If you're a Miami, Cincinnati, Denver, or San Diego fan, you have plenty of reasons. The fact that the Bengals are in the same division as the Ravens is offset by the Bengals' two Super Bowl losses to the 49ers. The Bengals and Chargers have never been in a 49er-less Super Bowl, and have never managed to beat the Grizzled Prospectors from Candlestick. So their fans should have a special hatred for the Niners. (I'm a Chargers fan, and I've held a grudge against them since they ran up the score- 49 points- in Super Bowl XXIX. Although the 49ers were 18.5-point favorites in the Big Game, my seven-year-old self was convinced that the Chargers would overcome the odds. Instead, they gave up a record six touchdown passes.)
This year, the 49ers' roster has an incredible amount of depth, with nine Pro Bowl selections. None of those players actually went to the Pro Bowl, but that number is staggering, especially considering Kaepernick was not selected. Kaepernick may be the face of the franchise now, but those nine Pro Bowl selections are better players than he is. Russell Wilson is a better leader (and a better passer and rusher) on a team with much less depth.
The Ravens are looking to take the title of "only team with multiple Super Bowl appearances without a loss" away from the 49ers, and I believe they will accomplish it. Joe Flacco may not be the topic of many self-proclaimed pundits' conversations about "elite quarterbacks," but he is very close to becoming one. Nobody else has led his team to at least one playoff victory in each of his first five seasons. While his regular-season stats are not impressive (his TD career high was only 25, in 2010, and he threw fewer than one TD pass per game in his rookie season), his playoff successes may raise him to "elite" status.
Playoff performances are the most important boosters in a player's career. Would Troy Aikman be in the Hall of Fame without his three Super Bowl wins? (He only threw 20 TD passes in a season once.) Was Joe Montana better than Dan Marino? In the playoffs (and the Super Bowl), absolutely, but not during the regular season. Clutch performances in the playoffs lift otherwise average QB's like Flacco, Aikman, and Eli to a much higher status.
The Ravens' defense, led by Ray Lewis (who's been with them since their inaugural season after they moved from Cleveland) and Ball So Hard University grad Terrell Suggs, will have to work particularly hard against the Niners' read-option offense. Both teams' offenses and defenses are about evenly matched, but the playoff experience of the Ravens' roster will give them a slight advantage. My final score prediction: Ravens 28, Niners 24.
Interesting note: While I didn't publish my playoff predictions for this year, I'm 6-4 so far. It's my first winning record as a football swami, not to be confused with The Swami from NFL Primetime. "In this Super Bowl, you won't see Amani 'The Brain' Toomer or Tiki 'The Barber of Seville,' but you will see Frank 'Inconvenient Truth' Gore and Randy 'Peat' Moss."
"Hey, Boomer, have you ever read Pond Scum Sports? You'd get better nicknames from the writers there."
"Why would I go and do that? That is such a stupid question. What are you, stupid? That is so stupid!"
P.S.: If you didn't get that last reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You%27re_with_me,_leather
P.P.S.: The image above this article is from the classic Amiga adventure game Gold Rush, in which you play a 49er trying to reach San Francisco from Brooklyn, which is approximately what the New York Baseball Giants did 100 years later. I don't think the baseball team traveled by stagecoach or took a ship around Tierra del Fuego, though.
-AQ
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