Baltimore Ravens beat San Francisco 49ers 34-31 in Super Bowl

The AFC champion Ravens, a franchise that moved from Cleveland to Baltimore 17 years ago, improved to 2-0 in the big game. They also won the championship in 2001, when linebacker Ray Lewis was voted the game's MVP. Lewis was not a major factor this time, but he was a center of attention, playing in the final game of his 17-year career.

As well as Lewis, it was a triumph for Baltimore coach John Harbaugh, who got the better of younger brother Jim, who led San Francisco in the first instance of brothers coaching against each other in the Super Bowl.

Still, the older brother didn't do it without a large dose of anxiety as San Francisco rallied.

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

First, Kaepernick threw a 31-yard touchdown pass to Michael Crabtree who turned and got past some lax defense to cut the deficit to 15 points midway through the third quarter.

Then, with 5 minutes left in the third quarter, Frank Gore swept around right end for a 6-yard TD run, making it 28-20.

San Francisco tacked on David Akers' 34-yard field goal to get within 28-23 after he missed from a longer distance but the Ravens fouled by running into the kicker. It was his third successful kick of the game after hitting from 36 and 27 yards in the first half.

About 2 minutes into the fourth quarter, rookie kicker Justin Tucker made a 19-yard field goal to stretch the Ravens' lead to 31-23. Not long later, Kaepernick's 15-yard run around the left side - the longest TD run by a quarterback in Super Bowl history - made it 31-29. His 2-point conversion pass intended for Randy Moss was incomplete.

... contd.

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