If you go by Vegas then the San Francisco 49ers will win the Super Bowl, but that is why the games are played on the field and not on paper. This season the 49ers were 11-7 against the spread, meanwhile the Baltimore Ravens are 9-9-1. Once the conference championships were over, Vegas announced the 49ers were a 4.5 point favorite but since the betting starting they quickly moved to a 3.5 point favorite.
If you were like me when the season was winding down I looked at how the Ravens were playing to dictate who I was predicting to win each playoff game. In each scenario I picked against the Ravens. Joe Flacco would face an upstart rookie in Andrew Luck, and the two best quarterbacks of this generation in Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. Conventional wisdom would think he would lose one of those games. The biggest reason why they prevailed was the big arm of Flacco.
Colin Kaepernick is making only his third career playoff start this Sunday. Much like a lot of the 49ers, this is something new for them. The Ravens, however, are a perennial playoff team. Since John Harbaugh took over this team he has amassed a record of 54-26 and a 8-4 in the playoffs. One thing is for sure this team knows how to win. They have the experience in dealing with the game planning and playing the game amidst all the distractions. Two players that will be leading this team on the field have been here before, Anquan Boldin and the man who is lacing up for his last game Ray Lewis.
Two weeks ago in the NFC Championship Game the 49ers had trouble with the Falcons duo of receivers. I would expect that Boldin, Torrey Smith and Jacoby Jones would cause matchup issues for this defense. If they are able to take those options away you still have to deal with Ed Dickson, Dennis Pitta, Ray Rice and company. This is the most complete team that San Francisco will have faced this postseason.
As far as the spread goes the Ravens will cover the 3.5 points, I expect this to be a close game. I will make my prediction, score and Super Bowl MVP this Saturday on eDraft Radio.