Before his sons, Jim and John, coached in the NFL divisional playoffs Saturday, Jack Harbaugh gave them the best advice he received during his 43-year career on the sidelines. The pearl of wisdom: Get ahead. Stay ahead.

As it turns out, Jim and John didn't follow instructions - their teams fell behind 7-0 less than three minutes into the first quarter - but they're still staying ahead of most of their competition: For the second straight year, they are one game removed from matching wits in a bro'-bowl Super Bowl.

On Saturday, Jack and his wife, Jackie, watched from the basement of their home in Mequon, Wis., as John's Ravens beat the Broncos in a double-overtime thriller that ended during the first quarter of the 49ers' 45-31 win over the Packers. And before the football games, they watched their son-in-law, Indiana basketball coach Tom Crean, guide the fifth-ranked Hoosiers to a win over No. 8 Minnesota.

Who's got higher blood pressure than them?

"My parents are in their 70s," Jim Harbaugh said. "That's a lot of excitement. That's a lot of action. That's like going back-to-back-to-back, like three '24' episodes in a row."

Told about his son's comment, Jack Harbaugh, 73, who stayed up with Jackie, 73, until 2:30 a.m. reliving the three-win day, laughingly agreed that Jack Bauer's adventures can raise heart rates.

"There was one day I remember (Jim) brought the first season of '24' before we went on a vacation," Jack said. "I think there was a full season of '24' we watched in one day. So I think that's a probably a very good analogy."

The elder Harbaughs aren't superstitious. On Sunday, they will follow the same routine as last year when both the Ravens and 49ers lost in conference-title games.

They will remain in their basement and cheer for Baltimore as it visits New England in the AFC Championship Game. That game will be preceded by San Francisco's visit to Atlanta in the NFC title game, in which the 49ers will attempt to advance to the Super Bowl for the first time in 18 years.

Jack Harbaugh explained that he and his wife won't have a TV-watching party. It will be a two-person, grind-the-molars experience.

"We share our misery with no one but ourselves," he said.

Last January was pure misery in Mequon. The Ravens lost 23-20 to the Patriots in the AFC title game when a last-second, 32-yard field-goal try sailed wide left. The 49ers then followed with an equally excruciating 20-17 overtime loss to the Giants.

On Monday, Jim Harbaugh wasn't interested in looking back. Asked if last season's title-game experience would help steel his team for Sunday, he dismissed the question.

"We're just going to plow ahead with our focus on studying for the test and go out and compete like maniacs," Harbaugh said.

The answer was pure Harbaugh, who is focused on the details leading up to Sunday, not reliving past games. He often has said of his mantra, Just get 1 percent better each day, "It's just so simple, it just might work."

Of course, his father's million-dollar advice - get ahead, stay ahead - could be interpreted as brilliantly simple, or deep and profound. Jack Harbaugh said, if asked, he'll offer his sons the same words this week.

But what will the longtime college coach say if Jim or John Harbaugh ask how, exactly, they can get ahead?

"That is a key part of that, but I have no definitive answers along those lines," Jack Harbaugh said. "I've allowed them, with the wisdom and knowledge that they have of this great game, to come upon that themselves."
