NEW ORLEANS — When the lights came back to the Superdome, America’s biggest sporting event had changed.
This was the story line that no one predicted, a dose of unexpected drama that no one wanted. Super Bowl XLVII stopped for 34 minutes because of a power outage, and while the Baltimore Ravens tried to protect an enormous lead, the San Francisco 49ers somehow were recharged.
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Relive some of the great plays and key player performances from past Super Bowl games.
Forty-six years ago, Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs.
No, the lasting memory from this game will not be that John Harbaugh defeated his younger brother, Jim, or that Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis ended his career with a championship. It’ll be that Baltimore survived an unexplainable collapse — defeating the 49ers, 34-31 — by leaning on its most dependable presence, quarterback Joe Flacco.
Let it be said now — and more than that embraced — that Flacco is one of the game’s best. This wasn’t a showcase game of a fifth-year player who simply rode his team’s wave to the Vince Lombardi trophy. Flacco improved his mechanics and response to pressure, and he was at his best during the playoffs. Eleven touchdowns this postseasons and zero interceptions. The only other quarterbacks to pass for that many touchdowns were Joe Montana and Kurt Warner.
Flacco, the Super Bowl’s most valuable player, didn’t do this alone, but he became the face of the team that’s now the face of the NFL. Baltimore’s defense is still considered among the league’s most formidable units, and running back Ray Rice shook off a second-half fumble to help his team protect a lead that was dissolving by the minute.
Flacco, though, is a survivor, and this is true now of his career. Drafted in the first round in 2008, he heard for years that he wasn’t among the league’s elite passers. The Ravens hesitated at the idea of signing him to a contract extension, though it was assumed he would be back in Baltimore. Now, though, the team’s gamble has likely cost it money; even if few are willing to admit that Flacco is a top-tier quarterback, he almost certainly will be paid like it this offseason.
In this game, Flacco, who completed 22 of 33 passes for 287 yards and the three touchdowns, watched as San Francisco’s second-year quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, sidestepped his own stress and shortcomings, pushing his team to a remarkable comeback that’ll be discussed for years. When the electricity went off early in the third quarter, the 49ers trailed the Ravens by 22 points. By the time the fourth quarter began, Kaepernick had chipped the lead to five. Then, as the minutes ticked away, to two.
Kaepernick in these playoffs has improved dramatically in the second half, and no opposing lead seemed out of reach. Sunday night’s comeback was one for the ages, but history remembers the winners, and his name is Flacco.
John Harbaugh, like his brother, gambled with his team’s fate this season, firing offensive coordinator and friend Cam Cameron in December. It was a desperate attempt to spark his team, and although the Ravens lost four of their final five regular season games, Cameron’s replacement, Jim Caldwell, emphasized Rice, which opened play-action passes and made Flacco a calmer, more accurate presence.
This was a contrast, of course, to Baltimore’s rowdy defense, whose ceremonial face this postseason was Lewis, although Sunday evening showed that the old man’s plan to retire is probably a timely one. Still, a team built for years on defense – this was its calling card, even as Flacco developed and mostly underachieved – somehow regained control after Kaepernick’s comeback. Its fourth-down stop deep in Baltimore’s territory all but sealed the Ravens’ win.
By the time Flacco was prepared for this stage, Baltimore’s defense was aging. It was no longer the dominant unit of the previous decade. Now the Ravens needed Flacco to step forward, into the spotlight and into a classification that many observers said was beyond his talents.
Late Sunday, under bright lights in a previously dark stadium, silver streamers fell and colorful confetti was pumped from cannons. As it did, Flacco ran toward the middle of the field and teammates piled onto him, pulling him to the ground.
He was their best reason for staving off the biggest collapse in Super Bowl history, for hoisting the championship trophy, for trusting a quarterback that can now be considered one of his game’s best.
