Game Recap - Ravens vs. 49ers

The HarBowl was hard-fought, just like the head coaches themselves.

And John Harbaugh came out with his hand raised and a wet shirt after an ice cold water bath.

John gets the bragging rights over little brother Jim this Thanksgiving and beyond.

Locked in a defensive battle for much of the game, the Ravens earned a 16-6 victory due to a high-pressure defense and clutch drive at the end of the third quarter.

The Ravens halted San Francisco's eight-game winning streak and stay atop the AFC North ahead of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

After the game, Harbaugh deflected the attention away from his personal victory.

"The players played really well," Harbaugh said. "They played disciplined, physical football."

But everybody knew the storyline of this Thanksgiving classic.

"I think the No. 1 gameplan was to win the Harbaugh Bowl," outside linebacker Terrell Suggs said. "Coach tried to downplay it … but it was really important to him. We, as a team, we went out there and really wanted to win for him."

After the game the brothers met at midfield and shared an embrace. Jim leaned in and spoke in John's ear before the two went their separate ways.

"There's a saying that says, 'As iron sharpens iron, so does one man sharpen another,'" Jim said in his opening statement. "And let's say my brother John is the sharpest iron I've ever encountered."

The Ravens (8-3) never trailed the 49ers (9-2), but the lead was never comfortable.

Baltimore left points on the 1-yard line in the second quarter, and had a strong drive at the start of the game fizzle out. They settled for two field goals.

They finally got the strike they were looking for on the first play of the fourth quarter, as quarterback Joe Flacco found tight end Dennis Pitta over the middle for an 8-yard touchdown that made the difference.

Pitta's first career touchdown capped off a 16-play, 76-yard drive in which Flacco went 4-for-4 for 34 yards and a touchdown on third down. He hit seven different receivers on the drive.

Flacco finished just 15-of-23 for 161 yards and a touchdown, but the Ravens executed their mistake-free, possession offense to a tee.

"When you have that kind of game plan … you have to come through," Flacco said. "We had a lot of guys come through for us and just made some big plays in those situations."

The Ravens' defense deserves much of the credit for the win.

It pummeled San Francisco's offensive line and quarterback Alex Smith all night. The Ravens tied a franchise single-game record with nine sacks. It happened twice before, the last coming in 2006.

Baltimore would have set a new record, but by the end, Smith opted to take a 15-yard intentional grounding penalty than another hit.

Suggs had three sacks, defensive end Cory Redding notched 2.5 and defensive tackle Haloti Ngata had two.

Baltimore held 49ers All Pro running back Frank Gore to 39 yards on 14 carries and just 170 total offensive yards.

It was all done once again without future Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Lewis, who missed his second straight game with a toe injury.

"We understood up front that we needed to have a huge game because we were missing Ray Lewis and kind of light in the back," Ngata said.

The game was methodical throughout as the two teams' defenses traded punches.

Baltimore was sharp on the game's opening drive, starting with two passes to Anquan Boldin for 38 yards and a run of 10 yards by Ray Rice. They took a 3-0 lead on a 39-yard field goal from Billy Cundiff.

San Francisco knotted the game near the end of the first quarter on a 45-yard field goal by David Akers. The 49ers had a 75-yard touchdown from Smith to Ted Ginn Jr. wiped out on a chop block penalty on Gore on the next drive.

The Ravens' offense cooled, largely because the run game wasn't finding much success against the NFL's leading run-stopping unit. Baltimore punted on three straight drives.

But they stuck with the run regardless, toting it 35 times on the ground to 23 passes.

The Ravens took one deep shot all game, which resulted in a 50-yard pass interference penalty on cornerback Tarell Brown against wide receiver Torrey Smith that set them up at San Francisco's 15-yard line.

But the Ravens stalled once they had second-and-goal from the 1-yard line due to a negative run by Rice and failed quarterback draw. They had to settle for a 23-yard field goal and a 6-3 lead.

The 49ers had a chance at points at the end of the second quarter, but cornerback Lardarius Webb notched a pick on a bomb to the end zone, his second in as many games and fourth of the season. Baltimore went into the locker room with a three-point lead.

The 49ers converted on a third-and-17 pass to Michael Crabtree on their first drive of the second half and got a 52-yard field goal by Akers to tie the score at 6-6.

Flacco marched the Ravens down the field in response for the game-sealing drive. It was surgical in nature as Baltimore preyed on San Francisco's safeties and found holes underneath.

Wide receiver Lee Evans also made a big conversion – and his first catch since Week 2 – when he caught a pass about two yards short of the first down marker and lowered his shoulder to pick it up.

The Ravens offense put the game away late in the fourth quarter thanks to a gain of 17 yards on a third-down pass to Rice and a 12-yard run by Ricky Williams. They drove into field-goal range to take a 10-point lead on a 39-yard field goal by Cundiff.

Who knows whether this is a good thing, but the Ravens only have one game against a team with a winning record the rest of the regular season and it's Cincinnati, who they already beat once this year.

As players said after the game, this win sets them up well for the ultimate goal of winning the division and securing a home playoff game – something the franchise has been searching for since 2006.

"That's key," Suggs said. "If you've got homefield advantage, you've got a good chance of making it to the big dance."