The Niners, down 7–3 to start the second quarter, started the frame with the ball at their own 20. Colin Kaepernick, who at times looked shaky in the first 15 minutes, hit tight end Vernon Davis for a 29-yard play right off the bat.
After going right back to Davis for 11 more the next play, San Francisco ran the ball two straight plays to the 24, before rooking running back LeMichael James was stripped by Ravens linebacker Courtney Upshaw right there. Baltimore’s Arthur Jones recovered.
After the Ravens moved the ball to midfield, Joe Flacco hit tight end Ed Dickson for a 23-yarder. After another pass to Dickson, this one for 14 yards with a face mask tacked on, Flacco found tight end Dennis Pitta in the end zone to put the Ravens up 14–3.
Then on the Niners’ very next play, Kaepernick was picked off by safety Ed Reed at San Francisco’s 38-yard line, giving Reed a record-tying postseason nine interceptions.
The Ravens’ ensuing drive stalled though at the 14, and after lining up for a field goal on fourth-and-9, coach John Harbaugh called for a fake that was snuffed out just a yard before the first down marker to turn the ball back over to Kaepernick’s Niners on downs.
Kaepernick, who looked confident earlier in the quarter, seemed rattled though, and San Francisco went three-and-out to give the ball back to Baltimore at the Ravens’ 44. After a pair of incompletions, Flacco aired it out for receiver Jacoby Jones, who caught the ball at the six, and eluded two defenders to run it in for a 21–3 lead with just over two minutes left in the half.
The touchdown was the third of the game and the record-tying 11th of the postseason for Flacco, who entered the locker room 13/20 passing for 192 yards.
The Niners, now desperate for momentum, pieced together an eight-play drive, to get to the Ravens’ nine-yard line with three seconds remaining, where kicker David Akers nailed a 27-yard field goal to end the first half with Baltimore up 21–6.
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