The first Harbaugh bowl went about as expected -- a low-scoring, defensive affair. John Harbaugh and his Baltimore Ravens managed one touchdown against Jim Harbaugh and his San Francisco 49ers, which was enough to win the game for the Ravens, 16-6.
Ravens Take Harbaugh Bowl I As They Beat Up 49ers
The 49ers entered the game as the top ranked defense while the Ravens were second. There was one touchdown in this game and it wasn’t until the fourth quarter that the Ravens started to pull away.
The real story of this game is the Ravens pass rush against the 49ers offensive line. Alex Smith was sacked a whopping nine times, which is enough to give you cause for concern moving forward. This is just the 49ers second loss but you can bet the rest of the NFC is looking at this game tape to find the weakness, which apparently comes at the offensive line.
SB Nation’s Niners Nation described the 49ers offensive line as “brutal”.
The offensive line was just brutal tonight. It’s as simple as that. The game-planning could have been better altered, but even still, the offensive line was not pretty. And it really didn’t matter who we were discussing. Alex Smith was running for his life most of the night. You’re not going to get a consistent passing attack going when your QB can’t set up and fire passes away.
Now, the 49ers won eight in a row with that unit so to say they can’t win with them is obviously inaccurate. But as the season goes on the teams get better and the games mean a lot more. It’s going to be interesting to see how the 49ers counteract this moving forward.
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