You had to see it to believe it.
The Baltimore Ravens won their second Super Bowl in a thriller, 34–31 over the slightly favored San Francisco 49ers in a game that had everything—including a 34-minute stoppage due to partial power outage in the third quarter.
The Ravens had taken a commanding 28–6 lead early in the third quarter before half of the Superdome’s lights went out. When the lights came back on, it was all San Francisco as they stormed back to within two points early in the fourth quarter.
But MVP, and for the record—elite quarterback—Joe Flacco, settled things down, chewed up plenty of clock with some long drives, and Baltimore hung on for the win.
In this postseason, Flacco threw for 11 touchdowns (including 3 in the Super Bowl) with no interceptions. His 11 TD passes tied the record held by Joe Montana (1989) and Kurt Warner (2008) for most by any player in a single postseason.
The game was a game of ups and downs, changes in momentum, and brilliant plays—mostly from the Ravens. The 49ers were guilty of making more mistakes—turnovers and costly penalties.
Early Lead
The Ravens capitalized on their first possession after starting at their own 49-yard line. Facing a 3rd-and-9, the 49ers were penalized for being offside, giving Flacco another shot at converting on third down. Flacco found Anquan Boldin for a 13-yard touchdown pass down the middle and the Ravens would never relinquish the lead—although it did get close.
San Francisco’s problems began with a slightly tentative Colin Kaepernick who took a while to settle in. This is of course understandable given that it was only his 10th game as an NFL quarterback. The 49ers missed opportunities to put touchdowns on the board from red zone presences, until the third quarter.
The Ravens looked confident on offense and their defense came up big in creating a turnover from San Francisco running back LaMichael James early in the second quarter.
Flacco then got tight end Ed Dixon involved with two key catches. The drive ended with Flacco finding another tight end, Dennis Pitta, for a 1-yard TD catch.
