This was his tenth year in the league and the critics all called him too slow. He was probably the most physical receiver in the league, and Flacco knew how to best leverage his abilities. But more than anything, Flacco knew Boldin was fearless and would fight for the ball. Flacco would throw to Boldin in any situation.
The Ravens held the ball for five minutes and marched to the 1-yard line, but couldn’t crack the end zone. On the 3rd down play, Flacco bought as much time as he could and was hit late out of bounds by Niners nose tackle Isaac Sopoaga without a flag. Instead, Justin Tucker came on for a 19-yard field goal, and the Ravens extended the lead to 31-23 with 12:54 remaining.
Kaepernick came out in shotgun and went to work. Randy Moss had a 32-yard gain. Gore busted off a 21-yard run, shedding Ravens defenders. Then it was the 49ers top weapon, Kaepernick’s legs, that ran off the left side around the edge and away from the Ravens defense and into the end zone on a 15-yard score with 9:57 left in the fourth quarter making it 31-29. The Niners attempt for two points failed when Kaepernick’s pass to Moss was long and defended by Cary Williams.
With a narrow, two-point edge, Flacco took over and got a big break on a Culliver pass interference penalty on a 3rd & 9 pass to Torrey Smith to keep possession with 8:35 left. Flacco then hit Boldin on a quick cross that might’ve moved the sticks, but Jim Harbaugh challenged the spot and the replay reversed it making it 3rd & inches.
With the Super Bowl on the line, and a slim two-point margin and the defense getting pushed around, Flacco had two options – a pitch to Rice or a short out to Boldin. Always the gunslinger, Flacco wanted to throw and went back shoulder to his veteran wide receiver as the Boldin went up and got it and moved the chains. It was one of the best catches you’ll ever see in a Super Bowl.
“It was something that we worked on all the time,” Boldin said. “I told Joe to give me a chance, and he gave it to me.”
“He did a great job getting open,” Flacco said. “They rotated over the top of him, so you really wouldn’t throw that ball too much, but he had a little bit of a separation there and he did a great job going to catch that football.”
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Now, the voice in the head of John Harbaugh was that of Bo Schembechler, telling him to “grind some meat and rattle the molars,” and Rice obliged behind the offensive line, that had been solid all day. After the gutty call to Boldin, the Ravens grinded another three and a half minutes off the clock and settled for a 38-yard field goal from Tucker after Flacco missed Pitta on 3rd & 2.
With the score 34-29 and 4:19 remaining, the 49ers took over at the 20 and Kaepernick smelled blood in the water with the Ravens defense. Lewis was getting abused across the middle most the game and Ngata was on the sideline injured. Kaepernick found Crabtree in the seam running away from Reed, Lewis, and Corey Graham. On the next play, the deceptive offense sprung Gore on a running play through the left side, and he found daylight running 33 yards before being shoved out of bounds at the 7-yard line by Graham.
With 2:39 remaining, all that separated the 49ers and the Ravens from the Lombardi Trophy was seven yards. If the Niners get a touchdown too soon, they open the door for Flacco to engineer another miracle ala Denver. If they don’t get into the end zone, they lose the Super Bowl.
“No one had to say anything,” said Graham. “We knew what the situation was. Don’t let them get in and we can’t lose, it’s as simple as that. If they didn’t score a touchdown they couldn’t beat us. We had to keep them out of the end zone. Guys had to step up.”
For the Ravens, if you allow them to score, you better do it soon. If you’re going to stop them, well…you better stop them!
Running back LaMichael James went off right guard for two yards on first down before the two-minute warning. When play resumed, Kaepernick threw incomplete on the right side to Crabtree on second down and again on third down, on a play broken up by cornerback Jimmy Smith short of the end zone.
“We really thought it was going to be some kind of quarterback run down in there,” said defensive coordinator Dean Pees. “So basically, we pressured almost every down when we were down there. We changed up the pressures, but we pressured every down.”
