Preparing their respective teams for Super Bowl XLVII might be easier for John and Jim Harbaugh than having to downplay the distraction of becoming the first brothers to coach against one another on the NFL's biggest stage.

With each focused on trying to take home the Lombardi Trophy, Jim's San Francisco 49ers look for a record-tying sixth Super Bowl title Sunday in New Orleans when they face John's Baltimore Ravens , who hope to send one of the game's greatest players off to retirement in style.

Moments after Baltimore's 28-13 win at New England in the AFC championship game Jan. 20, the colorful descriptions for this season's Super Bowl began to surface: The Brother Bowl. The Har-Bowl. The Super-Baugh. For game broadcast network CBS, advertisers and certainly those in the NFL front office, the matchup has the potential to be a ratings smash.

For the brothers Harbaugh, at least publicly, it's just another game.

"Well, I think it's a blessing and a curse," said Jim Harbaugh, 15 months younger than 50-year-old John. "A blessing because that is my brother's team. And, also, personally I played for the Ravens. Great respect for their organization.

"The curse part would be the talk of two brothers playing in the Super Bowl and what that takes away from the players that are in the game. Every moment that you're talking about myself or John, that's less time that the players are going to be talked about."

John Harbaugh understands the magnitude of this meeting in terms of football significance, but that's about it.

"I like reading a lot of history ... I guess it's pretty neat," he said. "But is it really going to be written about? It's not exactly like Churchill and Roosevelt or anything. It's pretty cool, but that's as far as it goes."

Perhaps the matchup will be hardest on the Harbaughs' parents, Jack and Jackie. The couple has lived through this experience once on a lesser scale when Baltimore improved to 3-1 in the all-time series with a third straight win over the 49ers, 16-6 on Thanksgiving Day in 2011.

"I am going to be neutral in the game," Jackie Harbaugh said. "I know one is going to win and one is going to lose, but I would really like to end in a tie. Can the NFL do that?"

Regardless of who wins, the family can celebrate the accomplishments that brought the brothers to this point.

Jim, who never made a Super Bowl appearance during his 15-year playing career, has guided the 49ers (13-4-1) to New Orleans after losing 20-17 in overtime to New York in the conference championship last season. Aiming to equal Pittsburgh's record six Super Bowl titles, San Francisco has not played on this stage since a 49-26 win over San Diego capped the 1994 season.

Jim's brother has the Ravens (13-6) here for the first time since they ended the 2000 season with a 34-7 rout of the Giants in Super Bowl XXXV, their first championship.

Future Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Lewis was MVP of that game, and he can try to win the award again in his last contest before retiring after a stellar 17-year career with Baltimore.

As with his last appearance in the Super Bowl, however, controversy has surrounded Lewis, albeit on a significantly lower level.

When Lewis hoisted the Lombardi Trophy in January 2001, it was almost a year since his involvement in the stabbing deaths of two people outside an Atlanta nightclub hours after St. Louis' Super Bowl win over Tennessee at the Georgia Dome. Lewis, who had been charged with two counts of murder before striking a deal to testify against two of his friends, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction of justice and received a one-year probation and a $250,000 fine by the NFL.

The trial made headlines for a good portion of 2000 before Lewis led the Ravens on their championship run that fall. The murders were never solved.

Lewis has since rehabilitated his image, but this week has been forced to answer questions regarding a recent Sports Illustrated report linking him to a company that makes deer-antler spray, which contains a banned performance enhancer. The report stated Lewis sought help from the company that makes the product to speed his recovery from a torn right triceps injury which forced him to miss 10 games this season.

Lewis has denied the allegations.

"I've never took what (the report) said, or did whatever I was suppose to do," said Lewis, who brought down Jim Harbaugh for his first career sack. "I don't need it, my teammates don't need it, the 49ers don't need it. Just to entertain it, I won't. I can't."

His coach does not expect this to be a distraction.

"He's been through this so much, he's a singularly focused individual," John Harbaugh said. "As far as football, it's not even a factor for us. It's too bad it's something that gets so much play."

Lewis and a defense that held the Patriots to one touchdown in the AFC title game will do their best to stop versatile San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick .

A second-round pick in 2011, Kaepernick has gained sudden stardom for going 7-2 after taking over as the starter after Alex Smith suffered a concussion in Week 10. In those nine games, Kaepernick has completed 62.7 percent of his passes and thrown 13 touchdowns with four interceptions while averaging 7.3 rushing yards and a 101.2 passer rating.

In San Francisco's 45-31 divisional-round win over Green Bay on Jan. 12, he threw for 263 yards with two TDs and set an NFL playoff rushing record for a quarterback with 181 and two scores.

The 49ers have averaged 28.6 points in the last nine games with Kaepernick starting - 4.9 more than the previous nine started by Smith. Mobile and athletic, Kaepernick has brought a new dimension to the 49ers offense as his ability to scramble also buys him time to employ his powerful and accurate right arm.

"We're going to have to keep him inside and in front of our defense," John Harbaugh told the Ravens' official website. "We're not going to be able to run past him. He's fully capable of putting 200 yards on you in a second."

Kaepernick's effect on the offense was evident during his team's 28-24 conference championship victory at Atlanta, when he threw for 233 yards and a TD as the 49ers rallied from a 17-point first-half deficit.

"Anybody that is out there on the football field, you want to see them produce and get results," left tackle Joe Staley said. "I think it was one of those things where we saw him in practice and we just wanted to see how he was going to handle the situation in the games. He has done that."

Kaepernick is complemented by the 49ers' powerful ground attack, which was fourth in the NFL with 155.7 yards per game. Frank Gore rushed for 1,214 yards and eight TDs on the season, while speedy LaMichael James provides a change of pace to Gore's bruising style.

Like his brother's move to stick with Kaepernick when Smith was again healthy, John Harbaugh's decision to fire offensive coordinator Cam Cameron and promote quarterbacks coach Jim Caldwell in December also has paid off.

Baltimore is 4-2 with Caldwell running the offense, and Joe Flacco has thrown 10 TDs and no INTs while posting a 111.5 passer rating to lead his team to victories in four of the last five.

The first quarterback to win a playoff game in each of his first five seasons, Flacco has won an NFL-record six playoff road contests. He's thrown eight touchdowns while beating Andrew Luck , Peyton Manning and Tom Brady this postseason.

His three second-half TDs helped the Ravens overcame a 13-7 halftime deficit at New England two weeks ago, and he engineered a miraculous tying drive in the final minute against Denver in the divisional round of that overtime victory.

"You naturally become more of the guy when you spend a number of years in the league," said Flacco, who will become an unrestricted free agent after the season. "As a quarterback, it's my job to lead from Day 1.

"I think it's just one of those things you dream of when you are a little kid. So, to be here at this point is pretty special."

Flacco threw for 161 yards and tossed an 8-yard pass to tight end Dennis Pitta for the game's only touchdown against San Francisco last season. Though much less mobile than Kaepernick, he also boasts a strong and accurate arm that will likely present a serious test to the 49ers' secondary.

Though the 477 yards the 49ers gave up against the Falcons were the second most they've allowed this season, Flacco and the Ravens know they're in for a major challenge Sunday. Led by arguably the most feared linebacking corps in the league - a group highlighted by NaVorro Bowman , Patrick Willis , Aldon Smith and Ahmad Brooks - San Francisco's defense ranked second in the NFL in scoring defense at 17.1 points per game and third in yards allowed at 294.4.

That unit remains the heart of a team which believes it's meant to be in this spot.

"I would say this is the most talented team I have been on," safety Donte Whitner told the 49ers' official website. "Not only talented, but guys come and work hard. When you mix talent and hard work, the results are the Super Bowl."

This will be the 10th time New Orleans has hosted the Super Bowl and first since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the area in 2005. It's yet another sign of the resurgence of a city that also has hosted the BCS national title game and the men's Final Four over the last 18 months.

"That is an extraordinary run of events for a city that seven years ago was 15 feet under water and the last on every list in America that mattered," mayor Mitch Landrieu said last week. "Now we find ourselves in a city that's on the world stage."

This Super Bowl will be something of a bittersweet moment for the Ravens with longtime owner Art Modell passing away Sept. 6 at age 87. The players have worn patches that read "Art" on their jerseys throughout the season.

Ravens edge 49ers 34-31 in electric Super Bowl

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- For a Super Bowl with so many story lines, this game came up with quite a twist.

Try a blackout that turned a blowout into a shootout - capped by a brilliant defensive stand.

The Baltimore Ravens survived a frenzied comeback by the San Francisco 49ers following a 34-minute delay in the third quarter for a power outage Sunday night, winning their second championship 34-31. Super Bowl MVP Joe Flacco threw three first-half touchdown passes, Jacoby Jones ran back the second-half kickoff a record 108 yards for a score, and star linebacker Ray Lewis ' last play fittingly was part of a defensive effort that saved the victory.

"To me, that was one of the most amazing goal-line stands I've ever been a part of in my career," said Lewis, who announced a month ago he would retire when the Ravens were done playing.

They are done now, with another Vince Lombardi Trophy headed for the display case.

"What better way to do it," Lewis said, "than on the Super Bowl stage?"

That stage already was loaded with plots:

-The coaching Harbaughs sibling rivalry, won by older brother John, who said the postgame greeting with Jim was "painful."

-Flacco's emergence as a top-level quarterback, and his impending free agency.

- Colin Kaepernick 's rapid rise in the last two months as 49ers QB.

-The big game's return to the Big Easy for the first time in 11 years, and the first time since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city in 2005.

-Lewis' self-proclaimed "last ride."

But when the Superdome lost power, well, that wasn't in anyone's scenario.

Flacco and the Ravens (14-6) were turning the game into a rout, leading 28-6 when, without even a flicker of warning, several banks of lights and the scoreboards went dark. Players from both sides stretched and chatted with each other in as bizarre a scene as any Super Bowl has witnessed.

"The bad part was we started talking about it," said safety Ed Reed , who had the game's only interception. "That was mentioned. It was like they were trying to kill our momentum."

After power was restored, the 49ers began playing lights out.

San Francisco (13-5-1), in search of its sixth Lombardi Trophy in as many tries, got back in the game almost immediately.

Michael Crabtree 's 31-yard touchdown reception, on which he broke two tackles, made it 28-13. A few minutes later, Frank Gore 's 6-yard run followed a 32-yard punt return by Ted Ginn Jr., and the 49ers were within eight.

Ray Rice 's fumble at his 24 led to David Akers ' 34-yard field goal, but Baltimore woke up for a long drive leading to rookie Justin Tucker 's 19-yard field goal.

San Francisco wasn't done challenging, though, and Kaepernick's 15-yard TD run, the longest for a quarterback in a Super Bowl, made it 31-29. A 2-point conversion pass failed when the Ravens blitzed.

Tucker added a 38-yarder with 4:19 remaining, setting up the frantic finish.

Kaepernick couldn't get the 49ers into the end zone on the final three plays. The last was a pass into the right corner of the end zone to Crabtree that involved some incidental bumping. Jim Harbaugh insisted a flag should have been thrown.

"There's no question in my mind that there was a pass interference and then a hold," Jim Harbaugh said.

Ravens punter Sam Koch took a safety for the final score with 4 seconds left. Koch's free kick was returned by Ginn to midfield as time ran out.

"How could it be any other way? It's never pretty. It's never perfect. But it's us," John Harbaugh said of his Ravens. "It was us today."

Barely.

"Yeah, I think that last drive when we got the ball and had time to go down and score a touchdown," Kaepernick said, "we thought it was our game."

But the championship is Baltimore's.

As for the foul-up at America's biggest sporting event, officials revealed that an "abnormality" in the power system triggered an automatic shutdown, forcing backup systems to kick in. But no one was sure what caused the initial problem.

Everything changed after that until Lewis and Co. shut it down. But there were plenty of white-knuckle moments and the Ravens had to make four stops inside their 7 at the end.

"I think it speaks to our resolve, speaks to our determination, speaks to our mental toughness," John Harbaugh said. "That is what wins and loses games."

At 4 hours, 14 minutes, it was the longest Super Bowl ever.

Flacco's arrival as a championship quarterback - he had 11 postseason TD passes, tying a league mark, and no interceptions - coincides with Lewis' retirement. The win capped a sensational four games since Lewis announced he was leaving the game after 17 Hall of Fame-caliber years.

The Ravens will become Flacco's team now, provided he reaches agreement on a new contract.

Flacco's three TD passes in the opening half tied a Super Bowl record. They covered 13 yards to Anquan Boldin , 1 to Dennis Pitta and 56 to Jones.

That start boosted him to the MVP award.

"They have to give it to one guy and I'm not going to complain that I got it," Flacco said.

John Harbaugh had no complaints about getting that other trophy named after that Green Bay coach. But he struggled to balance it with the disappointment his brother was feeling.

"The meeting with Jim in the middle (of the field for the postgame handshake) was probably the most difficult thing I have ever been associated with in my life," the Ravens coach said.

The wild scoring made this the second championship in the NFL's 80-year title game history in which both teams scored at least 30 points. Pittsburgh's 35-31 win over Dallas in 1979 was the other.

The Ravens stumbled into the playoffs with four defeats in its last five regular-season games as Lewis recovered from a torn right triceps and Flacco struggled. Harbaugh even fired his offensive coordinator in December, a stunning move with the postseason so close.

But that - and every other move Harbaugh, Flacco and the Ravens made since - were right on target.

New Orleans native Jones, one of the stars in a double-overtime playoff win at Denver, seemed to put the game away with his record 108-yard sprint with the second-half kickoff.

Soon after, the lights went out - and when they came back on, the Ravens were almost powerless to slow the 49ers.

Until the final moments.

"The final series of Ray Lewis ' career was a goal-line stand," Harbaugh said.

Lewis was sprawled on all fours, face-down on the turf, after the end zone incompletion.

"It's no greater way, as a champ, to go out on your last ride with the men that I went out with, with my teammates," Lewis said. "And you looked around this stadium and Baltimore! Baltimore! We coming home, baby! We did it!"

Jim Harbaugh, the coach who turned around the Niners in the last two years and brought them to their first Super Bowl in 18 years, had seen his team make a similarly stunning comeback in the NFC championship at Atlanta, but couldn't finish it off against Baltimore.

"Our guys battled back to get back in," the 49ers coach said. "I thought we battled right to the brink of winning."

The 49ers couldn't have been sloppier in the first half, damaging their chances with penalties - including one on their first play that negated a 20-yard gain - poor tackling and turnovers. Rookie LaMichael James fumbled at the Baltimore 25 to ruin an impressive drive, and the Ravens converted that with Flacco's 1-yard pass to Pitta for a 14-3 lead.

On San Francisco's next offensive play, Kaepernick threw behind Randy Moss and always dependable Reed picked it off. A huge scuffle followed that brought both Harbaughs onto the field and saw both sides penalized 15 yards for unnecessary roughness.

Reed, also a New Orleans native, tied the NFL record for postseason picks with his ninth.

Baltimore didn't pounce on that mistake for points. Instead, Tucker's fake field goal run on fourth-and-9 came up a yard short when Chris Culliver slammed him out of bounds.

The Ravens simply shrugged, forced a three-and-out, and then unleashed Jones deep. Just as he did to Denver, he flashed past the secondary and caught Flacco's fling. He had to wait for the ball, fell to the ground to grab it, but was untouched by a Niner. Up he sprang, cutting left and using his speed to outrun two defenders to the end zone.

Desperate for some points, the 49ers completed four passes and got a 15-yard roughing penalty against Haloti Ngata , who later left with a knee injury. But again they couldn't cross the goal line, Paul Kruger got his second sack of the half on third down, forcing a second field goal by Akers, from 27 yards.

When Jones began the second half by sprinting up the middle virtually untouched - he is the second player with two TDs of 50 yards or more in a Super Bowl, tying Washington's Ricky Sanders in 1988 - the rout was on.

Then it wasn't.

"Everybody had their hand on this game," 49ers All-Pro linebacker Patrick Willis said. "We point the fingers at nobody. We win together and we lose together, and today we lost it."

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