First let me say congratulations to all of Ravens nation. No one can ever take this victory away from you, EVER! With that said, I came across an interesting statistic that was talked about today on one of the sports networks that I had to post on as I believe it will give the 49ers' superbowl loss a DUBIOUS distinction, possibly for all-time. In short, in the history of the NFL (and this is either championship games or SB - can't recall which), when a team averaged 7.5 yards a play, as the 49ers did, they won in EVERY case. Okay, no biggie, right? Wrong!!! Not only did these teams win, they won by at least 30 points or more in each case!!!!

In your opinion, does this stat make you look at the game any differently? Does this make the Ravens win more impressive or less impressive (e.g. the 49ers lost it more than the Ravens won it)? Really think about how DOMINANT a stat like that is. Losing by 30 is an @$$ kicking. The 9ers arguably moved the ball in this way and still lost by 3. DAMN I'd be pissed if I was a 49er or 9ers fan. LOL

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Cats: +/-, FOW, A, G, GWG, PPP, SHP, SOG, S, SPct, W, GAA

C: Benn,Kopitar,J.Staal,Strome
W: Atkinson,Bennett,BrunnerConacher
Huberdeau,Kessel,Seguin,Selanne
D: Beaulieu,DeKeyser,Despres,D.Hamilton,Leopold,Salo
G: J.Howard
Bench: Braun,B.Flynn,B.Gordon - J.Bernier,O.Pavelec,V.Stalberg
Prospects: Andrighetto,V.Arvidsson,Filatov,G.Carey,K.Flanagan,Kabanov,Lehtera,Omark,Ritchie,
R.Schwartz,Shalunov,Stransky,
Clendening,Deslauriers,Gauthier-Leduc,J.Morrow,R.Murphy,Petrovic,Reilly, -- M.Hackett

I think it underscores just how poor the 49ers were once they got into the red zone and calls into question some of their conservative decisions once they got there. It was clear to me even before the brownout (that people have misinterpreted as the reason the 49ers were able to spark a comeback) that the 49ers were going to have no issues moving the ball on the Ravens. That became even more true once Ngata went down for the game.

On the Ravens' last drive I was absolutely certain that they needed to score a touchdown because there was no way they were stopping the 49ers from marching. They only got a field goal and the 49ers subsequently marched it to the five, where some more conservative play calling and a dubious missed hold on 4th down left them with no points.

This 49ers team is great and they were made even better this season because of how aggressive Jim Harbaugh would get when the situation called for it. They got conservative way too often in a game where the Ravens were going for the throat. The Ravens got the better end of the breaks and were rewarded for their aggressiveness as well. I'm certain that Jim Harbaugh is going to look back on this game and think of all the times when they could have scored touchdowns instead of field goals and be determined not to make those mistakes again.

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I think that's pretty bang on. I knew the game was over when they marched down the field, I believe the first drive of the 3Q, and walked away with a FG. Your point was made clear there and what could have been the game-winning TD with 00:01:40 or so left in the game. Hell, now that I think about it, they kicked a friggin FG before the half that lost me $250.00 on a block. Bastards! LOL

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League: Yahoo 20 Team Dynasty, H2H (4C, 8W, 6D, 1G)
Cats: +/-, FOW, A, G, GWG, PPP, SHP, SOG, S, SPct, W, GAA

C: Benn,Kopitar,J.Staal,Strome
W: Atkinson,Bennett,BrunnerConacher
Huberdeau,Kessel,Seguin,Selanne
D: Beaulieu,DeKeyser,Despres,D.Hamilton,Leopold,Salo
G: J.Howard
Bench: Braun,B.Flynn,B.Gordon - J.Bernier,O.Pavelec,V.Stalberg
Prospects: Andrighetto,V.Arvidsson,Filatov,G.Carey,K.Flanagan,Kabanov,Lehtera,Omark,Ritchie,
R.Schwartz,Shalunov,Stransky,
Clendening,Deslauriers,Gauthier-Leduc,J.Morrow,R.Murphy,Petrovic,Reilly, -- M.Hackett

I was lucky enough to have a pre-season bet on the Ravens to win it all. Stuck it out all the way and then hedged. The hedge trimmed my profits by a third but I was able to guarantee myself some money and was able to watch the game just as a fan.

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At least I can say someone I know won big that day. I predicted a Ravens/49ers SB before the season started. I was wrong about the winner.

Next yar's bowl I predict Hou vs. 49ers.

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League: Yahoo 20 Team Dynasty, H2H (4C, 8W, 6D, 1G)
Cats: +/-, FOW, A, G, GWG, PPP, SHP, SOG, S, SPct, W, GAA

C: Benn,Kopitar,J.Staal,Strome
W: Atkinson,Bennett,BrunnerConacher
Huberdeau,Kessel,Seguin,Selanne
D: Beaulieu,DeKeyser,Despres,D.Hamilton,Leopold,Salo
G: J.Howard
Bench: Braun,B.Flynn,B.Gordon - J.Bernier,O.Pavelec,V.Stalberg
Prospects: Andrighetto,V.Arvidsson,Filatov,G.Carey,K.Flanagan,Kabanov,Lehtera,Omark,Ritchie,
R.Schwartz,Shalunov,Stransky,
Clendening,Deslauriers,Gauthier-Leduc,J.Morrow,R.Murphy,Petrovic,Reilly, -- M.Hackett

The 49ers have the better team, overall. But the Ravens execution is second to none. What ultimately seperated the Ravens from the 49ers in that game was the former did not make any costly mistakes.

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I'd say that the sequence where Flacco got sacked by an untouched rusher followed by Koch muffing the punt and the 49ers returning it to like the Ravens 20 was costly. As was the Rice fumble in his own end. You can argue that the 49ers made more mistakes and got fewer breaks but it's not like the Ravens were flawless.

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Not that we can prove it either way, but I disagree that this wasn't a factor.

I definitely expected the Niners to come on strong in the 2nd half so a comeback of some sort was inevitable since they couldn't possibly get any worse - but personally I don't see how the blackout doesn't work to the Niners advantage. It's the same as calling any timeout to stop the other team's momentum and to regroup... except this was a free 45 minute timeout.

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Like I said, the 49ers were having no issues moving the ball against the Ravens that day, even before the brownout. There's another universe out there where the lights stay on and the 49ers make their comeback anyway. I'll point to two pieces of evidence to support this theory:

If what the 49ers needed was an extended break to help them out then why wasn't half time effective?

If the brownout was so important then why didn't the 49ers immediately pick up the first down following it? For this narrative of the brownout being helpful and giving the 49ers life/momentum you'd think the Ravens wouldn't be able to immediately make a huge play to hold the 49ers on third down at mid-field there.

I think that people will believe any narrative you throw at them and that a lot of times these narratives are way less important than the effects of chance and execution. The 49ers didn't make a comeback because of some brownout. A brownout happened and then a very good 49ers team made a comeback because they started executing better than before and cut out the turnovers. Please remember that correlation does not equal causation.

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Your 2 pieces of "evidence" (and I'm using that term very loosely) really don't make much sense.

I said I believe the brownout HELPED turn the momentum of the game.... I don't think I ever said that it should help the Niners turn the game around instantly on literally the first play following the break.

I think it's a weak and far-fetched argument to suggest that it should help IMMEDIATELY on the very first play after half-time (which was a kick-off return, not even really a play), or the very first possession after the brownout. Momentum can change quickly for sure, but it does often take at least some time to build and trickle down through all the players on the team. Do NHL teams routinely score a goal on the very first shift after a time-out? Do they often score on the very first rush after a big fight? No... so going by your logic and "evidence", then obviously that means the timeouts aren't working right? Didn't think so.

I'm not disagreeing with you that the Niners would have come back due to better execution, etc... I already covered that in the previous post. I just plainly disagree with your sentiment that the brownout had nothing to do with the comeback whatsoever, and how you simply dismissed that possibility as a "misinterpretation" as if it were fact when really nobody knows.

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12 Teams, Points Only (G/A = 1, DG = 2, W = 2, SO = 1)

The Motherpuckers (5 NYR, 2 PIT, 3 VAN)
Forwards: Neal / Iginla / Nash / Richards / Stepan / Roy / Higgins
Defense: Del Zotto / Garrison
Goalies: Lundqvist