The Harbaugh Bowl was an NFL regular season football game played between the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 2011, at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. The game represented the first time in NFL history that a game was played between two teams whose head coaches were brothers.

John Harbaugh, the older of the two brothers by 15 months, began his NFL coaching career in 1998 after a long career as a coach of various college football teams. He first assumed his position of head coach of the Ravens, his first NFL head coaching job ever, in 2008, and his team has made the playoffs successfully in each of his first three seasons.

Jim Harbaugh started coaching the 49ers in the 2011 season following a 15-year playing career as a quarterback in the NFL with 6 teams, including a brief stint with the Ravens, and a 17-year coaching career of college and NFL teams, some of which overlapped with his NFL playing career.

Prior to the game, the two head coaches met for a traditional handshake, but given their relationship, it turned out to be anything but traditional.^[1]

The game was seen by many analysts as an appropriate event for Thanksgiving Day, given the family connections.

The parents of the two coaches, Jack and Jackie Harbaugh, watched the game, which took place one day before their 50th wedding anniversary, from an office. They chose such a location because they wanted the media focus to be on the game, and they did not wish to have cameras on them constantly.^[2]

The two coaches themselves stated their wishes prior to the game of having the game focus be on their players and not their families.^[3]

The game was said to be a battle of defenses, given that the two teams entered the game with the 1st and 3rd ranked defenses in the NFL respectively in total points allowed. This showed out in the first three quarters of the game as no touchdowns were scored at all.

The Ravens struck first on the first possession of the game when kicker Billy Cundiff nailed a 39-yard field goal, giving his team a 3-0 lead. But toward the end of the quarter, the 49ers tied the game when David Akers made a field goal. The Ravens took a 6-3 lead in the second quarter on another field goal. Toward the end of the half, the 49ers had the ball with a chance for at least a field goal and possibly a touchdown when quarterback Alex Smith threw a pass that was intercepted by Lardarius Webb in the end zone.

The 49ers tied the game in the third quarter with a 52-yard field goal from Akers, but the Ravens followed with a drive that burned off more than 7 minutes of the clock and included four successful 3rd down conversions, culminating in an 8-yard touchdown pass from Joe Flacco to tight end Dennis Pitta to make the score 13-6 following the extra point.

The Ravens would tack on another field goal in the fourth quarter to increase their lead to 16-6, which would be the final score of the game.

The defense of the Ravens was strong, even in the absence of star linebacker Ray Lewis, sacking Smith 9 times to tie a franchise record^[4] and holding star running back Frank Gore to just 39 yards rushing.

With the win, the Ravens improved their record to 8-3, winning their second game in just 5 days. The 49ers suffered only the second loss of their season, falling to 9-2.

| November 29, 2011 || Baltimore,Maryland ||BAL|| 16-6 |-