NEW YORK: The San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens won their National Football League championships in stunning fashion on Sunday to set up an extraordinary sibling rivalry in next month’s 47th Super Bowl.
The 49ers, coached by Jim Harbaugh, overturned a 17 point deficit to beat the Atlanta Falcons 28-24 in the NFC decider before the Ravens, under the guidance of Jim’s older brother John, stunned the highly-fancied New England Patriots 28-13 in the AFC title game.
Sibling rivalries are not uncommon in sport, most notably with the Williams sisters in tennis, but it will be the first time that head coaches from the same family square off for the greatest prize in American professional sports.
“I don’t know if we had a dream this big,” John Harbaugh told reporters.
With a bit more luck, the pair might have met in the Super Bowl last year but both came up short with the 49ers losing the NFC championship in overtime to the New York Giants and the Ravens losing by three points to the Patriots in the AFC.
This time, both teams ended up on the winning end of the scoreboard to book their places at the Superdome in New Orleans on Feb. 3.
The 49ers, one of American Football’s most successful franchises, will be making their first appearance in the Super Bowl for 18 years.
They have never lost an NFL title game and if they maintain their perfect record they will tie the Pittsburgh Steelers’ record of six titles.
Their chances of just getting to the Super Bowl looked doomed after they fell 17-0 down in the early second quarter, a deficit no team had ever overcome in the NFC championship game.
With second year quarterback Colin Kaepernick calling the shots, they rallied back with two touchdowns, briefly cutting the margin to three points before Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan connected with retiring tight end Tony Gonzalez to give the Falcons a 10-point advantage at halftime.
But the Falcons failed to score a single point in the second half while San Francisco running back Frank Gore scored two unanswered touchdowns to secure his team’s victory.
“We are tough, it is hard to break us. We aren’t going to give up,” Gore said. “We will keep fighting into the fourth quarter and until the game (clock) hits double zero.”
It was a bitter loss for the Falcons, who finished the regular season with the best record in the NFL to secure the home-field advantage for the playoffs, but they had no excuses.
“We didn’t make the plays when we had the opportunities,” Falcoms head coach Mike Smith said. “There were ebbs and flows and changes in momentum and they made more plays then we did.” Baltimore, riding high on a wave of emotion and inspiration from their veteran linebacker Ray Lewis, outscored the Pats 21-0 in a lopsided second half to reach the Super Bowl for just the second time.
Given little hope of beating a New England team led by Tom Brady, they avenged their loss to the Pats in the corresponding game last year after an irresistible display by underrated quarterback Joe Flacco.
“I said to our players last year, don’t put your heads down, we’ll be back,” said Lewis, a 13-time Pro Bowler who is retiring after the Super Bowl.
“To see us come back like this, after all the injuries and things we have been through... our team is just awesome and this our time.”
For New England, the most dominant team in the NFL over the past decade and a half, it was another case of so close but yet so far.
Despite winning three titles between the 2001 and 2004 seasons, the Pats lost their last two Super Bowl appearances, including last season, in agonizing fashion.
You have the opportunity to win the game and we came up short,” Brady lamented. “There’s frustration in that we wish we could have done better.”
Brilliant brothers set up unique Super Bowl showdown
Brilliant brothers set up unique Super Bowl showdown
Norway’s Carlsen wins first FIDE Freestyle World Chess Championship
Norway’s Magnus Carlsen added another crown to his collection on Sunday by becoming the first official FIDE Freestyle Chess world champion after a comeback win over Fabiano Caruana in Germany.
The chess master secured the title with a cautious draw in the fourth and final game, clinching a 2.5–1.5 match victory against his 33-year-old American opponent in Weissenhaus.
Sunday’s turning point came in the thrilling third game, in which Carlsen, 35, pulled off a stunning win from a seemingly lost position, swinging the entire contest in his favor.
The world number one only needed a draw in the decisive fourth game, and that’s exactly what he got in an equal endgame, with Caruana missing late opportunities to mount a comeback.
Carlsen has now won 21 world titles in various formats.
The World Championship marked a breakthrough collaboration between FIDE and private organizer Freestyle Chess, staging the first officially recognized title in this format.
Carlsen had previously failed to capture the FIDE Fischer Random World Championship, making this victory particularly sweet for the chess great.
In the bronze medal match, Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov beat Germany’s Vincent Keymer, securing his spot by drawing from a winning position in the final game.
Both finalists and Abdusattorov have qualified for next year’s championship.
The tournament’s lower placings saw Hans Niemann of the United States take fifth with a 2-0 victory over India’s Arjun Erigaisi, while Armenia’s Levon Aronian won his Armageddon game against Uzbekistan’s Javokhir Sindarov for seventh place.
In the women’s exhibition match, Kazakhstan’s Bibisara Assaubayeva prevailed over Switzerland’s Alexandra Kosteniuk after their final encounter ended in a draw.
