Super Bowl Sunday
Countdown: 5 Days
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The 49ers have appeared in two consecutive NFC title games, but make
their first Super Bowl appearance in 18 years on Sunday. They beat the
San Diego Chargers in Super Bowl XXIX. Photo credit to NFL Network. |
It is both exciting and depressing that the week of the
Super Bowl is now upon us. There is so much anticipation leading up to the main
event, but well before midnight on Sunday, the 2012 season will be over.
It hasn’t felt like a long season, but this 49ers team is
more than just a culmination of the past six months. When Jim Harbaugh was
hired as San Francisco’s head coach during the 2011 offseason, nobody knew what
to expect. Few, if any, expected that he would turn this franchise around and
bring it back to the sport’s biggest stage. Even fewer, maybe nobody, expected
it to happen so soon.
I still remember how the 2011 season began for the 49ers. I
may be a little hazy on which team they were playing, though I’m fairly certain
that it was Seattle, but Ted Ginn Jr. returned a kickoff and a punt for
touchdowns in the final minutes of the game to carry the 49ers to victory.
It was a fluke as far as the experts were concerned. I certainly
didn’t think much of it. But they kept finding ways to win. They won close
games, they won in blowouts – most of you may not remember the Tampa Bay game
from last year – it didn’t matter how they had to win; they won.
Yet, after losing just three games all season, when we
reached the playoffs, nobody expected they could outrun the Saints if it turned
into a shootout. They hadn’t beaten a team with a high-octane offense like that
of New Orleans all season. Sure enough, the game turned into a shootout. The
winner, however, was not the team many of us expected, as Alex Smith and Vernon
Davis became Steve Young and Terrell Owens.
The party ended the following week, as errors haunted the
team and the Giants advanced to Super Bowl XLVI.
This past offseason, Jim Harbaugh schooled his team in
preparation. He never wanted his team to find itself in a close game and let it
slip away from them. They had some rough games this season, more than they did
in 2011, but to their credit every time they lost a game, they came back the
next week with a big win, and they only lost one close game.
This week, though, if they lose, there is no ‘next week’ where they can go out and win a game and make a
statement. This is the last game of the season. They won’t play another game
that matters until September, and that won’t be counted as a part of this
team’s accomplishments.
Many of these players came to San Francisco before Jim
Harbaugh took over. He has transformed this team and this Sunday they will
attempt to tie Pittsburgh as the owners of the most Vince Lombardi Trophies in
the NFL. They also look to keep their perfect 5-0 Super Bowl record intact.
Baltimore, meanwhile, will look to duplicate what it did on
Thanksgiving night in 2011. This is a different 49ers team than it was then; perhaps
more vulnerable in some ways, but also much more explosive since the move from
Alex Smith to Colin Kaepernick. This team may have been ready for the Super
Bowl last year, but the second year has prepared them even more. Few teams get
two years of steady building toward this game. This team did, and they’ve used
these two years well.
Tomorrow I will profile the
Baltimore Ravens and will continue my Super Bowl XLVII coverage all the way
through to Sunday, when I will make my official prediction by noon. For links
to new blog posts as they are published, ‘like’ my blog’s Facebook page and
follow me on Twitter, @cpuffnfl.
