Lights Out: Ravens Win

Super Bowl power outage advantage, stretching, rest, etc.

The Super Bowl has ended. The Harbaughs have not talked yet. The complaining has hopefully stopped. Ray Lewis has retired. Joe Montana and Steve Young are the only 49er quarterbacks that have never thrown an interception in a Super Bowl.

I like the term, "Don't hate. Congratulate!" But, what on earth were the Ravens doing during the power outage?

If you saw the game and were not boycotting the game because your team lost in the conference championship or sulking because you hate a certain player, then you know that there was a momentum shift during the game. Now, I learned as an undergrad that momentum is cognitive, which basically means a game shift can occur at any point for either team. If you saw the game, you know that the 49ers were getting their tail kicked 28-6, which potentially could have led to 49-6 (no pun intended on the score). However, we all saw that the power outage made the game closer. With the final score being 34-31, the 49ers had a chance to take the lead with a touchdown.

So, what happened?

I do not know. But, based on the things the camera showed during the "break" focused on the Ravens relaxing and on the 49ers planning. Let's take this from a human performance and movement perspective. The Ravens were doing a lot of static stretching, which relaxes your muscles. They looked complacent that their lead was large. The 49ers stretch too, but they looked more bewildered and regrouped. People, you can still regroup with a large lead.  I think Ed Reed of the Ravens and with whomever he was stretching were so close that they could have played "patty-cake."

Everything turned out well in the end for the Ravens. But for them...phew! If I were a Ravens fan, I would have been sweating as the 49ers started to come back. Professionals are professionals - they can turn on the switch whenever they feel like it. It may not work as well at the college, high school, or adult recreational level.

Purpose and Development,
Derek

Derek Arledge, CSCS                         TEEM Performance Training                   www.teempt.com