Super Bowl Preview

                I’ve spent an entire year predicting the outcomes of football games mostly based on gut instinct and a few minutes of thought. It seemed that once I saw the match-up and made up my mind, I wasn’t going to change it. However, predicting the Super Bowl game is much different than predicting 16 games in week 7. I’ve had plenty of time to consider the match-up and weight the variables.

                The comparison I kept coming back to for the Ravens was the Giants’ two Super Bowl runs. This Ravens team has aspects of both teams on it. There’s the inconsistent and underrated quarterback who can catch fire during the playoffs (Flacco), the defensive legend on the brink of retirement (Ray Lewis), the huge playoff upsets, the lucky plays to decide wins, the embarrassing of Tom Brady, the poor finish to the regular season…the only thing missing is the Super Bowl upset.

                Normally this would be cause for me to pick the Ravens to win the game citing the aforementioned reasons. But there’s a stronger force than history compelling me to pick against the Ravens in this game. That force is commonly known as Colin Kaepernick. The Nevada product came into the season as a wasted high draft pick, morphed into an athletic package specialist, then stepped in for an injured Alex Smith and now is the starting quarterback for the NFC Champion.

                Kaepernick wasted no time drawing attention to himself for his skills both throwing and running the ball. In his first start, he tore apart what appeared to be a historically good Bears D. A few weeks later he went punch for punch with Tom Brady and came out on top. Those are both huge accomplishments for any first-year starter but Kaepernick was far from done.

After being embarrassed by the Seahawks a few weeks earlier, Kaepernick eviscerated Green Bay’s defense to the tune of 444 total yards and four touchdowns. The Pack had NO answers for San Fran’s Pistol/Read Option hybrid and Kaepernick performed flawlessly.  For at least this game, Kaepernick personified the label of dual-threat quarterback. He showed more than endless potential; it was the six start of his professional career and he was too good to be stopped by a playoff team.

So, it was no surprise to me when Kaepernick led the 49ers back from a 17-0 deficit in the NFC Championship to defeat the Falcons and advance to the Super Bowl. There doesn’t appear to be any limit to what Kaepernick can do. His recent run has been commonly compared to Brady’s 2001 playoff stretch. This comparison is unfair to Kaepernick; he’s been far better these last few weeks than Brady was then.

In case it wasn’t already abundantly clear, Kaepernick alone was enough for me to swing my pick to the 49ers. I needed no reminder that the 49ers boast one of the best offensive lines in football, that Frank Gore is one of the best in the game, that Kaepernick will be able to throw to Randy Moss, Vernon Davis and Michael Crabtree or that they have arguably the best defense in football. But I guess that all helps.

San Francisco 28 Baltimore 20

One last prediction: Ray Lewis will, somehow, bring attention to himself. Stay hungry, my friends.