Cloud Nine

The Baltimore Ravens are heading to Super Bowl 47.

That concept has not yet fully settled into reality for me yet.  I`m not sure there`s a word to describe the kind of elation or excitement that I`m feeling right now.  This is unknown territory for me, and it`s a feeling that I will be riding for the next two weeks.  And don`t even ask me what life might be like if (when) the Ravens win on February 3, because I doubt I could fathom what kind of answer I could give.  Right now, the best thing I could guess is that I would become the most obnoxious fan by reminding everyone around me as often as I could that the Ravens are Super Bowl Champions.

For instance, let`s suppose it`s a warm evening in early September: ``Hey Ray, what are you up to tonight?``

``Oh, not much, just out celebrating the fact that THE BALTIMORE RAVENS ARE REIGNING SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS AND KICKING OFF THE 2013 NFL SEASON!``

See what I mean?

All kidding aside, there was something special about watching Ray Lewis in pregame ceremonies last night.  While the national anthem was being sung, he was being brought to tears between the music and clearly saying the words ``Thank you, Father,`` over and over.  I have to confess getting choked up just from watching that, and the game hadn`t even officially started yet.  When it had finally ended and the Ravens had won, seeing Ray Lewis fall to his knees and thank God was even more emotional.  Oh it was great to see the entire team high five and hug one another on the sidelines, knowing they were going to win.  But Ray`s reaction was something special, knowing this would be his last go-round.

Back when I had made my predictions for the 2012 NFL season, I had said that I expected Ray Lewis and Ed Reed to hang it up after this season.  So far I`m half right on that prediction, and I strongly suspect that if the Ravens do win it all, Reed will call it quits as well.  I wouldn`t be surprised if Ravens center Matt Birk also rode off into the sunset following winning a championship either.  If all that happened, the team would suddenly be short three long-term veteran leaders, and make defending their title next year that much more difficult.  But that doesn`t matter to me at all as a fan.  When the team had lost three straight games in December and changed offensive coordinators midway through that streak, I never thought for a second that they`d make such a playoff run in January.  I expected them to win one playoff game, and then be eliminated in the divisional round.

Then came that ridiculous game in Denver.

The moment that Jacoby Jones caught that late touchdown pass in the 4th quarter to tie the game up, I knew the Ravens would find a way to win the game.  Even had they somehow lost, I still would`ve been proud of them for putting up such a fight on the road.  I had originally expected a very non-competitive game considering the opponent, but they kept moving point for point.  When Justin Tucker kicked the game-winning in the second (!!!) overtime, I knew we`d also beat the Patriots in the title game and move on the Super Bowl.  It was just a question of how close the title game would be.

Once again, my expectations were completely wrong.

I figured that the game would be extremely tight, and probably come down to the final possession just like last year`s title game was.  Joe Flacco could find himself having to drive the offense down the field for either a game-winning touchdown or field goal once again, or the defense would have to stop Tom Brady from carving them up to win the game.  Such an ending would be fitting with last year`s title game and the matchup in week 3 of the regular season.

Hey, at least the first half of the game was competitive.  The second half, not so much.

The Ravens so totally dominated the Patriots it was almost kinda silly to watch.  The Ravens fan in me loved watching the team manhandle the Patriots on both sides of the ball, but the football fan in me expected the Patriots to bounce back in the game at any given moment.  I didn`t even want to go to bed after the game was over because I wanted to watch all the postgame celebration and interviews.  I was on such a high that I wasn`t even tired.

Amid this entire postseason I think I`ve finally figured out who Joe Flacco is.  I was a big Flacco supporter from the moment the Ravens had drafted him five years ago, but when the Ravens started to sink in December, I was jumping off the bandwagon.  He didn`t look like he was progressing as a quarterback or a leader on the field, and he continued to make the same kinds of mistakes he was known for.  I really did doubt the Ravens would be able to win a championship with him at quarterback, which put the team at a particularly difficult time to decide on what to do with the position.  There weren`t any notable free agent quarterbacks coming up in the off season who would be worth taking over Flacco, and there weren`t any slam dunk options coming out of college either.  What option did that leave the team?

Now that Flacco has put the team into Super Bowl 47, I`ve realized he is the anti-Peyton Manning.  Manning has always been an excellent regular season quarterback and leader, but he has a history of collapsing in the playoffs (with the lone exception of the 2006 postseason).  Flacco is up and down in the regular season, but he takes his game to a whole other level in the postseason.  He hasn`t had a truly bad game in the playoffs since the 2010 postseason, and he now has the most career postseason road wins in the history of the NFL under his belt.  Oh yeah, and he`s been to the playoffs and won at least one playoff game every year he`s been in the league so far.  And he`s only 28.

In a league where a solid running game and defense gets most teams 10 wins at least during the regular season, I can take a quarterback who is fairly up and down during that time if he can get the team to the postseason and up his game in the process.  The Ravens have an elite running back in Ray Rice, and their defense will still be solid next year, even without Ray Lewis at minimum.  I know I`m getting WAY ahead of myself talking about stuff like this, but this is what happens when a fan is on cloud nine.

I hope wherever Bill Warble is right now, he`s just as excited and wearing his Ray Lewis jersey every day.