It’s getting to be that time for football, and this year’s Super Bowl has centered itself on the coaches. While it’s interesting and exciting to see siblings coaching against each other in the biggest football game on the planet, let’s not forget that there are players who have to play this out on the field as well.
While it would be easy to talk about the defenses, with Baltimore sporting Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, and Haloti Ngata, San Francisco counters with Aldon Smith, Justin Smith, and Patrick Willis, and people could go on and on about who has the defensive advantage in this game. Same goes for the rushing offense. Who’s got it better, the team with Ray Rice and Bernard Pierce or the team with Frank Gore, LaMichael James, and the wild-card Colin Kaepernick. Look no further than the quarterbacks to determine who wins this game.
Baltimore’s Joe Flacco, who was sandblasted for his arrogance after putting himself on the “elite” level with Aaron Rodgers and Peyton Manning, put his money where his m outh was when the playoffs started. In the wild-card game, Flacco went 12-23 for 282 yards and threw no interceptions to end the Colts and Andrew Luck’s miraculous season behind the Chuck Pagano story.
Flacco and the Ravens then went to Denver to take on Peyton Manning and his new Denver legacy. In an absolutely phenomenal game, Flacco outlasted Manning for 331 yards and three touchdowns, including a miracle (or mistake) play where Flacco hit Jacoby Jones for a 70-yard touchdown with 31 seconds remaining in the game to force overtime.
Foxborough, Mass. and the New England Patriots dynasty were the last to fall to the Ravens, as Flacco threw for three touchdowns and 240 yards in a 28-13 win over Tom Brady’s Patriots.
Flacco is the established quarterback, but all eyes will be on the signal-caller for the 49ers, as second-year man Colin Kaepernick out of Nevada has won over Jim Harbaugh and put an end to Alex Smith’s San Francisco career.
Smith, who was third in the league in quarterback efficiency, suffered a concussion against the St. Louis Rams and lost his job to the dynamic, raw Kaepernick after he beat the Bears on Monday Night Football.
What’s impressed me about Kaepernick is his resilience. He threw an interception against Green Bay that was returned for a touchdown in his first playoff attempt, but kept his head in the game, and ran wild. His rushing ability broke Michael Vick’s quarterback rushing record, as the Packers couldn’t stop Kaepernick from running for 181 yards and two touchdowns.
A more reserved and safer Kaepernick beat the Falcons to get to the Super Bowl as he ran for only 21 yards, but threw for 233 and one touchdown, with no interceptions. He kept spreading the ball out, throwing to five different 49ers receivers, including Vernon Davis (who was basically a no-show through the second half of San Francisco’s season) and Randy Moss (who was basically a no-show through the entirety of the 49ers season).
It’s been a while since we’ve seen two quarterbacks playing at this level meet up in the biggest game of the season. But, brace yourselves NFL fans, the way this post-season has been so far, if these two teams can do anything like that divisional round, we’ll be talking about this game for a long time.