FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — When they were little, the Harbaugh brothers fought so heatedly that John, the older one, once recalled his mother wailing: "You're brothers! You're not supposed to act like this!"
John and Jim, the younger one, have more in common now than differences. They are the first brothers to be N.F.L. head coaches; last season they said they each sent game film to their adored father, Jack, a former college coach who inspired their careers; and this season each made risky decisions to enliven their offenses.
On Sunday, the brothers, separated in age by 15 months, grew that much closer, leading their teams, John's Baltimore Ravens and Jim's San Francisco 49ers, to conference championship victories on the road. That set up a family feud twist on the Super Bowl, to be played in New Orleans in two weeks — the HarBowl.
"I don't know if we had a dream this big," John Harbaugh said. "We had a few dreams; we had a few fights. We had a few arguments. We will try to stay out of that business. We'll let the two teams duke it out as much as possible."
The Ravens' 28-13 victory over heavily favored New England was their first win in three A.F.C. championship game appearances in the last five years, and it returned them to the Super Bowl for the first time since the 2000 season, when they trounced the Giants for the franchise's only title. Baltimore linebacker Ray Lewis was at the height of his career then, the defensive player of the year and the unquestioned leader of a defense-dominated team that dragged the offense to the championship.
Several weeks ago, Lewis announced that this season would be his last. After he tore his triceps early in the season, the Ravens kept him off the injured reserve list in hopes he could return for the playoffs. A deep playoff run seemed unlikely, though. The team lost four of the last five games in the regular season, and John Harbaugh even made the drastic decision to change offensive coordinators in December, a move that mirrored Jim's decision to make the inexperienced Colin Kaepernick his starting quarterback after Alex Smith was injured.
The Ravens' offense has played nearly perfectly in three playoff victories — quarterback Joe Flacco has thrown eight touchdown passes and no interceptions — so Lewis's career will end on a fitting stage for one of history's greatest defensive players, one who has watched the transformation of the Ravens from a team that struggled to score touchdowns during its first championship run to one that outdueled the N.F.L.'s best offense Sunday.
Last week, Lewis, in a passing-the-torch moment, said that Flacco had grown up after he had beaten Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos in a double-overtime divisional-round upset. This time, Flacco outshone Tom Brady, who was hoping to become the first quarterback to reach six Super Bowls. Brady and the Patriots have won three of them, but none since the 2004 season.
They lost their last two to the Giants, and now, with the rise of the Ravens, the Patriots' dominance over the A.F.C. has succumbed to a new challenger. It was the first time in 68 games that Brady started that the Patriots lost at home after leading at halftime.
Flacco led three sustained scoring drives — including one of 90 yards and another of 87 yards — with a mixture of no-huddle passing and timely runs by Ray Rice, undoubtedly aided by the early departure of Patriots cornerback Aqib Talib, who injured a thigh and did not return. But in a nod to the glorious defensive past, it was a tip of a fourth-quarter Brady pass by Ravens defensive end Pernell McPhee — launching the ball into the air before it descended into the hands of linebacker Dannell Ellerbe — that effectively ended the Patriots' season.
Baltimore led by 15 points at that point, but New England had been driving into Ravens territory. Brady looked stunned as he walked off the field, and that was to be expected. For most of his career, those were the kinds of mistakes that the Patriots usually forced on their opponents.
Instead, their offense sputtered throughout the game, with dropped passes, bad throws and stalled drives. New England was shut out in the second half by, and lost three turnovers to, a Ravens defense that for much of the season had looked to be in decline. It was the first time since Week 2 of the 2009 season that the Patriots were held to fewer than two touchdowns.
"Shut them out in the second half!" Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs screamed as he came off the field. "Tell them to have fun at the Pro Bowl."
Then Suggs called the Patriots arrogant and cursed them.
On paper, New England owned the first half, rolling up 47 plays to Baltimore's 27. But thanks to a bit of botched clock management at the end of the first half — Brady scrambled with seconds ticking away and then waited too long to take a timeout — the Patriots had to settle for a field goal that gave them a 6-point lead at halftime.
In the third quarter, the Ravens went on a drive that lasted almost four minutes, stretched 87 yards and included no third downs. Baltimore specialized in a deep-strike offense this season, but this was the kind of clock-chewing drive it needed — to give the tired defense a rest and to keep Brady off the field. By the time Brady got the ball back, the Patriots were trailing — a short Flacco pass to Dennis Pitta on the right side of the end zone did the job — and they did not score again, the Ravens' defense taking over, same as it ever was.
"He's one of the elite quarterbacks," Patriots safety Steve Gregory said of Flacco. "I know he gets a lot of flak for maybe possibly not being that type of guy, but, you know, he is."
New England's final gasp, long after the stands had emptied, ended with a Brady pass's being intercepted in the end zone with about a minute to play. Brady trudged off the field, and with Patriots fans having fled to their cars, the seats closest to the field were left to the thousands of purple-clad Ravens fans who had made the trip. Ravens players sprinted onto the field, jubilantly. Flacco walked along the side of the Gillette Stadium field, greeting fans. Brady was long gone into the locker room.
The Patriots' dynasty of the last decade seemed, at that moment, to be in decline. Perhaps it will rise again next season. But the Harbaugh brothers, their fights long behind them, might be about to begin one of their own.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Ravens 28, Patriots 13: Ravens Beat Patriots, Setting Up Clash of Harbaughs
Dengan url
https://dunialuasekali.blogspot.com/2013/01/ravens-28-patriots-13-ravens-beat.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Ravens 28, Patriots 13: Ravens Beat Patriots, Setting Up Clash of Harbaughs
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Ravens 28, Patriots 13: Ravens Beat Patriots, Setting Up Clash of Harbaughs
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar