Baltimore Ravens Win Super Bowl XLVII

In a Super Bowl that saw plenty of the improbable, the Baltimore Ravens beat the San Francisco 49ers 34-31 in Super Bowl XLVII.

The game was headed to a runaway Ravens victory, but a third quarter power outage, with a lengthy delay, changed the momentum and flipped it to 49ers favor.

The Ravens started the scoring with a 13 yard touchdown pass from Joe Flacco to Anquan Boldin 4 and-a-half minutes into the game. The 49ers responded with a 36 yard field goal from David Akers.

The Ravens added two more touchdowns in the second quarter, including a 56 yard touchdown pass to Jacoby Jones.  Jones turned around as the ball was in the air and fell to the ground as he made the catch. No 49er defenders touched Jones while he was on the ground and he was able to get up and run the 15 yards to score the touchdown.

Baltimore had a chance at least three more point in the second quarter but they instead tried a fake field goal. The fake wasn't converted into a first down as kicker Justin Tucker was stopped by Darcell McBath one yard short of a first down.

With the Ravens up 21-3 late in the second quarter, the 49ers took the kickoff after Jones' touchdown and converted it into three points. Akers made a 27 yard field goal as time expired in the second quarter.

After halftime, the Ravens came out of the locker room fired up. Jacoby Jones carried the Ravens momentum into the start of the second half. He scored his second touchdown of the night with a 108 yard kickoff return to open the third quarter. Jones' score put the Raven up 28-6.

Just over a minute, of game time, later; a power outage struck the Superdome. Half of the stadium's lights were out and the numerous broadcast booths lost power as well. The game was delayed 34 minutes before electricity was fully restored.

After the power outage, the momentum swung in the 49ers direction.  The 49ers were able to get multiple stops on defense in the third quarter and they scored 17 points.  The touchdowns were scored by Michael Crabtree and Frank Gore and the Ravens were only up by five, 28-23.

The Ravens were finally able to stop bleeding early in the fourth quarter. A 19 yard field goal by former Texas kicker Justin Tucker extended the Ravens lead to 31-23.

San Francisco responded with 5 play, 76 yard drive that saw Colin Kaepernick rush for a 15 yard touchdown. It was the longest rushing touchdown by a quarterback in Super Bowl history. The two-point conversion failed by the 49ers as Kaepernick's pass sailed out of the end zone. That made the score 31-29 Ravens.

The Ravens then added another field goal to extend their lead to 34-29.

With 4:19 left in the game, the 49ers had one final chance to take the lead. Kaepernick started the drive at his 28 and he rushed for 8 yards. Kaepernick then completed a 24 yard pass down the middle to Crabtree. Gore rushed out of the shotgun for 33 yards and that set up a 1st & Goal at the 49ers 7 yard line.

A short rush on 1st Down moved the ball to the 5. Then the 49ers tried three straight passing plays and all three were incomplete. The 4th Down play was a fade in the end zone to Crabtree, but the ball was overthrown and uncatchable. The 49ers bench was up in arms over contact made against Crabtree in the end zone, but replays showed Crabtree giving as much contact as he received on the play.

With the turnover on downs, the Ravens milked the clock and took a safety on 4th Down to run the clock down to four seconds left.

The free kick after the safety proved inconsequential as Ted Ginn Jr. was only able to return the ball to midfield and the clock expired giving the Ravens the win.

Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco was named Most Valuable Player. Flacco went 22/33 passing for 287 yards with 3 touchdowns and no interceptions.