Harbaugh brothers ready for next step

This time, it will be different.

That's the mantra the Ravens and 49ers must carry into Sunday's conference championships.

One step from the Super Bowl once more, the Ravens and 49ers think they've found that extra element for success. For San Francisco, it might be the versatility and big-play potential Colin Kaepernick brings to the offense. For Baltimore, it could be the ramped-up emotions from Ray Lewis' pending retirement.

The oddsmakers think the Niners have what they need to beat the Falcons, as San Francisco is favored by 3½ points at Atlanta. That says a lot.

But the bookies don't think the Ravens will do any better than in last year's AFC championship, when they fell at Foxborough, Mass., 23-20. Baltimore is a 9½-point underdog to the Patriots.

"There are challenges that get you to the point that you are at as a football team and make you who you are, even as a person," said Ravens coach John Harbaugh, whose team needed a last-minute, 70-yard touchdown pass to force overtime at Denver on Saturday before beating the top-seeded Broncos.

His younger brother, Jim, head man of the 49ers - siblings have never met as head coaches in the Super Bowl - has guided San Francisco to the NFL's final four in both of his seasons. This is John Harbaugh's third conference title game in five years in charge.

The 49ers' Harbaugh sees the togetherness and developing maturity of his team as a reason it could reach the franchise's first Super Bowl since winning its fifth in 1995.

"We want to be about that," he said. "But I don't think it's attributed to anything, I think it's just who we are as a team, who our players are. It's a talent, and it's character. I've always thought that about our team."

Who the Niners are is quite different this time around. Last season, they used a shutdown defense, strong special teams and a conservative, avoid-mistakes offense to get this far. But quarterback Alex Smith and that offense bogged down too often against the New York Giants.

The big changes? The emergence of receiver Michael Crabtree, the solidification of the offensive line and, of course, Kaepernick. As he showed in setting an NFL record for quarterbacks with 181 yards rushing and throwing for 243 in the divisional round against Green Bay - his playoff debut, no less - Kaepernick is a game-breaker.

"I think quarterbacks that have a talent for running the ball can be very effective," Jim Harbaugh said.

"That's been long known in football, the National Football League as well. A quarterback that can get out of the pocket, run, pick up first downs, that's a threat that the defense has to account for."

It's also what the 49ers didn't have in their repertoire against New York last year. Now, they have inserted a whole section of plays in the game plan built around Kaepernick's speed and intermediate hurdler strides.

Across the country in the Chesapeake Bay area, the other Harbaugh's stomping grounds, that conviction is just as strong.

Critics say the Ravens are too old, inconsistent and banged up on defense. That they don't pass protect well. That the quarterback, Joe Flacco, has won a postseason game in each of his five pro seasons, yet has no Super Bowl appearances.

Plus, the Ravens had every chance to knock off the Patriots last year and failed.

But those detractors tend to ignore that Torrey Smith and Anquan Boldin have become extremely dangerous in the passing game. That the line has been effective in the playoffs, and Flacco was barely bothered by Denver's defense.

And that Lewis, Terrell Suggs, Haloti Ngata and Ed Reed have Baltimore's defense on the upswing. Remember, 14 of Denver's points came on special teams, and the Ravens forced three turnovers by Peyton Manning.