By Morris Phillips

For a team that has Super Bowl aspirations, the 49ers simply looked like they have a lot of work to do on Thursday night.

The 49ers opened the pre-season with a dud of performance as they got pushed around by the Ravens from start to finish in a 23-3 loss. The Ravens amassed 237 yards rushing with an attack that was afforded 48 carries, and quarterback Joe Flacco spread the ball around in the pass game in his only series, which resulted in a touchdown.

Meanwhile, the 49ers did little offensively save Colin Kaepernick’s lengthy opening drive which resulted in a field goal. In a game where individual performances trump the final score in most cases, backup quarterback Blaine Gabbert’s 49er debut left plenty of room for growth as the former Jaguar went 3 of 11 for 20 yards, one interception and one sack.

Four San Francisco quarterbacks saw action as Kaepernick played the opening series, followed by Gabbert, who played into the second quarter, followed by the reacquired Josh Johnson and McLeod Bethel-Thompson. The combined results of the four were poor as the 49ers totaled 187 yards in offense and had just two rushing first downs.

The Ravens played Flacco in the opening series which lasted 10 plays and culminated with Bernard Pierce’s 2-yard touchdown run. Returning backup Tyrod Taylor went the rest of the way for Baltimore and threw for 116 yards on 13 of 21 passing. Taylor made a bigger impact with his feet, picking up 59 yards on 5 five carries.

The third meeting of the Harbaugh brothers along the sidelines went again to older brother John as did Super Bowl XLVII and the regular season meeting on Thanksgiving 2011. The 49ers planned to show little as they have in previous exhibitions under Jim Harbaugh, and that was even more expected given the rash of injuries the team has suffered in training camp thus far.

For the 49ers, Frank Gore, Michael Crabtree, Patrick Willis and Brandon Lloyd were among the healthy scratches. In Gore’s absence, rookie, second-round pick Carlos Hyde had some big moments in a stint that saw him carry 5 times for 39 yards.
Jonathan Martin, the former Dolphin embroiled in the hazing controversy in Miami in 2014, started for the 49ers at right tackle in place of the injured Anthony Davis. Martin played most of the first half.

The 49ers suffered through a huge disparity in time of possession and total number of plays, as the Ravens held the ball for more than 39 minutes and ran 77 plays to the 49ers’ 46.

The defense, most notably without Pro Bowl linebacker NaVorro Bowman, caught the attention of Harbaugh with their lack of physicality and shortcomings at the point of attack where the team appeared to miss the presence of injured nose tackle Glen Dorsey.

“We got pushed around a little bit,” Harbaugh noted.

The 49ers continue the pre-season next Sunday in the football debut of Levi’s Stadium as the Denver Broncos visit Santa Clara.