Baltimore Ravens Win Super Bowl XLVII

the baltimore ravens defeated the san francisco 49ers 34-31 to win super bowl xlvii. ravens quarterback joe flacco was named most valuable player. flacco completed 22 of 33 passes for 287 yards & three touchdown passes. flacco ties joe montana & kurt warner for the most td passes in post-season history, with 11.

ravens head coach john harbaugh & 49ers head coach jim harbaugh are the first brothers to face off in a super bowl. john, 15 months older than jim, was humble upon accepting the vince lombardi trophy on behalf of his team. he said, "how could it be any other way? its never pretty. its never perfect. but its us. it was us today."

super bowl 47 lasted an nfl record four hours & 14 minutes. it was a thrilling game, which featured a surprising 34 minute power outage, shortly after halftime. both teams were instructed to stay on the field & stretch. no one was injured during the delay, but the ravens seemed to lose the momentum they built after jacobi jones ran 108 yards on a kickoff return, tying an nfl record. his score gave them a 28-6 lead.

the 49ers quickly redeemed themselves when the power returned, as rookie quarterback colin kaepernick threw a 31-yard td pass to wide receiver michael crabtree. after shutting down the ravens on three straight plays, ted ginn, jr's 20-yard punt return led to a frank gore six-yard td run to make the score 28-20. 

ravens all-pro running back ray lewis fumbled on his own 24-yard line. 49ers david akers' 34-yard field goal lowered the ravens lead to five. but after a long drive, their rookie justin tucker's 19-yard field goal increased the lead to eight. kaepernick's 15-yard td run - the longest by a qb in super bowl history - made it 31-29. the 49ers failed on a two-point conversion due to the ravens' all out blitz, led by all-pro safety ed reed.

tucker kicked another field goal with four minutes & 19 seconds left in the game. the 49ers drove to the red zone shortly before the two-minute warning. yet they were unable to score on three consecutive plays, due to the ravens' tough goal-line stand. there was contact on crabtree on the final pass. 49ers coach jim harbaugh felt pass interference should have been called, but there was no flag thrown.

ravens punter sam koch, in another of a series of bold moves by ravens head coach john harbaugh in this game, took a safety for the final 34-31 score with four seconds left on the clock. his free kick was returned by ginn, jr. to midfield as the time ran out & the confetti began to shower the field. the victory is the second in the ravens' storied history. they routed the new york giants in 2001.

after a successful start, baltimore stumbled into the playoffs with four defeats in their last five regular-season games. all-pro linebacker ray lewis, who recently announced his retirement after this season, missed a few games after injuring his torn triceps. flacco struggled to find rhythm throwing the ball. harbaugh fired their offensive coordinator in december, a stunning move with the post-season in sight. 

the winning head coach harbaugh said, "the final series of ray lewis' career was a goal-line stand." lewis said, "it's no greater way, as a champ, to go out on your last ride with the men that i went out with, my teammates. and you looked around this stadium and baltimore! baltimore! we coming home, baby! we did it!" 

the loss was difficult for jim harbaugh. after the 49ers fired head coach mike singletary, the hall-of-fame linebacker from the chicago bears, in two years he led them to their first super bowl in 18 years. they are 5-0 in super bowls. they made a similar comeback in the nfc championship game against atlanta & believed they'd do it again. but afterwards, the brothers embraced at midfield, knowing a harbaugh was a winner.