Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Super Bowl of Sports Chowdah Update- Ravens Survive Lights Out Superbowl XLVII; Son of 77 Comes Up Huge in Toronto


SUPER BOWL XLVII- Wow- who that plunging the stadium into darkness mid-game would turn out to be a winning formula? That's exactly what happened on Super Bowl Sunday when the Louisiana Superdome experinced a 34 minute power outage in the 3rd quarter of the championship contest between the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers.

It was probably a blessing in disguise, though, since up until the Superdome was plunged into darkness, the Ravens were firmly in charge with a commanding 28-6 lead.

By the close of the 3rd quarter, the 49ers had managed to whittle the Ravens lead down to 5 points thanks to a 31 yard reception and TD run from Kaepernick to Crabtree, a Frank Gore rushing TD and a 34 yard David Akers FG. What once had all the appearences of a Ravens blowout was now a 28-23 game heading into the fourth quarter.

Baltimore would get some of their mojo back early in the 4th, starting off the quarter in the 49ers red zone and getting as far as the 1, but the Ravens would have to settle for a short FG after getting stopped on 3rd and goal. While they managed to extend their lead and burn precious time off the clock, San Francisco appeared to have the momentum going their way.

On their next posession, the 49ers got big plays from Frank Gore and Randy Moss to move the ball deep into Baltimore territory before Kaepernick took off for a 15 yard TD run with just under 10 minutes to go in the 4th. However, San Francisco's 2 point attempt failed and Baltimore still led by a score of 31-29.

Upon getting the ball back, the Ravens started off on their own 21 and thanks to some penalties by the 49ers that kept the drive going, took more than five and a half minutes to move the ball down the field. Baltimore was stopped on 3rd and 2 at the 49ers 20 yard line, but that suited them just fine as they got three points off the boot of Justin Tucker to put them up 34-29.

The 49ers had one more drive in them and thanks to some big plays by Gore and Crabtree, they made it inside the Baltimore 7 yard line with less than 2:40 remaining in the game. However, San Francisco ended up turning the ball over on downs after Kaepernick's 4th down pass fell incomplete. This was not without controversey as Crabtree and Ravens CB Jimmy Smith pushed off of each other as the 49ers WR was going for Karpernick's pass. The pass landed out of bounds and there was no call from the officials.

By this point, Baltimore's main concern was running out the clock and they were willing to cede a few points to San Francisco- so long as it wasn't a TD. After going three and out deep in their own territory and with the game clock winding down, Ravens punter Sam Koch actually held onto the ball for a few seconds, scrambling around in the end zone before almost casually sauntering out of the end zone for a safety with 4 seconds remaining in the game. San Francisco now trailed by a 34-31 margin and needed  less than 4 seconds to come up with some sort of score on the kickoff- but that wasn't going to happen as the ball was lateraled to the Ravens bench on the ensuing kickoff.

The Ravens win Super Bowl XLVII by a final of 34-31, their second Super Bowl since moving to Maryland from Cleveland in the 1990s. Their first was a 34-7 rout of the New York Giants in Super Bowl XXXV in 2001.

Baltimore QB Joe Flacco went 22-33 for 287 yards and 3 TDs and was also named Super Bowl MVP. San Francisco's Colin Kaepaernick went 16-28 with 302 yards, an interception, a TD pass, a rushing TD as well as 62 yards rushing. And in case you missed it earlier in the postseason, this was Ravens LB Ray Lewis' final NFL game- he had announced this would be his final NFL season heading into the playoffs in late December.

Beyonce- reportedly NOT the cause of Sunday's blackout. Christopher Polk/Getty Images

OTHER SUPER BOWL NEWS- The 3rd quarter blackout left both the city of New Orleans and Louisiana-based utility Entergy [NYSE- ETR] red-faced and officials are still trying to determine what caused the power failure.

In a series of memos dating back to October 15th, both the Superdome Engineering Staff and Entergy officials expressed concerns that feeders connecting the stadium with incoming power lines were showing signs of significant decay and a chance of failure.
The memo said Entergy and the Superdome's engineering staff "had concerns regarding the reliability of the Dome service from Entergy's connection point to the Dome."

The memo was prepared for the Louisiana Stadium & Exposition District, the state body responsible for the Superdome.

Authorities subsequently authorized spending nearly $1 million on Superdome improvements, including more than $600,000 for upgrading the dome's electrical feeder cable system, work that was done in December.

"As discussed in previous board meetings, this enhancement is necessary to maintain both the Superdome and the New Orleans Arena as top tier facilities, and to ensure that we do not experience any electrical issues during the Super Bowl," said an LSED document dated Dec. 19.

Superdome commission records show a $513,250 contract to replace feeder cables was awarded to Louisiana-based Allstar Electric. Arthur Westbrook, Allstar's project manager for the job, referred all questions to the management company.

A lawyer for the LSED, Larry Roedel, said a preliminary investigation found the replacement work in December did not appear to have caused Sunday's outage.

And meters showed the 76,000-seat stadium was drawing no more electricity than it does during a typical New Orleans Saints game, according to Doug Thornton, vice president for the Superdome's management company, SMG
Apparently Beyonce's halftime show was NOT to blame, accoring to the NFL. The singer reportedly used a seperate generator that was not connected to the Superdome's grid for her performance.

Canadian Press, Frank Gunn
NHL- The Bruins got off to a less than stellar start against the Northeast Division after squandering a 3-1 lead against the Buffalo Sabres Thursday night. After heading into the 3rd period tied at 3-3, the Bruins briefly pulled ahead on a David Krejci goal before the Sabres tallied three unanswered goals to make it a 7-4 Buffalo victory [this included a Thomas Vanek hat trick- NANESB!]. The loss was the Bruins' first regulation loss all season.

Saturday night went a little better for Boston as the travelled north of the border for the first time this season, taking on the Toronto Maple Leafs. A number of fairly notworthy firsts took place during Saturday's game as well. LW Chris Bourque, son of legendary Bruins defenseman and Hall of Famer Ray Bourque, notched his first Bruins goal at 8:54 in the first [contrary to what some on social media was saying, it was not his first NHL goal. That came during the 2008-2009 season when he was coming up through the Washington Capitals system- NANESB!]. That would be the only tally that Leafs netminder James Reimer would allow on Saturday, stopping 33 of 24 shots, but that would be enough for Boston as G Tukka Rask had his first successful shutout bid of the season, turning aside all 21 shots faced in the 1-0 win.

So Bourque made his first goal with Boston count, and the Bruins get their first win against a Northeast Division opponent on the season [despite the loss, Reimer was actually named the #1 star of Saturday's game- NANESB!]. Currently, the Bruins are in sole posession of first place in the Northeast Division at 6-1-1 and will take on the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Center on Wednesday Night. Puck drops at 7:30 ET and the game will be televised on NBC Sports and TSN. Coming into Wednesday night's contest, Montreal has a 6-2-0 record and is in 3rd place in the Northeast Division behind Boston and Ottawa.

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