SUPER BOWL XLVII: Post-game Report & Analysis // NBA: Phase Two
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. . . SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner.
SUPER BOWL XLVII --- AS cited here yesterday, the Baltimore Ravens 34-31 win vs. the San Francisco
- Ravens QB Joe Flacco as game MVP with three TD’s, number one TD early in the first period, the Ravens maintaining a lead until endgame, Flacco’s third TD being his 12th for the 2012/13 post-season, tying a 1989 record set by SF QB, Joe Montana.
- SF QB Colin Kaepernick implying that he’s the NFL’s best upcoming “all around” QB (the Super Bowl was only his 10th start) from expert passing plus his Mercury-on-wheels rushing.
- The Ravens Jacoby Jones 108 yard kick return for a TD (tied his earlier 108 yard KR record).
- SF coming back from a 28-6 spread in the second half, one of the more remarkable comebacks in Super Bowl history.
- Those final moments in the game when the 49er’s offense may have wrapped it all up in their favor.
- Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis ending his career with a Super Bowl ring.
If it’s a win that advises which is the better team, then so be it! the Ravens commanded, deserved the Super Bowl trophy.
AND, this page added that when the fourth period closed, with Super Bowl XLVII suddenly history, the 49ers were a lot more than a gallant effort; they had actually surpassed the Ravens in nearly all key performance categories, for instance, the 49ers achieved more first downs than the Ravens had: 23 over 21; and, they gained more total net yards than the Ravens had: 468 versus 367, within which were more net 49er yards from rushing, 182-93, and more 49er passing yards gained, 286 vs. 274.
As to yards gained per play, the 49ers stayed ahead, 9.2 vs. the Ravens 7.8.
Too, the 49ers accomplished its leading feats within less possession time than the Ravens used up to achieve theirs, 27 minutes vs. the Ravens 32 minutes.
However, the Ravens “end zone attack sufficiency” punished the 49ers, resulting in more TD’s, simply “more points on the board.” SF landed in the end zone enough times to go past the Ravens, but reaching the base of a summit and then not summiting causes all that came before to have less meaning, first item in the record book “WINNER over Loser.”
Lessons learned. Much can be extrapolated for avoidance of error in future games from just about every NFL contest. Super Bowl XLVII certainly provided for 2013/14 team preparations, for instance, the plays executed by the Ravens and the 49ers underscored that game fundamentals will continue to exist at the forefront of football’s combative applications, that is, head coaches cannot underestimate the value of QB/receiver synchronicity for the rush or for mid-field and deep passes; nor can they escape from speed being more important than cautious skill during a pass rush, or that pass protection has to be even faster but always at the effect of a QB’s maneuverings, even if speed sacrifices finesse of movement. Surely a QB having to stay inside a box created by protectors is severely limited, no matter how mobile that box may be (both Flacco and Kaepernick managed to avoid that trap often throughout Super Bowl XLVII).
And certainly a contribution to the Ravens and the 49ers gaining 2012/13 playoff berths and getting to New Orleans were week-after-week demonstrations of “defense dominance” from what could be phrased as, “Offense within the defense,” i.e., aggressive maneuverings forcing the opposing attackers into situations within which options for pushing forward diminish rapidly. This was obvious from the Ravens throughout Sunday’s game, and picked up and demonstrated by the 49ers starting in the game’s second half, thus the meager spread among points as the game reached its finish.
So, most of the breakthroughs that each team accrued on Sunday reflected classic football, another example being necessity of cornerback focus and speed having to be sharp and swift enough to find and eclipse a wide receiver or tight end, the precision for tapping away or intercepting the football being the necessary objective.
Too, (a no-brainer:) any offense that learns to exploit wide passing angles or blitz-rushing down the middle for between 5.0 and 7.2 yards per play will rack up lots of first downs and land deep within the opposition’s end zone.
Yet a 108 yard kick return for a TD can turn the whole enterprise around, so can a deep pass for a TD in the last seconds of a final quarter, breaking a tie, advising that the first enemy of defeat is “minute-by-minute ‘Vigilance,’” which during Super Bowl XLVII the Ravens had more of than its opponent had.
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NBA: The NBA season has already intensified, not only from the fact that the NFL post-season closed as the Super Bowl ended on Sunday, but the NBA all-star break is about to occur, after which a team’s attitude and skills usually switch to finding and fixing that big team desire, a playoff billet when the NBA season closes in April.
Of the 82-game season, more than half have been played, and unless drastic changes occur the following teams will be playoff candidates by late March---
Western Conference:
Northwest Division: 36-12 Oklahoma City , the 30-18 Denver Nuggets // Southwest Division: the 38-11 San Antonio Spurs, the 30-16 Memphis Grizzlies // Pacific Division: 34-16 Los Angeles Clippers, Golden State
Eastern Conference:
Atlantic Division: 31-15 New York Knicks, 28-19 Brooklyn Nets // Southeast Division: 31-14 Miami Heat, 26-20 Atlanta Hawks // Central Division: 29-19 Indiana Pacers // 29-19 Chicago
Lending to the above being so as April nears is that at the present moment only one third-place team within any division of either conference is less than four games behind a respective second place teams (the 27-22 Utah Jazz, three behind second place, Denver Nuggets).
Teams that finished last season as division leaders but are in third place within their divisions today are the 22-26 L.A. Lakers and the 24-23 Boston Celtics. Is there a team that finished poorly last season and is today almost top of the hill? Yes, the Brooklyn Nets, having finished the 2012/13 season in last place within its division, at 22-44 (then “the New Jersey Nets”).
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