was used it worked extremely well, with the constant over pursuit by the ravens linebackers. Each line backer, or defensive end was constantly targeting Kaepernick, and was letting the ball carrier escape. Now if the niners had kept those types of attacks up while targeting Davis or Crabtree, it’s a different Super Bowl. Why didn’t we see this type of play to began with, we will never know. It certainly changed the game, and I think should have been done a lot earlier.

The fourth and final quarter came down to the play of the Ravens Defense and a SF’s offense that went into panic mode.  Your telling me you have four downs with inside the 20 yard, and you can’t score when you know what defense is coming.  Hmm, what would any other team do in the NFL, for instance, the QB sneak or the option, or a fade or scramble or anything really. Kaepernick is RIDICULOUSLY  fast, and don’t’ forget Frank Gore can run the ball well too. There were SO many chances to be had, but that chose to go with a fade on a fourth down, to little to late. And yes, while there might have been pass interference or holding, they should have done that on the first or second play, NOT on the last.  I think that debating a no call is pointless and like some many other things NFL we will never know. But when you have most of the professional analysts saying that this crew wasn’t the greatest. As they were saying well in advance that this head ref was headlining the big game. If I could find the audio it would be linked here.

This game was a total wild ride of game. I did not discuss the blackout because I do not want get involved with any of the theories that go along with it. Yes it changed the game. Everyone may have an opinion on that and you are welcome to leave your comments in the section below. Yes, do it wish the Patriots playing against this 49ers team, but  the best team won on Sunday. I didn’t want Ray Lewis to get his story book ending, but he earned it with the Ravens. I don’t agree with Joe “Pay the Man” Flacco winning the MVP award. I felt that honor should have gone to Jacoby Jones. That man had monster game. I saw that he had the most yards by a single player in a Super Bowl game.   In closing the San Francisco  49ers lost this game because they were out coached by the more experienced  Harbaugh brother. It comes down to something that simply. The coaching change at the OC postion was a smart one, show cased by running a lot of Manning Colts era offensive schemes. Let me end by saying great job by the Ravens, and we will see them next year.

Please look for my next article on My Crazy Farfetched Predictions for next year, while Ray Rice be a Raven, and could the Patriots steal Victor Cruz.. All that and more, again please visit again.