The Definitive Dubsism/Sports Blog Movement Super Bowl Preview

Now that we are down to a head-to-head match-up, there are three categories to analyze.

1) What Vegas Thinks

Anybody who loves to bet knows professional gamblers pay attention to five key statistics:

• Yards Rushing per Game: Regular Season – San Francisco 155.7, Baltimore 118.8; Post-Season –  San Francisco 236.0, Baltimore 173.5
• Yards Rushing Allowed Per Game: Regular Season – San Francisco 94.2, Baltimore 122.8; Post-Season – San Francisco 92.5, Baltimore 128.3
• Points Scored Per Game: Regular Season –  Baltimore 24.9, San Francisco 24.8; Post-Season – San Francisco 36.5, Baltimore 30.0
• Points Allowed Per Game: Regular Season – San Francisco 17.1, Baltimore 21.5; Post-Season – Baltimore 19.0, San Francisco 27.5
• Ratio of Points Scored to Points Allowed: Regular Season – San Francisco 1.45, Baltimore 1.15; Post-Season – Baltimore 1.57, San Francisco 1.32

During the regular season, The 49ers dominated the Ravens in 4 0f the 5 statistical categories, with the 5th being a virtual tie. In the post-season, the Ravens narrowed the gap, but not enough to keep the 49ers from appearing on paper as a statistical favorite.

Advantage: San Francisco

2) The On-the-Field Matchups

• The Battle of the Trenches

The 49ers offensive line is the best front five in the NFL, and the Ravens defense is old, slow, injured and over-rated. Frankly, I think Baltimore used its “miracle” card holding  the Patriots offense to 13 points in Foxboro, although they did get a significant amount of help from some seriously bad play and decision-making on Tom Brady’s part.  The Ravens offensive line is pretty solid as well, and has been playing exceptionally well of late, but the 49ers feature the best line-backing corps in the league and the defensive line ain’t bad either.

• The Battle of the Quarterbacks

Kaepernick vs. Flacco.  Young vs. Not Old Yet. Relatively Inexperienced vs. Pretty Well-Established. New-School “Scrambler” vs. “Old-School” Pocket Passer. No matter how you frame it, this should be one of the most interesting Super Bowl match-ups of quarterbacks having completely different styles since Donovan “Runs Around And Still Doesn’t Make Plays” McNabb faced Tom “Can’t Outrun Haloti Ngata” Brady.

• The Battle of the Non-Over-Rated B.S.

Insert your own joke here about which Harbaugh brother gave the other one wedgies when they were kids.  Joke all you want about the coaching brothers, they aren’t the only similarities these teams share. Both teams have a bruising running game, both teams have a solid set of receivers, and both teams have a “go-to” tight end, although Vernon Davis is a Mercedez-Benz and Dennis Pitta is more like a solid, American-built pick-up truck.

Advantage: San Francisco

3) A Comparison of the Cities

• Baltimore

The horrible nature of Baltimore simply cannot be understated.  One of the great tragedies in our lifetime was that the 2001 Howard Street Tunnel fire didn’t cauterize that weeping sore know as Baltimore off the face of the planet. If Baltimore were a baby, it would have been the result of West Virginia raping Washington, D.C.  There’s a reason why Baltimore is one of few cities to lose three sports franchises. In 1903, the original Baltimore Orioles left for New York to eventually become the Yankees. The NBA’s Baltimore Bullets fired their way down-range to D.C in the 1970’s, and the Baltimore Colts literally skulked out of town in the middle of the night in 1984.

• San Francisco

San Francisco gets a bad rap for being like a bowl of Granola…full of fruits, nuts, and flakes. While that may be true, there’s something to be said about a city that has remained one of the greatest cities in America despite the fact it has been run by a bunch of liberal panty-wastes for close to four decades.

Advantage: San Francisco

Despite the fact this looks to be an advantage across the board for the 49ers, this game likely will promise to be close with the team who makes the least mistakes prevailing. As far as your picking which team to back, you simply have to look at the fan base with which you are going to align yourself. Your choices are:

A) Homeless Banjo Santa…OR…

B) Guys who want to create some sort of urban West Virginia with Barney the Pimp.

Choose carefully, America. The enjoyment of your Super Bowl Sunday is riding on it.

About J-Dub

What your view of sports would be if you had too many concussions

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